Loki wrote:
There were about 8000 firearms murders last year. Close to half were one criminal killing another. The "good guys with guns" are most effective in that case when they do nothing. The FBI estimates that firearms are used in the prevention of crimes about ten times as often as they are used to commit them. One does not have to shoot a malefactor to prevent a crime. often a crime is prevented because the criminal realizes that an intended victim is armed.
Your use of the number 35,000 includes suicides, accidents, self defense, justified shootings homicides and murders. The actual number of murders involving a non criminal victim is around 3000 per year.
There are 3142 counties or their equivalents (such as parishes) in the US. Last year, in more than half of them there were NO Murders. Something like 80% of the murders happen in about ten percent of the counties, leaving the rest of the country with a murder rate more like one of the European countries gun control advocates are always crowing about.
While we are on the subject, more than half of the murders happened in some 2% of the counties. In Alabama for instance, almost every single murder happened in either Birmingham or Mobile. The rest of the state has a murder rate about like the UK's. In Georgia, almost all of the murders happens in either Atlanta, Savannah or Macon. Three metro areas containing about 40% of the population contain about 90% of it's murders.
The good guys with the guns are doing just fine. Many times a crime is prevented because the criminal knows or suspects that his intended victim is armed.
You should also bear in mind that with a population of 320 million, our total murder rate from all causes is about 5:100,000. Consider that more than half are criminal victims, and that nearly half the time the murder involves one black killing another, and you have the reason. You can yell racist all day long, it does not change the fact that blacks are 13% of the population and more than half the murder victims, and that some 94% of the time their killer is another black, almost always an urban male between the ages of 15 and 30. These are FBI statistics, not the Ku Klux Klan.
Another interesting fact is that whites of Northern and Western European ancestry have almost identical murder rates no matter what country they are in. The murder rate for that demographic is almost the same in the US as it is in the UK, Norway, Germany, or Switzerland. Gun control or lack of it is not a factor.
The UK's murder rate in 1900, when there was no gun control, was lower than it is today, at least in England.
The murder rate in the US is half what it was 25 years ago, in spite of 40 million more people, 100 million more privately owned firearms, and more than 12 million concealed carry permits issued. Explain that. Mexico, with one third of our population (if you don't count all the wetbacks in this country) had twice as many total murders as we did last year and has 5 times our per capita murder rate.
Chicago is roughly one third white. They committed some 5% of the violent crimes last year. Wanna guess who committed the other 95%? (Hint, it wasn't Asians, who are probably the most law-abiding demographic in this country today.
There were about 8000 firearms murders last year. ... (
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Lpnmajor is a bloviating fool, doesn't care about truth or facts, like the bimbos on afternoon CNN.