From Hudson County Sheriff Juan Perez:
t is most certain that handguns and other types of weapons only belong in the possession of law enforcement and military personnel. We lost a dedicated, professional and caring Jersey City officer in the person of Detective Marc DiNardo, slain by career criminals in possession of an automatic type of shotgun which was bought to our city from another part of the country. Certainly, these types of weapons should be prohibited from being manufactured, imported, or sold in the United States of America.
Emphasis mine. Â So because New Jersey can’t keep dangerous people behind bars where they belong, the rest of us get to deal with not having pump shotguns (murder weapons) and handguns, both of which are highly useful at protecting ourselves against the same criminals that are murdering police officers.
Next quote from our token anti, MikeB:
Well, to them and to everyone else, I say guns are bad news for women. Those three great bloggers are the exceptions to the rule. The rule is, in America, too many women are at the mercy of too many men with guns.
Except women victims of murder are exceptions to the rule too. Â 80% of all homicides are committed against men. Â It would seem to me that men have considerably more to fear in terms of being murdered than women do. Â Nonetheless, women are the fastest growing demographic within the shooting community, and represent about 23% of the total shooting community. Â So are these convincing enough statistics to keep MikeB from gender baiting in this debate? Â Just because the Bradys do it too, doesn’t mean it’s a smart tactic.
UPDATE: Actually, of the 20% of women killed by homicide each year, women commit 10% of those murders. Â When it comes to murder of intimates, 33% are committed with weapons other than firearms. Â The gun homicide rate by gun of men onto women has been dropping precipitously since the 1990s, while the rate of non-gun homicide by intimates has actually increased.
According to the BJS, 7% of sexual assaults involve offenders with firearms, so I’d say women have plenty to fear from unarmed men.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict_c.htm
I should say men without guns (not necessarily unarmed)
The Brady Campaign isn’t the worst on women and guns. I do believe it was American Hunters & Shooters Association’s always quotable Bob Ricker who argued that women who buy guns at gun shows should be assumed to be criminals because clearly they are straw purchasers.
Funny. I’m more likely to be carrying than my husband. I own more guns than he does too.
So are these convincing enough statistics to keep MikeB from gender baiting in this debate?
I’m guessing that’s a negative, considering he lives in an alternate universe with alternate facts and principles.
The comments on NJ.com are perfect. I too was wondering what an automatic type of shotgun was.
I dunno – it seems to me that women everywhere (even little ones) are being empowered with firearm ownership, not intimidated by it.
But, as usual, MikeB is 100% consistent… In every single one of his posts and comments, he always manages to prove that his bigotry knows no bounds, and that he does not have the foggiest of clues concerning the topics about which he speaks with such supposed authority.
Be careful with those statistics and facts, though… he might take them kind of personal-like.
Yes, I guess I’ll have to get off the gender distinction and stick with “guns are bad news, period.”
Or, maybe “men are bad news for women,” but of course that would take the focus off the guns, so that’s no good..
I actually didn’t know the Brady folks had said something about guns and women. I came up with that one myself, well after reading it in Hemenway’s book.
Or how about sticking to reality and note that more legal guns, less crime.
FBI.gov updates the national crime statistics database each year; rapes outnumber murders 10 to 1 consistently. I don’t know, but I guess that most rape victims are women. Apples to oranges, but it looks like women have a much greater chance of needing a gun for self-protection than men.
Gee MikeB,
Did you just admit you are focusing on the firearms and not the criminals?
Did you just admit that you think guns in general are bad news and not just guns in the hands of criminals?
dustydog, yep. Women are also more often targeted for violent crime than men, simply because of the size disparity.
In More Guns Less Crime, John Lott discovered that Women gain a MUCH greater advantage of avoiding injury during an assault than Men do if you compare cases where the victim resisted with bare-hands or a non-gun weapon, vs. with a gun.