December 2009 – Page 18 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The Old Canadian Argument for Gun Control

I grow tired of seeing Canadian crime rates presented as evidence for the effectiveness of gun control, such as in the LA times article from yesterday. I meant to address this, but it was one of those things that took more time to put together than I had. International comparisons are always going to be suspect, because of the different ways that different countries count and categorize crimes. However, since the other side is fond of these comparisons, we can’t just summarily dismiss it. It seems reasonable to me that we should do as much as possible to compare like populations, and contain our variables to just the differing law as much as possible. It seems reasonable in this case to compare American states with their nearest Canadian providence in that regard. For this I will use statistics from the FBI, as well as some Canadian statistics.

Canadian Province	Violent Crime Rate	Murder Rate	Bordering States	Violent Crime Rate	Murder Rate
New Brunswick	256	0.4	Maine	118	2.4
Nova Scotia	307	1.3
Quebec	298	1.2
			Vermont	136	2.7
			New Hampshire	157	1.0
Ontario	277	1.4	New York	398	4.3
			Michigan	502	5.4
Manitoba	629	4.5	Minnesota	263	2.1
Saskatchewan	671	3.0	North Dakota	167	0.5
Alberta	389	3.1	Montana	258	2.4
British Columbia	407	2.7	Washington	331	2.9
Yukon	722	9.1	Alaska	652	4.1

Rates here are per 100,000, and I tried my best to make the Canadian and American violent crime statistics use the same types of crimes. You will notice on the Canadian stats, there is a “Violent Crime” stat which is way way higher than any US state, because the Canadian government counts many crimes as violent that we do not. But the Canadian government lists statistics for crimes which are very similar to what the FBI uses. I also did not include Ohio, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, even though they technically share a border with Canada, because it’s a lake border, and our respective peoples would not reasonably travel without transiting through another state/province. Nova Scotia is counted because there’s ferry service from Maine.

When you break them down like that, it looks pretty different, eh? What conclusions can be drawn? For one, the US states that compare least favorably to their nearby Canadian provinces are the ones with the strictest gun laws (New York & Michigan). Interestingly, it shows that rural Western Canada, which has a stronger gun culture than the east, shows an opposite pattern from the US, with higher violent crime rates and murder rates. Yukon and Alaska are both more violent than average, probably due to the fact that the industries in these respective jurisdictions tend to attract young males, who are more prone to criminal activity.

Overall, Ontario compares favorably to New York and Michigan. But most of the other states have lower violent crime rates and murder rates to their respective Canadian provinces. Whatever conclusions you might want to draw from the numbers, I don’t think that gun control laws is a major factor here can be among them.

Joyce Funded Movie?

Given what Thirdpower found a few days ago,Â now we’ll have to wonder.

What Tiger Woods Says About Lautenberg

The Lautenberg Amendment, the provision of federal law that strips Second Amendment rights from people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, is one of those areas that’s poor ground to have a serious public debate on, since no one wants to appear to condone domestic violence. When one says as much, there’s typically the image of a man beating his wife. Lost in the detail is misdemeanor versus felonious assault, and how things work in the real world. The late happening with Tiger Wood is a good example of how domestic violence in the real world is never as cut and dry as people imagine it to be. That goes for Senator Frank Lautenberg as much as it does for Rep. Daryl Metcalfe.

I don’t think too many of us would argue that someone who beats their spouse to the point of serious injury ought not have their constitutional rights, including their constitutional right not to be in jail, jeopardized. In these cases, it’s much easier to identify victim and defender. But whether a lifetime ban on certain fundamental constitutional rights should hinge on unclear and often murky situations, is something we shouldn’t be afraid to have a serious debate over. Tiger Woods’ situation, where it’s not completely clear who is the victim and who is the perpetrator, is probably a lot more a typical than a lot of people would care to recognize.

Right to Arms in Pennsylvania History

Dave Kopel talks about a law review article that will be appearing in the Widener Law Journal next year, coauthored with Clayton Cramer,Â on the history of Pennsylvania’s right to bear arms provision in the 1776 constitution. I covered a bit of the constitutional history of Pennsylvania’s right to bear arms provision back in September, for those who might have missed it. The 1776 version read:

That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; And that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

Seems hard to believe that anyone could read “defence of themselves” as being purely the right to participate in a militia. While it’s not as direct and to the point as the 1790 and subsequent state constitutions, it’s still pretty crystal clear for anyone who hasn’t already made up their mind about there being no real individual right.

Violent Attack Back Home

I normally don’t report on armed citizen stories, but this one was from back home where I grew up. An 84 year old man managed to ward off an attacker with a .32 caliber colt pistol, after a brief gunfight. I’m wondering if it was one of these, in which case it wouldn’t be a six shot, but you never know with the media. Criminals often target the elderly because they seem to be easy targets, but being a veteran of World War II, my guess is this is “professional thief” is probably not the first, or the most dangerous person, who has fired bullets in Mr. Kaighn’s general direction. I would say he held up remarkably well to the stress of a gunfight at 84.

Texas Article on MAIG

Good to see people in the hunting and fishing community getting it. My big fear is that people won’t take this threat seriously until it’s really a threat. Things have a habit of turning quickly.

OCIW Alive and Well in Korea?

The US Army abandoned this concept, but it seems the Koreans are prepared to deploy it. I can see the usefulness of an airburst grenade, but I don’t see why this should be general issue. In the US Army, my understanding is that only one member of a four man fireteam is typically equipped with a grenade launcher attached to his M4. It’ll be interesting to see how the Koreans do with this in Afghanistan, but that doesn’t look like something you’d enjoy carrying over that terrain.

No Right to Know

Looks like there’s a bit of a concealed carry permit crisis brewing in Indiana, with an Indiana newspaper threatening to publish all the gun permit records in the state. Caleb is getting a little bit of revenge on them too. As I recently told an anti-gun commenter, I don’t have a problem with the state keeping aggregate statistics on permitting, and to be honest, until newspapers started publishing names, and sometimes even addresses, in the paper, no one really thought too much about whether the records were published or not.

Suppose I were to propose that the public has a right to know your magazine subscriptions? You might be a sexual deviant, and molest children, you know. Shouldn’t we have a right to check your mail? See what you’re downloading? Do you have high speed internet service? Are you frequenting services known to aid in the facilitation of child pornography? It’s a serious crime, and we need to keep children safe, no? OK, OK, we’ll just make you get a license to access porn on the internet. Keep the children and child molesters away. But then why not allow that list to be published? I mean, your neighbors have a right to know, right?

Back in the Gun Control Saddle

Looks like Richard Aborn is back in the gun control issue after being handed a “humiliating man-beating” on election day. For those who don’t know, Richard Aborn was president of Handgun Control Inc. (which would later become the Brady organizations) during their glory days when they were actually achieving something legislatively.

Refining Boomershoot

Looks like Joe Huffman has been trying to refine the formula to Boomerite, which is how they convert ammunition into explosions out in Idaho every year, and has turned Joe into a bit of a rock star. Hey, explosions work for those guys too.