More UK Insanity

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 08 Jul 2002 12:00:00 GMT
From kaba:
More laws, less justice. -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca (42 BC)

Amber Eden - Paused for Station Identification - Nice conclusion. Wish I remembered it more often. One thing I learned back in 1982 was that it was impossible for me to do what I thought other people wanted. It took massive energy on my part, and I usually thought wrong. The only thing that works for me is to do what I want. Other people's feelings do occasionally enter into my desires, but I no longer live for anybody but me.

Dan Springer at Fox News - Study: Guns No Safer When Locked Up - John Lott, he of More Guns, Less Crime fame, has published a study, Safe-Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicide and Crime, showing that safe storage and trigger lock laws do not reduce accidents, but make gun owners less able to use their weapons for self defense. But you knew that. At least you should have. The Fox News article is new, but the study was published back in March of 2000. The study is available for download in PDF from the title link. Here's the abstract: [firearmnews]

It is frequently assumed that safe storage gun laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides, while the possible impact on crime rates are ignored. However, given existing work on the adverse impact of other safety laws, such as safety caps for storing medicine, even the very plausible assumption of reduced accidental gun deaths cannot be taken for granted. Our paper analyzes both state and county data spanning nearly twenty years, and we find no support that safe storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides. Instead, these storage requirements appear to impair people?s ability to use guns defensively. Because accidental shooters also tend to be the ones most likely to violate the new law, safe storage laws increase violent and property crimes against low risk citizens with no observable offsetting benefit in terms of reduced accidents or suicides. During the first five full years after the passage of the safe storage laws, the group of fifteen states that adopted these laws faced an annual average increase of over 300 more murders, 3,860 more rapes, 24,650 more robberies, and over 25,000 more aggravated assaults. On average, the annual costs borne by victims averaged over $2.6 billion as a result of lost productivity, out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills, and property losses.

Dale Amon at Libertarian Samizdata - I come not to praise Fearon - commentary on how to prevent burglers from being around to sue you as is currently happenning in the UK. Get this: burglar invades home, man shoots burglar, man goes to jail, burglar sues man. Socialism in action. [samizdata]

A few years ago I dealt with a computer sales guy from Atlanta, Georgia, an ex-US Army man who married a Belfast woman. I think this place was too much for him because after a few years he got divorced and went home to Atlanta. But I've always remembered some advice he gave me on dealing with burglars: "Use the Double Tap".

Add comment Edit post Add post