WaPo editorializes for handgun ban
There’s an obvious thread here that members of Congress choose not to see: The all-too-free flow of handguns, a warped way of life that cows presidents and members of Congress who ought to recognize that the availability of handguns is murderous. The problem is that Americans own 65 million handguns and the only effective safety measure would be a ban on these made-for-murder weapons. As writer Jenny Price noted in a Dec. 25 op-ed in The Post, only 160 of the 12,000 guns used to kill people every year are employed in legitimate self-defense; guns in the home are used seven times more often for homicide than for self-defense.
Two fabrications in one paragraph. The number is more like 700,000. I think Ms. Price only thinks legitimate self-defense involves killing someone.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:30 am
I am still mildly surprised that Pravda on the Potomac is still pulling that “seven times more often” BS out of their ass.
The second notable thingy is that the Technocrati auto-linkback mojo that everyone (except the WaPo reporters, that is) thinks is pretty cool, apparently gets turned off for teh editorials. I guess they don’t want to be upstaged there.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:38 am
I’m getting tired of banging my head against the wall over that tired “if the perp ain’t dead, you haven’t defended yourself” canard that just won’t die. Maybe it’s time to switch gears, and start actively encouraging homeowners to shoot first and ask questions later. That should bring the defense-to-homicide ratio into line in a jiffy.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:42 am
SM, it’s gone down. It used to be 42 times.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Another thing: if we’re going to exclude every lawful gun use that doesn’t result in anyone’s death, shouldn’t we do the same when discussing unlawful uses of guns? From now on, only gun murders count as gun crimes. Assault with a deadly weapon? Feh, just another assault. Armed robbery? Make that plain old-fashion robbery. He didn’t kill anyone, so why should the gun count?
January 16th, 2006 at 11:20 am
SM, it’s gone down. It used to be 42 times.
Yea, I read the mine editorial on the WaPo, and it still has that linkback feature enabled. Then I pluged the URL of the anti-gun editorial into technocrati, but somehow that didn’t work either. Maybe I’m screwing something up. something fishy.
January 16th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
hmm, now it’s back up, but with only one entry.
Text file with the linkback info:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/15/AR2006011500684_Technorati.js
January 16th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Not to mention that 12,000 divided by 65,000,000 is .01 percent. That means that 99.99 percent of handguns in America are not used to kill anyone.
January 16th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
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January 18th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Nice point. That’s exactly what came to my mind when I read the editorial.
I also wonder about the apparent lack of understanding by this editor that this is a consensual government. Politicians are supposed to put in legislation that is supported or demanded by the majority of citizens. That is why there is no law like the one they want. The majority of americans don’t want it and the politicians have a very good understanding of that.
I don’t understand how they can make their argument and then state that it “might not” curb criminal activity. If the activities in Austrailia and Great Britian show any indications, it most certainly won’t decrease criminal activity.
Well, can’t expect people to think out their editorial stand based on logic.