@tenderfoot,
Woman, you are not helping yourself and digging a deeper hole. Your ignorant comment "the only one's left would be the unarmed African Americans" is highly insensible because you assume that since "most people in the USA jails are African Americans" that most of the black population in America are in prisons, which is blatantly wrong, and shows your ignorance even more profoundly.
@tenderfoot,
Young black American males are responsible for the largest portion of gun crimes in America. Young black American men are shooting young black American men with hand guns and Obama doesn't care. Obama would rather keep them on the democratic plantation, right were liberals want them to stay.
@Val Killmore,
Quote:that most of the black population in America are in prisons, which is blatantly wrong, and shows your ignorance even more profoundly.
Something like 40 percents of all people in prison are black males and they are only ten percent of the general population.
There are more blacks males in prison then in college.
Next one third of all adult black males in the state of Florida can not vote due to felony convictions.
So it is indeed a bad situation for the black males in the US.
@BillRM,
Obama has no love for black Americans because he is nothing like them.
Piers Morgan has been in the news a lot lately with his interviews on gun control. He’s made it his cause of late. He interviewed my friend Larry Pratt a couple of weeks ago and really attacked Larry. The other night he interviewed that conspiracy crank Alex Jones and many conservatives and gun owners have lamented a perception that Alex Jones will become the face of gun owners.
The conversations have actually been fascinating. Piers Morgan isn’t the only one to engage in these, but he’s been one of the most prominent.
Unfortunately, the incident that set off all these discussions — the Newtown, CT tragedy — is causing policy makers and news figures to fixate on all the wrong things, or at least the things with the least amount of meaning.
The fact is the tragedy in Connecticut was terrible. But it is also not a common act. It is called a “random act of violence” because it is random.
After the shooting over the summer in Aurora, CO, the President and his team could have picked up the gun issue, but they chose not too because it is a political hot potato and hurts the Democrats. They are compensating in light of this new tragedy, but the discussed policy proposals thus far probably would do no good. Increasing gun free school zones and punishment for violating those zones will not stop a mass shooter.
Nonetheless, the policy makers want to focus on mass shooters and not every day shooters. They want to focus on rifles and not handguns. Rifles, interestingly enough, contribute to far fewer murders than knives, hands, feet, clubs, or hammers.
But the discussion will not move to handguns because handguns are pretty popular in this country. Many people own them — far more own them than own semi-automatic rifles. More so, handguns are used in vastly more crimes.
It is not, however, just handguns that must be discussed when discussing gun violence. This gets to why we cannot have a meaningful conversation in this country and never will. To do so will get you branded a racist.
“Blacks were disproportionately represented as both homicide victims and offenders. The victimization rate for blacks (27.8 per 100,000) was 6 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000). The offending rate for blacks (34.4 per 100,000) was almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000).”
“Males represented 77% of homicide victims and nearly 90% of offenders. The victimization rate for males (11.6 per 100,000) was 3 times higher than the rate for females (3.4 per 100,000). The offending rate for males (15.1 per 100,000) was almost 9 times higher than the rate for females (1.7 per 100,000).”
“Approximately a third (34%) of murder victims and almost half (49%) of the offenders were under age 25. For both victims and offenders, the rate per 100,000 peaked in the 18 to 24 year-old age group at 17.1 victims per 100,000 and 29.3 offenders per 100,000.”
These are all direct quotes from a United States Department of Justice report released by the Obama Administration in November of 2011.
Don Lemon on CNN had a discussion with left-wing commentator David Sirota on whether we should profile young white males because pretty much every mass shooting incident has involved young white males with mental health issues. But, again, these are far less likely to happen than a gang related drive by shooting. Just because acts of mass violence grab the spotlight and media attention does not mean we should set policy on these events, which are not rather common.
The profile of the typical murderer with a gun is a black male in a city under the age of 25. This is not to suggest we should profile young black men. We should not. But we should, if we really want to curb gun violence in the United States, start our conversation looking at this phenomenon. Interestingly enough, the DOJ report notes of murders by poison, 80.6% were by white offenders and just 16.8% were by black offenders. Murders by gun were 41.2% by white offenders and 56.9% by black offenders.
Gun violence in the United States is, over all, on a steady decline, something the chattering class and policy makers tend to ignore. Again, from the Department of Justice:
In 2008, black males age 18 to 24 years-old had the highest homicide victimization rate (91.1 homicides per 100,000). That rate was more than double the rate for black males age 25 or older (38.4 homicides per 100,000) and almost triple the rate for black males age 14 to 17 (31.4 homicides per 100,000).
Among black males age 18 to 24, the homicide victimization rate was much lower in 2008 (91.1 homicides per 100,000) than in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it reached a high of 195.9 homicides per 100,000 in 1993.
Between 1980 and 2008, young adult black males had the highest homicide offending rate compared to offenders in other racial and sex categories.
The offending rate for black male teens peaked in 1993 at 246.9 offenders per 100,000 before declining. In recent years, the black male teen offending rate has increased from 54.3 offenders per 100,000 in 2002 to 64.8 offenders per 100,000 in 2008.
These are terrible statistics. In our urban areas — and gun violence happens much more in urban areas than anywhere else — young black men, often in broken families, are joining gangs and committing acts of violence against each other. There have been 24 people murdered with guns in Chicago since the Newtown tragedy (see here and here). Just look at the most violent neighborhood in Chicago with 202 murders since 2007. Look at the ages.
Banning guns tomorrow will not stop this. Focusing on handguns instead of rifles or with rifles will not stop this. A renewed assault weapons ban will not stop this. Until we figure out how to fix the family instability and educational problems within the inner-city (because the problem is ultimately about poverty more than anything else), any solution proposed in Washington will be a Potemkin village solution masking the real gun conversation we should be having.
But, because the issue is tinged with race and often viewed as lacking a solution, policy makers and the media often don’t want to make eye contact with the problem. Instead, they’ll be consumed by the headline tragedy urge to “just do something”.
@H2O MAN,
You know Waterdude--citing without reference is plagiarism. And taken to an extreme degree plagiarism is tantamount to fraud. If Eric Erickson wanted he could prosecute you for felony fraud and then your right to own a gun would be forfeit as a felon, if it isn't already.
The Real Gun Violence Problem
Rap
@raprap,
Eric is a friend, he doesn't mind.
@raprap,
Anytime Spurt uses more than one sentence it is likely he is plagiarizing someone else.
Anytime Spurt uses more than one paragraph it is guaranteed he is plagiarizing someone else.
@parados,
That's your opinion and you have a constitutional right to express your opinion.
You don't mind if I exercise my constitutional rights do you?
You don't mind if I defend your and my constitutional rights do you?
Well, do you?
Having a blackout at the Superbowl? Why you obviously need more guns.
Rap
@raprap,
raprap wrote:
I'm so impressed by the NRA's answer for everything. I'm going to use it universally.
Got acid reflex, dandruff, athletes feet --well its because you don't have enough guns.
You parents, kids, sister, brother getting on your nerves--more guns.
Not getting along well at work, play, sleep, dieting --more guns.
See it works for everything.
How many layers are need to change a lightbulb? More Guns
Even as a punch line.
More Guns
Rap
Straw man.
We never alleged that guns r the remedy for everything.
That came from u, so that u cud debunk your own notion.
@raprap,
raprap wrote:
More guns of course
Rap
Get her something nice, Setanta.
Maybe .38 caliber Smith & Wesson "the Lady".
@raprap,
raprap wrote:
You know Waterdude--citing without reference is plagiarism. And taken to an extreme degree plagiarism is tantamount to fraud. If Eric Erickson wanted he could prosecute you for felony fraud and then your right to own a gun would be forfeit as a felon
Rap
O, REALLY ?
U got a case on that, Rap ?
After watching the cops in CA shooting up two vans one with a middle age and an elderly woman in it and the other with a small white males while looking for a very large black male, I am coming to the conclusion that the one group in social we should disarmed are the cops.
Lord they seems to be turning the whole state of CA into a free fire zone and there had not been any arrests for such actions as firing on vans without a clue who might or might not be in them.
At least less get the heavy weapons out of their hands in the name of public safety.
@H2O MAN,
Quote:Friendly Fire Happens
Sorry opening fire on vans that does not even match the van of the person they are looking for with no clue who the hell might be in those vans is way beyond an error that should be overlook.
Two innocent women send to the hospital and one man who only sheer luck kept safe and that is only so far.
I would hate to be a large black male in CA right now if the police feel free to shot up cars and vans on the off chance the former police officer/cop killer is in it.
They are proving that they do not have the control to employ sane ROE that even soldiers in a war zone need to use and it should be back to the idea that they are law and peace keepers not an internal military force with heavy weapons.
@BillRM,
Mistakes happen, tragic as they may be.
