Let’s juxtapose a couple of facts here, see if we get the skepticism nerves a-throbbin’.
On the one hand, we have claims of 2 million defensive gun uses per year, averaging out to better than five thousand a day. I think that’s absurd. You want to sneer at it as intuition, fine, go right ahead.
But note the NRA, cited above in support. They put up this Armed Citizen page, compiling exactly what I suggested. (Careful what you wish for, I guess…) Now, that’s some pretty effective propaganda. But look at their page, a smattering of incidents spread out over some time.
On the one hand, we have thousands upon thousands of daily incidents. And we have a well-known and very well funded advocacy group that trumpets precisely such incidents to support their cause.
And yet, oddly, the page is not overflowing with daily “incidents”. Are they overwhelmed, is that it? The influx is too heavy for them to manage, not being able to afford staff and servers? Well, why not say so? Why not say “Hey, we get a thousand, five thousand a day here, we can’t cope, so we’ll just post the top couple hundred or so…”
But they don’t. Excellent, unassailable evidence that supports their cause, and they just pass it by.
Strike me as a bit odd. Doesn’t seem to bother you a bit. Why don’t they compile this overwhelming tide of daily incidents? They have the staff, they have the money, why pass by this bonanza to make their case?
What leaps to mind is that they don’t actually exist. You have, no doubt, a better explanation. I wait with bated breath.
As far as the dreaded “media bias” goes, you are free to make whatever claims you like, but bias is virtually unproveable, it is pointless to bring it up. The dog stinks, no, the dog has a musty and earthy odor.
And this Lott fellow, who seems to pop up all over these conversations as a paragon of objective research: you do know, don’t you, that he has some definite problems with his public honesty, right? So how come you don’t offer us that information along with your hearty approval?
And this statisitc about how 98% of such incidents are resolved by the mere brandishing of the weapon. 98% is pretty remarkable, 98% is North Korean election territory. I wonder, could it be that those incidents where the miscreant vanishes when banished by the Magical Object are so prevalent because that is precisely the sort of incidents that leave no physical evidence of having occured? No shots fired, hence no witnesses alerted. Miscreant does not leave dead/wounded self. All that remains is the gun owner, stating flatly that he pulled his gun, and the guy split. That’s it.
Leaves a lot of room for bogusity, no? And oddly enough, precisely that form of incident, the one that cannot be confirmed, is exactly that form of incident that comprises 98% of the total! Not 50%. Not 75% 98%!
Me, a bit doubtful. You, in the presence of the Gospel. Not so much as a hint of skepticism.
