Yes, But How Does It Work, Exactly?
I am one of those tiresome people who, when told about some amazing cure, whether it's an herbal supplement or waving a crystal over the general region of my internal plumbing, want to know just how and why I'm going to get better. Yes, there's no doubt a placebo effect, but I don't want to waste time and money (and potentially poison myself). Sadly, you can tell pretty quickly how much I care about you: If I love you, you've heard of Snopes.com. For the most part though, I figure if folks want to be gormless about something, they're welcome to it. Scared of cell phones? Terrified that phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol will make you crazy and give you cancer? Eh, everyone's stupid about something, and if you want to live without Twitter and Diet Coke, that's fine: Knock yourself out.
On the other hand, the busy-body, meddling impulse1 which attempts to take away everyone's Diet Coke is another matter. So in the hope2 that at least a handful of folks will ask "Okay, yes, but will it work?" here's the current data on the rates of murder and injury by assault weapons, the rates of murder and injury by all other guns, the rates of mass killings, and the rates of murder and injury by other weapons.
Wm. Briggs Firearm Homicides Dropping. Assault Weapons Ban Not Correlated With Decrease In Homicides.
For the reading-impaired, I will summarize. Something: cultural? legal? demographic? has caused the murder rate by any means to spike in the mid 60s. Something else caused it to start dropping in mid-90s, before the passing of The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, and it has continued to drop throughout the mid-2000s, after the ban was repealed. The most common murder (or attempted murder) weapon is a handgun, and no data exists that sorts out "assault weapons" deaths (and attack) from all other guns, including rifles, various hunting guns, etc. But go read for yourself. Please.
The main reason the First Amendment to the Constitution exists is not so silly women can write (and read) Fifty Shades of Gray, and even sillier men can get Penthouse and internet porn. We put up with them so that we can write (and read) reports of government corruption and show up at town meetings and demonstrate against incompetent representatives. It exists for us to post scurrilous cartoons mocking our corrupt boob of a President3. We undermine it at our peril.
The main reason that the Second Amendment exists is not so that our local bow hunter can shoot Hillary the Deer4 and I get tasty venison sausage. It's so we can take up arms against an oppressive government if we need to. If "they come for the Jews" (or that nice lesbian couple next door) we don't have to hide the targets in the basement, we can shoot the Nazis. And the would-be Nazis know it. It's the reason Mayor Palin could draw a line through the "rape kit purchase" item on the city budget. A rape kit isn't made out of bannanas. They don't go bad if they're not used. If you live in a state where your sisters are armed you don't have to go hat in hand to the government: Please nice Senator! Please pay so that we can (maybe) prosecute the guy who assaulted me. Pretty please?. We can just shoot the would-be rapists. And they know it.
It's probably a lost cause, but just this once, think it through: Will it work? How?
1. I still say it's more powerful than the sex drive. There exist people who've actually given up sex.
2. Probably vain. We live in a scientifically--no, make that rationally--impaired age. Worse, it's as if we've decided that the old tribal standby (which my dad has observed commonly in Islamic countries, but I expect it's cross-cultural) that having said we've done something = it's as good as having done it. If I write as if it's true; it is! Yay!
3. Plenty to chose from: the cartoons, and the Presidents.
4. You name your useless predatory parasite whatever you want; I'll name mine. I read Rabbit Hill. Stupid deer was welcome to eat the plants to the ground, just not rip them up by the roots and kill them.
On the other hand, the busy-body, meddling impulse1 which attempts to take away everyone's Diet Coke is another matter. So in the hope2 that at least a handful of folks will ask "Okay, yes, but will it work?" here's the current data on the rates of murder and injury by assault weapons, the rates of murder and injury by all other guns, the rates of mass killings, and the rates of murder and injury by other weapons.
Wm. Briggs Firearm Homicides Dropping. Assault Weapons Ban Not Correlated With Decrease In Homicides.
For the reading-impaired, I will summarize. Something: cultural? legal? demographic? has caused the murder rate by any means to spike in the mid 60s. Something else caused it to start dropping in mid-90s, before the passing of The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, and it has continued to drop throughout the mid-2000s, after the ban was repealed. The most common murder (or attempted murder) weapon is a handgun, and no data exists that sorts out "assault weapons" deaths (and attack) from all other guns, including rifles, various hunting guns, etc. But go read for yourself. Please.
The main reason the First Amendment to the Constitution exists is not so silly women can write (and read) Fifty Shades of Gray, and even sillier men can get Penthouse and internet porn. We put up with them so that we can write (and read) reports of government corruption and show up at town meetings and demonstrate against incompetent representatives. It exists for us to post scurrilous cartoons mocking our corrupt boob of a President3. We undermine it at our peril.
The main reason that the Second Amendment exists is not so that our local bow hunter can shoot Hillary the Deer4 and I get tasty venison sausage. It's so we can take up arms against an oppressive government if we need to. If "they come for the Jews" (or that nice lesbian couple next door) we don't have to hide the targets in the basement, we can shoot the Nazis. And the would-be Nazis know it. It's the reason Mayor Palin could draw a line through the "rape kit purchase" item on the city budget. A rape kit isn't made out of bannanas. They don't go bad if they're not used. If you live in a state where your sisters are armed you don't have to go hat in hand to the government: Please nice Senator! Please pay so that we can (maybe) prosecute the guy who assaulted me. Pretty please?. We can just shoot the would-be rapists. And they know it.
It's probably a lost cause, but just this once, think it through: Will it work? How?
1. I still say it's more powerful than the sex drive. There exist people who've actually given up sex.
2. Probably vain. We live in a scientifically--no, make that rationally--impaired age. Worse, it's as if we've decided that the old tribal standby (which my dad has observed commonly in Islamic countries, but I expect it's cross-cultural) that having said we've done something = it's as good as having done it. If I write as if it's true; it is! Yay!
3. Plenty to chose from: the cartoons, and the Presidents.
4. You name your useless predatory parasite whatever you want; I'll name mine. I read Rabbit Hill. Stupid deer was welcome to eat the plants to the ground, just not rip them up by the roots and kill them.