Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
My engineering background makes me more interested in statistical data, "hard numbers" and suchlike, than in emotional arguments.
Some fifteen years back I ran across a book, "Under The Gun" (Wright, Rossi & Daly) which was a thorough survey and a bunch of statistical analysis of guns, gun laws and crime in Florida. The authors stated they began as gun-neutral to mildly anti-gun, as to personal views. Their primary conclusion was that no gun control law ever passed in Florida had ever had any effect on crime.
Fast forward a bit, and there is the statistical research done by another number cruncher in Florida, Gary Kleck of FSU. Card-carrying ACLU member. He is the one who developed the numbers that there are at least 800,000 incidents per year where the use of a gun prevented a crime; he stated it could run as many as 2.5 million. Contrast this against the known 600,000 crimes per year involving the use of guns by the criminals.
Then comes the more recent John Lott study. Law professor; statistician. He examined the records of every, repeat, every county in the U.S. He found that in those counties with the most civilian-owned firearms and the least gun-control laws, there was the least crime.
It is my own opinion that there is no moral value to inanimate objects. "Good", "Bad", "Evil", etc., depend upon the uses to which they are put.
A scalpel can be used to remove a cancer or it can be used for murder.
Art
Some fifteen years back I ran across a book, "Under The Gun" (Wright, Rossi & Daly) which was a thorough survey and a bunch of statistical analysis of guns, gun laws and crime in Florida. The authors stated they began as gun-neutral to mildly anti-gun, as to personal views. Their primary conclusion was that no gun control law ever passed in Florida had ever had any effect on crime.
Fast forward a bit, and there is the statistical research done by another number cruncher in Florida, Gary Kleck of FSU. Card-carrying ACLU member. He is the one who developed the numbers that there are at least 800,000 incidents per year where the use of a gun prevented a crime; he stated it could run as many as 2.5 million. Contrast this against the known 600,000 crimes per year involving the use of guns by the criminals.
Then comes the more recent John Lott study. Law professor; statistician. He examined the records of every, repeat, every county in the U.S. He found that in those counties with the most civilian-owned firearms and the least gun-control laws, there was the least crime.
It is my own opinion that there is no moral value to inanimate objects. "Good", "Bad", "Evil", etc., depend upon the uses to which they are put.
A scalpel can be used to remove a cancer or it can be used for murder.
Art