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smooth · 08-21-2003, 02:12 PM

I don't know why you addressed that to me.

Judicial opinion does agree with me to the extent that its rulings have addressed public safety versus ownership rights. That is, we restrict ownership to felons and we restrict certain types of weapons.

What neither I nor judicial opinion support is an outright and total ban--so to that effect it agrees with you, as well.

Judicial opinion has never addressed whether an outright ban would increase or decrease overall public safety--so on that, it's silent.

Public opinion does support your position that gun ownership causes better public safety--but that doesn't concern me, the general public doesn't understand how to properly read scientific evidence.

A handful of academic theorists have argued for a causal relationship between gun ownership and crime rates but the rest of us have refuted their claims and recognize that, even if they hadn't created imaginary people and misused statistical data, at best, they found a spurious correlation.

Those of us who know what we are doing with statistical data examine other factors, such as, employment rates, cultural factors, crime trends, etc. along with weapon ownership to understand crime rates rather than claiming a single factor is responsible for patterns of crime.

edit:
As to how many gun threads that exist, I'm fairly certain most of us were satisified to see them over in Tilted weapons, but someone keeps moving them over here. These threads aren't started by advocates of gun control--depending on the starter of this thread's stance, this might be the only one.

08-21-2003, 02:12 PM	#34 (permalink)
smooth Junkie Location: Right here	I don't know why you addressed that to me. Judicial opinion does agree with me to the extent that its rulings have addressed public safety versus ownership rights. That is, we restrict ownership to felons and we restrict certain types of weapons. What neither I nor judicial opinion support is an outright and total ban--so to that effect it agrees with you, as well. Judicial opinion has never addressed whether an outright ban would increase or decrease overall public safety--so on that, it's silent. Public opinion does support your position that gun ownership causes better public safety--but that doesn't concern me, the general public doesn't understand how to properly read scientific evidence. A handful of academic theorists have argued for a causal relationship between gun ownership and crime rates but the rest of us have refuted their claims and recognize that, even if they hadn't created imaginary people and misused statistical data, at best, they found a spurious correlation. Those of us who know what we are doing with statistical data examine other factors, such as, employment rates, cultural factors, crime trends, etc. along with weapon ownership to understand crime rates rather than claiming a single factor is responsible for patterns of crime. edit: As to how many gun threads that exist, I'm fairly certain most of us were satisified to see them over in Tilted weapons, but someone keeps moving them over here. These threads aren't started by advocates of gun control--depending on the starter of this thread's stance, this might be the only one. __________________ "The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann "You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman Last edited by smooth; 08-21-2003 at 02:19 PM..