BJ Campbell has written a series of six Medium articles on guns in America, with the intent of using fact-based analysis to suggest some ideas to help reduce gun deaths.
If you’re only going to read a couple articles, read the sixth and first articles (both summarized below). If you’re only going to read one article, go with the sixth.
The Gun Solution
The sixth article in the series is titled The Gun Solution. It’s worth reading the entire article, but here are some excerpts:
We are nearing the end of our series on guns, in which we use critical reasoning skills and actual data to formulate plans with real efficacy, without participating in all this culture war garbage.
Resolved:
There are too many “gun deaths,” and we should do something as a country about those gun deaths.The Case:
- The entire idea of a “gun homicide epidemic” is a media fabrication that flies in the face of fact. Homicides are quite low compared to any reasonable historical baseline here, and comparisons to homicide rates of other countries are meaningless and counterproductive.
- Gun homicide does not track in any significant way with gun ownership rate or guns per capita.
- Gun suicide, however, does, and constitutes two thirds of the total gun deaths, which one of the most important features of our Resolution above.
- Mass shootings and school shootings are a media red herring that have no measurable impact on the problem.
- The media cannot be trusted to steer the conversation in a rational and reasonable way, because they are not interested in solutions, they’re interested in viral traffic, and culture wars get them the most clicks.
All of these things are true things, and if we need a refresher about how or why they are true, we can follow the links back. The point about viral traffic is actually more frightening to me than anything going on with guns right now, and will be the focus of at least one, if not many, future articles.
Because our plan is data driven and based on critical reasoning, it must address the nature of the problem that we have identified within the numbers.
The Actual Plan
One: Focus on Firearm Suicide Prevention Within the Medical Community
Two: Focus on Homicide Prevention Within the Black Male Community
Three: Promote Responsible Ownership Through a Simple, Easy, License to Buy
Everybody’s Lying About the Link Between Gun Ownership and Homicide
The first article in the series is titled Everybody’s Lying About the Link Between Gun Ownership and Homicide. It is also worth reading. Here’s the introductory paragraph:
There is no clear correlation whatsoever between gun ownership rate and gun homicide rate. Not within the USA. Not regionally. Not internationally. Not among peaceful societies. Not among violent ones. Gun ownership doesn’t make us safer. It doesn’t make us less safe. The correlation simply isn’t there. It is blatantly not-there. It is so tremendously not-there that the “not-there-ness” of it alone should be a huge news story.
Please Discuss!
Please send an email to info@gundiscussion.org, particularly if you do not agree with the data, conclusions or suggestions presented in BJ Campbell’s articles.