tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5107702775340540529.post634810021400652515..comments2024-02-26T05:45:16.531+10:00Comments on The Absurd Word Nerd: The Twenty-Eighth AmendmentMatthew A.J. Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03005261909825215953noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5107702775340540529.post-22359123491823897032014-06-14T01:55:12.861+10:002014-06-14T01:55:12.861+10:00If you need to look at overall statistics, then th...If you need to look at overall statistics, then the statistics prove my point. The overall statistics for murder (at least, from 1976-2004), in America, show that at least 50% (or more than 50%) of their murders were committed with a handgun every single year, twice as much as murder with knives, blunt objects & other methods. And that's not including murders with "other guns" which accounts for about 15% of murder on average by guns such as rifles and shotguns, averaging 60% overall.<br />Sure, maybe for violent crime overall, guns are "same old, same old", but they are involved in more murders.<br />Surely this means either guns are more efficient at killing; or, perhaps, when people attempt to use guns solely for violent crime (like armed robbery), they're accidentally murdering the people they had hoped to merely hurt. Either way, guns cause more death than any other kind of weapon.Matthew A.J. Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03005261909825215953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5107702775340540529.post-9827515603474092542014-05-31T22:02:47.634+10:002014-05-31T22:02:47.634+10:00You're an intelligent man, you know statistics...You're an intelligent man, you know statistics can be fiddled with to show just about anything you want. American has a lot of guns, there are going to be more gun deaths. If you looked at the percentage of people killed by hippopotamus it would be much higher in Africa than Israel. This doesn't mean that Israel has better wildlife control laws it suggests there are less hippopotamus in Israel. By it's very nature the two must coincide (guns and gun crime), a more useful statistic to look at would be percentage of violent crimes compared with violent crimes involving a gun. Based on survey data from the U.S. Department of Justice, roughly 4,900,000 violent crimes were committed in the United States during 2008. These include simple/aggravated assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, rapes, and murders. Of these, about 304,000 or 7% were committed by offenders armed with a gun (1) {p1, p6}.<br /><br />We could also compare tighter gun laws being introduced with homicide rates in any country, (Let's use Britain): (2) {p20, p32}. Graph plot of p32 (3) I believe the data suggests that tighter gun laws don't have any impact on homicide rates. They only have an impact on gun homicide rates (which is often what media compare) for obvious reasons; people will use other weapons, it's quite easy to find something to kill another person with. I'm sure there are more than one hundred things in your house you could use.<br /><br />As for the cars, I could go on to say that a car used for its intended purpose can still often result in fatality but this would really be semantics to the point. I certainly wouldn't say using a gun for recreation is "using the gun differently from its designed purpose" but I suppose this is more an opinion than a statement of quantifiable fact.<br /><br />(1) http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv08.pdf<br />(2) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/116483/hosb0212.pdf<br />(3) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DJ-KA2WhhLo/UNZr8agpVqI/AAAAAAAAFH4/ f6rrTVN7q6I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-12-22+at++Saturday,+December+22,+9.26+PM.pngAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5107702775340540529.post-21724423203783325282014-05-30T22:34:44.068+10:002014-05-30T22:34:44.068+10:00Well, in this post I didn't suggest any actual...Well, in this post I didn't suggest any actual laws since I don't know the best solution either. After all, I'm a narrator, not a dictator. But I know for a fact that the country with the highest percentile of homicide by handgun is America, and America has the least effective gun laws; whereas the country with the lowest percentile of homicide by handgun is the United Kingdom, where they have the strictest gun laws [not including Ireland, their laws are different], where you can only get a gun license if you can prove to the police that you can store it safely; if you can provide a good reason for owning it (as in, "I need it for work". In the UK, "self defense" is excluded as a reason for owning a gun) & if you can use it safely.<br /><br />The difference between a car and a gun is that a car is designed to move you place to place, and killing people is a side effect of using the car differently from its designed purpose. With a gun, it is designed for destruction and (for handguns at least) killing people, and recreation is a side effect of using the gun differently from its designed purpose.Matthew A.J. Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03005261909825215953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5107702775340540529.post-88630648724576326022014-05-30T06:05:59.027+10:002014-05-30T06:05:59.027+10:00An interesting read as always, I feel however that...An interesting read as always, I feel however that the media sensationalism and bias has perhaps influenced your opinion on an emotive level. Whilst I agree with your overall thesis on the second amendment I do not believe implementing systems like we have in Australia (to briefly sum up what the government has done: Create so much red tape and hassle to obtain a gun licence that the vast majority of citizens will be unable to own one) is a good solution. <br /><br />To put it in perspective, do you feel safe walking around your inner-city on Saturday night? I don't, it's full of drunken morons that will turn violent for something as simple as having been looked at for too long. If someone is significantly stronger than you or better trained, they have just as much of an advantage over you in a violent situation as an untrained gunman if not more. Removing guns doesn't stop violence. I obviously must concede that fatality is more likely any time a gun is involved and I'm not for a moment suggesting open or concealed carry should be allowed; however the average person could kill as many people with a good knife as a semi-automatic pistol.<br /><br />As a responsible adult I think I should have the right to shape my own destiny, and if I want that destiny to involve responsible gun ownership, the government should provide me with the opportunity to reasonably do so. Do I need a gun? No of course not, I have no reason to have a gun other than recreational purposes, nor do I have any reason to own a car. But I do own a car, a particularly fast car as a matter of fact, because that's what I am into. the government has done nothing to stop me from owning this car which statistically speaking is more likely to be the cause of my and others' fatalities than a gun. Should we ban car ownership because some people will inevitably use their cars irresponsibly? I don't believe we should, I would happily have the licencing system changed to make it harder to obtain one because I think it is too easy to get a car licence where I am (As a side note they focus on the wrong things, stupid things that aren't anything to do with driving safely but that's a whole other conversation).<br /><br />It's late (or early) and I feel as though I am rambling even though I've tried to condense my thoughts as much as possible. To sum up, America probably needs to address its gun laws but not to the extent Queensland and the rest of the country did. We went too far the other way. I feel like there is a happy medium in between authoritarian and libertarian values that both sides could agree on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5107702775340540529.post-22335159814914691572014-05-29T04:36:39.119+10:002014-05-29T04:36:39.119+10:00The problem is that you're arguing with people...The problem is that you're arguing with people who do not employ rational debate to justify the right to own their guns. These people, including the NRA, also have the money to shut down sensible policy and they have done so. I wish it were different, but money carries more weight than concerns for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and semantics in the second amendment. Of course we'll keep fighting and pointing out that guns take away the right to Life for most victims, because that's what we have to do to cause change. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15786475206547123446noreply@blogger.com