I think actually the only statistic that is easy to point out to be a direct and obvious consequence of the huge amount of weapons among people are the gun accident statistics. Not surprisingly, the US leads the charts by all accounts in gun related accidents. So many people that anywhere else wouldn't have a gun and aren't at all interested in guns have guns that are loaded in their drawer. And above all, the gun is intended for protection if someone invades the home, not for hunting. The fact is that the small handgun is far more dangerous and accident prone than a rifle or a machine gun: you don't easily accidental point at yourself or another person a machine gun (if you had one).Now, let me point out again -- as anti-hand gun and anti-assault weapons as I am -- a very small percent of gun owners shoot people. Those who do shoot other people almost always use hand guns. [Of course, mass murders with rifles or assault weapons are an egregious exception.] A large share of hand gun deaths are among young minority males, generally in urban areas, who often are at least relatively poor, may be involved in the drug trade, and may be involved in gangs. — Bitter Crank
I think my personal chances of being murdered by a bear or a person increases. — Ree Zen
I would prefer a questionnaire requirement to own a gun — Ree Zen
What is the primary reason the murder rate in the United States is almost 5 times that of the United Kingdom? — Down The Rabbit Hole
I'm guessing you're in one of the safest areas on Atlanta's crime map? — Down The Rabbit Hole
Stricter gun laws are a feel good way of addressing the problem, and it serves also for the left to piss off the right, but, as a matter of effective policy, it's not terribly effective. — Hanover
I don't know. It's fairly common (in an emergency department) to see gun crime that started as a dispute and then escalated.
Without the ridiculously easy access to firearms, those crimes wouldn't be so bad.
Would it eliminate gun crime altogether? No. Would it save lives (including the lives of so many poor kids who were unlucky enough to have a gun in there hands when they were angry?). Yes. — frank
But by 'availability' I meant how easy it is to get one, not how many are owned. — frank
Sure. As I said, there is gun crime that just started as a regular old disputes. There weren't necessarily any criminals involved.
The existence of criminal activity is no reason to withhold efforts to help there. — frank
In truth I think something simply like a turf war of organized crime (or the lack of it being organized) or competition for the lucrative drug trade can be the real reason for the statistics.There is a huge problem of circular causality/feedback loops in figuring this out. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Although gang membership is difficult to pinpoint, local authorities estimate that there are over 100,000 active gang members in the Chicago metropolitan area. Collectively, Chicago street gangs serve as the primary mid-level and retail-level distributors of drugs in the city and are responsible for a
significant portion of the city’s violent crime.
_ _ _
Disputes between rival gangs or individual members are a contributing factor in Chicago’s recent rise in violent crime, with the majority of incidents occurring on the South and West Sides of Chicago where gang presence is high. Local authorities in Chicago have attributed much of this rise to the fracturing of Chicago’s street gangs into multiple factions that lack hierarchical authority. This fracturing has been the result of decades of internecine warfare among and within gangs, as well as the removal of many key leaders through incarceration or death. Consequently, previously agreed upon gang rules or social mores have dissolved and internal discipline has eroded. As a result, much of the violence in Chicago has become less controlled by gang leaders and more disorganized.
I think that is way too optimistic to think so. In truth only a rise in the economic prosperity and a functioning local economy in the society will dramatically alter crime. Then only those who genuinely want to be criminals are criminals.The hope is that the flare up in violence is actually a sign of gang's economic fundementals collapsing. — Count Timothy von Icarus
The quasi-conspiracy theory I'm going to lay on you is that gangs are part of a situation that was intentionally fostered: they built projects for black people to live in, allowed those communities to be inundated by drugs (there's more credibility to that than I would have thought : the FBI looked into it.). And reusing to do gun control not only reduces the population of black men, but makes sure a lot of them end up behind bars. For real, black men have the highest mortality rate in the US demographically.
I'm not saying it is all orchestrated. I'm saying the way choices are made is partly influenced by an interest in undermining the progress for blacks. Maybe it's a leftover from the late 1960s? — frank
The quasi-conspiracy theory I'm going to lay on you is that gangs are part of a situation that was intentionally fostered: they built projects for black people to live in, allowed those communities to be inundated by drugs (there's more credibility to that than I would have thought : the FBI looked into it.). And refusing to do gun control not only reduces the population of black men, but makes sure a lot of them end up behind bars. For real, black men have the highest mortality rate in the US demographically. — frank
Partly it's also about poverty being this vicious cycle: poverty creates poverty. If some region is poor, it likely will stay poor. Active entrepreneurial people will move to bigger places where there are jobs and it's the old and the poor with not much to offer that will stay. The smart investments will likely go somewhere else. For this to happen you don't need racial or ethnic differences or divides. You being from the poor neighborhood can be a stigma. That city dwellers look down on the country folk and the countryside dweller being suspicious about the city slickers is actually quite universal. When you add ethnicity and race to mix, the issues just become more ugly.The conspiracy isn't public housing, drugs, or guns. The "conspiracy" -- if you can call it that -- is 155 years worth of post-slavery economic, political, and social suppression of blacks. — Bitter Crank
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