Contributors

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Children and Guns

Absolutely fantastic piece in the Times today about children and guns. Very illustrative about how statistics lie.

A New York Times review of hundreds of child firearm deaths found that accidental shootings occurred roughly twice as often as the records indicate, because of idiosyncrasies in how such deaths are classified by the authorities. The killings of Lucas, Cassie and Alex, for instance, were not recorded as accidents. Nor were more than half of the 259 accidental firearm deaths of children under age 15 identified by The Times in eight states where records were available.

Of course, this more or less ends the whole "Gun Free Zone" debate as well. Lift the perfectly legal ban on guns (see: Scalia, Heller, 54-55) in certain areas and you see more incidents like those described in this story. Compare the number of people (not just kids) that die in gun full zones with those that die in gun free zones. Discussion over.

The facts are very simple. There are many people in this country that are simply irresponsible and do not honor their right to bear arms appropriately. That's why we shouldn't let anyone who wants to carry a gun do so in a school, for example. Or even have a firearm to begin with if they are a convicted criminal or mentally ill.

This would be why I've told my kids that when we go to a house where there are firearms present (sadly, a few of my relatives) to be extra alert and vigilant for arrogant, gun owning parents who think they have trained their children just fine. They haven't. Their hubris (combined with heavy drinking and mental illness as is the case in a few of these homes) is exactly what causes accidents like these to happen.

4 comments:

GuardDuck said...

how statistics lie.

Oh? Did you read your own piece? If not recorded as an accident then it is recorded as a homicide. Are you trying to propose that somehow lower accidental deaths are being hidden by being listed as homicides instead? As if somehow a homicide is going to be received better?

What a whack-a-lope....

Juris Imprudent said...

What the CDC is not a reliable source? But it is govt M - how can that be inside your bubble?

GuardDuck said...

Oh, and something to think about. If it is an accident then there are no criminal penalties. A homicide allows criminal punishment.

You really don't think these things through do you?

Larry said...

Sounds like Marxy-Mark has a whole list of people he knows personally whose guns he thinks ought to be confiscated once mental health exams (conducted according to his exacting standards, of course) are mandatory for gun ownership.

As to the rest of it, well, as Yoda said long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, "The logic, strong it is not in this one."