December 14, 2012
Today is the fifth anniversary of the slaughter of the innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 20 children between the ages of 6 and seven years old were shot dead as well as six adults who tried to protect them. All because this country’s politicians believes there is nothing which can be done to prevent this from happening and are in the pockets of the NRA.
Not a good day in the history of the United States. And still when these preventable tragedies happen, it is never a good time to discuss why they happened and what we can do to prevent them.
Since at least 1972 approximately 43% of US residents own 1 or more guns Considering the guns on the black market in possession of those without “registered ownership” and those who have near immediate access to guns through friends with guns it’s likely that at least 50% and probably more have easy access to guns and ammo.
Considering there’s a roughly Gaussian (normal) distribution of people in the U.S. with attributes of extreme anger, to extreme happy or from extremely off their nut to brilliantly rational and realistic, then:
There’s a finite proportion of the population prone to want to strike out at whatever they perceive is bothering them. Even if it’s only 1% then 1% x 50% = 0.5% or 1 in 200 people will strike out with guns. And if only 0.1% at any given moment in time have an interest in killing with AR15’s or the like, then 0.5% x 0.1% = 0.05% ( 1 in 2000) will do so.
Considering the population of the US for adults is on the order of 200 million and total population on the order of 320 million then at least 100,00 adults in the US with guns or easy access to guns with extreme anger (or off their nut) AND with interest in killing people with an AR 15 or equivalent.
You can change the proportions with extreme anger and with an interest in killing people at any given moment in time with an AR15 by any numbers you want, but the that’s not the problem.. the problem is that 50% of U.S. residents own or have easy access to guns and ammo so there’s no solution as long as 50% of the population is allowed to have guns or easy access to them through friends, relatives, or acquaintances ..
It’s a simple probabilities exercise and always has been this simple. There’s no mystery why these random mass killings occur and there’s never been any mystery about it.
Rhetoric to the contrary is just the rationalization and propaganda to retain the “freedom” to have a weapon to use as one see’s fit whenever they want. .and for some relatively larger proportion of those who so rationalize it’s about exercising power or the threat of deadly power…. .why else “open carry”? .. and especially about gubmint taking over so that the citizens can stop the gobmint. That worked out well the last time for the southerners didn’t it?
Believe it or not, homicide deaths in 2014 firearms were roughly half the number per 100,000 people recorded in 1993: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/21/gun-homicides-steady-after-decline-in-90s-suicide-rate-edges-up/
The dissemination of information is so much more enhanced now.
Sammy,
I cannot imagine a more despicable comment on 12/14.