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January 12, 2004

Reconcile this, Brady Bunch.

firearmnonfatalno.gif

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

While in this time we saw the Assault Weapons Ban and Brady Bill - we also saw a dramatic increase in concealed carry. Where is the carnage they predict each time CCW passes or is proposed somewhere? Hmmmm? If we have to accept the premise that Brady and the AW Ban are Good Things, how can we not accept that CCW is also a Good Thing? Surely we aren't going to argue that not only did the AW Ban and Brady provide all this suppression, but in fact provided further, unrecorded suppression counteracting the Wild West Gunfights that CCW must inevitably lead to?

Just curious. Why? Well, because of this chart.

weapons.gif
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

Again, I fail to see the carnage, though you can make a Brady argument for the fall-off after the early 90's, the AW Ban is a lot harder to find significant impact for.

Of course, when you wade through all of this stuff at BJS, you find something else that kinda slaps you in the face. An awful lot of this violence is arguably tied to gang activity - gang activity that is driven by drugs, and fighting over drug turf. Which begs a question about the War on Drugs. Which is a post for a different time.


Here's another little tidbit of interest regarding the "Gun Show Loophole" and the AW Ban.

Offenders

According to the 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun was from -

a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%
a retail store or pawnshop for about 12%
family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80%


During the offense that brought them to prison, 15% of State inmates and 13% of Federal inmates carried a handgun, and about 2%, a military-style semiautomatic gun.
On average, State inmates possessing a firearm received sentences of 18 years, while those without a weapon had an average sentence of 12 years.
Among prisoners carrying a firearm during their crime, 40% of State inmates and 56% of Federal inmates received a sentence enhancement because of the firearm.


John | Permalink | Comments (2) | Gun Rights | Politics
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Comments on Reconcile this, Brady Bunch.
triticale briefed on January 12, 2004 01:22 PM

At the time that assault rifles were first being demonized, someone did a review of murder statistics from Chicago, where they were available in the most detail. Turns out that in the preceding years (1990 - 1992 IIRC) more Chicagoans were murdered by being strangled with undergarments than by being shot with "military caliber" rifles (not all of which would have been scary looking auto-loaders).

JD Mays briefed on January 13, 2004 09:56 AM

From your past couple of posts it seems obvious that letting Big Brother watch out for you via surveillance cameras is a lot less effective than letting people actually take care of themselves via gun ownership and conceal and carry laws. I wish this kind of information would get more coverage in the "unbiased" media outlets.