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Parsing Piers (He seems to think the word "murder" must always be preceded by the word "gun,")
American Thinker ^ | 01/14/2013 | Randall Hoven

Posted on 01/14/2013 7:52:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Piers Morgan is one of many people who seem to think the word "murder" must always be preceded by the word "gun," even though "gun" is not defined as an adjective in my dictionary (Webster's Unabridged, 1976). Here is what he said in his interview with Alex Jones.

"How many gun murders where there in Britain last year? ...It's actually 35 -- against 11,000 [in the U.S.]"

A video of clip from that interview, as well as a good debunking of Morgan's statistics by Reality Check, can be found here.

First, some straightforward fact-checking. Morgan said there were 35 "gun murders" in "Britain last year". There were actually 60 homicides by "shooting" in England and Wales in 2010/11 (a single year, the most recent data available). The actual number does not include Scotland and Northern Ireland, which are also part of Britain. That was an error of at least 42% on Morgan's part, even assuming no murders in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Source: Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2010/11 (Table 1.03). (The home office describes the method as "shooting" to distinguish from murders by using firearms as "blunt instruments.")

Morgan said there were 11,000 "gun murders" in the U.S. last year. In 2011 (most recent data) there were 8,583 murders using firearms. That was an error of 28% on Morgan's part. Source: the FBI's Expanded Homicide Data Table 8.

Morgan's errors were low for the UK statistic and high for the US statistic. His implied ratio of US-to-UK "gun murders" was over 314:1. The actual ratio was 143:1. That is an error of 120% on Morgan's part.


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: banglist; gun; guncontrol; murder; piersmorgan; secondamendment; twitbrit

1 posted on 01/14/2013 7:52:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Deport the SOB.


2 posted on 01/14/2013 8:00:13 AM PST by scooter2 (IMPEACH OBAMA NOW !)
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To: scooter2

When someone tells me how great someplace else is, compared to here; I wonder why they are here instead of there.


3 posted on 01/14/2013 8:11:56 AM PST by Brownie63
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To: SeekAndFind

“Piers Morgan thinks ...”

Strict proof is hereby demanded.


4 posted on 01/14/2013 8:39:30 AM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is necessary to examine principles."..)
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To: Brownie63

Britain doesn’t want him there either.

http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/piers-morgan-testify-uk-court-12-20-2011

Actors Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller, author J.K. Rowling and singer Charlotte Church are among those who have submitted evidence of Morgan’s alleged press abuse, the Associated Press reported.

Heather Mills, Paul McCartney’s ex-wife, accused Morgan of listening to a message she left McCartney, but Morgan denied the claims and publicly criticized Mills.

Morgan’s editorship ended in 2004 after running a fake photograph of a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi detainee, but his career was revamped when he became a judge on America’s Got Talent.


5 posted on 01/14/2013 8:42:25 AM PST by MestaMachine (Sometimes the smartest man in the room is standing in the midst of imbeciles.)
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To: SeekAndFind

If you care to read a few words out of that “little book”, as CNN’s Piers Morgan recently described it, you will find the Constitution was written solely to form a government so that we might enjoy the blessings of liberty. That government was designed from the bottom up with limited powers in order to protect the rights the Creator gives to all humans by right of birth, rights that exist outside of any government.

Members of the media understand that a free press is essential to preserve liberty and protect the country from a government run amok. What member of the media would have said we must preserve the First Amendment just in case some future president attempts to subvert the electoral process or we need to publish some classified Pentagon Papers about a costly war? Previously the First was best known for shielding the publishing of pornography. Yet if it had not been for the reporting of Woodward and Burstein during the Watergate coverup, or Daniel Ellsberg’s publishing of a classified study about the Vietnam War who knows what other outrages would have followed?

The right to freely publish expression in speech, media and in internet commentary is such a precious component of protecting our liberties from a government run amok that it is my duty to pass the First Amendment on to my grandchildren just in case some future outrage threatens the country.

Similarly, just because I may not need to fully exercise the pre-existing rights recognized in Second Amendment doesn’t relieve me of the duty and obligation to pass those rights fully and unencumbered to my grandchildren just in case they must exercise them to protect their liberty.

The truth is that nobody can know how or why some future government will attempt to break free of the powers the Constitution limits it to, nor how it may abuse the enumerated powers it clearly has. So while I may not really need this style of a particular style of rifle at this moment anymore than I really need 30, 10, or even five or six pages of Husler Magazine. I am obligated to make sure my children and grandchildren can freely exercise those very same rights or else I have not been a good citizen, nor even a good parent.


6 posted on 01/14/2013 8:55:19 AM PST by theBuckwheat
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To: SeekAndFind
Hey, Piers Photobucket
7 posted on 01/14/2013 8:58:30 AM PST by Quickgun (I got here kicking,screaming and covered in someone else's blood. I can go out that way if I have to)
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To: SeekAndFind

The numbers are even farther off than stated here. Of the 8500+ US gun homicides, 400 or so were justifiable police shootings and several hundred were self-defense shootings.


8 posted on 01/14/2013 9:23:07 AM PST by Bob
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To: Bob

The Reality Check video also contrasts the total violent crime rates of the US and UK. The UK’s rates are MUCH higher than ours.


9 posted on 01/14/2013 9:29:23 AM PST by Bob
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To: Bob

Question:
Of the 7,800 remaining death by gun incidents how many were black on black murders,which we all know cannot be used in any discussion regarding anything. White people cannot discuss anything regarding blacks.


10 posted on 01/14/2013 9:31:02 AM PST by dirtymac (Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Of the 11,000 last year how many occurred in big city(RACIST!) or urban(RACIST!) areas? How many of the 11,000 “gun murders” were perpetrated by blacks versus whites, whites versus blacks, blacks on black, white on white? Let’s start with Chicago. How many of the 500 homocides were murder by gun? What is breakdown by race of victim and shooter.

What is the unvarnished truth?


11 posted on 01/14/2013 9:43:01 AM PST by LeonardFMason
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To: SeekAndFind
INCONVENIENT FACT: According to the peer-reviewed Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, countries with strict gun control laws have higher murder and suicide rates than those without.

DOCUMENTATION: Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence by Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser, Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, pages 649-694. (To download a PDF copy of the journal article, simply Google the title. It is available on the web free of charge.)

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: “If you are surprised by our findings, so are we. We did not begin this research with any intent to “exonerate” handguns, but there it is — a negative finding, to be sure, but a negative finding is nevertheless a positive contribution. It directs us where not to aim public health resources.”

INDIRECTION: The trick hoplophobes always use is to say that America has higher gun-murder rates than other countries, but many of those “murders” are criminals killed in the act of committing violent crimes or criminal gang members killing each other. Compare absolute murder rates, and the result is “more guns, less murder.” (Source: GunFacts.info)

SECOND INCONVENIENT FACT: According to DOJ crime statistics, guns are used by US citizens 2.5 million times per year to prevent violent crimes like rape, robbery, home-invasion and carjacking, 99% of the time without a shot being fired. (Source: GunFacts.info)

THIRD INCONVENIENT FACT: Rifles are used in less than 1% of gun crimes. “Assault weapons” (AKA semiautomatic rifles) are used in a small fraction of that 1%. (Source: GunFacts.info)

QUESTION: If gun-free zones make people safe, then why don’t we declare the immediate vicinity of the President and Vice-President to be gun-free zones and send the Secret Service home? Or are gun-free zones good enough for our kids, but not good enough for our overlords? It is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy for politicians to surround themselves with armed guards while dictating that our children be soft targets.

METAPHOR: America has more private gun ownership than most other countries, so naturally there are more gun murders. America also has more hospitals than most other countries, so naturally we have more people dying in hospitals. Does that mean we should outlaw hospitals?

FINAL INCONVENIENT FACT: Since 1900, governments have murdered 262 million of their own citizens, and gun control was always the first step.

FINAL DOCUMENTATION:

20th Century Democide (Google title for link)

Of Holocausts and Gun Control, Washington University Law Quarterly, Volume 75, Number 3, Fall 1997 (pp. 1237-1275) (To download a PDF copy of the journal article, simply Google the title. It is available on the web free of charge.

12 posted on 01/14/2013 10:10:19 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (TYRANNY: When the people fear the politicians. LIBERTY: When the politicians fear the people.)
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