SC:Statistics sometimes get lost in emotional debate over gun control

starbeacon.com ^ | 3 February, 2013 | David Wren

[marktwain]

GENEVA — Despite the rhetoric from both sides over the need for stricter gun control regulations — and the fear instilled by a rash of random shootings in public places nationwide — statistics show relatively few people will fall victim to violent, firearm-related crimes committed by strangers, according to a new study by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

That study shows strangers committed about 38 percent of non-fatal, violent crimes including rape, robbery and assault in 2010, the most recent data available. Of that amount, only an average of 10 percent used a firearm while committing the crime. In other words, fewer than four out of every 100 non-fatal, violent crimes were committed by an armed stranger.

Additionally, only about one-fourth of homicides are committed by strangers. The overwhelming percentage of homicides — and of all violent crimes, for that matter — is committed by a friend, relative or other acquaintance.

[marktwain]

Several misleading assumptions in the above statistics. It is not surprising that most violent crimes are not committed by strangers. Most strangers do not have a motive for assaulting you. The misleading part is that they lump all people who know you, no matter how slightly, into the category of non-stranger. Thus, the gangbanger that was in you remedial english class, the day laborer you hired to clean up the back yard, the drug dealer that you told the police about, the crazy neighbor who keeps two dozen pit bulls in the back yard, are all non-strangers.

All it takes for a person to be a non-stranger is for you to vaugely know them. That places them in the "acquaintance" category. If you have noticed a homeless vagabond checking out your neighborhood, and can describe them, they have been elevated out of the "stranger" category.

One of the other tricks in the article is to make the numbers of strangers even smaller by only counting strangers that use a firearm to commit their crime.

Most defensive uses of guns are against people who are not armed with a firearm. As has been noted recently, many more people are killed with hands and feet, or clubs or knives than are killed with rifles. A violent crime is still a violent crime, whether a firearm is used or not. In fact, criminals that do not use firearms in their crimes are more likely to be deterred by an armed citizen.

Homicides are the most accurate of crimes to have statistics for. In the article, it says that only one fourth of homicides are committed by strangers. How does this compare to the actual FBI statistics?

Here are the numbers from 2010, total homicides, 12,993, relationships by percent of total:

Immediate family 11.7 %

Other family 2.2 %

Acquaintance 21 %

Boyfriend/Girlfriend 4.8 %

Friend 3 %

Neighbor .7

Employee/Employer .2

Stranger 12.4

Unknown 44.1

Those numbers paint quite a different picture, do they not?

Add together the acquaintance, stranger, and unknown categories, and you have 77.5 percent of the total.

Here is the link to the FBI statistics:

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl10.xls

[SWAMPSNIPER]

If no one got murdered at all the liberals would still want to ban guns.

[marktwain]

You are absolutely correct. Switzerland is a prime example.