Fund Your Utopia Without Me.™

16 January 2013

Pssst, Proggies! If They Obeyed The Law, They Wouldn't Be Criminals



 

"Require criminal background checks for all gun sales"
- President Barack Obama, 16 January 2013



According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, 93% of all firearms used in criminal acts are obtained illegally, ie, on the street, through theft, etc. Thus, even if we had universal background checks, it would only affect 7% of the guns used in the commission of criminal acts.

According to the 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun was from:

* a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%

* a retail store or pawnshop for about 12%

* family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80% 

In other words, criminals don’t get their guns from gun shows and shops.
 

Per the FBI:

“Offenders armed with handguns committed one in every eight violent crimes–rape, robbery and assault–measured by BJS’s National Crime Victimization Survey. The other violent crime victims were attacked or threatened by offenders who were either unarmed or were armed with such weapons as rocks, sticks, knives or other types of firearms. The most common violent crime, simple assault, by definition does not involve the use of a weapon.”

So, going after firearms only goes after 12.5% of the violent offences.

After 1996, less than 10% of nonfatal violent crimes involved firearms.

According to  the Bureau of Justice Statistics, incidents involving a firearm represented 7% of the 5.1 million violent crimes of rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault in 2008.

Only 2% of prison inmates used a military-style semiautomatic gun.

Among prisoners carrying a firearm during their crime, 40% of State inmates and 56% of Federal inmates received a sentence enhancement because of the firearm.

On average, State inmates possessing a firearm received sentences of 18 years, while those without a weapon had an average sentence of 12 years.




If a criminal is going to commit a crime, he is not going to obey a law which subjects him to a criminal background check.

Universal background checks are just another way in which the government can monitor the activities of law-abiding citizens.


There were 12,664 homicides.

8,583 (67.8%) were committed with firearms.

Of the 8,583:

6,220 (72.5%) were committed with handguns.

323 (3.8%) were committed with rifles.

356 (4.2%) were committed with shotguns.

97 (1.1%) were committed with “other guns.”

1,587 (18.5%) were committed with “firearms, type not stated.”

A new AWB would not affect the overwhelming majority of murders committed with firearms.


Until Proggies stand up and demand a ban on handguns, we know that they are not serious about reducing gun crime. The relentless assault on assault weapons is just another assault on “white, conservative men,” who are the majority of those that legally own “assault weapons” and I say that as a “white, libertarian female.”
If they were really serious, then they would want to attack gun crime where it is most prevalent and with the type of guns most often used and that is in urban areas with handguns.


If you’re interested in a comparison, here are the figures from 2007:

Total homicides: 14,916

Homicides committed with firearms: 10,129

Homicides committed with handguns: 7,398

Homicides committed with rifles: 453

Homicides committed with shotguns: 457

Homicides committed with “other guns”: 116

Homicides committed with “firearms, type not stated”: 1,705


You’ll notice that the homicide-by-gun rate has dropped across-the-board since 2007....WITHOUT ANY NEW GUN CONTROL LAWS.


Total homicides: Decrease of 15.1%. 

Homicides committed with firearms: Decrease of 15.3%. 

Homicides committed with handguns: Decrease of 18.94%. 

Homicides committed with rifles: Decrease of 29%. 

Homicides committed with shotguns: Decrease of 22.1%. 

Homicides committed with “other guns”: Decrease of 16.4%. 

Homicides committed with “firearms, type not stated”: Decrease of 6.9%.


Firearm-related crime has plummeted since 1993:


Number of Incidents and Victims of Nonfatal Firearm-related Violent Crime Chart
Note:   The violent crimes included are rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault.
Source:  Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Ongoing since 1972 with a redesign in 1993, this survey of households interviews up to 134,000 persons age 12 and older in as many as 77,200 households twice each year about their victimizations from crime. 



Nonfatal firearm crime rates have declined since 1994:


 Nonfatal Firearm-related Violent Crime Rate Trends Chart

Note:   The violent crimes included are rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. 

Source:  Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Ongoing since 1972 with a redesign in 1993, this survey of households interviews up to 134,000 persons age 12 and older in as many as 77,200 households twice each year about their victimizations from crime.



After 1996, less than 10% of nonfatal violent crimes involved firearm:

Percent of  Nonfatal Violent Crime Incidents Involving a Firearm Chart

Note:   The violent crimes included are rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics and   National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Ongoing since 1972 with a redesign in 1993, this survey of households interviews up to 134,000 persons age 12 and older in as many as 77,200 households twice each year about their victimizations from crime.


For more information about weapons used in homicide see:







FLASHBACK: In 1999, Obama wouldn’t support tougher prosecution for school shooters


"In 1999, State Senator Barack Obama voted “present” on a bill that would require adult prosecution for discharging a gun in or near a school.

That legislation came as a response to the tragic Columbine High School shooting that year.

SB 759 provided that anyone 15 years of age or older charged with aggravated battery with a weapon in school or within 1,000 feet of a school would be charged as an adult.

It passed the Illinois State Senate in a 52-1 vote, with 5 members voting present — including Obama.

That vote followed a trend for the young lawmaker, whose controversial votes on crime legislation often raised eyebrows.

A Chicago Tribune editorial even accused Obama of being a “gutless sheep” for missing a vote on crime legislation in late 1999."



Update:  I just caught this from ANR Hawkins at Breitbart...



The media regularly twists gun numbers to make gun-related deaths appear predominant over every other type of death in this country. However, a rational examination of how small the percentage of gun-related deaths are when compared to the overall number of deaths in any given year helps one to see through the hype.

For example, in 2011, the total number of gun-related deaths was 8,583.

Taken by itself, out of context, that number seems overwhelming. But taken in the context of overall deaths in America from--including natural causes--that number represents only .34 percent of all deaths for that year.

In other words, the percentage of deaths that were gun-related in 2011 does not even equal half of one percent of the 2,513,171 overall deaths for that year.

And if you really want to see how exaggerated the current anti-"assault rifle" rhetoric is, just look at 2011 numbers for the percentage of rifle-related deaths.

That figure is .012 percent of the overall deaths in America in 2011.

Meanwhile, the percentage of overall deaths that were the result of falling off things like rocks and ladders was 1 percent, or nearly three times the percentage of deaths that were gun-related: 26,631 versus 8,583. 

Gun-related deaths represented only .34 percent of all deaths in America 2011. If the left wants us to feel safer, maybe they need to start banning ladders instead of guns.




Sources for all data can be found in links here:  

Resources on Gun Crimes & Deaths by other Sources





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