Re:Bruce Schneier: Drawing the wrong lessons from horrific e...
by robomartin on Wednesday August 01, 2012 @07:35AM
(#4322298)
I don't have all the answers and can't really spend the time digging into this (have to work). But here are a few thoughts.
My argument here is isolated from data from other countries. Each country/culture has its own issues.
The data from our own Department of Justice and FBI shows that the so-called "assault rifle" is responsible for --depending on the year-- maybe 1/10 of the murders caused by knives. This, to me, means that if we are talking about the reality in the USA, knives are far more dangerous than rifles. That's a fact backed by real crime data from the FBI. Handguns are a different story. They are responsible for the bulk of homicides.
With that understood the next task is to try to understand why this is so. The data points that, by far, most of the homicides take place in the inner city and affect hispanic and black youngsters. I am not passing judgement here, just mirroring what the data shows. I don't know why it is so. I can only speculate.
As far as your comparison with South Africa, here are some thoughts, again, backed-up by data:
So, with 1/6 the population of the USA and very restrictive gun ownership laws SA manages to have SIX TIMES the homicide rate of the US. Isn't this further support for the idea that guns are not necessarily the root cause, but rather that people and other factors might be?
As far as solutions. Look, I'm an engineer. I have some thoughts on these issues but I have never claimed to have THE solution. I would like to think that it is a combination of education, illegal drug control, economic opportunity and other factors.
So, that's the data, please tell me what you think it means.
My argument here is isolated from data from other countries. Each country/culture has its own issues.
The data from our own Department of Justice and FBI shows that the so-called "assault rifle" is responsible for --depending on the year-- maybe 1/10 of the murders caused by knives. This, to me, means that if we are talking about the reality in the USA, knives are far more dangerous than rifles. That's a fact backed by real crime data from the FBI. Handguns are a different story. They are responsible for the bulk of homicides.
With that understood the next task is to try to understand why this is so. The data points that, by far, most of the homicides take place in the inner city and affect hispanic and black youngsters. I am not passing judgement here, just mirroring what the data shows. I don't know why it is so. I can only speculate.
As far as your comparison with South Africa, here are some thoughts, again, backed-up by data:
US Population: 300+ million (http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_&#...)
South Africa: 50 million (http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&#...)
6x more people in the US could mean more total murders (by any means) than in S.A.
Homicide rate:
US, about 5 per 100K population
SA, about 32 per 100K population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona...
So, with 1/6 the population of the USA and very restrictive gun ownership laws SA manages to have SIX TIMES the homicide rate of the US. Isn't this further support for the idea that guns are not necessarily the root cause, but rather that people and other factors might be?
As far as solutions. Look, I'm an engineer. I have some thoughts on these issues but I have never claimed to have THE solution. I would like to think that it is a combination of education, illegal drug control, economic opportunity and other factors.
So, that's the data, please tell me what you think it means.