I’m Shocked… Shocked I tell ya!
Who would have thought it?
U.S. Murder Toll From Guns Highest in Big Cities: CDC
Large metropolitan areas suffer about two-thirds of all firearm homicides in the United States, with inner cities most affected, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”The central cities really bear the burden of firearm homicides,” said Linda L. Dahlberg, the associate director for science in CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, noting that the gun murder rate was highest among male children and teens.
These findings “speak to the importance of addressing youth if we really want to do something about the gun violence problem,” Dahlberg said.
According to the CDC, 25,423 murders by gunfire took place in the United States in 2006 through 2007 — the years of the most recent available statistics.
Among these deaths, the rate of firearm homicides was higher in inner cities than in other parts of cities and higher than the murder rate of the country as a whole, Dahlberg said. People living in 50 of the largest cities, in fact, accounted for 67% of all firearm homicides.
Now I’m not making light of the plight of folks in big cities… only the notion that this new or news. There have been many studies over the years with rats and monkeys (et. al.) that have demonstrated what can happen in overcrowded environments.
The first step in problem solving is to correctly identifying the problem one is trying to solve. Yet again pointing at guns would seem to be missing that mark by a large margin.
To be fair this article does offer some common sense towards the end:
Gary Kleck, the David J. Bordua Professor of Criminology at Florida State University in Tallahassee, has another take on how to reduce inner-city gun violence.
The evidence suggests that better gun control doesn’t necessarily reduce violence, but a broad-based approach tends to reduce homicide in general, he said.
For one thing, “locking up more criminals reduces violence; it’s not gun specific,” he said.
More from Gary Kleck below the fold.
The Myth of Big-Time Gun Trafficking
In recent decades, advocates of gun control have taken their cause to court, bringing lawsuits that charge the gun industry with negligence because of how it distributes firearms. Large-scale traffickers, these suits claim, purchase guns in big batches from corrupt or irresponsible dealers, especially those operating in states with weak gun control laws. These guns are then moved to places with stricter laws, where they are sold, supposedly at high markups, to criminal buyers.
Advocates argue that gun manufacturers and distributors are aware of these illegal practices and could stop them, if they chose to, by refusing to supply guns to the problematic dealers.
Category: Politics
I would wager that, per capita, out here in the boonies,I hear more gunshots in the evenings than are heard in the inner cities. Those I hear are on the home ranges of my neighbors, who have, as I see it, demonstrated their common sensibility in choosing to live out here rather in said inner cities. I don’t know of a home in my area without a gun owner residing in it, or two, or three, or……..
FO #1: I live in the middle of Nowhere, WV myself. Have my own range too, etc. Still everyone can’t live as we do.
But it seems obvious that gun homicides are only a symptom ANYWHERE they happen. Accidental shootings, and/or kids playing their parents weapons are marginally different cases, but the gun is just a tool.
Wish I could find it again, but I saw some interesting stuff about NAIL guns and accidents recently.
I would wager that the number of people with LEGAL ownership of guns in the inner city is quite a bit lower that in the rural area. Also, in Rural areas guns are tools, and people grow up with respect for what they represent. In the cities guns are instant power, and respect (through fear).
Wait, you mean more people die where more people live? Shock and awe!
The study itself says the most homicides are committed by teen males aged 10-19, solidifying the stance of 2A proponents that it is guns obtained illegally that are the problem, yet they stand firm in their desire to restrict further the ability of law-abiding citizens to obtain and own firearms.
Here, the legal age to purchase a handgun is 21, but 18 to own one. Concealed carry permit totals have increased exponentially, while numbers of HOMICIDES have dropped. (The overwhelming majority (57%) of gun deaths in Texas are suicides, not homicides- yet those numbers are included in gun death totals.)
There is absolutely no logic behind the gun-grabbers’ mentality.
Yes, this is the same crew who “broke” the story of straw buyers providing guns to the Mexican cartels…except it was the BATF.
As others have already said, eliminate the illegal/stolen guns and suicides and see what the story is.
It is a fact that there is an inverse correlation between legal gun ownership and violent crime. Interviews with violent criminals have overwhelmingly documented that they will target those who they perceive to be weak.
The gun (coupled with training and the determination to carry and use one’s weapon) is the great equalizer against physical disadvantages.
This doesn’t even begin to address 2nd Amendment issues. The MSM view that the need for guns has been negated by effective policing etc… misses the fact that they are also the guarantor against political tyranny.
@ #6 – Elric, They don’t miss it is simply avoided because that fact doesn’t fit the narrative of what they want.
In another statistic, 100% of deaths are fatal.
‘Yes, this is the same crew who “broke” the story of straw buyers providing guns to the Mexican cartels…except it was the BATF.’
Anyone ever hear of the lamestream media making mention of the Mex drug cartel’s belt fed MGs, full auto AKs (non-converted),RPGs & mortars you can’t get at American gunshops??? I know, futile question, since the lamestream media doesn’t do that pesky investigative journalism thingy any more.
Yay for useless statistics. So more people are murdered with (no, not “by”, you MSMbeciles) guns in big cities than the countryside. This is only significant if it does not correlate with overall murder rates in urban vs rural areas (ie. gun usage rates per X number of murders being significantly higher in cities than the countryside). Barring that, all we’ve got is the utterly unsurprising case of more people being killed in cities meaning more people are killed with guns in cities. I rather expect you could replace “guns” with any common murder weapon and the story would be identical. Of course, this “report” isn’t trying to drum up sentiment against cars or bats or anything the ownership of which is not explicitly protected under the Constitution.