Antigun

Guns, Crime, and Statistics

I get so tired of people moving the goal posts. Every time you talk to someone from a country which has banned guns, you always hear this argument (or a version of it):

As guns are banned here, we don’t face that reality. Although there is some gun violence in the UK, however, it is very rare.

But does that really pass the smell test? They always put the “gun” qualifier on the front of it. Taking away the guns from the equation doesn’t stop the violent criminals from being violent. It just makes the potential victims defenseless.

The violent crime rate in the UK is 9,360 per 100,000. The United States has a violent crime rate of 381 per 100,000. This means that you are nearly 25 times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime in England or Wales than you are to be one in the United States.

What about homicides, though? It’s impossible to compare the homicide rates of the US to other nations, mostly because definitions of homicide differ between the US and other countries. In the United States, there are three ways to die: Natural causes, homicide, suicide. If there is a death that wasn’t natural causes or a suicide, then it is a homicide. For the US, that comes out to about 7.8 homicides per 100,000 people.

Other nations don’t do that. In Australia, a death isn’t a homicide unless someone is arrested and charged with the killing. So if the killer commits suicide or is shot by law enforcement, the people that he killed are not considered to be homicide victims. This means that we can’t directly compare Australia’s reported homicide rate to the US, because the methodology is different.

In the UK, a killing isn’t a homicide until the crown court has ruled it to be a homicide. There is a substantial legal process to determine cause of death in suspected homicides, and the court must complete that process. If the court doesn’t find that there is compelling evidence that one person killed another, it isn’t a homicide. Since 1967, homicide figures for England and Wales have been adjusted to exclude any cases which do not result in conviction, or where the person is not prosecuted.

In short, the outlawing of guns doesn’t stop violent crime. There is no evidence that it stops people from killing each other, either.

By Divemedic, ago

Sell Outs

Another dancing monkey, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Nirvana fame, proves that if it weren’t for double standards, the left would have no standards at all. Grohl used to attend concerts at “Rock Against Reagan” in the 1980’s, he was a staunch critic of Donald Trump, and has frequently complained and protested against Conservatives for being religious zealots, often in a profane and obnoxious manner.

He called the J6 protest “the craziest fucking shit I’ve ever seen in my life.” A classic Fudd, Grohl is an advocate for gun control. Shortly after the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks, he stated in an interview that the attacks were “an indication of the direction the country’s heading in if we don’t get tougher with gun laws… People need to realize that our country has to get tougher on gun laws, it just does, and I grew up in suburban Virginia going hunting in season. I grew up with a firearm myself. But I’d be willing to give it up, if everyone else would.”

Proving that most anti-gun celebrities are criminals, he famously admits to using weed and LSD. He was also a huge supporter of Barak Obama and of Biden, even playing at his 2021 inauguration.

He has also famously protested the right, calling them religious fanatics.

It’s easy to stand up to the man when you live in the US. What happens when you go to countries that don’t have the freedoms we do here? You bend the knee, of course. Here is this asshat playing in Abu Dhabi:

I guess principles are easy to set aside when there is some money to be made.
By Divemedic, ago

I Have Questions

Internet rando Eddie, claiming to be an “Alpha male” says that he is tired of waiting for Congress to act, so he going door to door and confiscating guns. Anyone who resists will be placed under citizens arrest.

  • Under what legal theory or authority will this be carried out?
  • Will Eddie and his fellow gun grabbers be armed?
  • If not, how many houses will they enter before finding out?
  • If they are, will they place themselves under arrest?

Oh, wait. He is Canadian.

By Divemedic, ago

Figures Don’t Lie, but Liars Figure

Interesting article in the Guardian on FBI crime statistics. The left is pissed because crime is going down, and this will make it harder for them to pass laws that are soft on criminals while still allowing them to outlaw guns. They can’t have that, so they are going to blame Ron DeSantis.

“The issue of crime is deeply weaponized and politicized and we see that come up especially during election cycles. Florida has very incomplete data but Governor Desantis’s campaign is stating they’ve made Florida the safest state.”

In Florida, only 8% of the police departments are represented in the 2022 data, according to the Marshall Project.

The real money quotes are located towards the end of the piece.

  • Black Americans, who make up 13.6% of the population, accounted for 56% of the more than 16,000 homicide victims in the US.
  • of the 19,200 weapons used to kill someone in 2022, 15,000 – or 77% – of them were a firearms, usually a handgun.

Let’s take a look at the FBI Report and see the data for ourselves. The FBI numbers themselves seem to have some confusion in them that isn’t due to spotty data.

First, race. There were 8,694 homicides committed by blacks in 2022, out of a total of 16,724 homicides.

Let’s look at just homicides. Of the 16,724 homicides, 5,803 (34%) of them had handguns listed as the means. That’s on the “crime” page with homicide selected as the crime.

Now look at the “expanded homicide data” page, and you see that 7,937 homicides were committed by handguns out of a total of 19,200 homicides (41% of homicides). Why the discrepancy? Why are there 19,200 homicides on one page, but the same dataset on a different page says there are 16,724? How can we trust these numbers?

Even so, looking at the data. There were 542 rifles (<3%) of all types and 186 shotguns (<1%) used as homicide weapons. More people were killed by “unarmed” assailants than were killed by assailants with rifles.

The obvious answer here is to make it illegal for black people to own guns. That would have prevented far more homicides than banning concealed carry or banning “assault weapons.” Wait, you say that’s ridiculous? I agree. Gun bans won’t stop evil people from doing evil things.

By Divemedic, ago

Three Times is Enemy Action

As I reported earlier, there is now a shortage in the ammunition market. The old saying goes: Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. This shortage is therefore looking like it’s being caused by government fiat. In the past month:

We know that Biden said more than a year ago that he wants to cut off ammunition sales to the public. He tried last year to cut off the funding to the plant, but was stopped by Congress. So, it appears that he is trying a new tactic.

Mr Guns and Gear has some information on this:

This is not the end. Expect things to accelerate. I think that 2024 is going to be a rough ride.

By Divemedic, ago

Using Statistics to Mislead

Take a look at the National Safety Council’s statistics on your odds of dying.

I’m not even on the “guns” yet. There is a basic flaw with this chart, and that flaw is the assumption that the event that causes your death is random- that is, they are assuming everyone is equally likely to experience one of the events. So looking at “opioid overdose” for example, if you don’t take opioids, your chances of dying of an opioid overdose are exactly zero.

Now that we have exposed the flaw, note that “guns” is the only cause of death that is listed as an object, and not an event or action. You will also note that the math doesn’t work. Firearm assault and accidents aren’t even close to equaling your odds of dying from “guns.” Doing the math, there is a 1.1 percent chance of being killed by “guns,” but your chances of dying from a firearm assault or accident are only 0.049 percent. The other 0.61 percent? That is from suicides. So you cut your chances of being killed by “guns” if you take the simple step of not comitting suicide. We see that on the next line, where you have a 1 percent chance of killing yourself.

Taking other steps, like not being a gang banger, a drug dealer, or a violent criminal likewise reduce your risk of death by “guns,” but we won’t mention that because it doesn’t fit the agenda. This is a great example of how people can be mislead by what appears to be solid facts and mathematics applied in a scientific appearing article, when it is really just hokum that is designed to manipulate the reader.

By Divemedic, ago

No More Free Speech in Canada

Canada’s broadcasting regulatory body, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has published a news release announcing that it will require podcast providers, social media services and online streaming platforms to register with the government.

Registration requires disclosing the name, address, email, and telephone number of the service, as well as a disclosure of what type of services it offers. The Canadian government calls this registration a “very light” burden. Just remember my position on registration:

Registration of ANYTHING by a government is a necessary first step towards regulating who may have, use, or partake in the regulated activity. That is true of speech, business, and possession of regulated items.

This is nothing more than the Canadian government making moves to restricting who may speak on any topic online. Canada is claiming that this regulation doesn’t pertain to social media companies like Facebook because, well, we already know that those companies are part of the communist movement.

We all know where this is headed- the left desperately needs to shut down websites and blogs like this one. Of course, they deny it.

“I don’t think that registration is the same as a censorship regime,” he said. However, he added, he isn’t without concern.

“The idea that you potentially would have to register with the Canadian government or with its agency, the CRTC, in order to engage in expression, because you meet a certain threshold for revenue is, I think, a real incursion into expression.”

My answer to that statement? Canada began with registration of “assault weapons” in 1995. In 2022, the Canadian government announced that they would begin a “mandatory buyback” of the registered weapons. Mandatory buyback is really leftspeak for “we are confiscating your shit, and we will give you an amount of money in compensation that we think is appropriate, and if you don’t like it, too bad.”

Now let’s see how that applies to speech.

By Divemedic, ago

Here Comes Another One

The ATF has sent a notice to gun dealers in the vicinity of the Mexican border.

Law enforcement is advising Federal Firearms Licensees of expanding interest of criminal networks’ intention to utilize straw purchasers in acquiring large caliber firearms such as .50 caliber and/or belt fed rifles within the next 60 days. This activity is anticipated to occur throughout the entire State of Texas. Please contact your local ATF office if any suspicious, attempted or finalized purchases occur.

So what do you think will be the next rule change to come out of this?

By Divemedic, ago