Posted on 12/18/2012 5:10:52 PM PST by Para-Ord.45
Virginia Tech. Aurora, Colorado. Schools, the majority of them. What do these locations have in common? They are designated “gun-free” zones. Are progressives unable to recognize that their gun control was already in place? Guns were already forbidden? The only solution left is “confiscation,” which goes beyond what they imply by “control.” I would like to hear it explained how a gun-free school zone, in a state with some of the most stringent gun control laws in the country, would have prevented the actions of a man whose intent was not following the law that day?
From Glenn Reynolds in USA Today:
"One of the interesting characteristics of mass shootings is that they generally occur in places where firearms are banned: malls, schools, etc. That was the finding of a famous 1999 study by John Lott of the University of Maryland and William Landes of the University of Chicago, and it appears to have been borne out by experience since then as well."
The Supreme Court ruled against Gonzales 7-2. If an intruder has broken into your home are you going to pray that they leave your family alone and simply call 9-1-1 with the hopes that law enforcement will save you? How long will you have before police arrive at your home, office, wherever? In Atlanta, it’s 11 minutes. Nine minutes in Nashville. Quite a lot can happen in that span of time. And we know from the Supreme Court ruling that there isn’t a legal obligation for anyone else to protect your life. Are you OK with those odds? You may be, but I’m not, and I will resist the urge of anyone whose goal is to erode my right to protect myself and my family.
I am not willing to disarm the helpless and punish those who are law-abiding. They are the ones who fall victim to those who chose to flout the law. Guns are neither good nor bad. Motive is. Intent is. Character is. Inanimate objects have no such qualities. Let’s not risk more lives by pretending that “gun control” works.
Some thoughts:
Between 2008 and 2009, the FBI’s preliminary numbers indicate that murders fell nationally by 10 percent and by about 8 percent in cities that have between 500,000 and 999,999 people. Washington’s population is about 590,000. During that same period of time, murders in the District fell by an astounding 25 percent, dropping from 186 to 140. The city only started allowing its citizens to own handguns for defense again in late 2008.
A three-year prison term for violating a gun-free zone represents a real penalty for a law-abiding citizen. Adding three years to a criminal’s sentence when he is probably already going to face multiple death penalties or life sentences for a murderous rampage is probably not going to be the penalty that stops the criminal from committing his crime.
[...]
Examining all the multiple-victim public shootings in the United States from 1977 to 1999 shows that on average, states that adopt right-to-carry laws experience a 60% drop in the rates at which the attacks occur, and a 78% drop in the rates at which people are killed or injured from such attacks.
Many have argued that it is the increased availability of firearms that has led to increased gun homicides, that the use of guns in the commission of violent crimes increases the likelihood of injury and lethality, or that decreased availability reduces homicide.
Although many of these positions seem intuitively obvious and have shaped arguments for increased control and restrictions on firearm availability and access, the overall prevalence of handgun use in the commission of all violent crimes is relatively low. A handgun was used in approximately 9 percent of all violent offenses.
The NSC estimates that in 1995, firearm accidents accounted for 1.5% of fatal accidents. Larger percentages of fatal accidents were accounted for by motor vehicle accidents (47%), falls (13.5%), poisonings (11.4%), drowning (4.8%), fires (4.4%), and choking on an ingested object (3.0%).
The Florida Model [my emphasis]:
“Violent crime rates are highest overall in states with laws severely limiting or prohibiting the carrying of concealed firearms for self-defense”. (FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1992)
The total Violent Crime Rate is 26% higher in the restrictive states (798.3 per 100,000 pop.) than in the less restrictive states (631.6 per 100,000).
The Homicide Rate is 49% higher in the restrictive states (10.1 per 100,000) than in the states with less restrictive CCW laws (6.8 per 100,000).
The Robbery Rate is 58% higher in the restrictive states (289.7 per 100,000) than in the less restrictive states (183.1 per 100,000).
The Aggravated Assault Rate is 15% higher in the restrictive states (455.9 per 100,000) than in the less restrictive states (398.3 per 100,000).
Using FBI data (1992), homicide trends in the 17 states with less restrictive CCW laws compare favorably against national trends, and almost all CCW permittees are law-abiding.
Since adopting CCW (1987), Florida’s homicide rate has fallen 21% while the U.S. rate has risen 12%. From start-up 10/1/87 – 2/28/94 (over 6 years) Florida issued 204,108 permits; only 17 (0.008%) were revoked because permittees later committed crimes (not necessarily violent) in which guns were present (not necessarily used).
Of 14,000 CCW licensees in Oregon, only 4 (0.03%) were convicted of the criminal (not necessarily violent) use or possession of a firearm.
Americans use firearms for self-defense more than 2.1 million times annually.
By contrast, there are about 579,000 violent crimes committed annually with firearms of all types. Seventy percent of violent crimes are committed by 7% of criminals, including repeat offenders, many of whom the courts place on probation after conviction, and felons that are paroled before serving their full time behind bars.
Two-thirds of self-protective firearms uses are with handguns.
99.9% of self-defense firearms uses do not result in fatal shootings of criminals, an important factor ignored in certain “studies” that are used to claim that guns are more often misused than used for self-protection.
Timothy McVeigh...168 lives lost including 19 children under age 6...no firearms involved!
I 2012, we had 6-7 mass muder events. That’s where 4 or more victims died. Put another way, out of a population of about 313 million, 6-7 mentally deficient evil individuals undertook mass murder.
Can we really put actions in place to identify and stop the next 6-7 mass murderers?
I can think of all kinds of actions (and it ain’t gun control) we could take to lower overall gun crime, but this one puzzles me.
How many children lost their lives at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX when the US government attacked private citizens with, among other things, tanks?
Mark to come back and grab stats. :)
REOPEN THE MENTAL ASYLUMS! DAMN THE ACLU! Put them together in the same cell so far back that you will have to pump in sunshine!
At least he was honest.
On the same day as the tragic Newtown shooting a man in China attacked and injured 22 children and one adult. The story was on The Drudge Report very briefly.
Link to CBS News Story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57559179/china-school-knife-attack-leaves-23-injured/
Likk to Hartford Courant Story here:
http://www.courant.com/sns-rt-us-china-stabbingsbre8bd065-20121213,0,5592318.story
Rosie O’Donnells bodyguard. Carried a concealed weapon into a schools as I recall.
how would more gun laws have stopped this kid? he tried to buy a gun, and was turned down, the system prevented him from buying one.
the mom legally bought and had guns, he stole them.
how could more gun laws prevented this?
the only answer they can give is that mom would not have been allowed to buy them. that begs the qestion why should she not have been able to buy them?
how does more gun laws prevent people from stealing others’ guns and using them?
In 1974 Israelis had a mass school shooting..26 children died.
They then let teachers carry guns and mandated if the kids go on a school outing, at least three staff had to be carrying weapons.
THERE HAVE BEEN NO SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IN ISRAEL SINCE 1974!
Arm the schools!! We owe it to our precious children. Where was the “good” gun in that school?
Dept of education budget $70,000,000,000
Number of schools 100,000
Dollars per school $700,000
Abolish the dept of education and protect our children.
DO IT NOW! NOT ONE MORE DEAD CHILD!!!!
bookmark
I wonder why civilians are always “mentally deficient”, but the government can send an army tank towards a house and burn 76 to death (Waco)or shoot a woman holding a baby through a screen door after playing “dieing rabbit” noises on a loudspeaker all night (Ruby Ridge).
I heard some of the FBI agents at Waco stood on the tanks and mooned the Branch Davidian complex. Real professional.....not.
At the time, Jay Leno said on his late night show, “When did the FBI start mooning people?”
Leno continued, “Can you imagine Elliot Ness saying” (Leno bends over), “Hey Capone, get a load of this!”
P4L
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