Ravenwood - 07/14/05 07:30 AM
The gun control lobby, Violence Policy Center, is emphasizing that D.C.s complete and total handgun ban and near total ban on long arms gives them a suicide rate of 0%.
Children and youth in the District of Columbia are far less likely than their peers in the 50 states to be victims of firearm suicide, a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) study reveals. . . The study finds that NO District youths 16 years of age or younger died as the result of firearm suicide during the years 2000 through 2002. . .In addition, during this period there were no suicides by any other means by District youth in this age group.They note that the gun loving states have the highest rates of gun suicide, with Alaska leading everyone with 14 total gun suicides or 2.61 per 100,000. The VPC recommends a total gun ban as a model for the other 50 states. (emphasis mine)
VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, "This study shows that the District's ban on handguns and assault weapons works to prevent youth suicide by keeping guns out of D.C. homes. The findings highlight the sheer lunacy of Congressional efforts to repeal D.C.'s tough laws. Congress would virtually be writing a death sentence for some young people by repealing District laws that are working to prevent youth suicide."Of course what they don't tell you is that the "gun-free" utopia that is Washington D.C. has one of the highest rates of gun violence. In the year 2000, there were 239 murders in the District, and 8,626 violent crimes. Compare this with gun-loving Alaska, who had 27 total murders and 3,554 violent crimes. Per capita, the numbers are even worse. D.C. had 41.8 murders per 100,000 citizens compared to Alaska's 4.3. The "gun free" city of Washington D.C. had more murders per capita than the entire state of Alaska.
Category: Cold Dead Hands
Comments (8) top link me
It appears that the reality in DC is that even if you want to kill yourself, it is likely that someone else will step in and take care of the job for you.
Posted by: roger at July 14, 2005 6:52 AMNice job of pointing out the lame red herrings of the anti-gun forces in DC and elsewhere. Isn't DC where a famous gun grabber liberal was caught with handguns after he played a big part in getting the anti-gun laws passed? I think he said he needed more protection than other residents because he was (rich and) famous. I think it was Rowan.
Posted by: mikem at July 14, 2005 7:07 AMAs a matter of interest, how does DC compare with other large cities which all ow open or concealed carry?
Posted by: robert in england at July 14, 2005 7:09 AMThis might help with the perspective:
"From January through April this year [2004], Fairfax County had four homicides while the District had 64. There were 189 robberies in Fairfax County compared with 1,214 robberies in the District, and 18 rapes compared with 100 rapes in the city.
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared a "crime emergency" yesterday...
The population estimate of Washington DC (for 2003) is 563,000. Fairfax has over 1 million."
Posted by: Ravenwood at July 14, 2005 8:05 AMHeh. Hard to concentrate on killing yourself with all the bullets whizzing by.
Posted by: SayUncle at July 14, 2005 8:42 AMSo the DC kids don't shoot themselves in the head. Good! Instead they just overdose on heroin, choose death by cop, and kill themselves behind the wheel. If someone of a statistical bend were to look at the causes of death for youths 12-19 in DC I can almost guarantee a spike in some of these alternate methods compared to other states, whether those deaths are ruled accidental or not.
You can lead a liberal to water, but you can't make him drown - dammit!
Posted by: James Hooker at July 14, 2005 11:15 PMFrom Prince William Co, VA. just down from Fairfax:
DC is loosing population to surburban Va. More so than Maryland. Virginia has a right to carry law. Crime rates are much lower in Virginia. Burgulars and armed robbers do not like their victems to be armed.
Virginia Schools by state, are in the top ten in the nation. DC is dead last. Taxes are lower. Virginia has had a Republican Governer 12 of the last 16 years.
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