Posted on 12/17/2012 11:28:55 AM PST by jazusamo
Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of "gun control" advocates?
The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available.
If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive.
Places and times with the strongest gun control laws have often been places and times with high murder rates. Washington, D.C., is a classic example, but just one among many.
When it comes to the rate of gun ownership, that is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, but the murder rate is higher in urban areas. The rate of gun ownership is higher among whites than among blacks, but the murder rate is higher among blacks. For the country as a whole, hand gun ownership doubled in the late 20th century, while the murder rate went down.
The few counter-examples offered by gun control zealots do not stand up under scrutiny. Perhaps their strongest talking point is that Britain has stronger gun control laws than the United States and lower murder rates.
But, if you look back through history, you will find that Britain has had a lower murder rate than the United States for more than two centuries— and, for most of that time, the British had no more stringent gun control laws than the United States. Indeed, neither country had stringent gun control for most of that time.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
How do you feel about gun control? That's the key question.
I was listening to NPR on the drive home from work yesterday and they had some liberal college professor talking about gun control. This professor freely admitted that the previous assault weapon ban had no measurable impact on crime whatsoever but that we needed one anyways because assault weapons "scare our national psyche" and "we'd feel better" if they were banned.
I wonder why people think we need a machine-generated Matrix to enslave us and turn us into nothing more than power sources for others.
It seems we want to turn ourselves into that, and we're not too particular about who or what those others are.
In the end, we all seem to be Cyphers. "Why, oh why, didn't I take the blue pill?"
At this point, global murder rates are more than anything racially linked. Look at a global map thereof, and you will see all majority black or Hispanic countries have a high rate, Asian and Northern European countries a low one.
Look more specifically within mixed countries such as the US, and our black and Hispanic figures mirror those of black and Hispanic-majority countries, and Asian and European, the same.
The very same correlation tends to hold for those global tests of academic proficiency.
>> Look more specifically within mixed countries such as the US, and our black and Hispanic figures mirror those of black and Hispanic-majority countries, and Asian and European, the same <<
True enough. Yet the very great mystery remains that not a single one of the recent mass murder incidents in the USA was carried out either by (a) a black person, or by (b) a female of any race.
Figure that one out and you’ll be awarded next year’s Nobel Prize in Psychology!
You did have the DC snipers, but the female answer I would guess is pretty straightforward: lower testosterone, lower levels of relevant drug treatment, plus a lower incidence of the typical forms of mental illness involved.
We are still a majority white country, so I’d think a majority white expectation might be expected. But I think above average intelligence seems to go with the profile for this sort of premeditated thing. We’re dealing with still quite low numbers for statistical averages overall, but just with one such shooter, I doubt that Asians would be or are underrepresented even though Asian men on average have a slightly lower average testosterone level.
>> I doubt that Asians would be or are underrepresented <<
Off the top of my head, I count two Asians: the Korean at Virginia Tech and Maj. Hasan at Ft. Hood. I wonder if there have been others?
In the meantime, with 10% of the USA being black, there ought to be ca. 10% blacks in the population of mass shooters. But I’m not aware of any.
I spend a few minutes, and was unable to find an actual copy of the study, but two things are noteworthy... First, the offending study seems to have been erased from academic memory.
Secondly, The rumor is that the disgraced "Professor," an emergency room MD, subsequently resigned from the university.
The following link might shed some additional light.
Gun Control 'Science' Misfires
Hope that link works; great analysis.
I spend a few minutes, and was unable to find an actual copy of the study, but two things are noteworthy... First, the offending study seems to have been erased from academic memory.
Secondly, The rumor is that the disgraced "Professor," an emergency room MD, subsequently resigned from the university.
The following link might shed some additional light.
Gun Control 'Science' Misfires
Hope that link works; great analysis.
I can’t find the article. Where are these “navigation buttons” I am supposed to use?
Here’s a link to the print article at Creators Syndicate.
I don’t know what the deal has been with CR lately, sometimes the links just stop working.
http://www.creators.com/print/conservative/thomas-sowell/invincible-ignorance-12-12-18.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.