47,220 Gun Incidents In The United States In 2018

Discussion in 'In the News' started by Frank Sanoica, Oct 28, 2018.

  1. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    #1
  2. Hoot Crawford

    Hoot Crawford Veteran Member
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    Tragic. What is your proposed solution?
     
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  3. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Hoot Crawford
    I can propose no solution that makes sense to either side of the issue, but will state I lean towards what the bleeding-hearts call "Vigilanteism", and feel all responsible adults of a mind to continue a non-imperiled existence learn of the value of arming themselves, both mentally as well as with necessary hardware.
    Frank
     
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  4. Beatrice Taylor

    Beatrice Taylor Veteran Member
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    I grew up around guns and have no problem with gun ownership.

    I think that we still need to do some work on tightening up our existing gun purchasing/ownership laws.

    I'm also starting to adopt the attitude of if you can't beat 'em join 'em and believe that some form of gun safety program should be offered to all young people as part of a well-rounded education. When I was a kid we had a program called Hunter Safety that was required before you could apply for a hunting license. I think that an updated version of this program could help to dispel many myths about guns and help young people understand the responsibilities that go along with the rights of gun ownership.
     
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  5. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I have no problem with gun ownership or hunting, even though wife and I don't hunt. I learned my "gun safety" from the Navy and taught my wife.

    Judging from the map that Frank posted, there is much, much more gun violence in the city/state we live in than in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and surrounding states. Of course, quite a bit less population, but still.
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    My first impression, on viewing the map, is that it seems exaggerated. This was confirmed, to my satisfaction at least, when I saw that it was based on information compiled by a group called the "Gun Violence Archive."

    There was a reason why they decided to compile their own archive rather than simply using the ones available from federal and state law enforcement agencies, which tend not to be so dramatic.

    Looking at the methodology used by the Gun Violence Archive, I see that they use "automated queries, manual research through over 2,000 media sources, aggregates, police blotters, police media outlets, and other sources." This leads me to wonder how many of these "incidents" are double- or triple-counted.

    If, as it might seem from the name, this is an anti-gun group, they probably wouldn't object to exaggeration.

    It is also important to note that the red dots on the map includes incidents of defensive gun use, home owners who stop a home invasion, store clerks who stop a robbery, individuals who use a gun to stop an assault or rape, as well the use of a gun by police.

    TSA data of guns illegally taken through airport security points is also noted.

    Accidental discharges and injuries are also counted, and make up a large part of the red dots on the map.

    Uses of a BB gun or Airsoft gun as a weapon are also collected. Between the age of eight and twelve, I was the victim of gun violence dozens of times, at the hands of my cousins, and was also the perpetrator. Yet somehow, we all survived the carnage.

    While I suspect that there is an anti-gun agenda behind the funding of this organization, I cannot say that their data is fictitious. If there statement of methodology can be believed, and I see no reason to believe that it cannot, then they are making an attempt at accuracy, although I'm not sure that they are achieving it, given that they include a lot of stuff that most people wouldn't consider violence.

    There is the fact, however, that the map posted here includes all incidents, and is not restricted to actual cases of injuries.

    A page of other compiled maps can be found here.

    A question I would ask is how many of of the red dots found in the chart showing the Number of Deaths in 2018 would instead appear on the chart showing the Defensive Use of a weapon if not for all of the cities and states that don't allow honest people to defend themselves against home invasions or other attacks.
     
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  7. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I'm not anti gun and even if the map is biased, I think we do have a problem in the US.

    I'm not afraid of being shot in my home by an intruder, I'm afraid of being shot at a mall or someplace in public by some nut.

    Churches and schools are popular targets for nuts.
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    There are problems all over the world, but most of them can't be solved.

    The map for mass shootings is a whole lot whiter than you might think from the media hype. Nearly all of them involved people who were not legally entitled to have a gun, and many of them occurred in cities with strict gun control laws, so no amount of laws would have changed anything. On top of that, more than half of the mass shootings indicated on this map involved no deaths and, in others, the only deaths were that of the shooter(s).

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  9. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I'm not even talking about gun ownership laws, I'm just saying that it's happening almost every day.

    Middle schoolers killing each other...that is not normal!

    I didn't say guns were the problem but we do have a problem. There probably isn't one reason as to why but something has to change in my opinion.
     
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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I agree that we have a problem but, contrary to media hype, gun violence has been going down, not up, even according to the Washington Post.
     
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  11. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I think that Bea has some excellent points here, and I agree with her. I also grew up around guns, and in the small rural town where I grew up, just about every household had at least one hunting rifle, and often, they had a whole rack with rifles in it. Parents taught their children to NEVER touch a weapon, and when children were old enough to learn to safely use a gun, the parents took them somewhere that it was safe to shoot, and taught them how to properly use the weapon.
    Through the school, we had a program similar to the Hunter Safety one that Bea remembers, and ours was affiliated with the NRA, and was taught by veterans who had been either in WW2 or the Korean War.

    When you look at the map that @Frank Sanoica has posted, you can see that most of the gun violence seems to happen in the cities and more populated areas, which is where gangs or other criminals would be most apt to steal weapons and shoot people.
    The areas where people live in the country, or small town, and might actually use a hunting rifle, there are basically NO shootings, so this would be the part of the country where children are being taught gun safety, and how to properly use a weapon.
     
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  12. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Gun safety courses used to be taught in the schools. As I've said before, there were usually a rifle and a shotgun leaning up against the wall by our door, in case of a fox or weasel rather than out of fear of people, and while I can't say that I have never done anything careless with a gun, I didn't shoot anyone and never considered the idea of someone shooting up a school. I didn't, because I wasn't a hunter, but it wasn't unusual for high school students to have guns on a rack in the back of their unlocked pick-up truck in the school parking lot.

    Our high school closed for the first week of hunting season.

    However, we were not taught to never touch a weapon. Rather, we were taught to use a weapon at a fairly young age but to use it responsibly. At a very young age, I don't remember specifically being taught not to touch a gun but I knew not to touch them. Lacking the forbidden mystique about guns, there wasn't a temptation.
     
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  13. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I didn't grow up with guns at all and I don't think any of my friends did either except for my best friend, her father was a policeman.

    I wasn't taught any gun safety etc but it would never occur to me to even touch a gun let alone shoot one.

    My first contact with guns was when I married my husband who was a "gun nut" :)

    He took me Target shooting on our second date....third date he proposed. I'm not joking...he must have been impressed with my shooting skills. :)
     
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I know that I was allowed to shoot a gun before I was twelve but only with my dad. At twelve or thirteen, I could go target shooting on my own. I had to ask first and mom would always say no, but that just taught me to ask dad instead. Generally speaking, if I needed money to buy something, mom was the one to go to, but if I wanted to do something, dad was the one to ask. Going to him after mom had already said no had some obvious pitfalls.

    Target shooting was also a part of Boy Scouts. While they offered gun safety courses in school, by that time I was familiar enough with them to not think that I needed the course.
     
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  15. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    My husband took our son duck hunting when he was fairly young....I wasn't thrilled but I let him go.

    Even have a cute picture of him with a dead duck. :)

    I'll have to ask my son if he has it because I gave most of their pictures to them awhile back.
     
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