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US Homicide Rate 1885-2012, with annotations (ijreview.com)
Independent Journal Review has compiled a list of 13 Must-Know Stats on Gun Violence and Public Shootings to help combat the misinformation and scare tactics that the Citizen Disarmament Movement constantly deals in. It’s a slideshow of infographics like the one above that will be a great thing to have in your pocket when your Facespace feed blows up in the future. [h/t: Beth G.] . . .

In case you missed it, a Pennsylvania high school student was suspended for 10 days under a zero-tolerance policy after turning his forgotten hunting knife over to a security guard before entering a high school football game. He could have just kept mum and nobody would have been the wiser, but he decided to do the right thing and now he’s being punished for it. Read the rest of Chris Dumm’s writeup over at The Truth About Knives.

We’ve mentioned the increasingly cozy relationship between prospective Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe and Michael Bloomberg in this space in the past, and wondered (not really) about what that meant for McAuliffe’s stance on guns. Well, wonder no more, as he has released his campaign mission statement and policy goals should he become governor, and it’s clear by the excerpted section below, he ain’t no friend of ours. Vote early and often, boys and girls.

Support common sense gun control measures
As Governor, Terry will support mainstream and majority supported gun control measures like universal background checks, limiting the size of magazines, and a return to the 1-gun-per-month rule. These measures respect Virginians’ right to bear arms while reducing gun violence.

Dale Evans, a staff member for the speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives had a small oops last week when he left his personal concealed carry firearm on top of the toilet paper dispenser in the men’s room at the state building. State lawmakers and legislative staffers are allowed to carry concealed weapons into the statehouse. The Capitol Police were notified and the gun was returned to him. The Speaker’s office issued a statement saying that Evans had apologized for the mistake and promised to attend a gun safety class in the very near future. No charges will be filed.

“Which one of these AR-15 assault rifles was it?” The following video is presented without further comment, except to suggest you put your drink down before pressing Play. I’m not responsible for keyboards, monitors, phones, or infernal iDevices.

 

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39 COMMENTS

    • Yeah, me too.

      Although I have to point out that the video totally had it wrong. All those guns in the graphic were AK-47’s. The AR-15 is the one with the big curved clip thing.

      • I disagree. We’ve all seen that graphic where everything is labeled as an AK-47 except the AK, which is labeled as a GLOCK-brand GLOCK. The thing is, that graphic is about 10 years old, when the media was referring to everything as an AK-47. Those times are gone. Now it’s all AR, all the time.

        • Dang it, I can’t win. Even when I’m wrong on purpose, I’m STILL wrong.

          Looking on the bright side, I was thinking about how I wanted an AR but didn’t have the money…and according to that graphic, like I’ve already got one!

      • So I am seeing this a lot guys I just thought Id bring this to light, I believe the correct term for the curved thing under the AR 15 style assault gun is indeed “Magazine Clip”. from what Im told they can be purchased, full of bullets with no background check. however once they are used up they can not be used again.

        • DeGette got that wrong as well but what can you expect when she got all her gun information from the Brady Bunch. It’s “High Capacity Assault Magazine Clip”.

  1. Holy crap. I’m glad I heeded your warning Matt. Put the drink down and hit play. That gets my vote as funniest video of the year!

    On a serious note, those are the best info-graphics on guns compiled in a short, sweet way.

    Great column Matt.

  2. “These measures respect Virginians’ right to bear arms while reducing gun violence.”

    Not even elected yet and he’s lying through is teeth! Who would have thunk it?

    • This is typical of today’s politics. Each side tries out promise the other. This just tells me he no moral or ethical conviction. Of course it is political. It is no different than the people in CT who are republican who voted for the new gun laws because they want to run for governor in the next election.

  3. I shouldve took my dip out before watching that hard to laugh with a dip in… I’m not at all suprised that there is a politician lying through his teeth that’s what they do best. As for the kid getting suspended over the hunting knife i bet that’s the last time he does the right thing.

  4. Dale Evans rightly was not charged for leaving his gun in the bathroom, but had it been one of us from the unwashed masses you can bet your last dollar they would have pounced all over us and stacked up 5 or 6 charges.

    • I’ve been thinking the same. That’s some impressive professional courtesy in action. You or I would be sitting in a cell, and there’s no way that gun would ever come back to its owner.

  5. I didn’t read the warning before watching 🙁

    Fortunately TTAG has caused me to keep a roll of paper towel near the PC for just such an occasion.

  6. Didn’t we already tear apart that graph at the top once before? The y-axis simply goes from “0-12” with no metric.

  7. LMAO… thanks for the warning.

    as to the graphic… think of how far the murder rate would fall if we ended the War on the American People (war on drugs).

    • How so? Prior to 1900 they disagree, but I’d be leery of any info from before then anyway. Not like they had the record-keeping we have now. But after 1900 they’re basically the same: Around 5/100k in 1900, peaking to around 10/100k in the 30s, back down to half that in the 50s, up to 10/100k again in the latter part of the century, and back down to around 5/100k now.

  8. We should have a similar graph for the UK. It would surprise people to find out 1) that homicide by gun has always been low. 2) it was started to keep revolution from happening in their own backyard (lesson learned from American revolution) 3). If anything, gun related crimes have gradually increased over the last 100 yrs.

  9. To the bar graph, “union lead:? Hardly, Marxist Progressive lead.

    I have no objection to bashing modern “labor unions” for ng the bloodsucking socialist opportunist leachs they are, A century the unions were CREATED as the puppet/tool the marxists could cyniclly use to mobilitze (abuse) the “proletariat” for their personal power trip to utopia. Removing the tool (firearms) from the hands of the commonman ensured he did not have the means to resists the plans of his NEW overlord. Very successfully in Eurp. Their battle continues in the US.

  10. I like the stats, but have to throw out a caveat or two. Some of these stats really need additional context.

    The one that lists “firearms per 100 people” is not a true indicator of how many people are armed, since one person may own multiple firearms. A better measurement would have been the % of the people who are armed (which may be a more difficult stat to obtain).

    Those that discuss homicide rates from the non-recent past (the one at the top of this article) must take into consideration the fact that medicine – and access to immediate medicine (via EMS) – has dramatically advanced over time. Things that might have been homicides in the past are not homicides today for this reason, and so it is not as direct a comparison as it would appear to be. It is noteworthy, however, that trends in homicide do seem to respond to alcohol/drug prohibition laws and more/less gun control laws. Prohibition of consensual activities = increased homicides.

    On the other hand, I think that those that compare violent crime rates (including fatal and non-fatal violent crimes) are much more accurate, and do shine light on the fact that more gun control doesn’t seem to work. The one that compares neighboring countries in Europe and their gun policies also seems to be notable. Also love the two that show that there’s no trend at all to mass shootings.

    While not a 100% slam dunk, it is a nice read.

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