Indianapolis: 114 murders in 2008, call it a raw rate of .00014. Chicago: 508 murders in 2008, .00018. Can you guess which city has the strictest gun laws, by far?
Amusingly, the first linked article claims a Indy has a higher murder rate than Chicago. Umm, no -- but thanks for playing, Laura. Buy you a calculator? (Pride, you will see below, goeth before a fall).
The difference isn't especially significant unless you happen to be among the unlucky dead, but even if it saves only one life, isn't it worth making gun laws in Chicago more like the ones in Indianapolis?
Update: Sincere thanks to the reader who caught me in a foolish decimal-place error. --Maybe I should buy myself another calculator instead of thinking I'd just knock the numbers out quickly on my slide rule.....
Update, updated: No, it turns out that even with good advice, I am too sleepy and too, umm, "residually-celebrated" from New Year's to parse this properly. I have edited to reduce the impact. For do-it-yourselfers, pop. figures are ~795,000 for Indy and 2.8 million for Chicago. 3.5 times the population, 4.4 times as many murders: you get deader in Chicago. Where guns are illegal.
Well said my Lady!
ReplyDelete"residually-celebrated"
ReplyDeleteI like that!
Come to think of it, so am I.
WV: antmens
Antenna men?
Ant men?
Plus, worse than being dead, you'd have to live in Illinois to live there. I'm calling that a lose/lose.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure there's something wrong with the water in Illinois. Therefore, I'll just stay out of Illinois until the figure out what's wrong (if they ever do).
ReplyDeleteBesides, they don't prefer us to cling to our guns up there; that's just wrong, too. :-)
We know exactly what's wrong w/ Illinois. Chicago and, to a lesser extent, the collar counties.
ReplyDeleteThis link is kinda neat, you can compare cities based on 2006 FBI stats.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the murder and assault rates isn't that different in 2006, though that isn't a bad thing as it means that good gun laws certainly don't hurt...
Besides, they don't prefer us to cling to our guns up there; that's just wrong, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteActually, that's untrue. After you leave Cook Co. most counties could care less. Hell, DSA, Armalite, Les Bear, Springfield Armory, and a number of other makers are still here.
If you want crime stats look here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.disastercenter.com/crime/
http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10.html
http://louisvilleky.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm?c1=chicago&s1=IL&c2=indianapolis&s2=IN
http://www.city-data.com/city/Chicago-Illinois.html
http://www.city-data.com/city/Indianapolis-Indiana.html
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/race.htm
"Hell, DSA, Armalite, Les Bear, Springfield Armory, and a number of other makers are still here."
ReplyDeleteActually, Les Baer split for the greener pastures and un-suckier gun laws of Iowa a year or two ago. RRA is still in IL, too, BTW.
Point taken...
ReplyDeleteLes Baer is, indeed, in LeClair, IA.
Les