/home/wpurdemo/resistancesuffolk/wp-content/mu-plugins Guns – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website A collection of writings dealing with current US & Long Island politics Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:10:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 3 D Printable Guns https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/07/29/3-d-printable-guns/ https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/07/29/3-d-printable-guns/#comments Sun, 29 Jul 2018 18:21:34 +0000 https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/07/29/3-d-printable-guns/ Continue reading →]]> From Linda James:

Wednesday could prove to be a landmark day in the gun debate. That’s when people can start legally downloading blueprints for 3D-printable guns. The implications of this could be historic. Do-it-yourself firearms don’t have serial numbers and are untraceable. Supporters say the ability to build unregulated and untraceable guns makes it much harder, if not impossible, for governments to ban them. Others fear the technology will make it easier for terrorists and people who can’t pass background checks to get guns.
mqdefault.jpg
Check out this YouTube Video!
Where does Lee ZELDIN stand?

]]>
https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/07/29/3-d-printable-guns/feed/ 1
How they Dealt with Gun Violence Down Under https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/02/24/how-they-dealt-with-gun-violence-down-under/ https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/02/24/how-they-dealt-with-gun-violence-down-under/#comments Sat, 24 Feb 2018 01:34:07 +0000 https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/02/24/how-they-dealt-with-gun-violence-down-under/ Continue reading →]]> 6e3f136c93525c609f2717d8b6db49a3

In my mind the real issue is whether the shear number of weapons (guns) is a significant factor in increasing gun-related deaths.

If the number of guns per capita is NOT the problem, as Republicans and the NRA would have you believe, then why not have everyone bear an arm? Heck, we might as well make it mandatory for everyone to bear arms.   Not just teachers, but also nurses and doctors, and bank clerks, and shop owners, and cashiers at the local food market, etc. The insanity of this approach is apparent (to most of us)! The omnipresence of guns leads to accidents and suicides. People are not infallible. They make mistakes.

So what is the data that overall numbers of guns results in higher rates of gun-related deaths? It is difficult to tease this out because there are many factors that contribute to gun-related deaths. Obviously, a country like Yemen, presently in a civil war, will have a higher rate of gun-related deaths. So researchers have limited their analysis to “advanced countries” according to the human development index. The following chart lists homocides by firearm per million people:

gun_homicides_developed_countries.0

Chart I from: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts

The US is obviously a pretty violent country. Notice Australia on the far left of the graph.

Now how does this correlate with the number of guns? This chart, from researcher Josh Tewksbury, shows the correlation between the number of guns and gun deaths among wealthier nations:

guns_countryChart II From: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts

It is pretty clear that the higher the number of guns/100 people, the higher the gun related deaths. Notice Australia, down in the left lower quadrant.  Of course there are confounding factors which these researchers carefully considered (war, poverty, slums, and social upheaval all contribute to gun-related deaths).

It is easy to imagine that fewer cars would lead to fewer car-accident related deaths. Why would that not apply to guns?

If we agree that the data suggest that increased numbers of guns per 100 people, are correlated with increased gun related deaths, ask yourselves what would prove causality. Well, there is an existing social experiment. A country that changed its laws and decreased its arsenal of guns! And the results were stunning.

The story is well described in Fortune. In 1996, a 28-year-old man drove to a popular tourist spot in Port Arthur, Tasmania, and opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon. Before the day was through, he had shot dead 35 people and wounded 18 others. With the weapons he carried—the AR-15 and a second, self-loading military-style rifle—aim was almost immaterial. He could fire multiple shots in seconds with little recoil. Pointing the gun at a crowd of tourists, it was hard not to hit somebody.

Within weeks of that tragedy, elected officials in each of Australia’s six states and two mainland territories—pressed forward by police chiefs across the continent and by the then-newly elected prime minister—banned semi-automatic and other military-style weapons across the country. The federal government of Australia prohibited their import, and lawmakers introduced a generous nationwide gun buyback program.

Australia is a land of roughneck pioneers and outback settlers. Australia had never embraced much government regulation. This was the home of Crocodile Dundee. But there had been too many deadly shooting sprees and Australians were clearly sick of them.

In 2014, the latest year for which final statistics are available, Australia’s murder rate fell to less than 1 killing per 100,000 people (see Table I).

Remarkably, gun suicides in Australia dropped by some 70 percent, according to one analysis. What stopped many of those would-be suicides was the lack of access to a gun.

It is clear in my mind: more guns means more gun-related deaths.

Screen Shot 2018-02-23 at 9.38.19 PM

]]>
https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2018/02/24/how-they-dealt-with-gun-violence-down-under/feed/ 3
Zeldin: gutting NY’s gun control laws https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2017/12/09/zeldin-gutting-nys-gun-control-laws/ Sat, 09 Dec 2017 15:33:45 +0000 https://resistancesuffolk.wp.urdemo.website/2017/12/09/zeldin-gutting-nys-gun-control-laws/ Continue reading →]]> With the help of Lee Zeldin, this week, Republicans in the U.S. House pushed through a bill that would gut New York’s gun control laws and open the barn door to a flood of concealed, loaded firearms on New York streets.
The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act is a huge gift to the gun lobby and an attack on states like ours that have taken commonsense steps to protect our communities from gun violence. The bill would require New York to accept the porous gun laws in states like Mississippi and Arkansas, which allow virtually anyone to carry a concealed firearm anytime, anywhere—no permit required.
How much of a threat is this bill? If it passes the GOP-controlled Senate by December 31st, the NYPD would be unable to place any meaningful restrictions on loaded, concealed firearms in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. That is madness.
There’s a reason we’ve cut gun violence so dramatically in New York in recent years. Our sensible gun laws keep firearms away from dangerous individuals and restrict who may carry a concealed firearm. We can’t allow the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act to become law. If it does, our neighborhoods will become less safe and our police officers will be at greater risk.
All my best,
Eric Schneiderman

]]>