Gun Control Debate in America Ignores the Obvious

The current hullabaloo over proposed “assault rifle” gun control in America has—fairly typically for liberals—deliberately ignored the most obvious factor in the equation: the fact that black handgun violence is responsible for the vast majority of violent deaths in the U.S. and that so-called “assault rifles” are a statistically insignificant part of the equation.

The recent tragic and high profile school shootings by some deranged lunatic have spurred liberals of all sorts on once again to ban what they have dubbed as “assault rifles” (even though they have little idea of what those words actually mean) as if that will somehow cure America of its “gun violence” culture.

However, the reality is that gun crime in America is overwhelmingly black, and of handgun in origin. According to a a study published in the The Atlantic Cities titled “The Geography of US Gun Violence,” over 30,000 people died as a result of gunshots in 2011 in America.

Maps produced by the Center for Disease Control of the major areas in whcih these shootings took place, reveals all that is needed to be known. In the first map, above, a diagram was made of the overall rate of gun-related deaths per 100,000 people by metro.

The rates vary substantially from a high of 32.8 in New Orleans to a low of 3.6 in Boston. Birmingham has the second highest rate with 20.5, followed by Memphis with 19.8. Las Vegas (17.6) and Jacksonville (17.5) round out the top five metro rates.

After Boston, the metros with the lowest rates include San Jose (3.8), followed by Providence (4.1), New York (4.8), and Hartford (4.8).

Race of course  factors into gun death at the metro level. The share of the population that is black is positively related to both the overall rate of gun death (.56) and even more so with gun-related homicides (.72).

The pattern is similar for the share of the population that is comprised of young black males which is also positively related to the overall rate of gun death (.55) and murder by gun (.70).

Cities have even higher rates of gun death, and, once again, they are the blackest areas of America:

Cities with the Highest Rates of Total Gun-Related Deaths (per 100,000 people)
Rank	City	City Rate	Metro Rate	City/Metro Ratio
1	New Orleans	69.1	32.8	2.1
2	Detroit	41.4	14.8	2.8
3	Las Vegas	36.9	17.6	2.1
4	Miami	33.5	11.7	2.9
5	Baltimore	33.1	15.2	2.2
6	St. Louis	31.1	14.0	2.2
7	Richmond	29.9	15.7	1.9
8	Memphis	25.5	19.8	1.3
9	Cleveland	25.2	10.9	2.3
10	Philadelphia	24.3	12.4	2.0

From the Washington Post, a breakdown of gun violence in New York City [The Color of Murder and Gun Violence in New York] :

“In short, 95.1 percent of all murder victims and 95.9 percent of all shooting victims in New York City are black or Hispanic. And 90.2 percent of those arrested for murder and 96.7 percent of those arrested for shooting someone are black and Hispanic. I don’t even know where to begin to describe the horror I still feel looking at those numbers. But the word ‘hunted’ comes to mind.”

The city of Chicago, where handguns are already outlawed, is a case study in why black people should be barred from firearm ownership [Chicago Murder Rate Tops Afghan Death Toll]: A WND review of the Chicago Police Department Murder Analysis reports from 2003 to 2011 provides a statistical breakdown of the demographics of both the victims and offenders in the 4,265 murders in Chicago over that time period.

Of the victims of murder in Chicago from 2003 to 2011, an average of 77 percent had a prior arrest history, with a high of 79 percent of the 436 murdered in Chicago in 2010 having arrest histories.

For the same 2003-2011 period, blacks were the victims of 75 percent of 4,265 murders. Blacks also were the offenders in 75 percent of the murders.

According to 2010 U.S. Census information, Chicago has a population of 2,695,598 people. The city is 33 percent black, 32 percent white (not Hispanic), and 30 percent Hispanic or Latino in origin.

For the 2003-2011 period, whites were nearly 6 percent of the victims and accused of carrying out 4 percent of the murders.

For the 2003-2011 period, Hispanics or Latinos were 19 percent of the victims and 20 percent of the offenders.

Between 2003 and 2011, 4,265 people were murdered in the city of Chicago. In 2012 alone, 512 people were murdered in the city.

Operation Enduring Freedom, the name for the war in Afghanistan, which started Oct. 7, 2001, has seen a total of 2,166 killed. The war has been ongoing for 11 years, 3 months and one week.

Operation Iraqi Freedom, the name for the war in Iraq, which started March 20, 2003, and ended Dec. 15, 2011, saw a total of 4,422 killed.

In other words, America’s problem is not the occasional deranged lunatic shooting in a school, but persistent, ongoing, Third World violent gang warfare.

Once again, liberals will ignore the reality of race rather than face its obvious consequences.