The sheer senseless brutality of the mass killings in Buffalo and Uvalde have set in motion a familiar rhetorical dance. Advocates of stricter gun control accuse opponents of pandering to the gun lobby, or putting selfish interests ahead of the lives of innocents. Opponents respond by accusing advocates of trying to strip law-abiding citizens of their property and constitutionally protected rights. In less polite corners of the social media space, people are accused of being child killers on the one hand or gun-grabbing tyrants on the other. It’s a depressing situation, revealing an enormous cultural and conceptual gulf that seems impossible to bridge.
The biometric idea won't fly because it introduces another failure point; your gun failing to operate correctly in a life and death situation is, as you might expect, a worrisome idea. We could of course try these smart guns in some big city police force ... and you will get massive resistance from the beat cops, and for the same good reason.
The lost/stolen gun report idea is odd because the police don't do jack about these reports now.
A simpler idea which I would think (hope) would be supported by sizable elements of the left and the right is to enforce the laws we already have.
For example, a GAO report in 2017 found that for NICS denials (that is, felons and other ineligible people trying to buy guns), there were 112,000 NICS denials, only 12,700 investigations, and only ... TWELVE (12) prosecutions. That is, 0.09% of the investigations resulted in prosecution.
Interesting. I'm relatively new to these data sets. Generally I've been following global homicide trends over time and looking to see if the relatively peaceful in the middle 20th century followed by the 1965-1980 peek homicide rates followed by the gradual rate decline up until, say the last decade were affected by gun ownership rates. Apparently not.
I'd like to see information like this where we also look at homicide and suicide holistically WRT firearms and/or other civil liberties. Not just gun homicide and gun suicide but all forms. Developed places with fewer civil liberties are IMHO sadder places and potentially more people are killed as a result of more rules than are saved. Japan and Russia being two big outliers in the suicide department.
Could we be creating mass murderers including mass shooters by increasing pressure on some demographic or another? What did we do to the Hispanic and African American populations to cause such a dramatic spike in self inflicted violent crime post civil rights era?
Thanks for the posting. I'll enjoy following rational discussion of difficult topics.
I like the idea of smart guns however, is there a way to make existing guns smart? With so many already in circulation how would policies mandating smart guns prevent/significantly reduce homicide especially in those states mentioned (Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and Louisiana)? Criminals would just continue the circulation of "dumb" guns in the black market. I am not sure how it would lead to reduced suicide by gun either - just shoot yourself with a gun you own.
I do think it would reduce accidental shootings and that would be great. The overall idea seems good but I just can't see how it could actually be implemented/significantly beneficial.
Besides geography, there are significant demographic differences between homicide and suicide in the US: blacks commit homicide at some 6x the rate of whites, while whites commit suicide at 2x the rate of blacks. Both homicide and suicide are disproportionately (hugely, in the case of homicide) male problems. 90 years ago, when the murder rate peaked, blacks were not responsible, so the driving factor is not genetic. School shootings were also rare. What changed? Do the *motivations* of murder matter?
The “enforce existing laws on the books” argument is just so tired and useless.
The example used was a straw man argument no one is making - background checks aren’t meant to initiate prosecution - their meant to vet and the current laws are woefully ill-equipped to handle our current gun situation. There are sensible things like raising the age of ownership and making the penalties associated with owning an unregistered weapon or failing to report a stolen one prohibitively expensive.
Polls show people are significantly behind these measures when presented. But there’s a gun lobby that will make sure the amount of potential customers never drops.
Gun Violence
The biometric idea won't fly because it introduces another failure point; your gun failing to operate correctly in a life and death situation is, as you might expect, a worrisome idea. We could of course try these smart guns in some big city police force ... and you will get massive resistance from the beat cops, and for the same good reason.
The lost/stolen gun report idea is odd because the police don't do jack about these reports now.
A simpler idea which I would think (hope) would be supported by sizable elements of the left and the right is to enforce the laws we already have.
For example, a GAO report in 2017 found that for NICS denials (that is, felons and other ineligible people trying to buy guns), there were 112,000 NICS denials, only 12,700 investigations, and only ... TWELVE (12) prosecutions. That is, 0.09% of the investigations resulted in prosecution.
Interesting. I'm relatively new to these data sets. Generally I've been following global homicide trends over time and looking to see if the relatively peaceful in the middle 20th century followed by the 1965-1980 peek homicide rates followed by the gradual rate decline up until, say the last decade were affected by gun ownership rates. Apparently not.
I'd like to see information like this where we also look at homicide and suicide holistically WRT firearms and/or other civil liberties. Not just gun homicide and gun suicide but all forms. Developed places with fewer civil liberties are IMHO sadder places and potentially more people are killed as a result of more rules than are saved. Japan and Russia being two big outliers in the suicide department.
Could we be creating mass murderers including mass shooters by increasing pressure on some demographic or another? What did we do to the Hispanic and African American populations to cause such a dramatic spike in self inflicted violent crime post civil rights era?
Thanks for the posting. I'll enjoy following rational discussion of difficult topics.
I like the idea of smart guns however, is there a way to make existing guns smart? With so many already in circulation how would policies mandating smart guns prevent/significantly reduce homicide especially in those states mentioned (Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and Louisiana)? Criminals would just continue the circulation of "dumb" guns in the black market. I am not sure how it would lead to reduced suicide by gun either - just shoot yourself with a gun you own.
I do think it would reduce accidental shootings and that would be great. The overall idea seems good but I just can't see how it could actually be implemented/significantly beneficial.
Besides geography, there are significant demographic differences between homicide and suicide in the US: blacks commit homicide at some 6x the rate of whites, while whites commit suicide at 2x the rate of blacks. Both homicide and suicide are disproportionately (hugely, in the case of homicide) male problems. 90 years ago, when the murder rate peaked, blacks were not responsible, so the driving factor is not genetic. School shootings were also rare. What changed? Do the *motivations* of murder matter?
The “enforce existing laws on the books” argument is just so tired and useless.
The example used was a straw man argument no one is making - background checks aren’t meant to initiate prosecution - their meant to vet and the current laws are woefully ill-equipped to handle our current gun situation. There are sensible things like raising the age of ownership and making the penalties associated with owning an unregistered weapon or failing to report a stolen one prohibitively expensive.
Polls show people are significantly behind these measures when presented. But there’s a gun lobby that will make sure the amount of potential customers never drops.