Reply To: THE PUZZLE OF MURDER-BY-GUN STATISTICS

[SteveInCO]

Fingerprint readers on guns

Very different animal from computers, a gun is a (conceptually simple) mechanical device (no computerization or electronics whatsoever unless you’ve added some sort of fancy sighting system). You’d have to add a bunch of electronics and a solenoid to remove the trigger block. This is more shit that breaks (I have a fingerprint reader on one of my computers, and it broke–but before this it was very finicky, I had to have perfectly clean hands for it to work) or refuses to cooperate when you need the gun badly… and when you need the gun badly, you need the gun really, really, really badly.

The overwhelming majority of gunowners I know would never accept such a device, they’d be afraid of it failing to work, or worse, getting locked out of their gun by a hacker. Would the manufacturer of the lock put a back door in that allows someone else to control the lock remotely?

Nope. Keep ’em simple. There’s enough things that can go wrong was it is.

I won’t argue about our asinine drug and liquor laws. However, I’ll point out that many states have laws against purchasing guns until 21, or (if they have a concealed carry permit system) exclude under 21 from it. The US is a crazy quilt of state and local gun laws.

Speaking of which: Strega, not only can people openly carry in Vermont without a license, none is needed to conceal, either, so it’s quite possible many of your fellow hominids out and about are packing. Yet Vermont has one of the lowest crime rates in the US. The question to ask yourself is: is there a possible connection here? Is the naive expectation of more guns->more crime actually backwards and it’s more guns->less crime (at least, provided the law abiding have access; more guns in the hands of gangbangers alone, because they won’t pay attention to gun control laws and the law-abiding will, would obviously not work out too well).

As for ownership rates, most people I talk to who I know own guns (because I see them shooting them at a range) say they’d never cop to owning a gun to an anonymous surveyor calling them on the phone. Such data would be unreliable, and is conjectural at best. I’ve seen guesses anywhere from 1/3 to 60 percent thrown around. Unseen is right about multiple ownership; most people who are shooting enthusiasts (as opposed to owning just one for the nightstand) own ten guns or more, all sorts of different types, rifles, shotguns, pistols, all with their own specialized uses and characteristics. It’s a hugely complicated area highlighted by the inside joke, “what do you need another gun for?” asked by someone who doesn’t know how different they are.

As far as the crime rates go, I’m told (but haven’t confirmed for myself) that if inner cities’ gang warfare is dropped from our statistics, we start looking comparable to those western European countries. If so, the problem is not the guns, but the inner cities, and I think it’d be wrong to punish ALL of America for what goes on in the inner cities.