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America's Massive Decline in Gun Violence
Outside the Beltway ^ | December 4, 2015 | James Joyner

Posted on 12/04/2015 10:38:24 AM PST by Colonel_Flagg

This week's mass shooting in San Bernandino, which killed 14 innocents and wounded another 21, seems sadly routine. We've had so many of these incidents in recent years that they flow together. And yet, as Max Ehrenfreund notes at the Washington Post, we've actually had a "massive decline" in gun violence over the last two decades.

(snip)

Regardless, the difference between perception and reality here is stark. Mass shootings of strangers are, quite naturally, scarier and more attention-grabbing than ordinary homicides involving people known to the shooter. They make national news and spark debates over the state of our society and what public policy solutions ought be applied. And, yet, they are a statistically insignificant part of the overall homicide numbers.

The Mother Jones article Ehrenfreund links, published in October 2014, notes that the rate of these mass shootings (defined as "attacks that took place in public, in which the shooter and the victims generally were unrelated and unknown to each other, and in which the shooter murdered four or more people") has taken a sharp uptick since 2011. But the real news, from a dispassionate point of view, is how rare they are.

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2a; banglist; guns; statistics; violence
Mr. Joyner unfortunately expresses his agreement with "common sense" gun control measures at the end of this piece but for purposes of discussion, the left's narrative is, as usual, wrong.
1 posted on 12/04/2015 10:38:24 AM PST by Colonel_Flagg
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To: Colonel_Flagg

2 posted on 12/04/2015 10:42:10 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Colonel_Flagg

Ther “common sense” gun control would do NOTHING to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons.


3 posted on 12/04/2015 10:43:07 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (There's a right to gay marriage in the Constitution but there is no right of an unborn baby to life.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

To those who support gun control (by which they mean a gun ban) and who use the argument, “It’s time for a change.”

Provide them with the information contained in this article and other reports that prove that, in areas that allowed concealed and open carry crime plummets.

And then agree with them that it is time for a change.

The change we need is to remove the thousands of “infringements” that have been forced on the 2nd Amendment and to make it easier for law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm whether concealed or open.


4 posted on 12/04/2015 10:56:53 AM PST by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Carter...Reagan...Bush...Clinton....Bush....Carter....BUSH? / CLINTON? STOP THE INSANITY!)
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To: Colonel_Flagg

Except in Rahmtown.


5 posted on 12/04/2015 10:57:32 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: Colonel_Flagg; Liz; AT7Saluki

6 posted on 12/04/2015 11:08:39 AM PST by Libloather (Embrace the suck)
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To: Colonel_Flagg

Bttt.


7 posted on 12/04/2015 3:23:07 PM PST by Inyo-Mono
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