Posted on 11/20/2023 4:07:56 AM PST by marktwain
Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America by Gary Kleck, 1991, 511 pages, published by Aldine De Gruter, New York. The softcover version was published by Routledge in 2017. Copies of Point Blank are available at ABEbooks and Amazon.com. Used hardcover copies are the least expensive at about $13.
Point Blank has been on my reference shelf for about three decades. It is a valuable resource for everyone interested in firearms statistics and legislation. Gary Kleck’s book has large amounts of data, which is difficult to find with an Internet search. The book was published when the Internet was in its infancy. He has tables listing firearms manufacture, imports, and exports from 1946 to 1987. Those tables are one of many hard-to-find sources of information that are in the book.
Dr. Kleck received the Michael Hindelang Award for Outstanding Book from the American Society of Criminology in 1993, shortly after Point Blank was published. He is one of the most respected professors studying criminology in the United States. The author is a self-described liberal. Kleck changed his opinions about what legal restrictions on gun use would be effective because of his academic research.
Here is an example of the objective writing in Point Blank, page 14:
Proponents argue that these weapons are only useful for committing crimes, and sometimes even imply they are never used for any legitimate purposes. (Fields 1979; Shields 1981). Because the guns have no legitimate purposes, it is argued, there can be no valid objection to outlawing them.
The logical problem with this position is that whatever technical attributes guns have that make them suitable for committing crimes necessarily also make them useful for a variety of lawful applications. This issue is discussed at length in Chapter 3.
Point Blank is divided into three parts.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
bkmk
Agreed. I sort of look at Bill Maher that way. I’m not sure how honest he is, but he does not appear to have chronic affective realism disorder since he seems to be able to discern and see the truth about certain things. Like watching a worm turn.
The world needs more objective people from the left. I dream big, no?
This liberal B was sitting at my dinner table and out of the blue worried about ‘Guns in America’.
I told her I wasn’t worried and she stubbornly insisted that ‘no one is trying to take your guns away from you’.
I reminded her of the taxes on bullets, stores that stopped carrying and banks and companies shutting down accounts of gun dealers and purchasers.
I also asked her if she had ever heard of anyone saying they were going to go to the most crime ridden cities where illegally purchased guns were used in crimes and were going to start taking THOSE guns away from criminals or was it just the legal gun owners with background checks that they wanted to disarm.
This is someone I have had to tolerate every single holiday and she is NOT coming to my home anymore. Big fallout is expected but I don’t care. Liberals are mental cancer.
Thank you.
Of all things,my dem wife who is mostly liberal, is pro gun. Our one grandson is a master shooter. She remarked to day she was shocked that the Israelis were not alowed guns. That universal military training failed because the men and women were not armed on 7 October.
I still remember Carl Bakal’s diatribe against gun ownership “THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS” from the 1960s, released in paperback as “NO Right to Keep and Bear Arms.”
Another good reference is:
The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy
Not sure if there are updated editions, but its an excellent comparison of culture/gun ownerhip.
It is on my bookshelf.
Maybe I should review it.
Will there be a Knives and Violence in America | Book Review too.
More die by them then guns.
More die by them then guns.
A misconception. I think it comes from the fact that more people are murdered with knives than with rifles and Shotguns.
Overall, firearms are used in about 70% - 75% of homicides.
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