Here is another great piece By Brian Frydenborg. Again, like so many days—the issue of the day is Guns, Guns and Guns—and it is about time people stopped talking claptrap. Stupid and bigoted opinions are deadly. Learn the facts. Also on the issue of Terrorism—you do not respond to terrorism by being terrorized. Deh. For old geaser’s who won’t go to the shopping malls this Christmas, or worse for those who feel the need to carry a gun—grow a spine! Grow some balls! Bad guys have money and means—stuff will happen. The IRA (with tacit support from various US politicians) was bombing London all the time—it did them no good, because Londoners refused to be terrorized. Not once was anyone stupid enough to say “give me a gun”, or repulsive enough to say no more Catholics, or no more Irish. I will be adding another editorial in the mid point of Brian’s piece.
Patrick Andendall
Yes, people kill people. But guns and laws make a huge difference in how many people get killed and the data clearly demonstrates the NRA and Republican narrative is myth-based fantasy, not fact-based reality.
By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter@bfry1981)
The following is an expanded chapter from the brand new short-but-powerful eBook Needless Deaths, Inexcusable Responses: Missives on Guns, Policy, and Politics in America, available on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and inePub format!
December 2nd, 2015 update: it is not without some satisfaction that I note that the short piece I wrote highlighting this data was deemed to be such a threat to “the cause” that the NRA officially wrote a response, one which, predictably, was rather unconvincing, engaged in a bit of ad hominem behavior, and actually did not even address the data in my article, their points not negating mine when the data is more closely examined than the casual presentation it is given in the NRA response (e.g., they write that in states with lower gun death rates, there are higher rates of other types of murder but fail to note that these higher rates do not come anywhere close to making up the differences between the overall murder rates between states with lower gun death rates and states with higher gun death rates, or that European nations and others do not even come close to making up for the lower guns deaths in their countries with non-firearm deaths; see the NRA’s response here for yourself if you care to after going through my piece below).
Like any dangerous product—cars, airplanes, explosives—sensible regulation of guns clearly plays a positive role in reducing both misuse of this product and the number of deaths resulting from such misuse.
The map itself was part of a scholarly study by researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and published this March in JAMA Internal Medicine:
The map is not without exceptions and outliers, but the general trend is clear: States with more gun regulations had lower rates of gun deaths, and states with less gun laws had higher gun death rates, both in terms of suicide and homicide. That’s certainly not the message we get from the National Rifle Association (NRA) or from gun-rights advocates.
In the related study, the strength of gun laws was rated on a scale of 0 to 28, and scores ranged from 0 (Utah) to 24 (Massachusetts) (Image Credit: JAMA Internal Medicine):
Comments by Patrick Andendall – I replaced the Chart Brian prided because it was hard to see and since it was an academic graph (the resonance was lost anyway) but I have left the link to the original source material if any one is interested. But also another big point is being lost here—yes gun controls clearly are having an impact—but gun controls across the the nation are just pathetic when compared to the rest of the world, so let us look at that for one moment:
Finally Gun apologists go on about their Quentin Tarantino meets dirty Harry fantasy that Mao, Stalin, and Hitler could have been prevented if only the peasants (or in the case of Germany the Jews) had had guns. No serious thinker, no Jewish survivor, no one still alive having experienced Mao would have come to that conclusion. The remedy to peasants or Jews with guns would simply be to march into a village were gun owners lived and tell every one without a gun to leave and then wipe out the town. That is how terror works. It seems to be a lot easier to terrorize the US -one Muslim couple and suddenly every runs in fear, forcing other to flock to ISIS. What morons:
Direct causation could not be determined, but at the very least, such a strong correlation should make it clear that existing public policy in many states with lax gun laws comes at a high price: more dead mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and others.
In addition, higher firearm ownership rates were also heavily correlated with higher firearm fatalities, and lower ownership rates were correlated with stronger gun control legislation.
Now, if you’re going to say, “Well, that’s just ONE study!” To that, I will retort that the Center for American Progress released another study in April that pretty much said the same thing, and that showed that 10 states with the weakest gun laws had over twice the rate of gun violence as the 10 states with the strongest gun laws. Also, in 2011, a writer for The Atlantic found, with the help of a colleague, that the presence of gun laws in states had a strong correlation with less gun violence, as the chart and map below also illustrate.
Unsafest States
An even more recent article from just a few months ago with excellent data visualization by National Journal staffer Libby Isenstein pointed out the exact same trend, and laid these trends out in several charts, one of which showed every single state ranked by its gun death rate and showing which states have gun laws/restrictions and which do not; the resulting trend is undeniable and obvious (as before): more laws and restrictions correlate with lower gun death rates.
(“Stand your ground” laws refer to laws that empower residents to be free from prosecution when using deadly force for self-defense anywhere under any circumstances, whereas states without such laws mean a person has to attempt to flee and disengage from the altercation before resorting to deadly force unless they are at home or on their property.)
One point on these charts: you might notice that that Washington, DC, is something of an outlier for “states” with strict gun laws; that is because it is not a state, but a single city, and gun crimes in general are much higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and DC has no rural areas to balance out its average. Additionally, is neighboring and close to states with much laxer gun laws, which means that it is easy for people from those states to traffic guns into DC, and virtually all (e.g., 92.8% in 2010) guns used in crimes in DC are traced to these nearby states or others. DC’s tough gun laws over a city-size area can do little to stem weapons flowing in from surrounding jurisdictions (say, in Virginia) with lax gun laws. Comparing a city like DC to a state is a bit like comparing apples to oranges for these and other reasons. In fact, it is easy to single out numerous U.S. cities and find that they have comparable gun murder rates to some of the more violent “Third World” developing countries, which is disturbing and also an example of comparing two very different things.
Some final food for thought: Building on an earlier Harvard study, a brand new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology showed that the greatest factor that determines gun suicide rates by state was not mental health issues, but rather gun ownership. And when it comes to gun ownership rates, well, the U.S. is No. 1 by far.
Leaving the gun laws as they are in states with the highest gun death rates is akin to pulling the trigger on thousands. Some states are better at this public policy issue than others, and it’s time for the laggards to learn from the high performers. The time for action is long overdue: as Sen. Chris Murphy (CT) tweeted after San Bernardino, “Your “thoughts” should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your “prayers” should be for forgiveness if you do nothing – again.” New York Times columnist Timothy Egan echoed this sentiment in a column titled “No More Thoughts and Prayers.” Or, as The New York Daily News cover aptly stated, “God Isn’t Fixing This.”
But sadly, we’re doing nothing at the federal level whatsoever when it comes to regulating guns; as Nicholas Kristof titles his New York Times column,“On Guns, We’re Not Even Trying,” thanks the alliance between the NRA and the Republican Party that is determined to do nothing when it comes to regulating guns.
If you think I’m wrong (and by I mean these numerous peer-reviewed studies), the burden of proof is on you to provide counter-evidence. Not just ideology.
Comment by Andendall: The first act that needs to be undertaken is a full on assault on the NRA. They are an insidious organisation, and any politician Stupidparty or Democrat who takes their money is accepting blood money. Clinton and Obama have only just figured this out, but I spell out the reasons in various pieces that I have written about. Nothing good can happen while the NRA is not recognized for what they really are. 85% of the NRA membership would accept that if they only knew how the process worked. They must resign and join a different Gun advocacy group, because the NRA should not be allowed to the table until they reform themselves.
It irks me to hear someone say, “why hell. When the enemy come knockin at yer door, I’m gonna have my guns!”. My immediate thought being “I’m sure the Syrian refugees fleeing their country thought the same thing. Apparently it didn’t measure up to the tanks and rocket launchers and a few hundred rebels.” But yeah I am guessing they had their guns. The other thing is, I tend not to think I’m going to live in a dystopian society any time soon. (Yup, for some of you needing help. Put down your gun and Google it.). But as many of said, people who have guns want guns. They don’t care the argument they may loose. They just want guns. Oh and by the way, a hefty percentage of those believe in angels too. But hey, the boogy man is coming to get them.
It’s fear that drives those individuals who constantly believe the USA will
drop off the map. But, then again, fear is a key tool for someone to use
as a cheap tactic to gain people’s trust and spread hysteria like the
24/7 slanted networks devoted to the destruction of OUR government.
Generally in literature the idea of forced equality and making things illegal to prevent others from being offended or fearful has only lead to dystopia, have you ever read the wonderful banned book about banned books, Fahrenheit 451? Also, though there are some gun owners who may think they could take over the world with their gun (if need do so), many gun owners either use their guns for hunting purpose or protection, because yes they can’t fight off a tank, but if someone broke into your house and tried to harm your family it could come in handy. Also despite all this HORRIBLE and DISGUSTING talking about how these filthy republicans want to have some self defense (who the hell do they think they are thinking about their damn families’ safety??), registered gun owners are not the ones doing the killing. Many times firearm violence is related to already illegal matters and people who have committed other crimes- it’s gangs and drug dealers.. not legal business men and wildlife and fisheries members.
May be you should read and respond to the actual blog -instead of simply expressing random opinions. Having said that owning a Gun to improve personal security, in most scenario’s, is an opinion held by stupid people. By owning a gun you are actually putting yourself, your family, your friends and you neighborhood in greater danger. It is ignorant, selfish fearful and cowardly.Stupidity is deadly.
Having said that owning a Gun to improve personal security, in most scenario’s, is an opinion held by stupid people. is an random opinion.
How am I putting anyone in danger by owning the gun? Generally guns don’t just hurt people on their own.. They don’t just get in a mood and say “ya know what I am going to shoot someone on my own today” and 39air1 is right. “Owning a gun to improve personal security, in most scenario’s, is an opinion held by stupid people,” is your own random opinion. I also truly want to know how it could not help in home protection and how it would possibly hurt my family to own a gun? Or did you just say those things because you could not find actual facts as to why it would be detrimental for me to own a gun?
Wow. Have you been under a rock for the last 10 years or so? If you had stayed current with what has been in the news time and time again during that time you wouldn’t have asked those (what you think are rhetorical) questions.
If you continue to choose ignorance, Darwin wins. Better world for those who don’t so by all means, go buy yourself that security blanky junior.
This is by far the best article I’ve read on this subject. Thanks for providing.
You are far too kind, Thanks for the compliment!
I would like to point out that you are going by percentage of population killed with guns in most of this, when the amount of actual lives lost sounds like it should matter more. For example the amount of deaths by firearms in California in 2010 were more than double those of Louisiana in 2010.. But by your charts it looks like Louisiana is a much worse place to be?
Your suggestion is Mathematically illogical.
How?
Try reading the blog – for all the facts. But since you ask such a massively stupid question, and have a fearful brain – let me explain what a fearful brain does. You might shoot yourself while depressed or by accident, you might shoot/ be shot by your wife in a temper tantrum or by accident -you might shoot an intruder who entered your house by accident, an intruder might bring a gun to your home knowing that you have a gun, a child might find the gun and start playing games or a child might get angry and shoot you -thus ending your life and ruining his life -criminals in the area will feel the need to carry a gun and then they rob a neighbor’s house and shoot your unarmed neighbor. Your armed neighbor might be showing off his gun to his mental midget friends and shoot off his own penis and the bullet ricocheting into your child’s brain, Your neighbor seeing that you have gun , might feel more inclined to buy a gun. You might decide to use a leaf blower before 9 AM on a Sunday -and your neighbor – who has forgotten to take his meds, might see fit to shoot you. You might have forgotten to take your meds, you might be a bad drunk. You might walk into to bedroom, see your wife lying with another man and shoot them both, only to be told your wife was about to be raped. Because you and your neighbors own guns, the police will be more trigger happy and might shoot an innocent black kid. Every crime scene will see armed police and armed neighbors patrolling the vicinity – and when a police officer shoots – they must shoot to kill even though their adversary might be an eight year old with a water pistol. Your child or a relative might decide to enter your home and surprise you at 2 AM and they might get shot. A child with a mental disorder might have escaped from a hospital or his home, and you seeing someone suspicious running at you -you might shoot his kid. You might be a bad guy yourself or perhaps you get fired by a ghastly little shit who has it coming any way. That friend of yours who you thought was a good guy is really a bad guy. Or that friend of yours might have friend who unbeknownst to anybody is a bad guy. Any of these guys, or you yourself might be a psychopath— 3% of people are you know. You might be tea party nut job who believes that Government land should not be government land and start a shoot-out. You might be a religious nut job and god is telling you to shoot an abortion Doctor. I might get so pissed at the stupidity of Gun owners (who by guns to for personal security reasons) and might decide to prove permanently how daft you are. An unarmed bad very bad guy might come into your house and with great pride you get to have your Clint Eastwood moment – only to realize that it is your brother’s kid who has a heroin addiction and knows you stash cash in your cookie jar. A professional armed art thief might visit your house – you attempt to shoot him, but you are not a professional, you are indecisive, so the professional might feel compelled to shoot you -even though he has a no shoot policy. A desperado, an illegal immigrant on the run tries to make his escape on your horse – you round up a posse of your idiotic like-minded neighbors -chase him and shoot him just before he makes it to the border. You might have Muslim on your street who notices that you support Trump, and he might feel that is integration is not going so well, he might find comradeship with friends overseas. Perhaps you hate all Muslims because you lost some one in 9/11, or simply because you are scared ignorant little coward, or a bully— You get on your high horse, you ride up to the local mosque and you force the congregants to paint the whole mosque red, their homes red and then force them you bury the dead – because you are the high plains drifter seeking vengeance, you are John Wayne in True grit, Colonel Custer at the battle of the little big horn- you are the good guy who can right all the wrongs
To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
Hardly spoke to folks around him didn’t have too much to say
No one dared to ask his business no one dared to make a slip
For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip.
Go on punk -make my day
Seriously I would like to know how it is mathematically illogical that doesn’t even make sense.
Imagine you have a choice – pretend you are a peaceful soul, and all you want to do is live in peace and raise your kids in a safe environment. You are given a choice. You can live in a location where a gun homicide rate is 1 per 100,000 per year. Or you can live in a community of less than 1000 people, yet every year some one gets fatally shot. Which is the safer option? On the other hand – if you are seriously trying to think -here are some facts: https://stupidpartyland.com/1/post/2015/05/attacking-the-heart-of-gundamentalism-its-rock-star-pseudo-mathmatician.html and https://stupidpartyland.com/1/post/2015/05/whose-side-are-you-on-the-people-of-baltimore-or-the-forces-empowering-a-militarized-police-2.html and https://stupidpartyland.com/1/post/2015/06/how-not-to-fight-terrorism-or-gun-violence-see-the-republican-party.html
This is hilarious. Any stats teacher knows this is Pandering 101. Fit the facts to your agenda. Look up some FBI data and you’ll realize that violent crime all together has been on a decline since the 90s, with the USA’s gun homicide rate halving in that time. Add in the fact that we’ve gone from 190 million firearms to over 300 million and you might wonder what the cause is…
Look at where the majority of gun homicides happen too. No, not the 2/3rds of gun deaths that are suicides either.
Actually perhaps you should read the content properly because your childish notion (promoted by charlatans like John Lott – and accepted by mental midgets like you) that Violent crime reductions have anything to do with more Guns was thoroughly debunked. One key point that even a moron should be able to figure out is that while yes there are more guns -the amount of households with Guns has not changed, I then go onto to explain the actual reasons why violent crime rates have come down. But perhaps you are illiterate -because it appears that your reading comprehension levels are negligible. As for Gun death rates – they happen in Red States, as for suicide rates – these could be cut significantly if guns can not be bought on a whim, as for Domestic Terrorism, school shooting, mass shootings, gun accidents, police shootings these are massively higher than other Countries and it is the NRA and Gundermentalists like you who are responsible – because Stupidity is deadly. So by being immune to real stats you are indeed guilty of manslaughter in the second degree of Stupid.
I think it’s so funny that you keep telling people to just read your article for proof they are incorrect when they are saying that your ARTICLE is incorrect. Do you not get how ridiculous that is? You have no other source that is actually proven to be true that can back you up. I also think it is funny that you speak like you are fifteen. You tell people they are “mental midgets” and things of that sort. You are seriously the most ridiculous and ignorant human being in the world. Who told you it was a good idea to even write this?
There you go izzy.
Tell him he speaks like he is fifteen.
Then finished him off by doing the same thing.
I spoke like a normal adult. I did at no point refer to him or his party as “mental midgets” or the “stupid party”. My whole point was his insane amount of made-up, childish insults. Are you telling me that makes him sound mature, intelligent, and reasonable? Or that my comment sounded anything like that? Please tell me how I sounded like I was fifteen. You have no real rebuttal so, you and he have resulted to immature insults and saying “no YOU are” when point out it is immature. You only made yourself look like a child as well.
yeah ,,you showed us all how an adults acts…Right
I do not have to argue with children about how adults are supposed to speak. It does not go through. Children hear what they choose to hear, and a response that does not please them makes them all grumpy and they end up calling people “mental midgets” and citing themselves as sources.
digging the hole bigger?
That makes absolutely no sense in this situation. I have dug no hole in the first place. Grow up.
I am reading you article,good article successes to you ,thank u
I chose to retire in Vermont because I didn’t need anyone’s permission to carry a concealed handgun, and having been here for 12 years, I rarely feel a need to carry one. I am male, late 60’s, 5ft4in 120lbs, just the possibility that a high-risk potential victim like myself may be armed (and my NRA hat) keeps the lowlife and druggie population away from me, this is one of the lowest gun-violence states in the country every year, and one of the highest gun-ownership states. What we don’t have in Vermont is a permanent, multigenerational criminal class, ethnic drug gangs, or drug-dealing biker gangs killing each other and causing collateral damage in the process. Put the criminals away for LONG sentences and gun violence will go away!
Well you happen to live in the smartest state in the Country -but you are not really part of that. Whilst there is a possibility that you are a good guy with a gun and live in a weird part of Vermont -as a general rule Guns do not make you safer. But what is really concerning is your affiliation to the NRA – the NRA has been taken over by right wing nut jobs, it is not remotely interested in the views of its membership. It is borderline evil. Join another Gun advocacy group. Until people walk away from the NRA – or while any politician tolerates them American will continue to have the most infantile gun culture in the world. More people will die. https://stupidpartyland.com/1/post/2016/06/irrelevant-second-amendment-argument.html https://stupidpartyland.com/1/post/2015/10/nra-going-make-him-offer-he-cant-refuse.html Your continued membership of the NRA is unacceptable, people die as result of your uninformmed views. It is your responsibility to get your facts right. Having said that no one is coming after your gun, but if I saw that cap, I would certainly enjoy kicking you in the balls as it is perhaps the second silliest cap that I am aware of -after Make America great Again. Finally if you are a Republican, please leave Vermont- as Vermont is the best because Republicans are almost extinct – -here is the proof: https://stupidpartyland.com/1/post/2015/07/race-to-the-bottom-mississippi-mouse-that-roared.html
If being a life member of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization makes me a “right-wing nut job” I accept the title with pride. Not only has the NRA defended the rights of law-abiding gun owners for more than a century, they helped develop the safe-streets initiative that puts ILLEGAL gun users away with long, no-parole federal prison terms. By the way, back when Washington, D.C. was a segregated city, the ONLY public building that had NO segregation was the NRA headquarters.
So meet your peer group https://stupidpartyland.com/the-67 You did not bother to read the content, or respond to my comments. People die as a result of your pig headed ignorance. You are an embarrassment to America and to Vermont.