jtb81100
Ultimate Member
after last week's shootings, which turned into I was going to just write a email to send to my reps. But I honestly was shocked at what I found and what started as an email turned into something I started a blog to post and as a somewhat newbie lurker I figured you guys may want to read it too. Feel free to share, and if anybody has any ideas on what else to do with it besides email it to our reps I'm open to ideas.
A lot of people have been talking about gun laws in the United States as a result of the Colorado theater shooting. There are a lot of people, both at home and abroad who think we are too lax with our gun control laws, that our gun laws lead to an abnormally large number of murders every year, and they are the cause of all the mass shootings we have.
One part of these peoples' thinking is true, we have had a lot of what are considered spree killings (non-terrorist relate). More then half of them have happened in the US, although only three of the top ten happened here and one of those didn't involve a gun. It's also interesting to note that the worst, 2011's Norway attacks, happened in a country with fairly restrictive gun laws. While I'm sure the availability of guns in the US contributes to the fact that we have so many of these, I'm just as sure that there are other things about our country that contribute to this as well like just how large our country is.
Spree killings are thankfully rare, even here where we have had so many. Regular murders aren't. In 2004 the world wide average for murders per 100,000 people was 7.6 with the high being 65 and the low being .44. The United States stood 47/123 countries with a rate of 5.5. Now, this isn't just with guns, but quite frankly I don't see anything here to suggest that we have a huge problem. There are places here that are very dangerous, but there is no reason to think that our access to guns is causing more murders here then anywhere else.
Four of our fifty states have decided that any person can carry a handgun open or concealed without any special permits. Alaska, Arizona, Vermont, and Wyoming. Arizona is ninth on the list with 4.54 murders per 100k, however I would hazard a guess that illegal immigration and the illegal drug trade has more to do with this then their gun laws. Alaska comes in at 2.58 which puts it somewhere in the middle of the pack. Wyoming and Vermont, which have extremely different demographics, come in at 47 and 49 with .59 and .48 respectively.
Illinois, California, Hawaii, and Maryland have some of the most restrictive laws concerning at least carrying handguns. Maryland has 6.95 giving it the number two slot, California 4.82 for fourth, Illinois 4.59 for seventh, and Hawaii .51 putting it all the way down at second to last. The one thing all four have in common is it currently is at least very difficult to get a carry permit with Illinois being the only state in the country to not issue permits or allow carrying at all. For a little comparison, New York state as a whole allows carry permits (although they are very difficult to get in some places) and has a rate of 2.67 putting it somewhere in the middle of the US and well below the world average. In New York City, however, carry permits are not legal and they have some of the more restrictive ownership laws yet they had a murder rate of 6.3 in 2008 which would have been good for third place if it was its own state.
I'm no expert, I'm just a guy who likes guns and pretty much all legal sports and activities that involve them. I'm also a realist who would have had to do some serious thinking if I had found anything that worried me when I started digging. I found none of that and in fact I'm more sure then ever that even if our founding fathers hadn't meant for every person to be able to carry a gun if they wanted too, that it should be interpreted as that today. I'm not going to say that this is the right thing for the rest of the world, but in the US banning alcohol didn't work in the early 1900s and banning guns will never work or be the right thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_(by_state)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_New_York_City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spree_killer
A lot of people have been talking about gun laws in the United States as a result of the Colorado theater shooting. There are a lot of people, both at home and abroad who think we are too lax with our gun control laws, that our gun laws lead to an abnormally large number of murders every year, and they are the cause of all the mass shootings we have.
One part of these peoples' thinking is true, we have had a lot of what are considered spree killings (non-terrorist relate). More then half of them have happened in the US, although only three of the top ten happened here and one of those didn't involve a gun. It's also interesting to note that the worst, 2011's Norway attacks, happened in a country with fairly restrictive gun laws. While I'm sure the availability of guns in the US contributes to the fact that we have so many of these, I'm just as sure that there are other things about our country that contribute to this as well like just how large our country is.
Spree killings are thankfully rare, even here where we have had so many. Regular murders aren't. In 2004 the world wide average for murders per 100,000 people was 7.6 with the high being 65 and the low being .44. The United States stood 47/123 countries with a rate of 5.5. Now, this isn't just with guns, but quite frankly I don't see anything here to suggest that we have a huge problem. There are places here that are very dangerous, but there is no reason to think that our access to guns is causing more murders here then anywhere else.
Four of our fifty states have decided that any person can carry a handgun open or concealed without any special permits. Alaska, Arizona, Vermont, and Wyoming. Arizona is ninth on the list with 4.54 murders per 100k, however I would hazard a guess that illegal immigration and the illegal drug trade has more to do with this then their gun laws. Alaska comes in at 2.58 which puts it somewhere in the middle of the pack. Wyoming and Vermont, which have extremely different demographics, come in at 47 and 49 with .59 and .48 respectively.
Illinois, California, Hawaii, and Maryland have some of the most restrictive laws concerning at least carrying handguns. Maryland has 6.95 giving it the number two slot, California 4.82 for fourth, Illinois 4.59 for seventh, and Hawaii .51 putting it all the way down at second to last. The one thing all four have in common is it currently is at least very difficult to get a carry permit with Illinois being the only state in the country to not issue permits or allow carrying at all. For a little comparison, New York state as a whole allows carry permits (although they are very difficult to get in some places) and has a rate of 2.67 putting it somewhere in the middle of the US and well below the world average. In New York City, however, carry permits are not legal and they have some of the more restrictive ownership laws yet they had a murder rate of 6.3 in 2008 which would have been good for third place if it was its own state.
I'm no expert, I'm just a guy who likes guns and pretty much all legal sports and activities that involve them. I'm also a realist who would have had to do some serious thinking if I had found anything that worried me when I started digging. I found none of that and in fact I'm more sure then ever that even if our founding fathers hadn't meant for every person to be able to carry a gun if they wanted too, that it should be interpreted as that today. I'm not going to say that this is the right thing for the rest of the world, but in the US banning alcohol didn't work in the early 1900s and banning guns will never work or be the right thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_(by_state)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_New_York_City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spree_killer
. After reading it again today and emailing it out to my reps, I'm kinda curious what could happen with it. Also emailed it to McDermott after seeing the post about his statement so maybe it'll get shared around at bit. The only other thing I added in the emails was that if measures get discussed to add an education requirement, they should look at just adding state specific info to the Utah class. I haven't taken it yet, but I plan to later in the year and I plan to apply for my MD permit once we see what happens in the next month or so.
