Gun Control & RKBA
Related: About this forumThe myth of the trigger happy vigilante
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/19/guns-in-america-for-every-criminal-killed-in-self-defense-34-innocent-people-die/
Okay. So, what are some underlying facts we should know about this stat?
* There are over 300 million guns in the US.
* Those 300+ million guns are owned by roughly 90 million households.
* 1% of the US population is responsible for approximately 60% of the crime
* Approximately 60% of homicides are perpetrated by someone with a prior criminal record
* Depending on the source there are 70,000 DGUs annually (though some studies assert hundreds of thousands of DGUs annually)
What's the takeaway? Americans are heavily armed but they aren't itching for a fight. Of the 70,000 who do find themselves in a situation where they are legally entitled to defend themselves only 258 actually killed their attacker.
Criminals, however, are on a trajectory to increasingly violent behavior and cannot be trusted to consider the consequences of their actions.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Approximately 40 to 60% of gun homicides are committed by individuals who have had previous encounters with law enforcement. This is, admittedly, an assumption on my part but my assumption is that only a vanishingly small percentage of those encounters involve a gun homicide. That would imply lesser crimes with homicide being a higher crime hence the characterization that those who end-up committing gun homicides have moved along a trajectory of increasingly violent behavior.
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,482 posts)discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,482 posts)...the (average # of years in prison times the average cost per year of prison times 258 nasty scums killed) plus (the average loss per felony committed times the average rate of felonies per criminal per year times the average life expectancy of the 258 nasty scums killed) plus (the average cost per arrest plus the cost per prosecution times the 258 nasty scums killed) equals a number of dollars saved that's big enough for me rest easy at night knowing there's folks that took JFK's suggestion to heart.
thank you all
pablo_marmol
(2,375 posts)Ah yes......a tasty, zesty dish that goes well with a side of The Myth of the Virgin Killer!
http://www.hoffmang.com/firearms/kates/Myth_of_the_Virgin_Killer-Kates-Polsby.pdf