Video: 5 facts about guns, schools, and violence

Hotair ^ | 01/10/2013 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

Say, anyone interested in actual facts about guns, violence, and schools? If so, Reason's Nick Gillespie and Amanda Winkler have five key points about the actual status of school safety and the impact of guns on American society. The truth is that violent crime and mass shootings have declined since the 1990s, even with events like Newtown and Aurora. Schools are safer now than in decades. However, those data points don't lend themselves to hysterics hoping to panic people into bad legislation that won't solve the problems they supposedly address:

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1. Violent crime – including violent crime using guns – has dropped massively over the past 20 years.

The violent crime rate - which includes murder, rape, and beatings – is half of what it was in the early 1990s. And the violent crime rate involving the use of weapons has also declined at a similar pace.

2. Mass shootings have not increased in recent years.

Despite terrifying events like Sandy Hook or last summer’s theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, mass shootings are not becoming more frequent. “There is no pattern, there is no increase,” says criminologist James Allen Fox of Northeastern University, who studies the issue. Other data shows that mass killings peaked in 1929.

3. Schools are getting safer.

Across the board, schools are less dangerous than they used be. Over the past 20 years, the rate of theft per 1,000 students dropped from 101 to 18. For violent crime, the victimization rate per 1,000 students dropped from 53 to 14.

4. There Are More Guns in Circulation Than Ever Before.

Over the past 20 years, virtually every state in the country has liberalized gunownership rules and many states have expanded concealed carry laws that allow more people to carry weapons in more places. There around 300 million guns in the United States and at least one gun in about 45 percent of all households. Yet the rate of gun-related crime continues to drop.

5. “Assault Weapons Bans” Are Generally Ineffective.

While many people are calling for reinstating the federal ban on assault weapons – an arbitrary category of guns that has no clear definition – research shows it would have no effect on crime and violence. “Should it be renewed,” concludes a definitive study, “the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.”

We have a violence-glorification problem, but that’s not something a law can fix or a government stamp out — nor should we wish to live in a society where it’s tried. We need to start pushing back in the culture against the glorification of violence and death, not with legislation, but by defending values of life in the public arena. We do not hide behind failed legal approaches (ask Chicago and Washington DC how well gun bans worked for them) as an avoidance measure to deal with issues of mental illness and the degradation of values in our society.

[PLD]

[Smokin' Joe]

Well, one more fact. Every AR type rifle in town sold out. Gone. Including the .308 ones with the piston uppers and the whistles and bells. Every magazine for them is gone.

Do the people in our government really think that people are digging deep and spending that much cash right after the Christmas season on something they are just meekly going to hand over?

If so, they are too stupid to run a country.

[Don Corleone]

Bad legislation solving self created or non-existent problems is the mothers milk of Washington politics.

[FunkyZero]

The guns being stripped form the store shelves are being bought by the same gougers who empty the shelves every Christmas of the hottest toys and then sell them for outrageously inflated prices. Go look on Armslist. Bushmasters selling for 2grand, PMags selling for 40-50 bucks... .223 ammo selling for 1.50/round. These are yesterdays baseball card buyers, their only goal is gouging and profit.

I'm certain there are a lot of people buying them just so they can have one too, but I'm pretty sure most of it is for above stated purposes. These are the same bastards that made a full time job out of keeping ammo cleared off the shelves so they could sell it for triple at the next gun show. I've seen them in there, whole tables of nothing but walmart ammo. Makes me want to kick them in the nuts, they are ruining the sport. I can't buy ammo now, I'm almost out. I also had enough saved to finally get me a real HK91 and I was shopping for a good enough example... that was in November. Now, because of this hysteria, I need another 3 grand if I really want one... It's not gonna happen.

I hope these SOB's get stuck with every one of them and have to eat it when they get hungry.

[wmileo]

Every time I try to talk sense to my neighbors about this issue they keep telling me that in the UK there are is private gun ownership allowed and the rate of shootings is much less than it is in the US. Is that even true?

[Yosemitest]

Learn from the Swiss.

" Today, military service for Swiss males is universal. At about age 20, every Swiss male goes through 118 consecutive days of recruit training in the Rekrutenschule. ...

Even before required training begins, young men and women may take optional courses with the Swiss army's M57 assault rifle.
They keep that gun at home for three months and receive six half-day training sessions.

From age 21 to 32, a Swiss man serves as a "frontline" troop in the Auszug, and devotes three weeks a year (in eight of the 12 years) to continued training.
From age 33 to 42, he serves in the Landwehr (like America's National Guard); every few years, he reports for two-week training periods.
Finally, from ages 43, to 50, he serves in the Landsturm; in this period, he only spends 13 days total in "home guard courses."

Over a soldier's career he also spends scattered days on mandatory equipment inspections and required target practice.
Thus, in a 30-year mandatory military career, a Swiss man only spends about one year in direct military service.
Following discharge from the regular army, men serve on reserve status until age 50 (55 for officers).

By the Federal Constitution of 1874, military servicemen are given their first equipment, clothing and arms.
After the first training period, conscripts must keep gun, ammunition and equipment an ihrem Wohnort ("in their homes") until the end of their term of service.

Today, enlisted men are issued M57 AUTOMATIC assault rifles and officers are given pistol.
Each reservist is issued 24 rounds of ammunition in sealed packs for emergency use.
(Contrary to Handgun Control's claim that "all ammunition must be accounted for," the emergency ammunition is the only ammo that requires accounting.)

After discharge from service, the man is given a bolt rifle free from registration or obligation.
Starting in the 1994, the government will GIVE ex-reservists assault rifles. Officers carry pistols rather than rifles and are given their pistols the end of their service.

When the government adopts a new infantry rifle, it sells the old ones to the public.

Reservists are encouraged to buy MILITARY ammunition
(7.5 and 5.6mm-5.56 mm in other countries-for rifles and 9 and 7.65 mm Luger for pistols)
which is sold AT COST by the government, for target practice .
Non-military ammunition for long-gun hunting and .22 Long Rifle (LR) ammo are not subsidised, but are subiect to NO sales controls.
Non-military non-hunting ammunition more powerful than .22 LR (such as .38 Spl.) is registered at the time of sale.

Swiss military ammo must be registered IF bought at a private store, BUT NEED NOT BE REGISTERED IF bought at a range.
The nation's 3,000 shooting ranges sell the overwhelming majority of ammunition.
Technically, ammunition bought at the range must be used at the range, but the rule is barely known and almost never obeyed.

The army SELLS a variety of machine guns, submachine guns, anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft guns, howitzers and cannons.
Purchasers of these weapons require an EASILY OBTAINED cantonal license, and the weapons are registered.
In a nation of six million people, there are at least two million guns, including 600,00 FULLY AUTOMATIC assault rifles, half a million pistols, and numerous machine guns.
Virtually every home has a gun.

Besides SUBSIDIZED military surplus, the Swiss can buy other firearms easily too.
While long guns require NO special purchase procedures, handguns are sold only to those with a Waffenerwerbsschien (purchase certificate) issued by a cantonal authority.
A certificate is issued to every applicant over 18 who is not a criminal or mentally infirm.

There are NO restrictions on the carrying of long guns.
About half the cantons have strict permit procedures for carrying handguns, and the other half have NO rules at all.
There is NO discernible difference in the crime rate between the cantons as a result of the different policies.

Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Swiss gun lobby, semi-automatic rifles require NO PURCHASE PERMIT and are NOT registered by the government.
Thus, the ONLY long guns registered by the government are FULL AUTOMATICS."

The Swiss have got it CORRECT !
Remember:

The beauty of the Second Amendment is
that it will not be needed
until they TRY to take it.

Read Second Amendment: It’s Not About Hunting, IT'S ABOUT TYRANNY .

[MHGinTN]

The time to buy your PVC pipes and fittings, along with generous dessicant packages is now, beofree the oligarchs figure out how We The People ‘lose’ our weapons upon the instituting of confiscations.

[FateAmenableToChange]

No and yes. The UK — like the leftists want to do here — disarmed all of its law abiding populace after the Dunblane school shooting. Violent crime increased significantly afterward. Additionally, home invasion type crimes also increased significantly. At the same time, Britain sharply curtailed the right to use deadly force in self defense — homeowners who fight back in any way are criminally and civilly liable for any injuries they cause to the poor burglar.

Further, the gun ban has resulted in an increase in gun culture among the criminal classes. London is filled with guns, easily smuggled in from the continent, apparently particularly the Czech Republic for some reason.

The result is the same every time — gun bans only hurt the people who will abide by the law and only help the people who make the law or break the law do bad things to the innocent.

[Smokin' Joe]

I’m not going to bury anything that isn’t already stashed. Too hard to dig them up this time of year here.

[teeman8r]

i’ll bury mine with the fool that comes to take them.

molon labe, babe.

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