Shooting In Oregon

[MobBoss]

Ah, just one state. Kind of what I thought. Statistically speaking that doesn't really "prove" anything.

Of course it does. How can you say it doesnt?

It has been mentioned elsewhere that of the total eligible population there are 30 % gun owners vs only 0.5 % illegal gun owners (i.e. criminals). Those 0.5 % are rarely (if ever) involved in these kind of incident. I think you can do the math here.

Gun related crime has more to do than with just a single type of incident.

 

[Agent327]

After stating the obvious, what exactly does a statistic positioning gun sales vs violence related crime prove? It may suggest a correlation between the two, but proving that would be quite another matter. It may prove, for instance, that gun sellers in have been particularly succesful. Or that police have been succesful in getting violent crime down. Or both. Or neither. Without further knowledge such statistics do not prove anything beyond the facts that they relate.

 

[JollyRoger]

If gun possession reduces the chances of a crime being committed, then we should give guns to those we think most likely to commit a crime.

 

[GhostWriter16]

The Bill of Rights creates a right to bear arms, thus making all gun control illegal automatically. (Even if that weren't in the constitiution, Federal gun control would be banned by the 10th, but not state gun control necessarily.)

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

When Jamaica started enforcing more strict gun control laws the crime rates went up.

 

[Supr49er]

Source?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Just as important: Context?

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

From Wikipedia, the source they give is a book from 1992 called "Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?".

 

[Terxpahseyton]

But no context

 

[Formaldehyde]

The GNP and toy sales in Jamaica continue to increase along with the supposed crime rate. Coincidence, or what?

Murder rate

In 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders for a murder rate of 58 per 100,000 people.[4] That year, Jamaica had the highest murder rate in the world.[2] In November 2008, the Jamaican Parliament voted to retain the death penalty, which is performed by hanging.[5]

There were 1,682 reported murders in 2009 and 1,428 in 2010. Since 2011 the murder rate has continued to fall following the downward trend started in 2010, with increases in police patrols, curfews and more effective anti-gang activities.[6]

Violence against homosexuals

The U.S. Department of State reported that brutality against homosexuals, mainly by private citizens, was widespread in 2008.[7] Homosexuality is illegal in Jamaica, incurring a prison sentence.[8] Many Jamaicans are hostile toward LGBT and intersex people,[1] and several mob attacks against gay people have been reported.[9][10][11]

Some critics claim that attacks on gay people are encouraged in some popular Jamaican dancehall/reggae songs that are sometimes referred to as murder music.[12] The country has been called "the most homophobic place on earth" by human-rights groups.[13]

 

[ace99]

Now that's something, I always thought Saudi Arabia or Iran. Go figure.

Gay-rights activists attribute the scourge of homophobia in Jamaica largely to the country's increasingly thuggish reggae music scene. Few epitomize the melding of reggae and gangsta cultures more than Banton, who is one of the nation's most popular dance-hall singers. Born Mark Myrie, he grew up the youngest of 15 children in Kingston's Salt Lane — the sort of slum dominated by ultraconservative Christian churches and intensely anti-gay Rastafarians. Banton parlayed homophobia into a ticket out of Salt Lane. One of his first hits, 1992's Boom Bye-Bye, boasts of shooting gays with Uzis and burning their skin with acid "like an old tire wheel."

In late July 2008, a poll was conducted amongst various Jamaicans that read "Whether or not you agree with their "lifestyle," do you think homosexuals are entitled to the same basic rights and privileges as other people in Jamaica?" Of the respondents, only 26% said "yes," with 70% saying "no" and 4% undecided.[20]