01-30-2017, 02:44 PM
(01-30-2017, 12:47 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: That is a pretty useless map.
Unless it's broken down by gun crimes, suicides and justifiable defense situations, it is completely meaningless.
The other factor, albeit non PC to some, it demographics. Some of the highest rates are in places with one or more of the following:
1. A large economically challenged rural and / or Rust Belt white population.
2. A significant Native American population.
3. A significant rural historically disadvantaged Black population.
Interestingly, the Latinos don't seem to shoot themselves or other people all that much. Nor do Asians.
Correct. There is little or no correlation between gun policy and homicide rates. There is lots and lots of correlation with economics, culture and drug use, as you begin to indicate above.
American homicides have come way down since the 1980s. We are now in the same basic neighborhood as Europe. This doesn't mean that we as a society don't have problems, and that some of these problems relate to guns. Alas, the heart of these problems relate to drugs and economics, not gun policy.
However, a lot of folks are dissatisfied with the War on Drugs. I'm one of them. Lots of energy is spent with little return. Prohibition is difficult to impossible. If the people want something, someone will find a way to get it to them. The primary result of prohibition is to offer the criminally inclined an opportunity to profit.
A lot of other folks won't want a return to the War on Poverty, at least not as it was attempted in LBJ's time. Red America seems allergic to the notion of working towards an inclusive economy.
I don't know how to change the conversation.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.