GUN ownership, Killings - a US epidemic

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180 comments, last by tstrimp 8 years, 6 months ago

Let's not get too off-topic. Gun violence and police bias/racism/violence though related are not the same.

Even if everyone (criminals and others) gave up their guns in the USA, and they were all melted, there's a good chance that the robber I encountered a few days ago would instead just beat me with a hammer. So no, I'll keep mine, he can keep his (if he has one), and we'll have a level field if he decides to rob me while armed.


If someone with a gun has the intent to rob you and thinks you have a gun, the likelihood that the both of you are playing on an even playing field is low. Disadvantage? You. He has intent and you have no idea that he has any. And even in a hammer and gun situation, you would have to know that he has a hammer and intends to use said hammer before he reaches you. That's the only way your gun is effective. Otherwise, you're screwed.

Jon Stewart did a segment on how Congress with the backing of the NRA pretty much neutered the ATF resulting in guns being able to move freely and therefore allowing a lot of people to circumvent the system. I have to find it now.

EDIT: And it is found! Part 1. Part 2.

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This has already been done.

It's not a zero-sum cake that some agitator is greedily demanding to eat forever, leaving nothing for others. The goal of any restriction is to reduce gun violence, not to arbitrarily impose restrictions on people. If the violence continues, then nothing is "done". A response to any proposed law of "you're trying to take all my guns away!" isn't engaging on the issue, regardless of the past. If you don't think it will reduce gun violence, say so. If you think that the loss to society will outweigh any resulting drop in gun violence, argue that.


I think you're wrong here on that position causing issues, and on society's acceptance. This is why there was a huge kickback after Obama proposed more gun regulations after the Sandy Hook shooting.

There was, and continues to be, strong support for new federal actions (like, again, expanded background checks) after Sandy Hook. Legislatively, not much has actually changed. Net political pressure hasn't been strong enough to prompt actual change despite strong and widespread support for changes. That's acceptance, even if the situation doesn't match broad preferences.


Of course. Most gun owners are ok with the 1934 NFA and 1968 GCA. Personally I'm against the 86 Hughes amendment and FOPA, but most gun owners are ok with those too.

You have to realize that gun owners used to have way more freedom to open carry/concealed carry, and they've willingly given that up already, and further discussion of control will be fought, regardless of how benign it seems. Maybe if we could get a compromise which actually gives back some rights as well, that would be ok.

If most gun owners are fine with those restrictions, then what civil, human, or Constitutional rights have they lost that they are seeking to get back? Why would the existence of regulations that they support stop them from assessing new regulations on their own merits?

-------R.I.P.-------

Selective Quote

~Too Late - Too Soon~

... blacks are slightly higher than twice as likely per capita to get shot by police.

However, this difference disappears almost completely when accounting for the crime rate differences between majority White and majority Black neighborhoods.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database

The source you have linked to does support the first statement I have quoted (blacks twice as likely to get shot by police). It does not however have anything to say about your second statement (adjusting statistics by geographical crime rates).

I will assume for the sake of argument that this is an honest mistake, but please take care not to undermine your own argument with missing data or misleading citations.

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]


If someone with a gun has the intent to rob you and thinks you have a gun, the likelihood that the both of you are playing on an even playing field is low. Disadvantage? You. He has intent and you have no idea that he has any. And even in a hammer and gun situation, you would have to know that he has a hammer and intends to use said hammer before he reaches you. That's the only way your gun is effective. Otherwise, you're screwed.

I don't agree with that, because in the situation he's the one out of his element. If he would have taken another 5-6 seconds to respond/open the door, make no mistake I would have killed him on sight (Castle doctrine state), at which point his weapons/intention don't matter. Same case if he decided to charge me after kicking open the shed door, in that case if he had a hammer, he wouldn't be a problem. If he had a gun, odds are I'd get the first shot, since I know my properties layout better than he does, and he'd be opening a door, or get seen through a window. It's not in criminals nature to try and engage in gunfights, they'd prefer to run and go for an easier target.


Jon Stewart did a segment on how Congress with the backing of the NRA pretty much neutered the ATF resulting in guns being able to move freely and therefore allowing a lot of people to circumvent the system. I have to find it now.

The ATF was scaled back slightly, but honestly should be neutered. They drafted a revision for, and pushed to ban soft armor piercing ammunition.

@conquestor3 - How can you disagree with me, when you actually just agreed with me?

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@conquestor3 - How can you disagree with me, when you actually just agreed with me?

I disagreed with saying I'd have a disadvantage in the case where we both have guns.


If you don't think it will reduce gun violence, say so. If you think that the loss to society will outweigh any resulting drop in gun violence, argue that.

As I said before, I believe in both of those positions. I think we're at an acceptable level of gun violence where nothing needs to be done, and I also feel like the proposed gun regulations would be ineffective at further reducing violence.


It does not however have anything to say about your second statement (adjusting statistics by geographical crime rates).

I will assume for the sake of argument that this is an honest mistake, but please take care not to undermine your own argument with missing data or misleading citations.

I thought it was general knowledge that black areas in the USA had more crime committed by at least a 2 times factor. Ok, this requires a lot of data to prove.

in 2011, 88.2 percent of those stopped by the police said they thought officers acted properly. There were few significant distinctions by race. Nearly 83 percent of African-Americans judged police behavior to be proper

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pbtss11.pdf

So police behave in a similar fashion to both White and Black races, and those stopped are generally ok with police behavior.

58 percent of violent crime victims of identified the perpetrators as white, and 23 percent as black. That compares with a national population 74 percent white and 12 percent black.

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cvus0802.pdf

Blacks have (per capita) a much higher crime rate, which we'd expect to lead to more police interactions

for the most part, America's neighborhoods remain highly segregated. The only areas that have become more integrated since 1970 are cities with small minority populations.

  • On the whole, segregation is highest in the major metropolitan areas of the Midwest and Northeast and lower in the West and South.
  • According to the Lewis Mumford Center at the University of Albany, segregation has increased in almost every large suburban area from 1990 to 2000.
  • Across the nation, four out of five whites live outside of the cities and 86 percent of whites live in neighborhoods where minorities make up less than 1 percent of the population. In contrast, 70 percent of Blacks and Latinos live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs.

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-03-08.htm

The population of Whites/Blacks is mostly self-segregated, with 70% of blacks living in the larger cities/inner suburbs, which means that comparing the cities vs suburbs is possible with a realistic 38%~ margin of error

The key influence on who is stopped in traffic safety stops is how you drive; in investigatory stops it is who you are, and being black is the leading influence. In traffic safety stops, being black has no influence: African Americans are not significantly more likely than whites to be stopped for clear traffic safety law violations. But in investigatory stops, a black man age twenty-five or younger has a 28 percent chance of being stopped for an investigatory reason over the course of a year; a similar young white man has a 12.5 percent chance, and a similar young white woman has only a 7 percent chance. And this is after taking into account other possible influences on being stopped, like how you drive. Police focus investigatory stops on younger people, and so as people grow older they are less likely to be stopped in this way. But a black man must reach fifty—well into the graying years—before his risk of an investigatory stop drops below that of a white man under age twenty-five. Overall, black drivers are nearly three times more likely than whites to be subjected to investigatory stops.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/january_february_2014/ten_miles_square/driving_while_black048283.php?page=all

As you'd expect, Blacks are stopped more often in investigations, as they mostly live in cities where more crime is committed, and fit the description of those being searched for more often in those areas. Similarly, groups that are less often sought for crimes are stopped less (White women, and older men).

59.2% of all contact with the police is because of traffic stops. 20% is done to report a crime

(http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpp08.pdf page 3 table 2)

It can be derived that blacks and whites feel interactions with police during their most common interaction (traffic stops) were good at almost exactly the same rate. It can also be derived that areas that are mostly black (cities/inner suburbs) have more crime, and as a result, more police interactions (at a 2-3 times more rate). From this increased interaction, there are more chances for situations to escalate a situation, which leads to more Blacks (In crime susceptible areas) getting shot, per capita.

Unfortunately, there's no concise sources from 1 specific year that have data available related to this, but it makes logical sense with the information that's available that where there's more crimes, police interact with the community more, and there's more police shootings as a result. At the very least, it's clear there's no police bias where they go around shooting Blacks but not Whites. Of course, for most of the USA's history we've grouped Whites/Latinos together with statistical gathering, which makes getting comprehensive statistics for them nearly impossible, so I can't actually rule out that.


The ATF was scaled back slightly, but honestly should be neutered. They drafted a revision for, and pushed to ban soft armor piercing ammunition.

Help me understand why that is a reason for the ATF to be neutered.

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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF, also known as BATFE) is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice.[4] Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention of federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives; acts of arson and bombings; and illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco products. The ATF also regulates via licensing the sale, possession, and transportation of firearms, ammunition, and explosives in interstate commerce.

They shouldn't legislate, they should enforce.

They should (and in the end, did) have no power to regulate the ammunition they wanted to, but overstepped their authority in trying to do so. They tried to claim that a soft armor piercing round was a hard armor piercing round because it could be used in a pistol (Yeah, some funny logic/legal twists and turns there). Thus subject to a ban. This shows a clear bias in their priorities, where they'd try to essentially make/expand laws.

If you mean why we wouldn't want them banned, why would we? They haven't really been used in any crimes on record, and they're only really useful against level 2 body armor so there's no problem. Level 2 is like "Criminal knows he may get into trouble so buys some body armor online for $200". We shouldn't get into the habit of banning things just because the concept sounds scary.

Also the idea of m855 (the round in question) piercing level 3 body armor and killing police is pretty absurd

#t=8s

Besides, if we went with "It can break body armor!" as a criteria, every shotgun slug would be banned.

An interesting piece by ABC News about concealed carry weapons and what it takes to actually use them in a lethal situation.

Beginner in Game Development?  Read here. And read here.

 

That's hosted by "regulatefirearms.org", whose motto is "Teddy bears have to meet consumer health and safety standards, guns don't" (Which is a lie, anyway). Even in that report, they have great advice such as "If you're shot, play dead"...

Here, let me get a similarly unbiased link

http://www.ammoland.com/2013/10/police-officers-likely-to-murder-than-concealed-carry-permit/#axzz3nepq15fV

Seriously though, I don't think anyone can find an unbiased and informative source relating to a provable isolated statistical impact on crime. There's just too many factors, and a simple statistical correlation doesn't always prove a causal relationship. At least according to factcheck.org, which has usually proven to be pretty unbiased.

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/

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