Statistics are funny things. They can be used without context to make it look like something is true when it’s not (or vice versa), but when given with context, statistics can give valuable information so that you can know what’s really going on.
Which makes statistics like playing with fire when you’re talking about some things because those people pushing an agenda sometimes find, when confronted with statistics in context, that what they are saying just isn’t so.
A perfect example of this type of statistical takedown of a blind zealot ideological position is gun control. Gun control doesn’t work, and statistics given in context show that is the case over and over and over.
For example, a new study about gun control in Massachusetts is something that Michael Bloomberg won’t want you to see. Which, of course, is exactly why you’ll want these details. John Anderer writes,
While Congress has yet to pass nationwide gun control legislation measures, some state legislatures have enacted stricter gun control laws aimed at reducing violence in their communities. However, a recent study finds gun laws in at least one state aren’t doing that job. A team at American University analyzed the impact of one such measure in Massachusetts and found stricter background checks and licensing policies made little to no difference in curbing violent crimes.
In light of these results, study authors ponder if officials are doing enough to enforce these new policies.
Of course, they wonder if it’s an enforcement problem instead of questioning if gun control actually does anything to stop criminals from getting guns (answer: No).
The fact is that law-abiding gun owners have a lower rate of criminality than even members of law enforcement. But anti-gunners don’t want to know these statistics in context because pointing out the fatal assumption behind gun control (that gun control would reduce crime) would mean that gun control advocates will actually have to look for the real reasons for gun violence instead of continuing to live as if their delusion is reality.
Anderer continues:
Notably, a one-percent increase in denied firearm licenses and denied firearm licenses following statutory disqualifications increased robberies by 7.3 and 8.9 percent, respectively.
Any legal gun owner could have told them that this would have been the result, but anti-gunners have a habit of not wanting to acknowledge reality.
So, to reiterate (what you probably already know since you’re reading this site): gun control only has the effect of making crime go up, and it does not decrease overall crime or violence rates. At all.
Oh Please take my guns away so I can feel Safer, the Ignorance is astounding.
There are 3 types of lies: lies, dammed lies and statistics.
THAT’S BECAUSE IT IS THE PEOPLE, DUMMY!! As much as you might hate it guns don’t kill people, people do. No gun, club, machete, knife, chain, or CHAINSAW gas or battery.
Even context can be distorted by one who is a practiced purveyor of the written word, so we need to be extra mindful of how things are written; word usage, phraseology, etc. Take for example that last quote attributed to Anderer, above. Now, we, at least most of us, because we are law-abiding, rational thinking, sane, gun owners, know exactly what he intended to say. However, some persons with a few degrees less of the aforementioned qualities, may not reach the same conclusions as we do, because they do not understand the nuance of the disconnect between stricter gun policies and the miniscule effect said policies have on the mindset of an individual who is intent on committing a violent crime, whether it be by the use of a firearm, some other form of weapon, or merely the use of his bare hands. And, no amount of new legislation is going to keep a person with that type of motivation from obtaining a firearm. There are plenty of illegally obtained firearms out there. All the bad guy needs is to know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, and voila, he has a firearm; or he can steal one for himself from a friend, or relative, he is familiar enough with. The nuance, here, as WE all know, is the adage that enough good guys with guns, and not knowing who they are, or where they might be at any particular moment, potentially limits the bad guy from making the decision to go ahead with his violent act. We have more than enough law on the books, now, but law enforcement efforts to take meaningful action, is hampered by weak prosecutors, and even weaker judges.
The last reliable stats I saw showed that those Law Abiding Citizens who have goon through all of the hoops to obtain their mother may I card are SEVEN times less likely to commit any sort of crime – including traffic violations – than the LE community. Since that group outnumbers the coppers by about 25 to one, that ought to tell something.
BTW – on any given day while criminals use guns or other tools to ply their trade, some 110 MILLION of those Law Abiding Citizens didn’t commit any crimes yet the anti-gun crowd WILL continue to blame them for those crimes.
Mark Twain had the correct idea about statistics. He said there are “lies, damned lies, and STATISTICS!” Statistics can ‘prove’ nearly ANYTHING you wish, with just a little modification, twist, or two.
Comments are closed.