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From the New York Times news section:
How Gun Violence Spread Across One American City
Columbus, Ohio, had only about 100 homicides a year. Then came a pandemic surge. With more guns and looser laws, can the city find its way back to the old normal?
By Shaila Dewan and Robert Gebeloff
Shaila Dewan reviewed police reports and court transcripts, and visited the scenes of a dozen fatal shootings in Columbus. Robert Gebeloff analyzed the geographic pattern of more than 120,000 gun homicides in America between 2016 and 2023.
May 20, 2024
The sequence of events that led to the killing of Jason Keys was so confounding that friends and family did not quite believe it until they saw the video evidence played in court.Mr. Keys and his wife, Charae Williams Keys, were getting into their car after a Father’s Day visit in 2021 with her grandparents in a leafy neighborhood near Walnut Hill Park in Columbus, Ohio. A 72-year-old neighbor carrying a rifle accosted them in the belief, he later told the police, that Mr. Keys had let the air out of his daughter’s tires and poisoned his lawn.
Mr. Keys, who was carrying a pistol in his waistband, and his father-in-law tried to disarm the man, knocking him to the ground, while another relative ran back inside to get a .22 rifle. While Ms. Keys ducked behind the car to call 911, she heard multiple gunshots. She emerged to find her husband mortally wounded.
It took a moment for everyone to realize that the shots had come from a fourth gun across the street. Elias Smith, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, had stepped to his front door with a so-called ghost gun, an AR-style rifle that Mr. Smith had assembled from parts ordered online. Within seconds, he opened fire, hitting Mr. Keys five times.
“What are you shooting for?” a relative of Mr. Keys can be heard asking on surveillance video that captured parts of the incident.
Mr. Smith answered, “I don’t know.”
OK, let me describe the cast of characters in racial terms, which the NYT refused to do, but would have emphasized if the races were reversed.
The victim, Jason Keys, is a white man with a black wife. The elderly neighbor who started the brouhaha is black. The young bystander who shot Keys for no obvious reason is also black. (By the way, the black participants look fairly mixed, so I’m guessing it’s a neighborhood favored by people in mixed marriages and the like.)
It was an encounter emblematic of gun violence in America today, a dispute that might not have turned deadly but for firearms in increasingly easy reach. And it was an episode that exemplified a striking spread in fatal shootings nationwide since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 — a period in which Americans have purchased more guns, the Supreme Court has made them harder to regulate, and many states, including Ohio, have loosened restrictions on firearms.
The block, on the far east side of Columbus, had been a haven, with little if any gun violence. That kind of peace was what had drawn Ms. Keys’s grandparents to the area decades earlier, luring them from the center of the city to what promised to be a safer place to raise their family.
And then, nearly 30 years after they had settled into a ranch house on Walnut Hill Park Drive, a burst of gunfire would take the life of Mr. Keys and with it, the neighborhood’s sense of security.
A New York Times analysis of fatal shootings across the country found that as the toll of gun violence rose during the pandemic, the carnage expanded its boundaries as well.
Pandemic, pandemic, pandemic. Guns, guns, guns.
Who started shooting in much higher numbers after May 25, 2020?
Crickets, crickets, crickets.
In the NYT tradition, the article of course never mentions anything else that influenced crime in 2020, such as George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, or the racial reckoning.
But it’s easy to look up data from the CDC WONDER website on homicide deaths by race in Franklin County, Ohio, whose county seat is Columbus.
In 2019, 38 non-Hispanic whites died by homicide. In 2020, despite the all-powerful pandemic and the surge of gun purchases during the Mostly Peaceful Protests (which by the way appear to have helped prevent the enormous amount of retail looting that summer from spilling over into home invasions), 39 whites died by homicide.
In 2019, 71 blacks died by homicide, but in 2020, 143 blacks died by homicide.
So, the 2020 pandemic and heightened gun sales appeared to have little impact on whites in the Columbus area, but doubled the number of blacks getting murdered.
My guess is that the endlessly lauded Black Lives Matter movement had something to do with all those extra black lives murdered, but the NYT finds the abundant evidence for that not fit to print.
Hence, Democrats obsess over passing more point-of-sale gun control to keep law-abiding rural rednecks from buying rifles while simultaneously electing urban DAs who discourage cops from engaging in effective point-of-use gun control to discourage felons from carrying illegal handguns.
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Walter Duranty rides again as the Times offers political Happy Meals to the Upper West Side.
Steve, I greatly appreciate your staying on this story. (This story of media coverage, narrative, historiography.) Keep it up. It is important.
If I might expand our focus for a moment….
Why is the media coverage like this? How does it come about? Who are the influences? What is their motivation?
The old man sounds rather paranoid—might have a touch of schizophrenia, which is more common in blacks.
The NYT commenters are blaming availability of guns, although some are pointing out that, for example, Switzerland has a high rate of gun ownership but a low murder rate.Replies: @Reg Cæsar, @Fhhhfdfdjjj
But who poisoned the lawn?
Another “shots rang out” story.
Clueless younger Black! male shoots older White man.
So the Narrative is, “guns be bad.”
Oh, and a “ghost gun” to boot.
No explanation offered as to why the shooter had assembled his AR from parts, as the NYT claims. Only reason I can think of is that said killer for some reason wasn’t able to legally purchase a firearm. So some Black! killer is once again, is said to be a passive actor with no agency.
Free pass.
Very few people are murdered with long guns like this AR. And the only reason for doing the fairly complex activity of assembling a long gun from parts is to have an “untraceable” firearm. Why would you bring that gun out to shoot someone from your front yard since it is obviously yours?
Lower receivers always have serial numbers so it isn’t like you can order this w/o that easily. Of course no investigation about that claim, which is irrelevant to the clueless shooter’s “motive.”
One lesson here: if all of your neighbors are Black! and you are White (even if you are married to a Black woman) your odds of being a victim of crime go up drastically.
Does anyone else find it very weird that the Times didn’t mention anti White racism as a possible motive for this? Were the races reversed, you can bet the shooter’s social media posts, etc. would be thoroughly examined and discussed.
Was he a Biden voter? Registered Democrat? Ex con?
No idea, since “gun violence” is the only explanation offered.
Steve, are you following the Terry Williams story in San Francisco? It’s all very strange. He’s a black dog walker, who has twice in recent weeks had black dolls with racist messages left at his door. He started a go fund me and raised about $20,000. Oddly, it has not become a national news story. But now the stakes have gotten much higher. Today, while he was at the police station talking about the racist death threats has been getting, a fire broke out his apartment. Thankfully, SFFD was able to save his elderly parents who live with him and were trapped inside. And, for some reason, this is still not a national story. Evil racists threatening a black man with death for weeks, and now they almost burned his elderly parents alive? How has this not become a national headline story?
https://sfist.com/2024/05/21/house-fire-near-alamo-square-potentially-linked-to-racist-threats/
If it comes through your door,
Unless you just want some more,
I think you'd better call --
A: Jussie Smollet
What combined percentage of the population are the favorite bete noire of the gents around here?
The only other time I could think of when such a fractional percentage walked all over the majority would be the conquistadors in Mexico and South America, the Brits in India, and the Mongols in China.
Doesn’t speak well of the majority. Do you blame Cortez, or do you blame Moctezuma? Do you blame Strongbow, or do you blame Dermot MacMurrough? Unzites tend to go for the former, far more comfortable than thinking about the members of the majority who bare a lot of blame for all this.
so in normal times Columbus had “only” 100 homicides a year? That sounds like a lot for a mid-sized city
Stories like this definitely illustrate the racial angle Steve has described, but since ‘GUN VIOLENCE!’ is in the spotlight here, I think there’s also something else going on.
When I was growing up in rural Iowa, my Dad had a shotgun. My grandfather had a few more ballistic options in his home. Most of my friends’ fathers had guns of one sort or another. And here’s the thing: it was not a big deal. The existence of all these Deadly Instruments of Death all around me made very little impression. They were tools, and I knew some people — hunters, etc. — were more interested in them than I was, but guns just weren’t of that much interest in the greater scheme of things. They had their place, and their uses, and they stayed there.
But when I moved overseas, I started meeting people from countries where guns are essentially banned, e.g. people from here in Hong Kong, and some from the UK. If the subject of guns ever came up — usually in some accusatory tone in response to the USA’s murder rate/urban violence — I usually ended up completely nonplussed. It was impossible to talk to people about my own experiences with guns. Just the word itself seemed to make them uneasy and twitchy, as if by discussing how guns might be used for something other than murder, they were uttering blasphemous satanic incantations and calling down judgement on themselves.
This attitude has obviously spread to much of the US commentariat and Approved Good Persons. Guns aren’t just icky anymore. They have dark, eldritch powers that might be invoked if they are summoned by name. Guns are vile, scheming parasites that possess and dominate their unfortunate hosts. They kill.
There’s a return to magical thinking here, a pagan worldview in which objects have powers and must be appeased, or avoided altogether, lest they pollute the innocent humans who tragically come into contact with them.
I would add it's not just "guns" that are on the new and developing Codex of Taboo Names.
True for guns, and increasingly true for automobiles. Vehicles “Cause accidents” and “Strike people” all by their lonesome, and heat up the Earth and make Mother Gaia cry 😭.
It's also undeniable that guns owned by good law-abiding citizens occasionally, by way of burglary, end up in the hands of criminals. If we didn't have a 2nd Amendment, there'd be fewer guns in criminals' hands too.
That said, I'm glad we have the 2nd Amendment and I think that the more decent people own guns (but get training too), the better. Like cars, which kill even more people, guns are a mixed bag but on balance good.
At this point, he got belligerent and said, "Why? Are you a gun owner?" To which I responded, "Well, you never know, I might be."
He then said, "Why would you have guns? What are you afraid of?"
I responded, "I am not afraid of anything - any more than I have car insurance, because I am afraid of accidents." There was a silence, then he retorted, "I just think guns are evil."
I finished the conversation with, "In that case, you might try not being so rude to people who have that kind of power and be civil instead." After I said that, he had that "deer caught on a headlight" look for a bit and then walked off and sat elsewhere.
Afterwards, he apparently tried to get me in trouble with the coach, but the coach just shrugged it off. His kid didn't stay on the team after that.
The thing I found galling wasn't even that he had these outlandish eyes. It's that he was that uncivil, hostile, and overbearing to a total stranger whom he just met. He just exuded a certain kind of imagined moral superiority. Were I a 20 year-old, I'd just have punched him on the face.
But, yeah, at least in this case, I was able to invoke the "dark, eldritch power" and make him go away. ;)Replies: @Almost Missouri
Don’t forget, May 25 2020 was preceded by July 2013, when Geroge Zimmerman was aquitted of second degree murder for killing Trayvon Martin. Then it seemed like there was some such incident every six months or so (Eric Garner, Michael Brown, etc.) Thus, those who started shooting in 2020 spent their formative years being conditioned by a media cycle, and especially a social media cycle, of racial rage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_r3ULoXuMYElias Smith couldn't quite recall Will Smith's exquisitely elaborate explanation for shooting the white girl amidst a field of snarling monsters, but he could remember to shoot the white.Replies: @Sir Jacob Rees-Dogg, @Fhhhfdfdjjj
I need to again bring up a premise I’ve had for many years – how many Huwhyte Americans kill black people every year in the USA? I say it’s less than 10 a year. And they kill 200 whites a year thereabout?
How long can this go on?
They actually say it is higher than that, but they count Hispanic killings of blacks as part of "white" killings of blacks. Subtracting out the known Hispanic perps still leaves over a hundred killings. Maybe there are still unknown Hispanics among those perps or other mis-codings, but net-net, the residual is probably more than ten.Probably over 1000, maybe a lot over, but the number is (deliberately?) obscure.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/girls-unhappiest-relative-to-boys-in-most-gender-equal-countries/#comment-6178887
I also noticed just now that the indefatigable res added a couple of data-heavy comments to my above-linked comment.Replies: @David, @Danindc, @Almost Missouri
Clueless younger Black! male shoots older White man.
So the Narrative is, "guns be bad."
Oh, and a "ghost gun" to boot.
No explanation offered as to why the shooter had assembled his AR from parts, as the NYT claims. Only reason I can think of is that said killer for some reason wasn't able to legally purchase a firearm. So some Black! killer is once again, is said to be a passive actor with no agency.
Free pass.
Very few people are murdered with long guns like this AR. And the only reason for doing the fairly complex activity of assembling a long gun from parts is to have an "untraceable" firearm. Why would you bring that gun out to shoot someone from your front yard since it is obviously yours?
Lower receivers always have serial numbers so it isn't like you can order this w/o that easily. Of course no investigation about that claim, which is irrelevant to the clueless shooter's "motive."
One lesson here: if all of your neighbors are Black! and you are White (even if you are married to a Black woman) your odds of being a victim of crime go up drastically.
Does anyone else find it very weird that the Times didn't mention anti White racism as a possible motive for this? Were the races reversed, you can bet the shooter's social media posts, etc. would be thoroughly examined and discussed.
Was he a Biden voter? Registered Democrat? Ex con?
No idea, since "gun violence" is the only explanation offered.Replies: @Wokechoke, @Gabe Ruth, @Erik L, @Jim Don Bob
Shots “crack” and the guns are more “spook” than ghost.
“Mr. Smith answered, “I don’t know.” ”
Story is pure TNB except for the dead white fool.
If I might expand our focus for a moment….
Why is the media coverage like this? How does it come about? Who are the influences? What is their motivation?Replies: @Currahee, @Catdompanj, @Frau Katze
The Negro Delusion Bubble infects their minds.
Watch it with the hurtful slurs. “Hillbilly” is the preferable term when referring to rural whites.
Under the Constitution as it was originally set up, crime was a state and local issue rather than a federal issue. This means that people can just move to wherever there are saner crime policies.
There will be a big struggle in the future as the more conservative states try to resist the encroachment of federal power on functions that properly belong to the states.
Conservatives should encourage and support this trend. This means having laws involving things like abortion, drugs, prostitution etc. decided by the states. I live here in conservative Indiana where they won’t be legalizing crack and hookers but that’s fine since I am not the Hoosier version of Hunter Biden.
If I might expand our focus for a moment….
Why is the media coverage like this? How does it come about? Who are the influences? What is their motivation?Replies: @Currahee, @Catdompanj, @Frau Katze
Shhhhh, Steve won’t say who out loud.
Clueless younger Black! male shoots older White man.
So the Narrative is, "guns be bad."
Oh, and a "ghost gun" to boot.
No explanation offered as to why the shooter had assembled his AR from parts, as the NYT claims. Only reason I can think of is that said killer for some reason wasn't able to legally purchase a firearm. So some Black! killer is once again, is said to be a passive actor with no agency.
Free pass.
Very few people are murdered with long guns like this AR. And the only reason for doing the fairly complex activity of assembling a long gun from parts is to have an "untraceable" firearm. Why would you bring that gun out to shoot someone from your front yard since it is obviously yours?
Lower receivers always have serial numbers so it isn't like you can order this w/o that easily. Of course no investigation about that claim, which is irrelevant to the clueless shooter's "motive."
One lesson here: if all of your neighbors are Black! and you are White (even if you are married to a Black woman) your odds of being a victim of crime go up drastically.
Does anyone else find it very weird that the Times didn't mention anti White racism as a possible motive for this? Were the races reversed, you can bet the shooter's social media posts, etc. would be thoroughly examined and discussed.
Was he a Biden voter? Registered Democrat? Ex con?
No idea, since "gun violence" is the only explanation offered.Replies: @Wokechoke, @Gabe Ruth, @Erik L, @Jim Don Bob
The gun assembled from untraceable parts is also fishy in light of the relaxed Ohio gun laws decried earlier in this very article.
I'm asking for a friend.Replies: @Hunsdon
https://sfist.com/2024/05/21/house-fire-near-alamo-square-potentially-linked-to-racist-threats/Replies: @Catdompanj, @J.Ross, @Prester John
Being at a police station is one heckuva alibi.
And last time I checked, after the fire today his GoFundMe has jumped from $17,000 to over $40,000 in just a few hours.Replies: @Wondering In SF
The only other time I could think of when such a fractional percentage walked all over the majority would be the conquistadors in Mexico and South America, the Brits in India, and the Mongols in China.
Doesn't speak well of the majority. Do you blame Cortez, or do you blame Moctezuma? Do you blame Strongbow, or do you blame Dermot MacMurrough? Unzites tend to go for the former, far more comfortable than thinking about the members of the majority who bare a lot of blame for all this.Replies: @Catdompanj
I loved Chief Jay Strongbow. Oh nvm, my apologies, wrong Strongbow.
Note the gratuitous swipe at the “ghost gun” bullshit:
What in the hell does that have to do with the fact that a black dude shot a white dude who was not threatening him?
The AR-15 is a modular rifle. You can assemble one from parts. So what?
If he had been armed with a pump-action Remington .30-06 Gamemaster identical to the one James Earl Ray used to shoot Martin Luther King, would the white guy be any less dead?
Speaking of the racisms:
House Fire Near Alamo Square Potentially Linked to Racist Threats
https://sfist.com/2024/05/21/house-fire-near-alamo-square-potentially-linked-to-racist-threats/
Voodoo doll with a noose with the message “go pick cotton?” In San Francisco? In 2024?
I wonder what the full story will turn out to be.
If I might expand our focus for a moment….
Why is the media coverage like this? How does it come about? Who are the influences? What is their motivation?Replies: @Currahee, @Catdompanj, @Frau Katze
It’s a classic leftist take including the complete rejection of race-based differences.
The old man sounds rather paranoid—might have a touch of schizophrenia, which is more common in blacks.
The NYT commenters are blaming availability of guns, although some are pointing out that, for example, Switzerland has a high rate of gun ownership but a low murder rate.
Were this Inner Appenzell before 1991, he could vote with his piece, but she couldn't with hers:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Riding_the_bus.jpg/440px-Riding_the_bus.jpgReplies: @Frau Katze, @Unladen Swallow, @Twinkie
Steve writes:
It is (or was) also easy to look up who controls the New York Times. 🧐
Wikipedia has recently deleted the following Ochs-Sulzberger section, so I included a link to a 2024.01.01 archive, below the blockquote.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/first-draft-of-claudine-gays-resignation-letter/#comment-6346256 (#96)
https://web.archive.org/web/20240101013518/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times#Ochs-Sulzberger_family
Explanation of Class B shares:
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/opinion/nocera-how-punch-protected-the-times.html
>a leafy neighborhood
Say no more.
Fishy or not the Times has their journolist marching orders – must reference ‘ghost guns’.
https://sfist.com/2024/05/21/house-fire-near-alamo-square-potentially-linked-to-racist-threats/Replies: @Catdompanj, @J.Ross, @Prester John
Don’t get caught alone, no, no.
If it comes through your door,
Unless you just want some more,
I think you’d better call —
Let negroes be negroes and they’ll be negroes.
Where have you been? Columbus has nearly a million residents, is ranked 14th in population among US cities, and is 33% larger than Cleveland and Cincinnati combined. The metropolitan area has surpassed Cleveland’s this decade, and is inching up on Cincinnati’s two rungs above.
Because then Cleveland and Cincinnati would want one too.Replies: @Reg Cæsar
The AR-15 is a modular rifle. You can assemble one from parts. So what?
If he had been armed with a pump-action Remington .30-06 Gamemaster identical to the one James Earl Ray used to shoot Martin Luther King, would the white guy be any less dead?Replies: @kaganovitch
In all likelihood they got the ‘ghost gun’ wrong in any case. A modular assembly with a finished lower receiver is not a ghost gun. The receiver is serial numbered same as a finished gun. A ghost gun is made from an %80 lower which is not numbered and is milled out by the end user, hence ‘ghost’/untraceable.
House Fire Near Alamo Square Potentially Linked to Racist Threats
https://sfist.com/2024/05/21/house-fire-near-alamo-square-potentially-linked-to-racist-threats/
Voodoo doll with a noose with the message "go pick cotton?" In San Francisco? In 2024?
I wonder what the full story will turn out to be.Replies: @J.Ross, @Steve Sailer
Steve has repeatedly explained how the Bay Area is ideal cotton/tobacco/corn planting land.
House Fire Near Alamo Square Potentially Linked to Racist Threats
https://sfist.com/2024/05/21/house-fire-near-alamo-square-potentially-linked-to-racist-threats/
Voodoo doll with a noose with the message "go pick cotton?" In San Francisco? In 2024?
I wonder what the full story will turn out to be.Replies: @J.Ross, @Steve Sailer
Thanks.
So you’re engaging in race baiting like the extreme left. I guess two wrongs make a right in your world.
I was mixed up – he was actually at city hall either meeting with the mayor or seeking a meeting. Which might be an even better alibi.
And last time I checked, after the fire today his GoFundMe has jumped from $17,000 to over $40,000 in just a few hours.
The old man sounds rather paranoid—might have a touch of schizophrenia, which is more common in blacks.
The NYT commenters are blaming availability of guns, although some are pointing out that, for example, Switzerland has a high rate of gun ownership but a low murder rate.Replies: @Reg Cæsar, @Fhhhfdfdjjj
Well, a high rate of gun possession. Those military rifles in every militiaman’s home are issued by and remain the property of the army. Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, but it’s ten tenths of the firearms murder rate, so the point holds.
Were this Inner Appenzell before 1991, he could vote with his piece, but she couldn’t with hers:
Another commenter pointed out that in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has brought the murder rate down sharply by going after the gangs and putting them in prison.Replies: @Prester John
Well, think of how hard the reporter had to work to comb through literally scores of gun homicides in this one city to discover this little unrepresentative gem. The typical homicide certainly wouldn’t tell the story the reporter wanted to tell.
Things could be worse. Indianapolis is very similar in size and has significantly more murders.
“In 2019, 71 blacks died by homicide, but in 2020, 143 blacks died by homicide.”
I’ve been to Columbus a few times and it seems like your typical, staid Midwestern College town. Granted, it’s bigger than your average college town because it’s the seat of state government for Ohio and it has various other industries but still, I think of it as a college town. To hear that the number of blacks who were murdered there doubled within one year is pretty striking. It made me think you were talking about sister-Midwestern cities such as Chicago or Detroit.
So it’s hardly a Bloomington Illinois or Indiana, Urbana, IL, or other sleepy little college town.
And last time I checked, after the fire today his GoFundMe has jumped from $17,000 to over $40,000 in just a few hours.Replies: @Wondering In SF
Also, apparently someone else created the fundraiser on GFM; he didn’t.
So, one could endlessly parse the reality of “gun violence” vs. “gun violence” in the hands of Blacks; or the change in gun laws, or the phoniness of “ghost guns”; but my take out of this is:
Who the hell would move TO Columbus, Ohio?
Were this Inner Appenzell before 1991, he could vote with his piece, but she couldn't with hers:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Riding_the_bus.jpg/440px-Riding_the_bus.jpgReplies: @Frau Katze, @Unladen Swallow, @Twinkie
Thanks for the clarification.
Another commenter pointed out that in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has brought the murder rate down sharply by going after the gangs and putting them in prison.
All good points. But the media luminaries are currently using ghost guns (ghosts are scary, obviously) as part of their broader anti-gun crusade. So why would a propagandist let the opportunity go to waste? And hell, maybe it was actually a ghost gun, if the former marine was a DIY type.
I’m guessing it’s one of those albinos who are the scourge of the African continent.
It’s a bigger city than most people think, and it has, uh demographics.
Well, there’s your evidence for the lack-of-agency construal of black behavior.
I just finished, unfortunately, Graeber and Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything (not recommended). For Graeber, the course of human history is all agency and no structure, no material conditions. The future is wholly open to human imagination and will: anarchist utopia beckons (but admittedly will require a lot of meetings, at first camped out together in public parks).
I was struggling to explain the place of agency in further-left social theory and finally decided on this: humans completely lack agency when that is required for the propaganda, and humans are enormously agential when that is required for the propaganda.
Nice wording.
When I was growing up in rural Iowa, my Dad had a shotgun. My grandfather had a few more ballistic options in his home. Most of my friends' fathers had guns of one sort or another. And here's the thing: it was not a big deal. The existence of all these Deadly Instruments of Death all around me made very little impression. They were tools, and I knew some people -- hunters, etc. -- were more interested in them than I was, but guns just weren't of that much interest in the greater scheme of things. They had their place, and their uses, and they stayed there.
But when I moved overseas, I started meeting people from countries where guns are essentially banned, e.g. people from here in Hong Kong, and some from the UK. If the subject of guns ever came up -- usually in some accusatory tone in response to the USA's murder rate/urban violence -- I usually ended up completely nonplussed. It was impossible to talk to people about my own experiences with guns. Just the word itself seemed to make them uneasy and twitchy, as if by discussing how guns might be used for something other than murder, they were uttering blasphemous satanic incantations and calling down judgement on themselves.
This attitude has obviously spread to much of the US commentariat and Approved Good Persons. Guns aren't just icky anymore. They have dark, eldritch powers that might be invoked if they are summoned by name. Guns are vile, scheming parasites that possess and dominate their unfortunate hosts. They kill.
There's a return to magical thinking here, a pagan worldview in which objects have powers and must be appeased, or avoided altogether, lest they pollute the innocent humans who tragically come into contact with them.Replies: @Almost Missouri, @mmack, @International Jew, @Jim Don Bob, @Twinkie
Excellent comment. And I agree and have had similar experiences.
I would add it’s not just “guns” that are on the new and developing Codex of Taboo Names.
The FBI says it is something north of 100.
They actually say it is higher than that, but they count Hispanic killings of blacks as part of “white” killings of blacks. Subtracting out the known Hispanic perps still leaves over a hundred killings. Maybe there are still unknown Hispanics among those perps or other mis-codings, but net-net, the residual is probably more than ten.
Probably over 1000, maybe a lot over, but the number is (deliberately?) obscure.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/girls-unhappiest-relative-to-boys-in-most-gender-equal-countries/#comment-6178887
I also noticed just now that the indefatigable res added a couple of data-heavy comments to my above-linked comment.
I can't tease out the hispanic portion of whites either. Also, a murder by a white is more likely to be cleared than one by a black. Here in Vermont, murder clearance rate is basically 100%.
https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/asp/off_selection.aspReplies: @Almost Missouri, @Anon
https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=498,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/161/988/299/original/d115a214bbab9336.jpeg
https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=498,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/161/988/442/original/8f3ad0a081bd5367.png
For those who believe in Neuro-Linguistic Programming or whatever it’s called, or just in media influence on impressionable children, which shooter Elias Smith may have been in 1997:
Elias Smith couldn’t quite recall Will Smith’s exquisitely elaborate explanation for shooting the white girl amidst a field of snarling monsters, but he could remember to shoot the white.
They actually say it is higher than that, but they count Hispanic killings of blacks as part of "white" killings of blacks. Subtracting out the known Hispanic perps still leaves over a hundred killings. Maybe there are still unknown Hispanics among those perps or other mis-codings, but net-net, the residual is probably more than ten.Probably over 1000, maybe a lot over, but the number is (deliberately?) obscure.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/girls-unhappiest-relative-to-boys-in-most-gender-equal-countries/#comment-6178887
I also noticed just now that the indefatigable res added a couple of data-heavy comments to my above-linked comment.Replies: @David, @Danindc, @Almost Missouri
According to this cross tabulation of FBI crime data, blacks killed about 1900 whites in the US in 2020. Whites killed a surprisingly high 900 blacks. Interestingly, about half of the white victims of blacks are women, whereas only about 5% of black victims of whites are women.
I can’t tease out the hispanic portion of whites either. Also, a murder by a white is more likely to be cleared than one by a black. Here in Vermont, murder clearance rate is basically 100%.
https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/asp/off_selection.asp
Do rates change if self defense and/or homicide by police are taken out?Replies: @Almost Missouri
When I was growing up in rural Iowa, my Dad had a shotgun. My grandfather had a few more ballistic options in his home. Most of my friends' fathers had guns of one sort or another. And here's the thing: it was not a big deal. The existence of all these Deadly Instruments of Death all around me made very little impression. They were tools, and I knew some people -- hunters, etc. -- were more interested in them than I was, but guns just weren't of that much interest in the greater scheme of things. They had their place, and their uses, and they stayed there.
But when I moved overseas, I started meeting people from countries where guns are essentially banned, e.g. people from here in Hong Kong, and some from the UK. If the subject of guns ever came up -- usually in some accusatory tone in response to the USA's murder rate/urban violence -- I usually ended up completely nonplussed. It was impossible to talk to people about my own experiences with guns. Just the word itself seemed to make them uneasy and twitchy, as if by discussing how guns might be used for something other than murder, they were uttering blasphemous satanic incantations and calling down judgement on themselves.
This attitude has obviously spread to much of the US commentariat and Approved Good Persons. Guns aren't just icky anymore. They have dark, eldritch powers that might be invoked if they are summoned by name. Guns are vile, scheming parasites that possess and dominate their unfortunate hosts. They kill.
There's a return to magical thinking here, a pagan worldview in which objects have powers and must be appeased, or avoided altogether, lest they pollute the innocent humans who tragically come into contact with them.Replies: @Almost Missouri, @mmack, @International Jew, @Jim Don Bob, @Twinkie
There’s a return to magical thinking here, a pagan worldview in which objects have powers and must be appeased, or avoided altogether, lest they pollute the innocent humans who tragically come into contact with them.
True for guns, and increasingly true for automobiles. Vehicles “Cause accidents” and “Strike people” all by their lonesome, and heat up the Earth and make Mother Gaia cry 😭.
They actually say it is higher than that, but they count Hispanic killings of blacks as part of "white" killings of blacks. Subtracting out the known Hispanic perps still leaves over a hundred killings. Maybe there are still unknown Hispanics among those perps or other mis-codings, but net-net, the residual is probably more than ten.Probably over 1000, maybe a lot over, but the number is (deliberately?) obscure.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/girls-unhappiest-relative-to-boys-in-most-gender-equal-countries/#comment-6178887
I also noticed just now that the indefatigable res added a couple of data-heavy comments to my above-linked comment.Replies: @David, @Danindc, @Almost Missouri
I’d like to see the murders from 2023. Over 10 Huwhyte murders of blacks? I doubt it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_r3ULoXuMYElias Smith couldn't quite recall Will Smith's exquisitely elaborate explanation for shooting the white girl amidst a field of snarling monsters, but he could remember to shoot the white.Replies: @Sir Jacob Rees-Dogg, @Fhhhfdfdjjj
No White Child should watch MSM
I’ve been to Columbus a few times and it seems like your typical, staid Midwestern College town. Granted, it’s bigger than your average college town because it’s the seat of state government for Ohio and it has various other industries but still, I think of it as a college town. To hear that the number of blacks who were murdered there doubled within one year is pretty striking. It made me think you were talking about sister-Midwestern cities such as Chicago or Detroit.Replies: @mmack, @Unladen Swallow
I’ve been to Columbus, OH for business or vacation over the last five years and from my view it’s hardly a “small college town”. In my experience it’s more a mid-sized city like Indianapolis. My work took me to the outer suburbs and they reminded me of where I lived and worked near Chicago.
So it’s hardly a Bloomington Illinois or Indiana, Urbana, IL, or other sleepy little college town.
Another commenter pointed out that in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has brought the murder rate down sharply by going after the gangs and putting them in prison.Replies: @Prester John
A sensible policy which, in Progressive America, would be eschewed in favor of going after “the root causes.”
https://sfist.com/2024/05/21/house-fire-near-alamo-square-potentially-linked-to-racist-threats/Replies: @Catdompanj, @J.Ross, @Prester John
Q: How has this not become a national headline story?
A: Jussie Smollet
There was an attempt to farm tobacco in Manhattan ca. 1638.
I’ve been to Columbus a few times and it seems like your typical, staid Midwestern College town. Granted, it’s bigger than your average college town because it’s the seat of state government for Ohio and it has various other industries but still, I think of it as a college town. To hear that the number of blacks who were murdered there doubled within one year is pretty striking. It made me think you were talking about sister-Midwestern cities such as Chicago or Detroit.Replies: @mmack, @Unladen Swallow
It’s a Midwestern version of Austin, Texas, also a huge college town that’s the state capital.
When I was growing up in rural Iowa, my Dad had a shotgun. My grandfather had a few more ballistic options in his home. Most of my friends' fathers had guns of one sort or another. And here's the thing: it was not a big deal. The existence of all these Deadly Instruments of Death all around me made very little impression. They were tools, and I knew some people -- hunters, etc. -- were more interested in them than I was, but guns just weren't of that much interest in the greater scheme of things. They had their place, and their uses, and they stayed there.
But when I moved overseas, I started meeting people from countries where guns are essentially banned, e.g. people from here in Hong Kong, and some from the UK. If the subject of guns ever came up -- usually in some accusatory tone in response to the USA's murder rate/urban violence -- I usually ended up completely nonplussed. It was impossible to talk to people about my own experiences with guns. Just the word itself seemed to make them uneasy and twitchy, as if by discussing how guns might be used for something other than murder, they were uttering blasphemous satanic incantations and calling down judgement on themselves.
This attitude has obviously spread to much of the US commentariat and Approved Good Persons. Guns aren't just icky anymore. They have dark, eldritch powers that might be invoked if they are summoned by name. Guns are vile, scheming parasites that possess and dominate their unfortunate hosts. They kill.
There's a return to magical thinking here, a pagan worldview in which objects have powers and must be appeased, or avoided altogether, lest they pollute the innocent humans who tragically come into contact with them.Replies: @Almost Missouri, @mmack, @International Jew, @Jim Don Bob, @Twinkie
Let’s not get carried away now. A gun is not quite a voodoo doll which can’t hurt you no matter which way you point it or what you press on it. Guns are dangerous, and as natural as it was to own one back in your native Iowa, I’m sure the men-folk took care to impress common-sense safety rules on the boys.
It’s also undeniable that guns owned by good law-abiding citizens occasionally, by way of burglary, end up in the hands of criminals. If we didn’t have a 2nd Amendment, there’d be fewer guns in criminals’ hands too.
That said, I’m glad we have the 2nd Amendment and I think that the more decent people own guns (but get training too), the better. Like cars, which kill even more people, guns are a mixed bag but on balance good.
Were this Inner Appenzell before 1991, he could vote with his piece, but she couldn't with hers:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Riding_the_bus.jpg/440px-Riding_the_bus.jpgReplies: @Frau Katze, @Unladen Swallow, @Twinkie
Does the Swiss government still sell old surplus military gear to the general public? or have they done away with that?
STAY FAR AWAY FROM THOSE DAMN MOON CRICKETS!!!
But rest assured guns are going nowhere.
Do you know why Columbus does have a professional football team?
Because then Cleveland and Cincinnati would want one too.
Clueless younger Black! male shoots older White man.
So the Narrative is, "guns be bad."
Oh, and a "ghost gun" to boot.
No explanation offered as to why the shooter had assembled his AR from parts, as the NYT claims. Only reason I can think of is that said killer for some reason wasn't able to legally purchase a firearm. So some Black! killer is once again, is said to be a passive actor with no agency.
Free pass.
Very few people are murdered with long guns like this AR. And the only reason for doing the fairly complex activity of assembling a long gun from parts is to have an "untraceable" firearm. Why would you bring that gun out to shoot someone from your front yard since it is obviously yours?
Lower receivers always have serial numbers so it isn't like you can order this w/o that easily. Of course no investigation about that claim, which is irrelevant to the clueless shooter's "motive."
One lesson here: if all of your neighbors are Black! and you are White (even if you are married to a Black woman) your odds of being a victim of crime go up drastically.
Does anyone else find it very weird that the Times didn't mention anti White racism as a possible motive for this? Were the races reversed, you can bet the shooter's social media posts, etc. would be thoroughly examined and discussed.
Was he a Biden voter? Registered Democrat? Ex con?
No idea, since "gun violence" is the only explanation offered.Replies: @Wokechoke, @Gabe Ruth, @Erik L, @Jim Don Bob
I’m not clear on how a “ghost gun” is supposed to make it difficult to solve crimes. Obviously in this situation it would have no effect, but I mean more generally, how do serial numbers on guns help solve crimes?
Perps sometimes drop guns at the scene, If legally purchased they can be traced to buyers fairly easily.
Wounds can often be identified as being caused by certain kinds of firearms. That will narrow suspects somewhat. If in the pool of suspects some legally purchased that kind of gun, you go to the top of the list. If bullets are recovered, these can be matched to a specific gun (sometimes).
Also if recently fired, this adds to the evidence, though not conclusive by itself.
If a suspect is arrested or found to have a firearm but can't prove where they obtained it, then it may be stolen or at least evidence of criminal intent (not conclusive). If a perp has possession of a gun with a serial number reported stolen, then there is some 'splaing' to do.
The "ghost gun" hype is mostly hot air, however. Only useful if you are a hit man and like to drop your piece at the scene (as some old style Mafia hit guys did).
It is generally illegal to have a firearm w/o a serial number on it in your possession, that is a crime in itself. However the FBI has gotten good at using x-rays and other techniques to reveal serial numbers which were filed off.
Gun tracing isn't usually all that conclusive, but can be one element in a pattern or at least a possibility.
Same facts, slightly different order:
Mr. Keys, who was carrying a pistol in his waistband, and his wife, Charae Williams Keys, were getting into their car after a Father’s Day visit in 2021 with her grandparents
“Honey, it’s time to go see Meemaw and Pop-pop. Are you strapped?”
Things could be worse. Indianapolis is very similar in size and has significantly more murders.Replies: @SF middleroader
And New Orleans (where I now live for reasons I won’t bore you with) has 1/2 the population and double the murders.
Where did he get the Receiver from?
I’m asking for a friend.
The NYT leaves the followup for this case to the very end of the article.
Robert Thomas outcome.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/courts/2022/11/18/columbus-man-acquitted-of-causing-fatal-neighborhood-shooting/69651213007/
Elias Smith outcome.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-columbus-dispatch/20230725/281685439337698
To be fair to the Times, doesn’t sound like this killing had anything to do with Saint George Floyd. Didn’t have anything to do with the ‘pandemic,’ either.
Because then Cleveland and Cincinnati would want one too.Replies: @Reg Cæsar
Did you leave out a negative, or are you dissing the Buckeyes?
I am not in law enforcement but there are times when this is very helpful. Other times, not.
Perps sometimes drop guns at the scene, If legally purchased they can be traced to buyers fairly easily.
Wounds can often be identified as being caused by certain kinds of firearms. That will narrow suspects somewhat. If in the pool of suspects some legally purchased that kind of gun, you go to the top of the list. If bullets are recovered, these can be matched to a specific gun (sometimes).
Also if recently fired, this adds to the evidence, though not conclusive by itself.
If a suspect is arrested or found to have a firearm but can’t prove where they obtained it, then it may be stolen or at least evidence of criminal intent (not conclusive). If a perp has possession of a gun with a serial number reported stolen, then there is some ‘splaing’ to do.
The “ghost gun” hype is mostly hot air, however. Only useful if you are a hit man and like to drop your piece at the scene (as some old style Mafia hit guys did).
It is generally illegal to have a firearm w/o a serial number on it in your possession, that is a crime in itself. However the FBI has gotten good at using x-rays and other techniques to reveal serial numbers which were filed off.
Gun tracing isn’t usually all that conclusive, but can be one element in a pattern or at least a possibility.
I can't tease out the hispanic portion of whites either. Also, a murder by a white is more likely to be cleared than one by a black. Here in Vermont, murder clearance rate is basically 100%.
https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/asp/off_selection.aspReplies: @Almost Missouri, @Anon
Thanks.
Burn coal/pay toll: confirmed.
If it’s the same ratio as the FBI published in 2013, then about 40%, excluding uncoded Hispanics.
Interesting, but unsurprising. Still, that raises another question: Given that we keep hearing clearance rates have fallen below 50%, how do they know who so many perpetrators are? I suppose the difference could be witness and surveillance camera accounts, which could also explain why a lot of Hispanic perps get coded as white.
But the aggregate totals don’t seem to match either. According to your Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention site, they get the data from the standard FBI reports. (Why is the OJJDP aggregating FBI crime data? I dunno.) But in 2020, for example, the OJJDP site shows 18,073 total homicide offenders, while the FBI site (actually the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data site that the FBI link redirects to) shows 18,464. Meanwhile, the FBI reported 21,570 murders in 2020. I guess more than one murder per offender? But the FBI site says 18,718 homicide victims that year. No total seems to tie to any other total.
Looking back at the 2013 FBI report that was the basis of the Color of Crime report and my earlier comment, the report says 409 black-on-white homicides and 189 white (or Hispanic)-on-black homicides, yet the OJJDP site for the same year says 1146 black-on-white homicides and 407 white (or Hispanic)-on-black homicides, and the FBI/NACJD site says 674 and 403, respectively.
¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
If you stick around till 2026, maybe the FBI will deign to grace you with one of their many versions of the truth.
My God, it’s full of stars!
I can't tease out the hispanic portion of whites either. Also, a murder by a white is more likely to be cleared than one by a black. Here in Vermont, murder clearance rate is basically 100%.
https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/asp/off_selection.aspReplies: @Almost Missouri, @Anon
Should the data be filtered by justifiable versus non-justifiable homicide?
Do rates change if self defense and/or homicide by police are taken out?
And yes res, this could be another source of discrepancies.This implies rates of black predation on whites could be cut almost in half just by white women giving up on black guys . . . or by white guys going full Arab-mode and sequestering their women away from blacks.
It's win-win-win: fewer dead white women, fewer black convicts in jail, the embarrassingly high rate of interracial black out-murder will be cut almost in half overnight. What's not to like? Think of all the B!lack bodies that will be kept out of jail. That's common sense imprisonment reform!
Clueless younger Black! male shoots older White man.
So the Narrative is, "guns be bad."
Oh, and a "ghost gun" to boot.
No explanation offered as to why the shooter had assembled his AR from parts, as the NYT claims. Only reason I can think of is that said killer for some reason wasn't able to legally purchase a firearm. So some Black! killer is once again, is said to be a passive actor with no agency.
Free pass.
Very few people are murdered with long guns like this AR. And the only reason for doing the fairly complex activity of assembling a long gun from parts is to have an "untraceable" firearm. Why would you bring that gun out to shoot someone from your front yard since it is obviously yours?
Lower receivers always have serial numbers so it isn't like you can order this w/o that easily. Of course no investigation about that claim, which is irrelevant to the clueless shooter's "motive."
One lesson here: if all of your neighbors are Black! and you are White (even if you are married to a Black woman) your odds of being a victim of crime go up drastically.
Does anyone else find it very weird that the Times didn't mention anti White racism as a possible motive for this? Were the races reversed, you can bet the shooter's social media posts, etc. would be thoroughly examined and discussed.
Was he a Biden voter? Registered Democrat? Ex con?
No idea, since "gun violence" is the only explanation offered.Replies: @Wokechoke, @Gabe Ruth, @Erik L, @Jim Don Bob
Also weird is that the NYT didn’t harp on the AR15 being a “ghost gun”. But maybe it’s only white people who shouldn’t have them.
When I was growing up in rural Iowa, my Dad had a shotgun. My grandfather had a few more ballistic options in his home. Most of my friends' fathers had guns of one sort or another. And here's the thing: it was not a big deal. The existence of all these Deadly Instruments of Death all around me made very little impression. They were tools, and I knew some people -- hunters, etc. -- were more interested in them than I was, but guns just weren't of that much interest in the greater scheme of things. They had their place, and their uses, and they stayed there.
But when I moved overseas, I started meeting people from countries where guns are essentially banned, e.g. people from here in Hong Kong, and some from the UK. If the subject of guns ever came up -- usually in some accusatory tone in response to the USA's murder rate/urban violence -- I usually ended up completely nonplussed. It was impossible to talk to people about my own experiences with guns. Just the word itself seemed to make them uneasy and twitchy, as if by discussing how guns might be used for something other than murder, they were uttering blasphemous satanic incantations and calling down judgement on themselves.
This attitude has obviously spread to much of the US commentariat and Approved Good Persons. Guns aren't just icky anymore. They have dark, eldritch powers that might be invoked if they are summoned by name. Guns are vile, scheming parasites that possess and dominate their unfortunate hosts. They kill.
There's a return to magical thinking here, a pagan worldview in which objects have powers and must be appeased, or avoided altogether, lest they pollute the innocent humans who tragically come into contact with them.Replies: @Almost Missouri, @mmack, @International Jew, @Jim Don Bob, @Twinkie
I get funny looks when I wear my NRA hat in Canada.
i used to be in Columbus every year for 2 days in March, which is when the Arnold strength and fitness thing happens at the convention center. Arnold shows up in person and everything. it was cool back in the day, he would just walk around in the crowd and he might stop and take a photo with you. but now Arnold is old and annoying, and the prices for everything are much higher than they used to be, so i stopped going.
Columbus is not as bad as Cleveland or Cincinnati but it’s not great either. Ohio is home to the biggest collection of sucky cities in America, but nobody talks about that because nobody talks about Ohio unless they’re talking about Lebron James.
what’s particularly relevant (or not, depending on who you ask) is that Trump somehow won ALL the historically statistically important counties in a national Electoral College election…but somehow still lost the election. Ohio has a few of these counties.
this has never happened in history. no candidate won all of them and also lost the national election. now i suppose a once in history total fluke anomaly is possible. like the Patriots winning the Superbowl after being down 28-3. that had never happened in over 2000 NFL games. but i’m thinking it’s A LOT more likely that something else occurred which handed Biden the victory…
The old man sounds rather paranoid—might have a touch of schizophrenia, which is more common in blacks.
The NYT commenters are blaming availability of guns, although some are pointing out that, for example, Switzerland has a high rate of gun ownership but a low murder rate.Replies: @Reg Cæsar, @Fhhhfdfdjjj
Old boy probably has syphilis
“OK, let me describe the cast of characters in racial terms, which the NYT refused to do, but would have emphasized if the races were reversed.”
So you’re engaging in race baiting like the extreme left. I guess two wrongs make a right in your world.
I would be interested in seeing data on stolen guns. I think it’s pretty clear that most of these negro shootings are committed with guns not purchase legally and obtained after a waiting period.
Nothing ever in the news about guns being stolen from residences or stores. Where are they getting them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_r3ULoXuMYElias Smith couldn't quite recall Will Smith's exquisitely elaborate explanation for shooting the white girl amidst a field of snarling monsters, but he could remember to shoot the white.Replies: @Sir Jacob Rees-Dogg, @Fhhhfdfdjjj
By law, has to have an articulable reason to shoot, but he doesn’t to articulate it
When I was growing up in rural Iowa, my Dad had a shotgun. My grandfather had a few more ballistic options in his home. Most of my friends' fathers had guns of one sort or another. And here's the thing: it was not a big deal. The existence of all these Deadly Instruments of Death all around me made very little impression. They were tools, and I knew some people -- hunters, etc. -- were more interested in them than I was, but guns just weren't of that much interest in the greater scheme of things. They had their place, and their uses, and they stayed there.
But when I moved overseas, I started meeting people from countries where guns are essentially banned, e.g. people from here in Hong Kong, and some from the UK. If the subject of guns ever came up -- usually in some accusatory tone in response to the USA's murder rate/urban violence -- I usually ended up completely nonplussed. It was impossible to talk to people about my own experiences with guns. Just the word itself seemed to make them uneasy and twitchy, as if by discussing how guns might be used for something other than murder, they were uttering blasphemous satanic incantations and calling down judgement on themselves.
This attitude has obviously spread to much of the US commentariat and Approved Good Persons. Guns aren't just icky anymore. They have dark, eldritch powers that might be invoked if they are summoned by name. Guns are vile, scheming parasites that possess and dominate their unfortunate hosts. They kill.
There's a return to magical thinking here, a pagan worldview in which objects have powers and must be appeased, or avoided altogether, lest they pollute the innocent humans who tragically come into contact with them.Replies: @Almost Missouri, @mmack, @International Jew, @Jim Don Bob, @Twinkie
A couple of years ago, I was at an athletic event for one of my kids. The father of a teammate was there and started to badmouth the state where the event was (he’s from a neighboring state that is much more leftist). At some point, he started to go off about “all the stupid, evil gun owners in this state…” so I went over to him and said, “Hey, you might not say such broad-brush, insulting things about whole groups of people. We are here for the kids, not to bash other people over politics.”
At this point, he got belligerent and said, “Why? Are you a gun owner?” To which I responded, “Well, you never know, I might be.”
He then said, “Why would you have guns? What are you afraid of?”
I responded, “I am not afraid of anything – any more than I have car insurance, because I am afraid of accidents.” There was a silence, then he retorted, “I just think guns are evil.”
I finished the conversation with, “In that case, you might try not being so rude to people who have that kind of power and be civil instead.” After I said that, he had that “deer caught on a headlight” look for a bit and then walked off and sat elsewhere.
Afterwards, he apparently tried to get me in trouble with the coach, but the coach just shrugged it off. His kid didn’t stay on the team after that.
The thing I found galling wasn’t even that he had these outlandish eyes. It’s that he was that uncivil, hostile, and overbearing to a total stranger whom he just met. He just exuded a certain kind of imagined moral superiority. Were I a 20 year-old, I’d just have punched him on the face.
But, yeah, at least in this case, I was able to invoke the “dark, eldritch power” and make him go away. 😉
"Outlandish" here is both literally and figuratively the mot juste.Replies: @Twinkie
Were this Inner Appenzell before 1991, he could vote with his piece, but she couldn't with hers:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Riding_the_bus.jpg/440px-Riding_the_bus.jpgReplies: @Frau Katze, @Unladen Swallow, @Twinkie
Heh, I have civilian versions of both.
Commenter Frau Katze, “But Sultzberger is only a quarter Jew and an Episcopalian now!”
🙂 Katze has been getting increasing friction here lately. I wonder how long she’s going to stick around.
I'm asking for a friend.Replies: @Hunsdon
Don’t confuse people with facts.
That’s what this is all about. Always has been: negroes are extremely violent.
Thanks. Those are some significant discrepancies. Would be interesting to see if there is a pattern or an explanation.
The flat file format introduces some awkwardness: records have fields for "first offender", "second offender", etc., "first victim", "second victim", etc., and "count of victims". A query on the latter results in a count of records with more than one victim but not a count of the actual victims, for example.
These kinds of subtleties may evade the bureaucratic compilers of report totals, but I did check if correcting such a query would explain any discrepancy and the answer is no more than partially, so there are still more errors. (Even the of row and column totals are often off by one or two—and they can't plead "due to rounding" since we're talking about whole persons either dead or not dead. The point being that this database is not designed or maintained by cognitive A-teams.)
There may be innocent explanations for some of it. Later queries may include more crimes solved or "cleared", but still, my understanding is that most crimes are solved—even if the perps aren't yet convicted—in the first year, and that most crimes that don't have a lead by then never get solved, so for example, jumping from 409 perps to 1146 perps several years later on the same query of the same year seems remarkable but perhaps not impossible.
On reflection, I think that part of the problem is that they are tracking three different things (offenders, victims, homicide events) in a flat file that should properly be in three related tables mutually indexed.
The flat file format introduces some awkwardness: records have fields for “first offender”, “second offender”, etc., “first victim”, “second victim”, etc., and “count of victims”. A query on the latter results in a count of records with more than one victim but not a count of the actual victims, for example.
These kinds of subtleties may evade the bureaucratic compilers of report totals, but I did check if correcting such a query would explain any discrepancy and the answer is no more than partially, so there are still more errors. (Even the of row and column totals are often off by one or two—and they can’t plead “due to rounding” since we’re talking about whole persons either dead or not dead. The point being that this database is not designed or maintained by cognitive A-teams.)
There may be innocent explanations for some of it. Later queries may include more crimes solved or “cleared”, but still, my understanding is that most crimes are solved—even if the perps aren’t yet convicted—in the first year, and that most crimes that don’t have a lead by then never get solved, so for example, jumping from 409 perps to 1146 perps several years later on the same query of the same year seems remarkable but perhaps not impossible.
Do rates change if self defense and/or homicide by police are taken out?Replies: @Almost Missouri
If I understand their codebook correctly (no URL, button on site), the perp and victim totals include both felony murders and justifiable homicides, but the race-vs.-race crosstabs are only felony murders.
And yes res, this could be another source of discrepancies.
This implies rates of black predation on whites could be cut almost in half just by white women giving up on black guys . . . or by white guys going full Arab-mode and sequestering their women away from blacks.
It’s win-win-win: fewer dead white women, fewer black convicts in jail, the embarrassingly high rate of interracial black out-murder will be cut almost in half overnight. What’s not to like? Think of all the B!lack bodies that will be kept out of jail. That’s common sense imprisonment reform!
At this point, he got belligerent and said, "Why? Are you a gun owner?" To which I responded, "Well, you never know, I might be."
He then said, "Why would you have guns? What are you afraid of?"
I responded, "I am not afraid of anything - any more than I have car insurance, because I am afraid of accidents." There was a silence, then he retorted, "I just think guns are evil."
I finished the conversation with, "In that case, you might try not being so rude to people who have that kind of power and be civil instead." After I said that, he had that "deer caught on a headlight" look for a bit and then walked off and sat elsewhere.
Afterwards, he apparently tried to get me in trouble with the coach, but the coach just shrugged it off. His kid didn't stay on the team after that.
The thing I found galling wasn't even that he had these outlandish eyes. It's that he was that uncivil, hostile, and overbearing to a total stranger whom he just met. He just exuded a certain kind of imagined moral superiority. Were I a 20 year-old, I'd just have punched him on the face.
But, yeah, at least in this case, I was able to invoke the "dark, eldritch power" and make him go away. ;)Replies: @Almost Missouri
outlandish views?
“Outlandish” here is both literally and figuratively the mot juste.
I meant "outlandish ideas."
Though I don’t always agree with her, I would sorrow at another Rosie trajectory, not only because fratricide (siblicide?) is sorrowful, but also because I see Frau K as a reliable barometer of a certain type of normiecon sentiment, and her comments help calibrate where that sentiment is.
Can you imagine someone writing something similar about blacks, say, in response, another commenter writing about high black criminality?
"Blacks have the highest homicide rate per capita in the U.S."
"Oh, yeah? Well, that sounds racist, because blacks are not uniquely evil."
She strikes me as either a Jew pretending to be a non-Jew or a useful idiot "philosemite."
Another exceptionally annoying tendency she shares with Jack D is - after a lengthy argument - adopting the position of the other person suddenly and then acting as if she'd been saying it all along.Replies: @Frau Katze
Nothing ever in the news about guns being stolen from residences or stores. Where are they getting them?Replies: @Jenner Ickham Errican, @Jenner Ickham Errican, @Almost Missouri
One major source is straw purchases.
https://apnews.com/article/straw-purchases-firearms-guns-explainer-61cd09447ff41e887b2af1cde58dffaf
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-07/gun-dealers-story-2-straw-purchases
Nothing ever in the news about guns being stolen from residences or stores. Where are they getting them?Replies: @Jenner Ickham Errican, @Jenner Ickham Errican, @Almost Missouri
Cars.
Sometimes trains.
L.A. is wild, man:
AM, after a pointed rebuke a while back by me of FK (which seems to have made an impression on her—she’s recently cited it), I’ve left her alone, but in that rebuke warned her (rather bluntly) that her commenting style was going to result in an increasingly rough ride here.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/black-lives-matter-and-black-lives-murdered/#comment-6414973 (#279)
At the time, I was trying to figure out how genuine she was in her identity (i.e., type of commenter), which was either (on its face) retired ‘normie’ Boomer, or intentional troll of the same age cohort. (She was suspect, because ‘normie’ types are usually non-confrontational, and yet here she was, far from the comments section of the WSJ, and arguing with me—the noive, I tells ya!) I decided she probably is the former—of perhaps stubborn “normiecon sentiment” as you put it—so I have since let her be.
Despite my above criticism, I credit Frau Katze for recently besting Reg Cæsar in one of his stupid troll attempts:
https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-blank-state/#comment-6578255
Final verdict:
The following old Onion ‘op-ed’ nails Katze’s persona perfectly.
https://www.theonion.com/well-i-think-michael-jackson-looks-nice-1819583969
Nothing ever in the news about guns being stolen from residences or stores. Where are they getting them?Replies: @Jenner Ickham Errican, @Jenner Ickham Errican, @Almost Missouri
As Jenner says, mostly middlemen “straw purchases”. There was a story a few years ago about a guy supplying guns to street gangs in Chicago who went around Indiana to private sales and gun shows so that he didn’t have to sign any Federal forms. He’d come back with sack of low- and mediocre-quality handguns to unload on the streetkids, but they are indifferent about quality and price so he made a tidy profit on each trip. He (black) seemed more entrepreneurial than the the Tongans in the LATimes story, but despite the LAT’s author insisting that “Biden’s” new anti-straw purchasing law is essential for prosecution, the Chicago guy was caught and punished anyway, despite being more careful than the Tongans about not leaving a paper trail.
"Outlandish" here is both literally and figuratively the mot juste.Replies: @Twinkie
The bane of typing on iPhone/iPad, thy name is auto-correct.
I meant “outlandish ideas.”
My problem with that commenter isn’t the “normiecon” sentiment (which I can get in spades elsewhere – we don’t need her for that) so much as sophistic argumentation, especially where Jews are concerned. She literally wrote the following once:
If that’s not meant to obfuscate, handwave, and deceive, I don’t know what is.
Can you imagine someone writing something similar about blacks, say, in response, another commenter writing about high black criminality?
“Blacks have the highest homicide rate per capita in the U.S.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, that sounds racist, because blacks are not uniquely evil.”
She strikes me as either a Jew pretending to be a non-Jew or a useful idiot “philosemite.”
Another exceptionally annoying tendency she shares with Jack D is – after a lengthy argument – adopting the position of the other person suddenly and then acting as if she’d been saying it all along.
I’ve defended Chinese immigrants to Canada, saying they make good citizens and been set upon by Men of Unz who don’t like anyone but whites.
I provided you with some stats on skin cancer at high altitudes and said I was sorry to hear about your brother-in-law. You did not respond to me and the next day you were making snarky comments about me.
Nice guy.Replies: @Twinkie
Unbelievable. Why would that be? I’m guessing it must be the climate change thats affecting New Orleans.
Can you imagine someone writing something similar about blacks, say, in response, another commenter writing about high black criminality?
"Blacks have the highest homicide rate per capita in the U.S."
"Oh, yeah? Well, that sounds racist, because blacks are not uniquely evil."
She strikes me as either a Jew pretending to be a non-Jew or a useful idiot "philosemite."
Another exceptionally annoying tendency she shares with Jack D is - after a lengthy argument - adopting the position of the other person suddenly and then acting as if she'd been saying it all along.Replies: @Frau Katze
I don’t know why you keep complaining about me. I’ve never used racial slurs about any group.
I’ve defended Chinese immigrants to Canada, saying they make good citizens and been set upon by Men of Unz who don’t like anyone but whites.
I provided you with some stats on skin cancer at high altitudes and said I was sorry to hear about your brother-in-law. You did not respond to me and the next day you were making snarky comments about me.
Nice guy.
I’ve defended Chinese immigrants to Canada, saying they make good citizens and been set upon by Men of Unz who don’t like anyone but whites.
I provided you with some stats on skin cancer at high altitudes and said I was sorry to hear about your brother-in-law. You did not respond to me and the next day you were making snarky comments about me.
Nice guy.Replies: @Twinkie
Oh, please. Don’t play games. When people critique Jews (the way you critique, say, blacks), your response was:
This is a straw man designed to obfuscate and divert. Do you address this? No, you just divert to something else again, namely:
… all the while taking a crack at “Men of Unz,” which you – like Jack D – use as a code word against some amorphous straw man group of non-Jewish white men to whom you assign projected racism.
You clearly did not read many of the comments that were posted long before yours that discussed altitude and skin cancer.
Nothing snarky there. These are earnest critiques of how you argue – by straw men, diversion, etc. – instead of addressing the substance of your interlocutors.
They actually say it is higher than that, but they count Hispanic killings of blacks as part of "white" killings of blacks. Subtracting out the known Hispanic perps still leaves over a hundred killings. Maybe there are still unknown Hispanics among those perps or other mis-codings, but net-net, the residual is probably more than ten.Probably over 1000, maybe a lot over, but the number is (deliberately?) obscure.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/girls-unhappiest-relative-to-boys-in-most-gender-equal-countries/#comment-6178887
I also noticed just now that the indefatigable res added a couple of data-heavy comments to my above-linked comment.Replies: @David, @Danindc, @Almost Missouri
Speaking of mis-codings, those may be common. Below the MORE tag are examples. They’re rapists rather than murderers, because sex offender registries make it much easier to match a photo to a conviction and race, but there is no reason to suppose that homicide records are more accurate than rape records.