US President Barak Obama tweeted something strange yesterday, regarding the shooting in Charleston South Carolina:
Here are the stats: Per population, we kill each other with guns at a rate 297x more than Japan, 49x more than France, 33x more than Israel.
— President Obama (@POTUS) June 21, 2015
yes, he somehow found a way to connect Israel to it.. so how can we spin it as anti-semitic? just joking.
Obama's goal and intent seems to be to bring about some form of gun control.
I dont know what Obama is including in these statistics:
* Is he talking about regular homicides between citizens using guns? If that is the case, I would be surprised that Israel's rate is only 33 times better. Israel has some, but very little homicide.
* Is he including terror attacks? that would increase Israel's rate of homicide, but most of the terror is not with guns, so I don't know that it would increase all that much.
* Is he including the military? I doubt it. It does not make sense to include military in such statistics.
* Is he including the Palestinians? I do not know how much gun violence they have but perhaps Israel and Palestinians together might make Obama's number closer to reality (or maybe not)
maybe his numbers are correct. Even if they are, and not even better than what Obama mentioned, they show that it is not the getting rid of the guns that will bring homicides down, though it will surely help (and I am not against gun control), but something more in the culture. Perhaps more training of responsible use. I do not know what it is, but in Israel guns are all over the place, so it is not just the presence of guns that means more violence. I have even heard some say that the presence of guns keeps the numbers down...
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Training is are part of what can constitute "gun control." There may be a lot of guns here (in Israel), but guns require a license, and licenses aren't freely given at all. In contrast, in many states in the US, a person can buy a handgun with no license, no background check, no registration, no nothing. I don't think any Western country has anything close to such lax rules about buying and carrying firearms. Israel certainly does not.
ReplyDeletePlease, the criminals don't bother with laws and will always find ways to get guns. That said, the crazies of late that are doing the mass killings are always (99%) on drugs. This is all about the confiscation of weapons from the citizenry (trying to do all over world). In other words, Control. That's the first thing Hitler,yimach shmo v'zichro, did by taking all the guns away.
ReplyDeleteHe seems to be using the data here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AonYZs4MzlZbdExSbktqRWpLMjNUMkFGVk5VODRyTnc#gid=0
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with comparing the US to Israel on statistics like these is that the difference in population is too great for a percentage comparison to be meaningful. In this case the US has 9146 homicides by firearm, which comes out to 2.97 per 100,000 population. Israel has, count 'em, 6, and that comes out to 0.09 per 100,000 population. Sure enough, that works out that the US rate is 33x the Israel rate, but once you multiply such a small figure by such a huge conversion factpr the results are just pixellated.
Baruch Gitlin,
ReplyDeletePlease name a state in which you don't need a license for a handgun.
Most southern and midwestern states do nor require a license to purchase and keep in the house. A license is only required to carry.
DeleteWhen I went to college in Virginia, you could buy a gun over-the-counter. Today, there are restrictions - convicted felons and a few other categories of people cannot purchase a gun, but there is still no permit required, and no training requirement whatsoever. Other states are even less restrictive. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_by_state.
DeleteFederal law requires background checks on purchases of firearms. No matter whatever state you're in.
DeleteEven federal law does not require gun licenses, only background checks. Moreover, the federal law contains several broad loopholes: http://smartgunlaws.org/federal-law-on-background-checks/
ReplyDeleteSo for practical purposes, it is still very easy for Americans to purchase guns without a license in states that permit it. Even where the federal law applies, it only requires background checks, not licenses, and not training.
Israeli gun law is much more restrictive. A license is required, a showing of need is required, and there are training requirements, both initial training and continuing training. There is also a background check requirement that includes mental and physical health checks, not just criminal history. For a full description, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation#Israel