My Friend The REASONIST

    Ya never know who life’s going to toss across the path in front of you.  Some people will be interesting, others not so much, some nice, others as wicked as the day is long, some jolly, some angry…  You just never know. 

    A few months back I stumbled upon an interesting individual on Twitter @TheReasonist, after a few pokes and jabs were sent back and forth on of all things, I think it was on a 3/8” bullet hole causing a Hollywood style rapid decompression on commercial aircraft in flight (won’t happen, aircraft have lots of holes and lots of pressurization leaks) either way, “Follows” were exchanged.    Every now and again TheReasonist will pop in on Twitter with a comment on one of my stories, normally with an opposing view, he/she, I don’t know which but I’ll go with he (in the hopes its she, just to give a razzing), he has a definite left leaning view on subjects and me… well I’m hard right (could be considered an understatement).  TheReasonist desires managed equal end result for all regardless of ability or effort, myself, I choose the independence to succeed or fail on my own merit and have little sympathy for those not willing to work for what they want.  As different as we are I enjoy the banter, he isn’t the traditional liberal, resorting to personal attacks and name calling when confronted with facts that contradict his feelings and assumptions (he will use the “subject jumping” tactic now and again).  That not to say he will automatically accept the facts neither, when I see @TheReasonist come up on the screen I know I’d better clear the next hour (plus) for the upcoming debate.  

    Inevitably he’s going to drift into gun control, that’s fine by me, the arguments, facts, points and counter points are almost second nature now.  Liberals never bothered to send out new talking points after their first set had been discredited.  With the same tired emotional calls “to save one child”, “no one needs large capacity magazines” or “just point the single shot shotgun at the door and pull the trigger” (nice suggestion Biden), I could cut & past a rebuttal with my eyes closed.  This past week I had just that kind of a debate with my friend… The Reasonist

 

@ The Reasonist

                Some aren’t capable or rational choices….
                It’s a numbers game.  The gun murder
                Numbers are simply too high to ignore.

 

“The gun murder numbers are simply too high to ignore” that was my cue… especially with “It’s a numbers game.”
I love numbers, cold hard FACTS.  I craw through government reports, statics and .pdf files as a hobby, if you know where to look you can find out all kinds of information but that’s a story for another time.  I came back with a stack of replies to his statement. 

@TheTomcatBlog

                So condemn, limit, withhold from those

                that are capable of making rational choices?

@TheTomcatBlog

                Society can only advance as far as its

                lowest common denominator?

Then I tossed in an apple and orange set of numbers to see if they were really “simply too high to ignore”.

@TheTomcatBlog

                “1300 lives lost and 120,000 injuries caused” Farm Accidents…

                Is this acceptable so you can have your corn flakes? Lowest
                common denominator?
 

@TheTomcatBlog

                “it’s a numbers game”

There was a significant delay followed by some subject jumping but he came back to my reply, for the most part I got the response I expected.  The numbers weren’t too high to ignore after all.  Even at many times higher. (By the way I didn’t say farming should be stopped, I asked a question…) after all 132,000 deaths and injuries is a big number.  Too big to ignore?

@ The Reasonist

                 Just don’t get where you get the “farming should be stopped” bit…

                  Farming feeds people.  More would die w/o it… not so of guns.
 

 

 

Here are the cold raw numbers, the stats in “the numbers game” if you will.

Farm related deaths are 26.1 per 100,000

            Gun related homicides are 0.65 per 100,000

But to add a wrinkle to the story, consider removing the gang on gang homicides the drug activity (deal gone bad) homicides… How likely is it that John Q. Public will be involved in a gun related homicide?  The number drops to 0.216 per 100,000.  John Q. Public is 120 times more likely to be run-over by Massey Ferguson than get lead poisoning from Smith & Wesson, but that’s not the story that fits the agenda, not the story promoted by the main stream media.  Gun violence numbers are padded to make it look like a crises.  When a criminal is justly shot by a police officer it’s counted in the gun death stats reported by the news.  When a home invader is shot by a mother protecting her children, same, added to the gun death stats reported by the news.  

    According to a Department of Justice study, 2/3 of gun homicides are related to gang violence and drug activity.  Let’s say the most stringent gun control measures that could be imagined were passed today, would the groups involved in illicit activities say “Yes, we smuggle drugs… OK, we’re involved in human trafficking… But GUN’s, NO WAY! We draw the line at getting involved with guns.”  Will John Q. Public be safer?  Or will John Q. Public now be easy picken’s for some really evil effing people?  Will gun related homicides drop below 0.65 per 100,000 when only the most evil and violent of our society are armed?  I think it possibly could decline but John Q. will be answering to new found MASTERS…

    But if its really all about the “numbers” and “saving just one child” here’s a fresh statistic for you, Researchers at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park estimate more than 3,000 annual teen deaths (age 15-18) nationwide from texting while driving and 300,000 injuries.  According to the Children’s Defense Fund, gun related homicides of teens between the ages of 15-19 (a larger sampling) came in at 1,621 and injuries from gun assaults amounted to 12,932.

 

After all it is… “a numbers game” and “simply too high to ignore.”   

Sometimes you have to compare

Apples to Oranges to gain perspective
Hope to hear from you soon
My Friend

The TOMCAT

 A Trailing Note:  I don’t mind if people live their lives guided by their “Feelings”, I don’t mind if people make their choices based on their “Assumptions”…  But when they feel the urge to tell me what I should be able to do (or not), when they decide to dictate limits to me or place demands on me… They best be armed with the facts, not feelings.