Tag Archives: nanny state

How much government can we afford?

With all of the discussion of public sector pay vs private sector pay and the retirement benefits of government workers vs private citizens, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that government employees are a cost which is … Continue reading

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What will happen when the next shooter arrives?

My take on it is that failing to train students to defend themselves leaves them open to the kind of disaster that occurred at Virginia Tech and elsewhere.

From all the reports I have seen, only an elderly professor and a
few students showed any resistance to the murderer. Perhaps the rest
were waiting for someone in authority to show up and handle the
situation.

Carry permits give trained people the authority to protect
themselves, and perhaps you, in situations like Virginia Tech. Those
who earn that authority can handle life-threatening situations better
than those who wait passively until help arrives.

For those unwilling to get carry permits, a course in self-defense is strongly suggested.

You either become part of the solution or you become a victim. The Nanny State, where all authority and force reside in the government is not a viable solution.

There should be self-defense training for all students if concealed carry is prohibited on campus.

I have received several passionate responses on both sides of the concealed carry issue. I have followed numerous articles and found that both sides are prone to exaggeration and fail to link to authoritative sources.

For every horror story about a defense gone horribly wrong, there are others like this series about mass killers meeting armed resistance.

One of my anti-gun commenters provided this data:

Between 1987 and 1990, David McDowall found that guns were used in defense during a crime incident an average of 64,615 times annually.

I look at that same data and say if those people had not been armed, there would have been more than 258,000 injuries or homicides.

What I found is that anti-gun and pro-gun writers look at the same reports and draw vastly different conclusions.

I have found some unimpeachable sources of information about gun violence trends in England where it has been illegal to own any kind of handgun for several years and homeowners are regularly imprisoned for repelling burglars with violence.

I would like you to review these graphs and decide for yourself whether complete gun control as it is practiced in England and Wales has reduced gun-related crimes.

Hosb1

This first graph comes from a report titled Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005/2006 from the Home Office, which is the Government department responsible for internal affairs in England and Wales. (click to enlarge)  To see more, read past the jump:

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