lock & load

[midgardsorm]

patrissimo wrote a very interesting post on incidents where gun-wielding civilians have stopped school/public shootings here.

It will give you some things to think about, regardless of your personal stance on gun control.

Also note that the VT "massacre" has only resulted in the deaths of far less than 10² (< 100) people, and is thus, for all its

Comments

[maradydd]

Also note that the VT "massacre" has only resulted in the deaths of far less than 10² (< 100) people, and is thus, for all its perceived horror, still statistically insignificant.

Thank you for pointing this out. enochsmiles has been taking some shit (over on his photo blog, panoptishard for pointing this out, because OH NOES THE HORROR IT HAPPEND HERE.

33 people is fairly average for a suicide bombing.

[corviderrant]

Why, no, in fact the media is not truly free because it does what it's told, really. And why bother covering anything relevant when you can get high ratings covering sensationalist garbage that the Muggles will tune in for in obsessive glee? Most carbon-based life forms are rather shallow in the long run.

[magbastard]

I'd like to know if the editors of the publications and news stations feel the same way -- I'm sure that there are plenty of them that would love to move on to more relevant topics, but are forced to stick with the "money story". Ratings, man... I blame the proletariat for the sensationalism surrounding this event as much as I do the media. If they weren't so ridiculously interested, wouldn't the media be free to move along?

And for the record, gun control only keeps law-abiding citizens from having guns. Criminals will continue to do as they please. A well-armed populace is an excellent deterrent to crime.

[c215]

on your first point, at least it was a nice break from all the anna nicole horseshit.

I agree with your second point as well. Unfortunately, we currently have a democratic congress on the hill, and we know how they feel about firearms...

[midgardsorm]

"A well-armed populace is an excellent deterrent to crime."

I definitely agree, and there does seem to be a good bit of data to support this notion.

I thought this was particularly interesting. Due to mandatory conscription many (if not most) households in Israel have one or more automatic weapons, and people who have received a military level of training with their respective rifles -- from what I understand this is done in order to keep even the civilian population well-armed due to the threat of invasion from Arab states, and as a result even individuals who have served their term of service in the Israeli military get to keep their weapon.

Interestingly enough the Israeli homicide rate is about 50% lower than the US, based off of 2004 data.

http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000396.htm

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[plurali]

The Haganah and Palmach were formed for the mutual defense of jewish people settling in was was Palestine at the time (when they BOUGHT the land from the Arab selling it..) when the British basically refused to protect them. The Haganah actually got pretty rough and began anti-British tactics. hehe.
Mandatory Conscription also allows for a lot of airflight protection, where, at least on El Al, some number of civilians are put in charge, incognito, of the safety of the flight (from what I understand they are civilians). Of course, like you said, most civilians can bust it down..so.. =)

[erse]

I know it isn't PC to say this, but HIV is not a big killer, I don't know if it's even in the top 10. 350-500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide per year; >1 million people die, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa. We used to have it under control until DDT was completely banned.
No news coverage though.

[midgardsorm]

Excellent point about malaria. I always think that malaria is particularly shameful in how big of a killer it is due to how cheap (by American standards) it is to fight the both the vectors (mosquitoes) and administer preventative drugs (like quinine, and related compounds.)

And yeah, no one talks about malaria.