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Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

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Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#131

Post by pessimizer »

ownagefool wrote: post #99
corresation wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

750 were killed by hammers or clubs which includes any blunt force attack (vase, bat, golf club, etc. I am assuming that you're accurately quoting a number, though last I saw that number was more in the 450 range). Secondly every home has numerous objects that qualify as "clubs", many of them serving valid, functional roles (for instance to hammer, or to hit balls, etc). In many households a firearm has one single pu…

I have a baseball bat in my house and it's not there to hit balls but to hit anyone who attempts to come into my home without my permission. I doubt I'll ever need to use it, but there you go, it's one single purpose is to "maim or kill", which in reality is actually protection and I'd be happy with fear itself being the deciding factor. I don't come down on either side on gun control, they're mostly banned here in t…

Funny thing about the UK; so many baseball bats, so little baseball.

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#132

Post by jttam »

mattsfrey wrote: post #68

Nobody seems to mention the reason I think accounts for a good deal of the drop, which is simply the perception that you're going to get caught is much higher. Up until the mid 90's there wasn't even DNA analysis. The world was a much simpler place, no cameras everywhere, cell phones, internet, and a myriad of other ways to be tracked. The rise of technology in law enforcement coupled with the non stop blasting of cr…

My theory is that the advent of a popular internet itself deters people from violence. No science to back it up, of course. But people spend more time watching TV and using the internet; it leaves less time to be outside getting physically rowdy with others and creating these heated moments.

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#133

Post by DigitalJack »

criley wrote: post #22
jstalin wrote: post #8

The drop is all the more remarkable considering that there are at least 168,000,000 more guns in circulation in the US now than when gun homicide peaked in 1993.[1] [1]: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/1998_2013_sta...

There's also 58,500,000 more human beings in the US than when gun homicide peaked in 1993. If you're going to talk about gun inflation, it helps to also mention human inflation.

Fair point. As mentioned elsewhere, the gun delta is ~3x the population delta.

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#134

Post by bluedino »

rgraham wrote: post #100
bluedino wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rifles (especially AK47s) are very popular with gangs for drive by shootings.

Do you have a citation for that? AK47s became popular with many hunters and target shooters because they're rugged, cheap, and have really cheap ammunition for target practice with a rifle.

Popular with gangs for the same reason. They're also pretty intimidating. Citation? Go to a search engine and type something like "AK47 chicago gang" or search the news websites for any large city with a high murder rate for 'ak47'

> The AK-47 is a select fire fully automatic rifle. It has been illegal to import or manufacture fully automatic rifles for civilian use for decades.

Don't do this. You know I meant 'AK pattern weapon', we'll use the WASR you can get at any sporting goods store for an example. You can get/modify all the parts to convert over a civilian AK to full auto without problems, unless the ATF finds out.

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#135

Post by voidlogic »

runjake wrote: post #51
corresation wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

750 were killed by hammers or clubs which includes any blunt force attack (vase, bat, golf club, etc. I am assuming that you're accurately quoting a number, though last I saw that number was more in the 450 range). Secondly every home has numerous objects that qualify as "clubs", many of them serving valid, functional roles (for instance to hammer, or to hit balls, etc). In many households a firearm has one single pu…

> In many households a firearm has one single purpose, which is to kill or maim (given that hunting is rare). Kill or maim criminal intruders (given that murderers are rare). I'm not sure where in Canada you are, but hunting is far from rare in Canada and most areas of the US.

I'm not comfortable with the parent posters assumptions.

I live in Wisconsin and last I heard 15% of residents hunt regularly. I'd estimate for every 5 people I know who have guns for hunting, one has a handgun. I don't personally know anyone who has a handgun and does not have guns for hunting.

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#136

Post by learc83 »

tome wrote: post #117
learc83 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When a gun is pointed at a living organism and the trigger is pulled, its chances of survival plummet. When a hammer is raised above someone's head and lowered with force, chances of survival plummet. Guns are a far more useful tool than baseball bats. Guns have a non recreational purposes as functional tools, baseball bats do not. The number of deaths per baseball bat are far higher than the number of deaths per "…

> The number of deaths per baseball bat are far higher than the number of deaths per "assault weapon", making baseball bats deadlier by far. Wait, are you really claiming that a baseball bat is deadlier than an assault weapon?

Yes, per baseball bat.

If you are looking at banning something because it causes deaths. You want to look at how many deaths are caused per item.

Reducing the number of items by X will result in Y fewer deaths.

Baseball bats kill more people per baseball bat than do "assault weapons".

What other reason could you have for banning something other than reducing harm. Looking strictly at the numbers banning baseball bats would prevent more killings than banning "assault weapons".

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#137

Post by AnthonyMouse »

nemof wrote: post #97
learc83 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The second is that few argue for "rifle control", but instead want "gun control". Except that's not what was actually happening. Most of what was hotly debated over the last few months has been over an "Assault Weapons Ban", that is a ban on certain semi-automatic rifles, very rarely involved in crime. It was only after that was defeated that people started talking about universal background checks. >Those guns that…

Yes there is http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/03/suicides-vs-handgun-... Introduce background checks and you will reduce the number of suicides, more likely than not.

It seems like you could get the same result just by imposing a waiting period on first time firearm purchases regardless of background checks.

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#138

Post by jack-r-abbit »

DanBC wrote: post #74
mitchty wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Great book. That chapter was a little awkward to read (for me) but it made sense.

Re: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

#140

Post by codeulike »

jstalin wrote: post #125
codeulike wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what about "Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S. (nytimes.com)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5647015

That article seems to touch only on one subgroup of people and not the overall suicide rate.

Yep, misleading headline ahoy
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