Guns, Waiting Periods and Anger

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Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Aug 12, 2013 - 11:32am PT
When I was a kid, I learned that guns are always loaded. I also learned that pigs and bantam roosters are always armed.

But maybe we just had mean pigs.
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Aug 13, 2013 - 03:21am PT
Wow, a lot's happened in the last few days. I got really buried with work, etc. Okay, starting from the top....

Toker, you idiot:

Finally, it's happened! Toker, you've officially joined the club. Congrats. I know that I'm getting a little misty over here just thinking about it. You must be so proud.


TradEddie wrote:

...so your challenge was somewhat skewed, yet I still found two principles espoused in the papers that did not make it to the constitution (ending slavery and non-necessity for a bill of rights).... Your original point was that the Federalist Papers detail the thinking of the founding fathers. Mine was that they detail the thinking only of a limited few of the founding fathers, and as in the example of slavery, could describe principles they held strongly that were intentionally not in the ratified document due to different opinions held by the majority.

Yes, my challenge was indeed somewhat skewed, and I'm really happy that a few took me up on it. The level of discussion is significantly higher now, thanks to responses like yours! I think your point is well taken, particularly on the slavery bit, and I actually think that the role the Federalist Papers can play today is somewhere in the middle of my expressed position and yours. Hyperbole for effect, and you did indeed rise to the challenge. I won't dicker the fine points, as I think we're using the term "principle" in different senses, but you are certainly correct that not everything expressed in the FPs made it into the Constitution.

I do, however, continue to maintain the the FPs elucidate the principles of federalism (which IS our form of government) better than any other extant source, that intent DOES matter in Constitutional interpretation, and thus that the FPs remain vastly important in trying to understand the verbiage of the Constitution.

Another important point is that the anti-federalists "lost" in some grand, sweeping sense; so we often don't think of them as among the "founders." But the primary difference between them and the federalists concerned the underlying form of government: confederation vs. federal. In THAT sense the "federalists won," but, particularly regarding amendments that made it into the Bill of Rights, there was significant agreement between the two "poles" on the principles underlying those amendments! The legal implementation to ensure the protection of those principles differed, but generally not the principles themselves.

Both wanted to protect individual liberties, and both presumed an armed and even semi-trained populace. The primary difference, as has been discussed, was not over whether the population would be armed; it was over the best way to ensure the protection of individual gun rights. The anti-federalists had less faith in the lasting effect of the enumerated powers clauses, while (more than a few) federalists saw a bill of rights as effectively undoing the logical force of the enumerated powers clauses.

It appears that the federalists were correct, as a recent Yahoo News article illustrates:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/comma-gave-americans-own-guns-224121479.html;_ylt=A2KJ2UaHyglSmQcAyhHQtDMD

First, look at the title. Ms. Sterbenz is confused on the VERY point in question! BOTH federalists AND anti-federalists would strongly disagree with her, as BOTH would say: "Wrong! Government doesn't GIVE people gun rights! We ALL presumed individual gun rights; in fact we BOTH saw gun rights as fundamental to the protection of a free society. Our ONLY difference on approaching how to ensure that basic principle was implementation." And the entire article is based upon developing the implications of the title confusion.

Now the federalists would say, "See! We told you so! Now instead of ANYBODY asking, 'Where among the powers explicitly granted to the government would gun control fall? Yet ANOTHER addition to the interstate commerce clause?' everybody just presumes that if proposed gun control doesn't obviously violate the second amendment, it's just okey dokey for the government to legislate it.'"

And even discussion on this very thread talks about the need to modify or get rid of the second amendment, as if that would somehow "fit" gun control automatically into one of the powers explicitly granted to the federal government. But you take the second amendment completely out of the picture, and you are left with the same issue: nowhere in the powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution do you find a neat fit for gun control. And the tenth remains a big problem, even without the second!

Anyway, NICE thinking! I applaud you.

Fire power increases. The ability to conduct mass killings will increase in lock step. More and more people will die till finally we the people will rise up and demand change.

Fire power has been increasing and increasing persistently for decades, even more so in the last decade. Yet the correlation you state is not observed, even by the damned lies that are statistics.

How many more people will be slaughtered before we the people demand change.? I've hit my limit and am willing to consider significant restrictions on 2nd amendment rights. But if the gun toters don't rally to this cause then nothing will change and the bodies will continue to pile up.

What if you could cut the number of gun homicides virtually in half overnight? Would that take you back a ways from your limit? Intuitively speaking, WHERE is your limit? I mean, if "we the people" need to in some sense share your intuitions on this point (so that the bodies don't keep piling up, and all), then we should have some clue about what it would take for you to FEEL like things were on the right track.

Would cutting the gun homicides almost in half overnight calm you down a lot?

If you say "no," then you lose all credibility!

If you say "yes," then I would tell you to solve the gang problem rather than a non-existent "gun problem."

These gang-bangers are NOT primarily getting legal guns through legal channels. I know because I've been in that life. NOBODY I knew, and myself included, got their guns by going into a gun shop or purchasing them from somebody that had gotten them legally. THEY are not going to obey gun control laws; never have and never will.

And EVERY "war on __" in this country has proved to be a grand joke, from prohibition to the "war on drugs!"

The issue here isn't that there are lots of guns around (there are hundreds of millions of them!). The issue is that the WRONG people have them. And you don't solve that problem by making access to the guns "more difficult," just as you don't stop drunk driving by making access to alcohol "more difficult." Before we can even effectively TALK about how to address the gang problem, we have to first stop trying to put band-aids over the symptoms of that problem!

Anyway, solve the gang problem, and you cut gun homicides virtually in half.

We'll fix it. Liberal social remedies take time to implement, but we always win, eventually.

Yeah, and it's called "majority faction." I hope to be long-dead by the time you guys get very much further down the road of "fixing it."

I would wager most of those good sheeple don't even know what the Bill of Rights is.

No, but they are "proud to be American!"

Still waiting for Madbolter's libertarian constitutional explanation why right to bear arms cannot be restricted in any way even when it infringes the equal rights of others, when all other rights are routinely limited?

You are conflating negative and positive rights.

The right to bear arms is a negative right; I exercise it by doing nothing, and you avoid infringing it by doing nothing. Whether or not I actually have a gun, I have the right to a gun. If I don't lift a finger to ever get a gun, my negative right to one remains unchanged. The corollary is that if you just leave me completely alone, you do not infringe on my right to bear arms.

By contrast, you talk about "infringing the equal rights of others." But I have to ACT to do that. I cannot "infringe" by doing nothing, so whatever I am DOING cannot in principle be something that I have a NEGATIVE right to do!

To illustrate, consider this question: "Exactly HOW can my right to bear arms (by itself, just the right) infringe on ANY negative right you have?" Can I, for example, just merely by having the RIGHT to bear arms somehow conflict with your right to free speech? No, and obviously not. By doing nothing, I cannot in principle infringe on anybody's rights.

So it is NEVER the having of a negative right that needs limitation! What needs limitation is HOW people seek to fulfill their rights in positive (active) ways.

My negative right to bear arms does NOT say that you have some duty to buy and provide me with arms. ALL it says is that you cannot DO anything to keep me from bearing arms.

Correlatively, your right to life is negative. That means that by leaving you along I avoid infringing on it. But it also doesn't mean that I have some duty to ensure that you have a life, or some particular quality of life. My negative duty as regards your negative right to life is to DO nothing.

So, the negative rights elucidated in the Constitution cannot in principle conflict. My right to bear arms cannot in itself conflict with your right to life!

The "conflict" we are all discussion really has NOTHING to do with the second amendment or its stated right. You could leave that entirely alone and not limit it in the slightest, and you would still not have the slightest conflict between that amendment and anybody's right to life.

The conflict with the right to life emerges ONLY when people DO (actively, positively) something that infringes another person's right to life... such as using a weapon to kill another person.

But that is ALREADY illegal on countless legal levels!

Back to "free speech." That right is not "limited" or infringed by laws making it illegal to falsely shout "fire!" in a crowded theater. The "limitation" you perceive is not a limitation of the right of free speech; it is instead a simple principle precluding ANY means by which to mislead people into situations that infringe their right to life. Be it use of a gun, use of a lie, or use of fraud, we consider all such ACTS to be a violation of a spectrum of rights, particularly the right to life.

I AM free to say ANYTHING I wish, and that right is actually unlimited. However, just as the very principle (long established and upheld again and again by every court) of "no prior restraint" establishes the truth of what I'm saying about free speech, it is also the case that I am held legally responsible for the results of my speech (after the fact) if my speech actually did infringe anybody's rights.

So, the issue here has nothing to do with some negative right of mine infringing the rights of others. The issue here has to do with how I ACT in the context of having that right. The RIGHT is unlimited and unrestrained; I am held accountable for how I ACT in the context of that right.

Just as the principle of "no prior restraint" legally governs free speech (and, btw, clearly the law recognizes the ABSOLUTE right of free speech, as that is EXACTLY what "no prior restraint" implies), there should be a legal principle just like it regarding the second amendment: NO prior restraint on the right to have and bear arms... but HARSH penalties for violating the rights of others in how you ACT with your arms.

In short, there is no conflict of negative rights, and there should be NO limitation on such rights (just as is completely explicit in the principle of no prior restraint regarding free speech).

By merely possessing a fabulous arsenal, I infringe NO rights of yours. By carrying around all sorts of weapons, I infringe NO rights of yours. And I have to actually infringe one of your rights before I can be held legally accountable for such an infringement.

Philosophical libertarians favor "no prior restraint" regarding ALL negative rights, with HARSH penalties for individual actions that do in fact violate the negative rights of others. We do not believe in a "pre-crime" police state.

So, show me exactly how the second amendment, in completely unrestricted form, violates the negative rights of others; and then we'll talk more.

Good luck - you picked the guy with the worst critical reasoning skills on the site.

LOL.. coming from you, I take that as a HIGH compliment! Thank you very kindly!

TradEddie

Trad climber
Philadelphia, PA
Aug 13, 2013 - 12:17pm PT

The conflict with the right to life emerges ONLY when people DO (actively, positively) something that infringes another person's right to life... such as using a weapon to kill another person.

But that is ALREADY illegal on countless legal levels!

WRONG! In most states for example it is perfectly legal to sell a gun to a total stranger, provided the seller has no reasonable suspicion that the buyer is a criminal. In practical terms, this not only provides a simple way to bypass the background check requirement, but it also makes it extremely difficult to prosecute straw purchasers. "Your honor, that gun I bought that turned up in a multiple homicide, I sold it to some bald dude in a bar. That other gun of mine that killed a police officer, I left that on the passenger seat of my unlocked car, and it was gone when I got back."

Your assertion that laws should only be reactive, not preventive might be more credible if you hadn't expressed support for Voter ID laws to prevent in-person voter fraud, a virtually non-existent crime, which hasn't ever resulted in the death of even a single person. All I ask is the same restriction on buying a gun or ammunition (prove your identity and your eligibility), but that's unacceptable to you.

TE

madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Aug 13, 2013 - 02:59pm PT
TE, you haven't explained exactly how my SALE of a gun constitutes a violation of anybody's negative rights. If that gun is later used in a murder, the GUN didn't violate anybody's rights; the USER of the gun did and should be held accountable for that ACTUAL violation of a negative right.

Regarding "pre-crime" and voter ID, you seem to think that the worst possible violation of rights is murder. Yeah, it's a terrible violation indeed. But when a person not even legally authorized to vote nullifies my vote, then he/she certainly takes something very important away from me too: stealing my very property, as my vote is really my property (arguably the most significant property I have). Vote nullification is a clear violation of my right, while the unauthorized voter HAS no such right. It's theft, plain and simple; and it allows for a large sector of people to change the direction of this country when they have NO right to do so.

There is zero correlation between vote nullification and sale of property.

Your side of this debate will become a lot more credible as soon as your side recognizes that GUNS are not the problem; people are the problem. And you don't deal with that PEOPLE problem by violating their negative rights in an effort to "pre-crime" them into being good.
TradEddie

Trad climber
Philadelphia, PA
Aug 13, 2013 - 08:42pm PT
TE, you haven't explained exactly how my SALE of a gun constitutes a violation of anybody's negative rights. If that gun is later used in a murder, the GUN didn't violate anybody's rights; the USER of the gun did and should be held accountable for that ACTUAL violation of a negative right

The sale of a gun to an ineligible person, or the theft of an unsecured gun is an irresponsible act which contributes directly to the violation of the rights of anyone later threatened, injured or killed with that gun. Not knowing someone is a criminal is not adequate moral defense when you are providing someone the means to so easily kill, a means which they are prevented from buying through other channels. Universal background checks would do so much to reduce the availability of guns to criminals, yet have no practical effect on the ability of law abiding citizens to protect themselves.

You are free to decide which of your rights you consider most precious, but you DO NOT get to decide that for others. If you'd prefer to be shot than have your vote diluted by 1/1000000, fine, but most would choose otherwise. Earlier you suggested that "Give me Liberty or give me Death" meant that the founding fathers felt life was less important than liberty, you appear to have missed the fact they were prepared to give up their own lives, not endanger someone else's.

TE





TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Aug 13, 2013 - 08:45pm PT
Yo appear to have missed the fact that they were willing to kill for liberty as well.


A fact not lost on a few thousand lobsterbacks.

Bowser

Social climber
Durango CO
Aug 13, 2013 - 09:23pm PT
http://gunssavelives.net/blog/virginia-gun-crime-drops-as-gun-sales-soar/
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Aug 13, 2013 - 10:28pm PT
You are free to decide which of your rights you consider most precious, but you DO NOT get to decide that for others. If you'd prefer to be shot than have your vote diluted by 1/1000000, fine, but most would choose otherwise. Earlier you suggested that "Give me Liberty or give me Death" meant that the founding fathers felt life was less important than liberty, you appear to have missed the fact they were prepared to give up their own lives, not endanger someone else's.

Lots to respond to here, so I'll take it step by step.

First, "You do not get to decide that for others." Amen and amen, brother. So, since we don't get to decide that for each other, I would suggest that you just leave mine alone! From the founding through to today, I have had an unrestricted RIGHT to have and BEAR arms, and your desire to INFRINGE that right JUST IS "you getting to decide for ME" what rights are more important. If you can manage to get the second AND tenth amendments radically modified or removed, more power to you. Until then, quit trying to INFRINGE. Plain and simple.

Next, "If you'd prefer to be shot than have your vote diluted by 1/1000000...." Well, actually I figure my odds of getting shot by a gun that would be out of circulation AS A RESULT of legislation you seem to favor is about as close to zero as is statistically possible. I'll take my chances! Meanwhile, my vote IS being nullified, and it's not just mine alone. It is a serious problem that people with NO stake in this nation and NO RIGHT to vote are doing so anyway; and they are having an effect on the direction of this nation. That is a FAR bigger threat to my RIGHTS (in toto) than is the infinitesimally tiny chance of getting killed by a gun your ideas would keep out of the "wrong" hands.

...they were prepared to give up their own lives, not endanger someone else's.

I'm not endangering anybody else, nor are the vast, vast majority of gun owners. And you have never even started to make the case that the guns are the problem (nobody else on your side has either).

I earlier asked the question: How much of a reduction in gun homicide would be "enough" for you to feel good about the effects of your slate of proposed legislation? Would cutting gun homicides in half overnight have you feeling pretty solid?

If you say "no," then your position suddenly loses a lot of credibility.

If you say "yes," then I would point you to the gang problem in this country. Solve that, and overnight you will eliminate about half of the current gun homicides. And none of the legislation I've heard suggested on this thread will even touch the gang-bangers getting their hands on guns.

Finally, as I said up-thread, there is a serious problem that remains entirely unacknowledged by your side of this debate: EVERY "war on _" the feds have tried has been a money-pit dismal failure.

Prohibition? What did that get us? Welllll.... how about organized crime?

The war on drugs? Please! Get serious!

EVERY time you legislate the creation of a black market, you do NOT keep the contraband out of the hands of anybody! All you do is further support gangs and organized crime, and the criminals CONTINUE to get their hands on whatever they wish.

So, to sum up:

* At present you have no Constitutional grounding to infringe my gun rights, so, as YOU said, quit trying to define what rights trump others for ME.

* There are FAR more pressing issues in this country than the infinitesimally tiny odds of being killed by a gun that your proposed legislation would have kept from killing somebody (if it were even possible)!

* "Wars on..." have yet to demonstrate success in this country. Let's start a war on guns to go alongside the war on drugs. Good luck with that!
TradEddie

Trad climber
Philadelphia, PA
Aug 13, 2013 - 11:33pm PT
And you have never even started to make the case that the guns are the problem (nobody else on your side has either).

Nope PEOPLE selling guns to criminals are the problem, and the politicians who happily allow it to remain legal while equally happily passing laws requiring ID to vote.

I earlier asked the question: How much of a reduction in gun homicide would be "enough" for you to feel good about the effects of your slate of proposed legislation? Would cutting gun homicides in half overnight have you feeling pretty solid?

If you say "no," then your position suddenly loses a lot of credibility.

If you say "yes," then I would point you to the gang problem in this country. Solve that, and overnight you will eliminate about half of the current gun homicides.

I have no idea how you draw your conclusion on the "yes" answer, but would love to hear how you are going to solve the gang problem while maintaining your libertarian principles. Any law that reduces homicides while negligibly affecting the right to self-defense is fine by me; one life, a hundred lives, ten thousand. I also don't care whether 50 state laws or one federal law achieves this.

And none of the legislation I've heard suggested on this thread will even touch the gang-bangers getting their hands on guns.

And just how or where do you think gangs get guns? Ron is convinced they're all smuggled up from Mexico, what's your delusion?

No, I don't get to decide which rights are more important either, but society does, and as I originally pointed out, if society does not concur, the concept of inherent rights is wonderful, but irrelevant. If you disagree, then ask yourself what value was a slave's right to be secure in his own person?

Society as a whole supports universal background checks, courts have ruled that reasonable restrictions are constitutional, it's simply a matter of time before politicians who refuse to acknowledge the will of their electorate will be held to account at the polls. I don't have to make a constitutional argument, all I have to do is allow democracy to take its slow course, and help speed it up.

Anyway, I've got to go climbing (remember that?)

TE
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Aug 14, 2013 - 12:27am PT
No, I don't get to decide which rights are more important either, but society does, and as I originally pointed out, if society does not concur, the concept of inherent rights is wonderful, but irrelevant. If you disagree, then ask yourself what value was a slave's right to be secure in his own person?

No, "society" does not either, unless there is a genuine super-majority of society. So far, gun-control advocates do not make up even close to a super-majority. Meanwhile, the Constitution (in its present form) gets to decide, and IT decides that all this knee-jerk gun control froth is just that; and if politicians try to do other than what the Constitution (and a long history of interpretation on this very issue) says, there are still enough Americans that do read the Constitution as it reads to ensure that such laws will find their way to the courts.

Oh, and, as in Colorado, likely the majority of law enforcement officers will simply refuse to enforce such laws, knowing as THEY do that these laws are neither effective nor constitutional.

When you talk about a slave's rights, you again conflate principle with practice. The fact that our Constitution provided legal groundwork for the abolishing of slavery indicates something about the fact that slavery was an institution of the greed and convenience of UNPRINCIPLED men. Practice ultimately aligned with the correct principles.

Going climbing is great! Have a good one!
Chaz

Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
Aug 14, 2013 - 12:54am PT
Trad Eddie writes:

"WRONG! In most states for example it is perfectly legal to sell a gun to a total stranger, provided the seller has no reasonable suspicion that the buyer is a criminal."




It is a Federal FELONY to sell a gun to a prohibited person, no matter what. Whether you knew it or not. You can get ten years in The Joint for doing that. ( and a $250,000 fine )

Federal law is enforced in all fifty states, so it is not perfectly legal in most states, or any state.

Let's start enforcing THAT law, before we pass any new laws.
blahblah

Gym climber
Boulder
Aug 14, 2013 - 01:42am PT
Oh, and, as in Colorado, likely the majority of law enforcement officers will simply refuse to enforce such laws, knowing as THEY do that these laws are neither effective nor constitutional.

Ok you lost me there--lots of people have different views of what is "constitutional" and how the entire constitutional-law game should be played. But I've never heard a legitimate theory put forth that local LEOs are the guys who should be determining what laws are or aren't constitutional, and deciding which ones they'll enforce on that basis.

In case you haven't been paying much attention to history as it's unfolded for the past 150 years, states (and municipalities) haven't done real well when they've gone up against the federal government, for better or worse.
For example, feds can just withhold funding from badly-behaved states until they toe the line--not much a state can do about that.
Crack-N-Up

Big Wall climber
South of the Mason Dixon line
Aug 14, 2013 - 03:34am PT
Some amazing posts here from some true patriots! How frustrated those who oppose guns are. They who cannot control themselves or emotions just proves why they should not have a gun.

Really there is no argument here about the right to be armed, the Second Amendment solves the argument for us.

If the guns were taken away from the criminals there would be less crime. If the criminals are the only ones with guns, well, just look at Chicago, the most anti-gun place in the USA, something like 320+ murders so far this year if I am not mistaken.
TradEddie

Trad climber
Philadelphia, PA
Aug 14, 2013 - 12:07pm PT
It is a Federal FELONY to sell a gun to a prohibited person, no matter what. Whether you knew it or not

I wish it were true, but once again, you've been misled. Those pesky facts again;

18 U.S.C. § 922

(d) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise
dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or
having reasonable cause to believe that such person - ...

Show me otherwise, and I'll retract/edit my earlier post, otherwise retract/edit yours.

TE
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Aug 14, 2013 - 12:48pm PT
They who cannot control themselves or emotions just proves why they should not have a gun
There's the pot calling the kettle black.
Or to put it more rationally.
There are dozens of examples every day in this country of gun owners who cannot control themselves or their emotions blowing people away senselessly.

Just yesterday:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23698277
…….told negotiators in the town of St Joseph a device was implanted in his head, said police.

Really there is no argument here about the right to be armed, the Second Amendment solves the argument for us.
It most obviously doesn't settle the argument.
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Aug 14, 2013 - 01:46pm PT
Ok you lost me there--lots of people have different views of what is "constitutional" and how the entire constitutional-law game should be played. But I've never heard a legitimate theory put forth that local LEOs are the guys who should be determining what laws are or aren't constitutional, and deciding which ones they'll enforce on that basis.

No, no! I'm not saying that local LEOs are the guys that should be "determining" what laws are or aren't "constitutional." Courts do the "determining!"

But, that said, ANY individual has the right to engage in civil disobedience based upon their own interpretation of what really is legal. And if a huge proportion of local LEOs are finding gun control laws both dangerous and unconstitutional, then perhaps that's worthy of note.

That was my only point about the fact that the huge proportion of Colorado LEOs are rejecting recent Colorado laws and are filing federal suit on the subject. They are taking it to the courts to decide. Meanwhile, they are engaging in civil disobedience.
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Aug 14, 2013 - 02:57pm PT
had an interesting discussion last night at a party. after enough beers and ports had loosened everyone's tongues.
Somehow came around to guns for self defense. "A" really feels that his semi-auto 9mm pistol is the thing he and his wife need for home defense. "A" has the weapon but has never had professional training.
B is a Brit, ex Metropolitan Police (London) with a license and training to use semi automatic pistols and sniper rifles, and until recently was an armed security officer for people/companies he won't name in the Mideast and US. A pretty tough and level headed lad. He is just as certain that thinking you need to protect yourself and home with a gun is nonsense. That it is in fact more dangerous as you are more likely to end up in armed confrontation and the other guy is almost certainly to have the advantages of intent and surprise.
Not to mention that the chance of an armed intruder coming into your house while you are there is extremely small.
Interestingly while B was a Bobby, even he had to specifically check out a firearm and had to document a reason for needing it.
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Aug 14, 2013 - 03:12pm PT
awww Sh*t jghedge
don't try to confuse the debate with facts.
That's an excellent article but the gunslingers will either not read it, ignore what they read or try to debate the facts.

Although news agencies and blogs continue to report 2012 as a “record homicide year” for Chicago, and they also continue to falsely claim that Chicago has the highest “murder rate” in the country, both those claims are demonstrably false. Chicago’s homicide rate even in the deadly year of 2012 was lower than every year from 1991 to 2003. While, Chicago remains a dangerous city for homicides, statistically it is still safer than forty other American cities. If this nation is to engage in a debate about the merits or shortcomings of Chicago’s gun laws, they should at least begin from a foundation of truth, and not use a series of myths upon which to base their arguments.
The last paragraph in the article.
The substantiating facts are in the rest of the article.
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Aug 14, 2013 - 03:35pm PT
http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2013/may/31/peter-nightingale/university-rhode-island-professor-says-united-king/

This article corroborates the claim:
"The UK has … a firearm fatality rate that is 40 times lower per capita than in the U.S.

"The UK has an unarmed police force….."
The article explains carefully how this is NOT true. Correctly speaking, the UK has a MOSTLY unarmed police force. 6653 "authorized firearms officers" like my friend B in my previous post.
However this is important: In England and Wales
During 2010-2011, police "discharged a conventional firearm in three incidents," a drop from six such incidents in 2009-2010, according to data published by the British Parliament.

For comparison, England and Wales are about 58 million people, California is 37 million.
And all 6653 firearms officers had a total of 3 firearm discharges.

In 2011, the rate of gun deaths of all kinds, including suicide, was 10.3 per 100,000 population in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the rate was 0.25 per 100,000.

That is indeed 40 times less than the rate in the U.S. So Nightingale’s figure checked out.

(The gap is even wider for "gun homicides": in 2011, the United Kingdom’s rate was 0.04 per 100,000 people, 90 times less than the 3.6 per 100,000 in the United States.)

Just the facts Ma'am (my apologies to Sgt Friday)
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Aug 14, 2013 - 03:47pm PT
Rate of UNINTENTIONAL gun death per 100,000 people in high income countries
http://www.gunpolicy.org

Rate of firearm possession regardless of country's economy
YEAH, WE'RE #1

nearly 1 gun for every man, woman and child in the US
No wonder the gun lobby has $$$$$$
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