Pathetic... Even The 'Democratic Underground' Is Afraid Of The NRA

[Pholus]

77. About your statistical factoid about the homicide rate...

It is not clear that "guns" (I will temporarily accept your framing of the issue that ALL guns are being held at fault here) are responsible for a decline in the homicide rate. Several times I have presented this list to people claiming your statistic and none have taken up my challenge -- perhaps you're smarter than they are...

Here are the factors which have been discussed and the special interest groups that have taken credit for the decline in the rate:

1) Guns, guns and more guns (uhhhh, you)
2) Improved police work removing repeats from the streets (police chiefs)
3) Changing demographics of an aging population (Demographers)
4) Evolution of the drug trade as the winners shook out (the DEA)
5) More cops in general (politicians)
6) Then you got Steven Levitt saying legalized abortion had its effects. It is about 15 years between legalized abortion and the drop in the rate.
7) Finally, the prison industrial complex. Their graph of incarceration rate vs. year looks JUST like the violent crime rate.

I await an epic post which convincingly proves that number 1 is the only cause of the decline.

As far as the rest of it, well perhaps the difference is that the "potential slaughter" on the roadways is accepted because transportation has, you know, actual positive benefits to society. Guns? When they're successfully used in self defence it always warrants a kudos post in RKBA -- evidence that its kind of like a man bites dog story in a torrent of accidental and deliberate deaths.