Tag Archives: statistics

Pondering Parkland

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Now that details of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida have emerged, we can begin to explore causes and potential cures (unlike members of the gun control industry who didn’t hesitate a moment before proffering legislation of dubious efficacy). In this article we review: The high-level notes about the event Mental health and its recurrence in such incidents Legal intervention failures – Parkland and Virginia Tech (VT) Mass shootings as a policy priority What to watch in the political arena Legislative options and realities The high-level notes about the event The shooter was autistic, as was the Sandy Hook shooter. He had regular behavioral problems to the point that his mother would sometimes call the police to come over and talk to him. He had been treated at a local mental health center and had been on medications He was in a degrading mental state. He had a set of … Continue reading →

Going Underground

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If the rest of the world is any indication, Americans shouldn’t be worried about registering firearms or having them confiscated. Nobody takes such laws seriously. While spelunking through a somewhat dated version of the Small Arms Survey, I ran across a master table that assessed how many guns were registered in countries that had firearm registration, and how many guns were held by people without the benefit of such paperwork. The numbers are compelling in a way that would make Hillary Clinton sputter. The Meme and the Meat Depending on which gun registering country you examine, the percent of unregistered guns to registered ones ranges from 1/10th to 150 fold. A large set of European nations have more unregistered guns than those the government deigns to allow (Greece, France, Germany, Belgium). Even Merry Old England has about as many guns off the books as on. Which goes against everything gun … Continue reading →

Campus Carry, Not Scary

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Why does California State Senator Lois Wolk choose to be ignorant? With her representing a college town you would hope otherwise. Wolk is campaigning to largely prevent the few folks with California concealed carry licenses (CCW) from exercising the right on campuses (the bill as currently drafted, subject to change no doubt, leaves it up to schools to set policy). Ignoring how this creates legal jeopardy for CCW holders unaware of shifting restrictions from place to place, the bigger question is “why?” The empirical data does not support the need to discriminate as Wolk wants to do. In our recent Non-Brady State Scorecard report, we discovered that states that allow CCW holders to carry on campuses, both K12 public schools and college campuses, had significantly lower

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Bloomberg’s (latest) Blunder

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How in the Sam Heck did Michael Bloomberg ever become a billionaire? He can’t count that well. Recently, the Former New York City Mayor said of minorities age 15 to 25 “95 percent of all murders fall into this category.” Rephrased, Bloomberg believes (or, more accurately, he wants you to believe) that young minority men are responsible for nearly all gun murders. Racist! The FBI begs to differ, and they are pretty good at this criminology thing. In their “Expanded Homicide Data Table 3” they present counts of murder offenders by race and age. It is pretty easy to sum-up the homicide counts for an age range, then divide it by the total number of homicides. Now, in fairness, Bloomberg did specify minority males ages 15-25. Unfortunately the FBI brackets ages differently than Bloomberg (which makes you wonder from where Michael got his data). But the FBI’s 17 through 24 bracket is good enough, especially since … Continue reading →