Firearms Facts (Without False P.C. Assumptions and Emotions)

Support for tighter gun laws is often based on mistaken assumptions.  A common one has to do with the alleged impulsiveness of otherwise law-abiding people—in particular, the notion that most shootings are acts of passion that involve guns purchased by non-criminals for home protection.  However, a look at empirical studies -- evidence, not assumptions -- yields a vastly different conclusion. A 2004 study by the National Academy of Sciences, for example, couldn’t identify a single gun law that had lowered violent crime, suicide, or gun accidents. This wasn’t a minor report, but a massive review of 253 journal articles, 99 books, and dozens of government studies.

Other research has found that handguns have been used more often for defensive purposes than for committing crimes. “Annually, three to six times as many victims successfully defend themselves with guns as criminals misuse handguns,” writes attorney, criminologist, and Independent Institute Research Fellow Don B. Kates Jr.  A study published in the BYU Journal of Public Law found that firearms were used approximately half a million times per year to stop home invasion burglaries, and in most of those cases no shots were fired: merely brandishing a gun sent the burglars scurrying to safety.  These findings are especially comforting because the police rarely arrive in time to stop a crime in progress and are indemnified if they fail to protect law-abiding citizens.

The evidence on crime and firearm ownership has had a powerful effect in some academic circles: it has convinced several researchers to abandon their former advocacy of tighter restrictions on guns.  Economist David Mustard explains what shaped his former support for tighter gun laws: “My views on the subject were formed primarily by media accounts of firearms, which unknowingly to me systematically emphasized the costs of firearms while virtually ignoring their benefits,” he wrote in a 2003 article for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.  “It is now over six years since I became convinced otherwise and concluded that shall issue laws—laws that require [gun carry permits] to be granted unless the applicant has a criminal record or a history of significant mental illness—reduce violent crime and have no impact on accidental deaths.”

. . . The Criminology of Firearms 

By Don B. Kates Jr. 

(The Jurist, 2/27/13)

Diversionary Kerfuffle

Media attention to the spat between Obamamites and Bob Woodward about whether the administration threatens journalists who don't whore for the ruling gang is the serious import of the substantive report by Mr. Woodward that led to the communications on which the lame stream media's journalice focused.

The honest report by the liberal but ethical Mr. Woodward pointed out and documented that Mr. Obama (i) played a key role in originating and enacting the sequester, (ii) has been less than forthright and scrupulously honest about that, and (iii) has been irresponsible in, and disingenuous about his administration of the law in ways contrary to the interests of the nation and its people.

All of the foregoing is set forth in detail in this City Journal essay.

Hail Armageddon!

Why the Obama gang and its progressive minions want the sequester to inflict the maximum amount of pain possible on ordinary citizens and how big government apparatchiks target any and all spending cut to achieve that result is spelled out by the always erudite and on-target Charles Krauthammer in this essay.

Sven & Ole

Two Minnesota engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up.

A woman walks by asks what they were doing.

"Ve're supposed to find da height of dis flagpole, "said Sven, "but ve don't haff a ladder."

The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground.

Then she took a tape measure from her purse, took a measurement, announced, "Twenty-one feet, six inches," and walked away.

Ole shook his head and laughed. "Ain't dat just like a voman! Ve ask fer da height and she gives us da length!"

Sven and Ole have since quit their engineering jobs and are currently serving in the United States Senate.

 Now they are trying to determine the height of the Fiscal Cliff!

Parable of the Sandwich

Sneaky Regulatory Strategy

Governmental overreach is taking place surreptitiously with Obama administration's Chicago-style government by thuggery making politics ever more shameful and sordid than normal. The latest progressive/bureaucratic scam to stealthily expand government and diminish individual freedom is just beginning to emerge into public view and be challenged, as is spelled out in this report.

Obama Shredding His Target

More on the Pipsqueak Sequestration

Putting Little Barack's Strident Sequester Tantrums in Perspective

But you can count on the Prez and his thuggish Demorat minions (including the media) doing everything possible to score political points  and to demonize their Republicon opponents

by using the trivial cuts to maximize inconveniences to, and impacts on the public.

From a Colorado Parking Lot

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE 

FOR VIEWING AND READING

The claim attributed to Hitler in the above photo actually was uttered not by him but by one of his underlings . . . probably by someone like Dopey Joe Biden, screwing up while trying to do as instructed to promote the cause.

For a clear exposition of the purpose of the Second Amendment that individuals who view themselves as too civilized and cultured to discuss, take a gander at the five concluding paragraphs of this essay . . . and keep your powder dry even if you are not a red neck.

Media Balance

Obamaland Facts

. . . and the Problem Is . . . ?

Last Three Mass Shooters

. . . and They Vote

Here are are (i) a headline that explains the root cause -- something our ruling elites always claim to be seeking -- of the country's problems, and (ii) an anecdote substantiating the headline:

First, the informative headline -

Leading Geneticist:  
Human Intelligence Is Slowly Declining 

. . . NaturalSociety.com, 2/19/13

Report of substantiating anecdote -

Authorities say two brothers accidentally blew up their house after celebrating a $75,000 winning lottery ticket by purchasing marijuana and meth, according to  this Fox News report from Wichita, Kansas:

Wichita police Sgt. Bruce Watts said one of the brothers was taken to a hospital and the other to jail after Friday's explosion. The Wichita Eagle reported that the injured 27-year-old brother is in serious but stable condition with second-degree burns on his hands, arms and chest.

Watts said the explosion happened after one of the brothers went to the kitchen to refuel the butane torches they planned to use to light their bongs. The brother emptied a couple large cans of butane lighter fluid, leaking butane into the air.

Eventually, butane vapor reached the pilot light in the furnace, causing the blast.

The above appeared in the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web online column of February 19, which published it under a headline reading -

If They're so Rich, How Come They're Not Smart?

and followed it with a conclusion that the occurrence provided further evidence, as if any were needed, that lotteries are a tax on the stupid. 

Voters Like This Explain 
America's Current Government

Obamaland

England is like this now, and 

America's political elite 

wants to replicate it here.

Some Folks Need This

Truthful Comics

Two from Craig Ferguson:

People sometimes forget that George Washington was very rich, had a ponytail, and grew hemp on his farm. He was America's original Willie Nelson.

and

It's a great day for a bunch of thieves in Belgium. They got away with more than $50 million worth of pure, uncut diamonds. This diamond heist is the biggest robbery ever pulled off at an airport if you don't count them charging $25 to check a bag.

And this one from Jay Leno:

Over the weekend, President Obama played golf with Tiger Woods. Tiger said the president was a very good golfer for a guy who plays only five days a week.

        

Are You Sure This Is a Good Idea?

Murder Statistics

From the World Health Organization:

         The latest Murder Statistics for the world:

              Murders per 100,000 citizens

Honduras 91.6

El Salvador 69.2

Cote d'lvoire 56.9

Jamaica 52.2

Venezuela 45.1

Belize 41.4

US Virgin Islands 39.2

Guatemala 38.5

Saint Kits and Nevis 38.2

Zambia 38.0

Uganda 36.3

Malawi 36.0

Lesotho 35.2

Trinidad and Tobago 35.2

Colombia 33.4

South Africa 31.8

Congo 30.8

Central African Republic 29.3

Bahamas 27.4

Puerto Rico 26.2

Saint Lucia 25.2

Dominican Republic 25.0

Tanzania 24.5

Sudan 24.2

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 22.9

Ethiopia 22.5

Guinea 22.5

Dominica 22.1

Burundi 21.7

Democratic Republic of the Congo 21.7

Panama 21.6

Brazil 21.0

Equatorial Guinea 20.7

Guinea-Bissau 20.2

Kenya 20.1

Kyrgyzstan 20.1

Cameroon 19.7

Montserrat 19.7

Greenland 19.2

Angola 19.0

Guyana 18.6

Burkina Faso 18.0

Eritrea 17.8

Namibia 17.2

Rwanda 17.1

Mexico 16.9

Chad 15.8

Ghana 15.7

Ecuador 15.2

North Korea 15.2

Benin 15.1

Sierra Leone 14.9

Mauritania 14.7

Botswana 14.5

Zimbabwe 14.3

Gabon 13.8

Nicaragua 13.6

French Guiana 13.3

Papua New Guinea 13.0

Swaziland 12.9

Bermuda 12.3

Comoros 12.2

Nigeria 12.2

Cape Verde 11.6

Grenada 11.5

Paraguay 11.5

Barbados 11.3

Togo 10.9

Gambia 10.8

Peru 10.8

Myanmar 10.2

Russia 10.2

Liberia 10.1

Costa Rica 10.0

Nauru 9.8

Bolivia 8.9

Mozambique 8.8

Kazakhstan 8.8

Senegal 8.7

Turks and Caicos Islands 8.7

Mongolia 8.7

British Virgin Islands 8.6

Cayman Islands 8.4

Seychelles 8.3

Madagascar 8.1

Indonesia 8.1

Mali 8.0

Pakistan 7.8

Moldova 7.5

Kiribati 7.3

Guadeloupe 7.0

Haiti 6.9

Timor-Leste 6.9

Anguilla 6.8

Antigua and Barbuda 6.8

Lithuania 6.6

Uruguay 5.9

Philippines 5.4

Ukraine 5.2

Estonia 5.2

Cuba 5.0

Belarus 4.9

Thailand 4.8

Suriname 4.6

Laos 4.6

Georgia 4.3

Martinique 4.2

                                     and

              The United States 4.2

ALL the countries above the United States have 100% gun bans

Words Unnecessary

True Story

Deadly Dereliction of Nation's Leaders

Americans were abandoned to die in Benghazi by the empty suit who postures as America's commander-in-chief, as is spelled out in this account of how he behaved shamefully, going AWOL, during a real crisis.  The poseur and his minions then went on to lie about what transpired for weeks, hoping that with the passage of time Americans would forget about the deadly dereliction of duty of those to whom they have entrusted the nation's highest offices. 

War vs. Freedom

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

. . . James Madison

Footsteps to Oblivion

Romans ignored the decay of their empire by focusing on bread and circuses.  Americans are doing the same with fast food and football or, in the cases of those with fewer resources, food stamps and video games.

Growing and Inescapable Burden