"Rampant Gun Violence"

[McRib]

Knowledge is power: http://tinyurl.com/d9de4jn

[Fentonite]

Good article. Thanks for posting.

[BPTactical]

^^^x2
Good post newbie.

[ray1970]

Nice post and good article. Thanks.

[Bailey Guns]

It is an informative article. The article is from 2013. The preliminary FBI stats for the first 6 months of 2014 show a continued decrease in violent crime rates as compared to the first 6 months of 2013. It's too bad you can't get the general public aware of the trends...especially in gun-related homicides. Of course, it's too bad you can't get the general public to do a lot of things.

[Ronin13]

I don't mean to rain on the parade, but latest figures (coming from our favorite statisticians, the FBI)- not a 2013 article- show that gun violence is actually climbing higher for the first time in almost 20 years. No records yet being broken, but something tells me when 3 police officers are murdered in a single day something ain't right and the inmates are starting to gain control of the asylum. Stay safe.

[ray1970]

I don't mean to rain on the parade, but latest figures (coming from our favorite statisticians, the FBI)- not a 2013 article- show that gun violence is actually climbing higher for the first time in almost 20 years. No records yet being broken, but something tells me when 3 police officers are murdered in a single day something ain't right and the inmates are starting to gain control of the asylum. Stay safe.

Cops get killed all the time. It's what you might call an occupational hazard. Plus, I have no clue how many law enforcement officers we have throughout the country but I imagine three of them is a pretty small percentage.

Don't get me wrong, it's a tragedy and my heart goes out to their families and friends. But it's a risk they knew about and accepted going into the job.

[KevDen2005]

I don't mean to rain on the parade, but latest figures (coming from our favorite statisticians, the FBI)- not a 2013 article- show that gun violence is actually climbing higher for the first time in almost 20 years. No records yet being broken, but something tells me when 3 police officers are murdered in a single day something ain't right and the inmates are starting to gain control of the asylum. Stay safe.

Three police officers is not a major trend, however sad. According to odmp.org, police officer homicides by gun fire have decreased from the previous year. It also is a major decrease from law enforcement homicides in general from several decades ago, this of course is mainly due to increase of quality body armor and usage of it properly along with better tactics and weapons.

[KevDen2005]

I don't mean to rain on the parade, but latest figures (coming from our favorite statisticians, the FBI)- not a 2013 article- show that gun violence is actually climbing higher for the first time in almost 20 years. No records yet being broken, but something tells me when 3 police officers are murdered in a single day something ain't right and the inmates are starting to gain control of the asylum. Stay safe.

Also if you're referring on the 28th, only one police officer was murdered, the other two were killed in the line of duty in unintentional traffic accidents. Yes, very sad but not murder.

[McRib]

I don't mean to rain on the parade, but latest figures (coming from our favorite statisticians, the FBI)- not a 2013 article- show that gun violence is actually climbing higher for the first time in almost 20 years. No records yet being broken, but something tells me when 3 police officers are murdered in a single day something ain't right and the inmates are starting to gain control of the asylum. Stay safe.

The article was written (and posted) to show the trend. I think two-year-old data is reasonable for the discussion of a decades-encompassing trend. Your point is well taken, however. Though we'll have to wait a few years to see if recent upticks continue.

The damning bit of data is that the non-fatal injury firearms rate for all age groups grew at 23.7% over that period. If we combine fatal and non-fatal numbers, we see that the rate of increase of people who get shot in really increasing - a 14.8% increase from 2001-2013. Since firearms are getting less lethal, it's been suggested that the main reason that the homicide rate is declining, at least post-crack epidemic, is that medical care is more effective, saving more gunshot victims.

Very good post, and a good point. I would add that as political (increased calls for firearm-related bans/restrictions) and technological (increased availability of sensationalist news and the trend of purveyors of said news to report incidents quickly and with compromised fact-checking) trends within society push more and more citizens to arm themselves, the rate of accidental or non-lethal incidents will inevitably rise, particularly given the inexperienced nature of many of these new gun owners.

the media is the propaganda org of the DNC.

Look further. The DNC and the RNC for that matter are wholly owned subsidiaries of global corporate culture. The Koch brothers are no better than George Soros. They both want to control the population. They just have different priorities on what they want to control.

Please correct me if I am wrong. Pew Social Trends is connected with the Pew Charitable Trust which is connected to Rebecca Rimel. This is one of the most left leaning trust/think tanks out there.

Still reading the study and it seams to have valid data. My question is "what's the catch?".

I"m not one to jump on the left right bandwagon but the PCT will never see one red cent from me.

You are not wrong. Which makes the article that much more believable. You'd think that a left-leaning organization would try to slant facts and figures to demonize guns and those who use them. But we all need to remember that there are honest, considerate, good people on all sides of the political spectrum. Personally, I lean a bit left overall, though I'm more conservative on the Second Amendment than most self-labeled conservatives. For instance, I believe wholeheartedly in climate change and that humans are a major, if not the only currently relevant factor in its onset. I'm not an environmental scientist but I have studied the issue a bit and perhaps more importantly, it just makes sense to me. Just like Wayne LaPierre's assertion that the only cure for a badguy with a gun is a goodguy with a gun makes sense to me.

For me, the most frustrating thing about our country right now is the lock the two parties (and thus our corporate overlords) have placed on our electoral system and the media system by which it is driven. Were I to run the zoo, my first action would be eliminating multiple terms for any elected official. If re-election campaign money paid to government officials is corrupting our politics, then simply get rid of the re-elections. It's not a cure, but it sure would help.