From California Politics, News and Views
If only politicians were open to contradiction by reality.
by Jacob Sullum, Reason, 10/04/17
With so many people insisting the Las Vegas massacre confirms what they’ve always thought about gun control, it is refreshing to hear from someone who changed her mind on the subject after considering the evidence.
“My colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States,” said Leah Libresco, a statistician who worked for the data journalism site in The Washington Post. To wit:
“We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I’d lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence.”
“My colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States,” said Leah Libresco, a statistician who worked for the data journalism site in The Washington Post. To wit:
“We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I’d lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence.”
Regarding the much-touted gun control laws of Britain and Australia, Libresco found “neither nation experienced drops in mass shootings or other gun-related crime that could be attributed to buybacks and bans.” Looking into bans on so-called "assault weapons," she concluded the category is an arbitrary construct with little practical significance.
What about the silencers that Hillary Clinton claims could have raised the death toll in Las Vegas if they had been used there? “In real life,” Libresco writes, “silencers limit hearing damage for shooters but don’t make gunfire dangerously quiet. An AR-15 with a silencer is about as loud as a jackhammer.”
What about the silencers that Hillary Clinton claims could have raised the death toll in Las Vegas if they had been used there? “In real life,” Libresco writes, “silencers limit hearing damage for shooters but don’t make gunfire dangerously quiet. An AR-15 with a silencer is about as loud as a jackhammer.”
Libresco notes that “two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States every year are suicides,” and “almost no proposed restriction would make it meaningfully harder for people with guns on hand to use them.” But she argues that “older men, who make up the largest share of gun suicides, need better access to people who could care for them and get them help.” She also recommends targeted measures aimed at protecting women from domestic violence and preventing deadly disputes among young men.
“A reduction in gun deaths is most likely to come from finding smaller chances for victories and expanding those solutions as much as possible,” Libresco concludes. “We save lives by focusing on a range of tactics to protect the different kinds of potential victims and reforming potential killers, not from sweeping bans focused on the guns themselves.”
Libresco says she still does not endorse gun ownership, “but I can’t endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them.” The distinction seems to be lost on politicians like Clinton, who define good policy as whatever the NRA doesn’t want.
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Note: What has been referred to as "silencers" are suppressors. They do not silence the guns, only attenuate the sound of shots to reduce it enough to reduce hearing damage.
Where suicide is legal in several states and nations in Europe, but the chemicals to accomplish it have been priced out of reason, some wishing to end a life in pain and suffering another way. This is a case that has been legislated into existence by an idiotic elected ruling class.
If the elected ruling class is serious about solving this problem they will pass bounties for mass murderers preparing to commit such crimes as they, like dangerous wild animals occur infrequently and nothing guarantees people paying attention and looking for the unusual more than a million Dollar prize. If you want to make something happen put a million Dollar award value on it.
Adrian Vance
Where suicide is legal in several states and nations in Europe, but the chemicals to accomplish it have been priced out of reason, some wishing to end a life in pain and suffering another way. This is a case that has been legislated into existence by an idiotic elected ruling class.
If the elected ruling class is serious about solving this problem they will pass bounties for mass murderers preparing to commit such crimes as they, like dangerous wild animals occur infrequently and nothing guarantees people paying attention and looking for the unusual more than a million Dollar prize. If you want to make something happen put a million Dollar award value on it.
Adrian Vance
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