Acujeff
NES Member
In a recent blog post by Huffington Post writer Carter Gaddis, that went viral, a father describes his instant fear and apprehension at seeing an NRA decal. Or there’s the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence encouraging their followers to (criminally) call the police on anyone they see with a firearm, whether open or conceal carried, to “protect the safety of your loved ones.”
What are the odds that their worst fear, a law-abiding gun owner snaps and decides to start murdering people, happens? How do those odds stack up against the odds that we may one day be the victims of a violent crime, a possible situation that is at the forefront of many gun-carrier’s minds?
Since we don’t have a national gun registry (thank God!) we don’t have nationwide numbers on the crime rates of citizens who legally own firearms. However, Texas does keep track of the crime rates of concealed carriers, and since we know for a fact that these individuals have passed a background check and kept a clean record, it provides us with an adequate benchmark.
That’s a rate of roughly .565/100,000.
But keep in mind, that’s the ratio of CHL holders who committed a murder. That is not the murder rate of Texan’s committed by CHL holders.
This is where it gets really interesting.
In 2013 Texas had 26,448,193 citizens. Of those, 4 people were murdered by a CHL holder. That puts the probability of being murdered in Texas by a CHL holder at a mind-blowing – .0151/100,000
The national homicide rate (or probability of getting murdered)? 4.3/100,000. That's a 28,000% difference!
And we’re the ones you’re worried about?
So, what are the odds of being a victim of violent crime?
In 1987 the New York Times ran a headline titled “83% TO BE VICTIMS OF CRIME VIOLENCE.” That figure was arrived at by the “Government’s National Crime Survey” from 1975-1984, but violent crime has reduced dramatically since then. When I ran some (quick, not very scientific) numbers I arrived at a roughly 25% chance of being a victim of violent crime in modern lifetimes. Now of course crime isn’t totally random, so I’ll use the demographic figures from this article from Crime In America, which states that males have an 18.4% chance to be a victim of violence, and white people a 15.8% chance, or roughly 1 in 6 between the two. These numbers seem very conservative to me, but they’ll do just fine to illustrate the point.
I arm myself so I can potentially protect myself, my loved ones, friends, family, and even innocent bystanders from violent people. The odds that just I, myself, will at some point be the victim of violence according to Crime In America is about 1 in 6. That’s the likelihood that my fear will come true.
It seems to me as though legal gun owners are not the paranoid ones – the anti-gunners are.
Full article at:
http://www.ammoland.com/2015/09/the...ncealed-carry-holders-among-us/#axzz3kmUDUP3g
What are the odds that their worst fear, a law-abiding gun owner snaps and decides to start murdering people, happens? How do those odds stack up against the odds that we may one day be the victims of a violent crime, a possible situation that is at the forefront of many gun-carrier’s minds?
Since we don’t have a national gun registry (thank God!) we don’t have nationwide numbers on the crime rates of citizens who legally own firearms. However, Texas does keep track of the crime rates of concealed carriers, and since we know for a fact that these individuals have passed a background check and kept a clean record, it provides us with an adequate benchmark.
That’s a rate of roughly .565/100,000.
But keep in mind, that’s the ratio of CHL holders who committed a murder. That is not the murder rate of Texan’s committed by CHL holders.
This is where it gets really interesting.
In 2013 Texas had 26,448,193 citizens. Of those, 4 people were murdered by a CHL holder. That puts the probability of being murdered in Texas by a CHL holder at a mind-blowing – .0151/100,000
The national homicide rate (or probability of getting murdered)? 4.3/100,000. That's a 28,000% difference!
And we’re the ones you’re worried about?
So, what are the odds of being a victim of violent crime?
In 1987 the New York Times ran a headline titled “83% TO BE VICTIMS OF CRIME VIOLENCE.” That figure was arrived at by the “Government’s National Crime Survey” from 1975-1984, but violent crime has reduced dramatically since then. When I ran some (quick, not very scientific) numbers I arrived at a roughly 25% chance of being a victim of violent crime in modern lifetimes. Now of course crime isn’t totally random, so I’ll use the demographic figures from this article from Crime In America, which states that males have an 18.4% chance to be a victim of violence, and white people a 15.8% chance, or roughly 1 in 6 between the two. These numbers seem very conservative to me, but they’ll do just fine to illustrate the point.
I arm myself so I can potentially protect myself, my loved ones, friends, family, and even innocent bystanders from violent people. The odds that just I, myself, will at some point be the victim of violence according to Crime In America is about 1 in 6. That’s the likelihood that my fear will come true.
It seems to me as though legal gun owners are not the paranoid ones – the anti-gunners are.
Full article at:
http://www.ammoland.com/2015/09/the...ncealed-carry-holders-among-us/#axzz3kmUDUP3g
