Yet, cities like Chicago and Flint are setting new records for homicide rates, and the % of those committed by guns is at an all-time high.
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Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
71–80 of 266 posts
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Possible cause and effect? That's one of the claims of the folks who promote private gun ownership.
While I'm a gun supporter, I think the decline in overall crime has more to do with the reduction in environmental lead: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-li...
Actually I forget where I read it but there is a hypothesis going around that the overall crime reduction has to do more with liberalization of things like birth control and access to abortion options.
At work at the moment and don't have time to pull up the details until tonight, but the examples given say of romania where none of the above is legally available still has a high crime rate. The general gist of things are that having to keep around kids a parent doesn't want tends to lead to bad outcomes for the children in life. Its much more complex than that and obviously we can't run randomized trials across multiple generations to validate things (not that it would even be ethical), but its interesting nonetheless.
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#73Also ALL violent crime is down 50% since 1993. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa98FHuaU0 Fear is a powerful weapon. The media and politicians know this and selectively choose which crime stats to promote. Emotional outrage > rational analysis when it comes to selling pageviews and building political support. That is nothing new. Fortunately the internet is helping to temper that imbalance.
I don't know if politicians are in on this, bit of a conspiracy that I don't want to get into. However, crime and murder sell. My mother loves to watch the 10 O'Clock news every night but luckily she reads the paper and surfs the web, otherwise I think she might lose her mind. Those nightly news programs are awful. If I only watched local or even cable news and used them as my source for staying in touch with the wor…
Many would be better off not watching any news or reading any newspapers. Even relying on the Internet makes things tough since there's a firehose of data, and this leads to confirmation bias having a huge affect.
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I'm a gun supporter, I think the decline in overall crime has more to do with the reduction in environmental lead: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-li...
Actually I forget where I read it but there is a hypothesis going around that the overall crime reduction has to do more with liberalization of things like birth control and access to abortion options. At work at the moment and don't have time to pull up the details until tonight, but the examples given say of romania where none of the above is legally available still has a high crime rate. The general gist of things…
> the overall crime reduction has to do more with liberalization of things like birth control and access to abortion options.
Freakonomics says this.
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#75I wonder if the increase in available distractions, such as video games, has something to do with it.
And I don't know the name of the theory, but stats don't really relate well to certain events, such as taking a bullet. If took_a_bullet = false, then are you really thinking about the odds? If took_a_bullet = true, then you've got bigger problems than becoming a statistic.
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#76Well.. that's not to say a rate of 3.2 is a good rate. The U.S. still is far above most western countries, which typically have something like 0.x or even 0.0x homicides per 100.000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#77Yet, cities like Chicago and Flint are setting new records for homicide rates, and the % of those committed by guns is at an all-time high.
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Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> selectively choose which crime stats to promote For example, FBI homicide stats last year show 350 killed by rifles of any kind, assault or otherwise, while 750 killed by hammers. I keep waiting for the groundswell of public support for hammer control.
I've seen estimates of death by auto-erotic asphyxiation to be in the 500-1,000 per year in the US. Whatever will they ban to stop that?
Self-killing is really a different social policy concerns from other-killing.
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
I fail to see how review and discussion of statistical information equates to politics. Facts are not political.
You really can't see that? Do you think there's the odd chance the ensuing discussion might - just might - deviate from the discussion of some numbers? My inclination is that we will see yet another reenactment of a famous internet flame war.
It is possible, and likely will happen. However, the OP is completely relevant.
Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
#80Well back in 1993, almost 49% of households had a gun. Today the number is 32%. That alone is a 35% drop in gun ownership.
There are so many other factors that could play a role here. And none of them negate the need for common sense gun regulations and re-funding research on both gun and non-gun violence.