Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Guns and Homicide

This article argues that there is no correlation between the homicide rate and the firearms ownership rates in the US, in the various states, in the EU and around the world.

Statistics geeks can have at it.
Updated to add NOTICE:
If you're commenting to discuss the validity of this guy's statistical analysis (I'm keeping in mind the old saying about "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."), then have at it.

If you're going to springboard into other topics, I'll lock this puppy up. My bullshit tolerance is low today.

7 comments:

Jones, Jon Jones said...

Some legal entertainment: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5668542-Memorandum-in-Opposition.html

Can't wait for Monday http://muellershewrote.libsyn.com/

Borepatch said...

Like with the science of Global Warming, if there actually were a connection between owning a gun and murder rates you'd see evidence of it pretty much everywhere. The fact that there's so much questionable "science" claiming the connection, and that it is so weak, is really telling.

At least if you're in the Reality Based Community ...

Dark Avenger said...

Yes, the science is so weak the CDC can’t conduct any studies on the subject.

Comrade Misfit said...

Read the notice at the bottom of the post before commenting, please.

Dark Avenger said...

To this day, gun rights advocates dispute the study’s findings. The N.R.A. pushed Congress in 1995 to stop the C.D.C. from spending taxpayer money on research that advocated gun control. Congress then passed the Dickey Amendment in 1996, and cut funding that effectively ended the C.D.C.’s study of gun violence as a public health issue.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/health/gun-violence-research-cdc.html

I didn’t address my observation to anyone here. To quote Rex Stout: “...personal resentment of a general statement is a barbarous remnant of a fetish-superstition."

Deadstick said...

I show my students three observations on statistics, in order of increasing validity:

1. Lies, damned lies, etc.

2. Figures don't lie, but liars figure.

3. Statistics are like dynamite. Use them properly and you can move mountains; use them improperly and the mountain will come down on you.

CenterPuke88 said...

I wish the original poster had better documented exactly what was removed when removing gun deaths by suicide. Removing only the individual who committed suicide would be my expectation, but it isn’t out of the realm that incidents that included suicide were removed, possibly having some influence. It also doesn’t address the mass shooting movement in the U.S., which should properly be the subject of some studies that have completely open source research and invite any researcher to get involved and keep the debate open too.