Heebie Jeebie
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2013
- Messages
- 5,016
- Reaction score
- 1,290
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
He addressed 10 myths fostered by the press. Key among them:
— Mass shootings are on the rise. He used FBI statistics and found they have long averaged in the 20s per year, rarely going over 25.
— Video games play a role. The study found no link between video games and expanded violence, and blamed the media and lawmakers for using the entertainment industry as a “convenient scapegoat.”
— Profiling will help catch killers before they act. The study found that most are white and about 30 years old, characteristics that “are fairly prevalent in the general society.”
— Expanded background checks will stop killers from getting guns. The study cites a study from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns that in 93 recent mass shootings, the gun buyers didn’t have a criminal or mental health record. “People cannot be denied their Second Amendment rights just because they look strange or act in an odd manner,” wrote Fox and DeLateur.
— An assault weapons ban would work. They found that the typical weapon used is a pistol, not an “assault weapon” like the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. Assault weapons were used in 24.6 percent of mass shootings, handguns in 47.9 percent. And limiting the size of magazines weapons can carry wouldn’t help, they said, because any ban would impact new sales and “there is an ample supply of large capacity magazines already in circulation.”
Crime study: Handguns, not 'assault rifles,' used in most mass shootings | WashingtonExaminer.com
— Mass shootings are on the rise. He used FBI statistics and found they have long averaged in the 20s per year, rarely going over 25.
— Video games play a role. The study found no link between video games and expanded violence, and blamed the media and lawmakers for using the entertainment industry as a “convenient scapegoat.”
— Profiling will help catch killers before they act. The study found that most are white and about 30 years old, characteristics that “are fairly prevalent in the general society.”
— Expanded background checks will stop killers from getting guns. The study cites a study from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns that in 93 recent mass shootings, the gun buyers didn’t have a criminal or mental health record. “People cannot be denied their Second Amendment rights just because they look strange or act in an odd manner,” wrote Fox and DeLateur.
— An assault weapons ban would work. They found that the typical weapon used is a pistol, not an “assault weapon” like the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. Assault weapons were used in 24.6 percent of mass shootings, handguns in 47.9 percent. And limiting the size of magazines weapons can carry wouldn’t help, they said, because any ban would impact new sales and “there is an ample supply of large capacity magazines already in circulation.”
Crime study: Handguns, not 'assault rifles,' used in most mass shootings | WashingtonExaminer.com