“We at The Trace strive to understand how the types of lethal instruments in Americans’ hands — all Americans, be they law enforcement, law-abiding civilians, or criminals — are changing, because that may have public safety implications. That’s a different framing than the Owenses and Faragos of the world adopt when they discuss the issue, and that’s fine. They are ardent enthusiasts, passionate advocates, and have a wealth of knowledge. But their command of technical details should give them some insight into what causes tens of thousands of Americans to die violent deaths every year. Instead, they wave that concern away.” – Alex Yablon in The Author of ‘The Second Dumbest Thing You’ll Read About Guns Today’ Responds to His Critics [via thetrace.org]

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

74 COMMENTS

  2. What causes tens of thousands Americans to die violent deaths every year? Gangs. Drugs and the black market created by their prohibition that fuels the gangs. Clinical depression. Lack of parenting and education. None of the causes of the violence have anything to do with guns, the guns just happen to be the most effective tool to perpetrate the violence just as they are the most effective tool to defend yourself from violence. Remove the guns and the violence will continue. And the other side knows this. It’s not about curbing the violence, it’s about controlling you.

    • +1

      And +1 to the comment from “Anonymous” below who also refers to the demoralization of the United States of America … where “demoralization” refers to losing our values rather than being discouraged.

    • Perfectly worded–only need to look to the Y (U) C (K) to see effects of civilian disarmament–England is rated as the MOST violent country in Europe–really worked out great, didn’t it?

    • Actually, there isn’t anything that crosses the line into the tens of thousands other than suicide. Out of the 32K deaths involving a gun, pull the 20K suicides out and that just leaves 12K. Around 8K are gang/drug related, leaving around 4K in actual, you know, murders or accidental deaths. Out of a 330MM population? Under dispassionate analysis, it’s statistically irrelevant. Especially compared to the 300K+ per years of death by medical error – not ‘Christ Jim ,I’m a doctor not a miracle worker’ but ‘oops, wrong drug, wrong diagnosis,wrong treatment’ kinda errors.

      • I figured his definition of ‘violence’ included suicide so I included clinical depression. Suicides aren’t caused by guns either.

        • Wasn’t taking issue with you, merely the left’s continuous inclusion of suicides to inflate the number far in excess of what we used to mean by ‘violence’ in the context of murder- that it was perpetrated on you by someone else.

        • I’m on board with the gov. Let’s ban the use of the bridge ASAP. Close both ends and make people drive around.
          After all, if it saves even one life it was a small price to pay(at least for me, since I wouldn’t go anywhere near frisco if you paid me).
          We MUST save our phoney baloney jobs, gentlemen!

        • As a former Bay Area denizen, I can assure you the nanny state has spent much hand-wringing and guilt-spreading, trying to make the bridge ‘jumper proof’. So sad that pols really have no idea what drives suicidal people, and that while The Bridge is a romantic option, were it not available, that they would somehow abandon the idea and go to Jamba Juice or something is patently ludicrous.

        • I’ll make sure to count all the suicide victims (perpetrators) under the age of 26 as ‘children’ just to make it look even worse.

    • Especially organized gangs that fund and bribe local politicians and judges (Chicago).

      Seems to me there should be some RICO cases to be brought there. Maybe Jeff Sessions will be able to get Chicago under control (here’s hoping).

      • Interestingly that was the approach taken with the gangs in Chicago in the 1990s – most of the senior people were jailed and the old gangs fragmented. A lot of people now think that the fragmentation led turf wars and other instability – and that’s led to a higher body count than wold be the case if the crime were better “organized”.

        Really, the gangs are just a manifestation of a deeper feral subculture.

        • A lot of the Chicago gang violence is territorial now. The housing projects are gone, the inhabitants dispersed with Section 8 housing. The old boundaries are now in constant flux, making the sparks and lead fly.

    • +1

      This article by a Public Defender has quite a bit of insight into the gang infested culture rot.

      It hasn’t always been this way of course. After WW2, black teen unemployment was around 9%, in the early 1980’s it was 40%, and today it is about 59%. Thomas Sowell has devoted hundreds of pages of text on how the Welfare State destroyed Black family culture and how it is now destroying the White and Hispanic family units as well.

      • And we need not confine our diagnosis of the corrosive effects of the welfare state to only the US.

        We can look at entire nations, like, oh, most northern European countries since 1970:

        http://www.oecd.org/els/family/SF2_4_Births_outside_marriage_and_teenage_births.pdf

        Look at the Scandinavian countries – Iceland with a 60%+ OOW birthrate – but which had been about 30% in 1970. Half of all births in the UK now are OOW.

        Welfare is highly corrosive to civilization – at a personal as well as national level.

      • Supply* and demand create the market, government prohibition makes it black.

        *Note that there is plenty of demand for unicorn farts and pixie dust but there is no market for them because there is no supply.

    • Well said!

      What caused almost 33,000 Americans to die in automobile accidents in 2015? What caused 25,000 Americans to die from prescription drug overdoses in 2014? What causes any death associated with the use of any object or substance?

      People, plain and simple. If it wasn’t cars, drugs and guns it would be baseball bats, knives and alcohol. As long as there are people there will be untimely deaths. As for the means to cause those deaths, just fill in the blank. The Left is on a crusade to shove their agenda down everyone’s throats regardless of the facts.

      • ‘What caused 25,000 Americans to die from prescription drug overdoses in 2014?’

        Well they clamped down on prescription drug abuse and now heroin deaths have quadrupled to the point where more people are dying from heroin overdose alone than homicide with firearm. If they had half an ounce of integrity they’d admit they’re playing wack-a-mole and face reality. But like I said, it’s not really about saving people.

  3. But their command of technical details should give them some insight into what causes tens of thousands of Americans to die violent deaths every year. Instead, they wave that concern away.

    They’re called thugs and criminals. What causes this is the demoralization of America, where people actually think murder is the answer. Also there aren’t “tens of thousands.” There are approximately 11,000 homicides. The remainder killed themselves and the method they used to do it really doesn’t matter.

  4. Never in my lifetime one would think the size of a bullet would be linked to public safety and a concern for welfare of a nation. Furthermore what was the point of the article? Bigger calibers are more lethal to criminals’ victims? Would the inverse be law abiding citizens dispatching criminals apply as well?

    Is he suggesting lethal armaments should be restricted through legislation or stating a known fact about bullet size? Is he suggesting the Federal government interfere with interstate commerce?

    I wait his next installment to clarify his solution to the perceived problem.

    • You have mistaken his interest in getting paid for writing anti-gun propaganda for an interest in actually solving any particular problem. Remember, if the “gun violence” problem goes away he’s out of a job.

  5. “We at The Trace strive to understand…”

    Starting off with a lie and building from there. How typical. The Trace strives to understand nothing. They strive to propagandize and spread fear based on encouraged ignorance. Understanding that a tool is not the bad actor in its own misuse is not “waving concerns away”, it is what allows someone who strives for understanding to see what (or more accurately who) the actual responsibility lies with.

  6. I wonder what The Trace has to say about alcohol; about saving all of those lives. Nothing? Sounds about right.

  7. So the Faragos are monsters because they know what they’re talking about and this guy is a glorious savior because he gets all hysterical about something he knows nothing about?

    Resist knowledge, embrace ignorance. Steps to becoming a successful prohibitionist.

    • War is peace / freedom is slavery / ignorance is strength. And disobeying Little Bloomberg is doubleplus ungood.

      • Validated by their own e-mails, facts are “fake news” when the globalists don’t want the public to know the truth.

        The Trump victory was merely a skirmish, the real battle will be over the ability to be informed. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, the platforms that many are so reliant on, are very deliberately censoring who is there, what they are allowed to say, and what news you get to see. I don’t see any viable path to victory on that front.

        “Social Media. Why 2024 will be exactly like ‘1984’.” And there won’t be a Hooters girl with a hammer to save us…

        • Fortunately, the ‘net treats censorship as a routing failure, and routes around it.

          There’s naught preventing someone from creating the next Youtube or Facebook equivalent. There’s already work going on to create the next Twitter, since Twitter seems truly in love with their own stupidity.

        • 1984 speaks to many people, and certain features of that state read like a prototype for the current left government culture. However, I think Brave New World is more to the point. People need not be deprived and abused to fall into obeisance. The would-be rulers need merely encourage the masses in their seemingly insatiable desire for entertainment, novelty, and pleasure. Traveling that path, indulging unproductive appetite while being told they’re living the good life, the masses become child’s play to rule.

  9. In summary, Mr. Yablon argues that passion trumps knowledge, which is essentially the official slogan of the American Leftist Snowflake Association.

  10. To say nothing about the ‘waving away’ of the millions of lives saved by DGUs….

    Something about the splinter in your neighbor’s eye comes to mind.

  11. Why is it that if I want to leave a reply directly at the TRACE, there’s no way to do so? Are they so so afraid that thoughtful well reasoned replies from knowledgeable ardent enthusiasts, passionate advocates of Second Amendment right who “have a wealth of knowledge” just might influence or convert some of their readers??
    I always thought it was the liberal left that wants to engage is discussion and education. Or is it just one sided gun control anti-Second Amendment rights discussions they what to have? That’s not a discussion. It’s indoctrination.

    Senior Gun Owner 1950
    A strong believer in gun control for over 50 years.
    Always control your gun and hit what you aim at.
    If you can’t you need more practice time on the range to get better control of your gun.

    • Why is it that if I want to leave a reply directly at the TRACE, there’s no way to do so?

      Because the trace is diligently and desperately trying to influence people to align others to their freedom hating statist concepts of regulating everything in existence under the guise of “public safety” so they can perfect the nanny state and we can all live forever in their version of happiness and peace with miserable forced smiles. And a comments section at the trace would get in the way of that.

  12. Again, the Trace quadrupled (if not increased by a factor of four) its readers of that piece just by posting it here.

    By your technical prowess with guns you should avoid the fake news of the trace.

    The Trace is what cops do around a dead body with chalk or tape if said body’s technical prowess with arms is somewhat lacking.

  15. Are us regulars “honorary Farago’s” of the world?? Good to see the fake news giving you props RF!

  16. We at The Trace strive to understand how the types of lethal instruments in Americans’ hands — all Americans, be they law enforcement, law-abiding civilians, or criminals — are changing, because that may have public safety implications.

    Doubtful. You at the Trace are paid to hate guns or paid because you hate guns and are paid for that very service to write ridiculous articles about freedom hating statism like “public safety” as applied to firearms. Absolutely comical. Killing people with guns is a criminal matter – not a public safety matter. When billionaire Bloomberg pays you guys to hate guns and write this nonsensical crap – yes we call you out on it. But whatever, yablon, go back to your mercenary work. It really is entertaining for us.

  17. It’s called “advancement”, Alex. Through scientific and empirical research, it has been determined that rounds such as the .22LR, the .25 and the .32 are of insufficient power to stop a threat. The police and the military use ammunition that is (in theory) supposed to stop a threat faster. Why should us civilians be denied the same capability?

    9mm sells well because it has a proven track record and does the job of neutralizing a threat. It’s not about putting a big gaping hole in someone, it’s about using a round which will provably do it’s job.

    • I’m rather glad – for his sake – that he doesn’t seem to know about the renaissance in projectile design that’s taken place over the past decade or so.

      Some of the Lehigh Defense and Polycase / ARX rounds, in particular, would probably have his blood pressure spiking higher than those windmills over his shoulder in the photo above.

    • It is much worse than that, I think. I don’t think that any of us consider 9mm to be a “large caliber” gun, especially since, when we are talking about bullet diameter as he was, 9mm = .38 = .380 = .357 (and in fact = the old .36 cal black powder rounds). Moreover, when it comes to the “tens of thousands who die of gun violence” through a self-inflicted gun shot wound to the head, which as noted above are the only “tens of thousands” out there, a .22 is just as effective as any other caliber. And he ignores the recent data that .22 are the second most common caliber after 9mm, an observation that undermines his entire premise. And last but not least, he ignores that the murder rate has been dropping steadily since the early ’90s. So what are these “public safety concerns” of which he writes?

  18. Why do so many gungrabbers & other liberals wear that s*** eating grin?

    They think it makes them look like the Guy Fawkes mask as though they’re “speaking truth to power”, but it really doesn’t.

  19. Lets alter this sentence and see if it makes any sense.

    “We at The Trace strive to understand how the types of tools in Americans’ hands — all Americans, be they licensed contractors, unlicensed contractors, or DIYers — are changing, because that may have public safety implications. That’s a different framing than the Villas and Abrahms of the world adopt when they discuss the issue, and that’s fine. They are ardent enthusiasts, passionate advocates, and have a wealth of knowledge. But their command of technical details should give them some insight into what causes tens of thousands of Americans to improve their homes every year. Instead, they wave that concern away.”

    I lean towards no. The implication of having tools (or guns) available is not really as important as the one wielding them. Lets ask Japan about their suicide rates, or Mexico about their

  20. “We need to make inexpensive, small handguns illegal because criminals use them!”

    “OMG! Criminals are using larger and more expensive firearms!”

  21. I’d like to congratulate Mr. Yablon on being able to grow a beard, such as it is. Apparently building a rational thought it going to take at least a few more years of maturation.

  23. Anti-gun folks reject the conclusions of people they call experts, then wonder why their prolosals are opposed, and their policies don’t work.

    It’s almost like eternally having the live issue is its own reward.

  24. “…give them some insight into what causes tens of thousands of Americans to die violent deaths every year. ”

    Tool misuse by immoral persons?
    To put it more bluntly, “It’s the people, stupid.”

  25. He’s kind of right, everyone knows that the MIGHTY .45 and .9 mm don’t just cut you in half, thy also steal your soul. /sarc

  26. Soon as these democrat Control freaks can stop human nature we’ll have nirvana! Sound Christian principles went into the framing of the Constitution, Man made restrictions placed burdens on Colonists to Pay for some Butt-heads king of England’s War! so to impose despotic rule {kind of like the Democrat party with PC rules, IRS, EPA, Federal Baby Incinerators, land management people of today} Back in the day a buggering King wanted our gun powder and Arms so we would have to pay all his bills {sorta like illegals of today} without any means of complaining by buck and ball, gunpowder etc. IE: Gun Control

  27. Hmm, the people who know the most about in inanimate object don’t ascribe that object with the guilt of how humans use it?

    Weird.

  28. His prose brought a tear to my eye. Oh, wait that was dust.

    If he wants to get all technical and sciencey, the guns don’t kill anyone, the bullets do. Something about that dark art known as “physics”.

    • But big boollets kill you deader, doncha know. So leetle boollets for the leetle people, and GREAT BIG boollets for the poo-leece. So that BLM has something to riot about when a “young child” is “shot down in cold blood” by the po-leece. ..Oh wait. What was his point again?

  29. In short, “I have no idea what I’m talking about, but it sounds good to the other lefty jackasses so I publish it anyway. And it’s your fault I’m clueless, because reasons, and stuff”.

  30. “they took offense that I would pose these questions about the relationship between the gun supply and crime in the first place.
    […]
    When gun companies sell their wares to police forces and civilians, they tout these very qualities”

    It’s called marketing, Homie. Just because it’s sold that way doesn’t make it so. Also the very qualities that you say make something so horrific are the things that would make it great for defensive use. Something you still didn’t bother to address. Can’t imagine why.

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