I shouldn't have been surprised by the unrepentant nature of Wayne LaPierre's statement this morning, but I was. There is no recognition that more guns equal more deaths. Minnesota has had two horrific school shootings, one at Rocori High School and one at the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Both shooters were troubled young men who stole their weapons from law enforcement family members. The Rocori shooter's father was a Deputy County Sheriff and the Red Lake shooter's grandfather was a tribal police officer. At the end of the wiki/MN protect pieces about the two crimes I posted below the scroll I'll post a longer piece about the Harvard Studies on correlation between guns and crime.
the wiki: The Rocori High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred at Rocori High School on September 24, 2003 in Cold Spring, Minnesota, United States. The shooting was perpetrated by 15-year-old John Jason McLaughlin who murdered students Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins.
On the day of the shooting, McLaughlin brought a loaded .22-caliber handgun to school with the intention of killing Bartell. He confronted Bartell in a basement hallway and fired two shots at him. The first shot wounded Bartell slightly in the chest while the second shot missed and hit Rollins in the neck. McLaughlin pursued Bartell as he fled into the gym and shot him in the forehead. At that point, gym coach Mark Johnson claims that McLaughlin aimed the gun at him. Johnson said he approached McLaughlin, raised his hand and shouted "No," and that McLaughlin then removed the bullets from the weapon and dropped it. Johnson then secured the weapon and escorted the boy to the school office.
Protect MN: In 2003, Freshman Jason McLaughlin killed two of his classmates at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, MN, using a handgun his father — a Deputy
Stearns County Sheriff kept in a room that was "generally" locked. (Minnesota law requires that loaded guns must not be accessible to anyone under 14.)
the wiki: The Red Lake massacre was an incident of spree killing that occurred in two places on the Ojibwe Red Lake reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. On the morning of March 21, 2005, 16-year-old Jeffrey Weise (Ojibwe) killed his grandfather and his companion. Taking his grandfather's police weapons and vest, Weise drove his police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he had been a student some months before.
He shot and killed seven people at the school, beginning with a security guard at the entrance, and wounded five others. The dead included a teacher and four students. Weise exchanged gunfire with police who quickly arrived at the school; after being wounded, he committed suicide in a vacant classroom.
December 14, 2012 ·
Harvard Injury Control Research Center
Homicide
1. Where there are more guns there is more homicide (literature review).
Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the US, where there are more guns, both men and women are at higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide.
Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David. Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 2004; 9:417-40.
2. Across high-income nations, more guns = more homicide.
We analyzed the relationship between homicide and gun availability using data from 26 developed countries from the early 1990s. We found that across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides. These results often hold even when the United States is excluded.
Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Firearm availability and homicide rates across 26 high income countries. Journal of Trauma. 2000; 49:985-88.
3. Across states, more guns = more homicide
Using a validated proxy for firearm ownership, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and homicide across 50 states over a ten year period (1988-1997).
After controlling for poverty and urbanization, for every age group, people in states with many guns have elevated rates of homicide, particularly firearm homicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership levels and homicide rates across U.S. regions and states, 1988-1997. American Journal of Public Health. 2002: 92:1988-1993.
4. Across states, more guns = more homicide (2)
Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and homicide across states, 2001-2003. We found that states with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups, after accounting for rates of aggravated assault, robbery, unemployment, urbanization, alcohol consumption, and resource deprivation (e.g., poverty). There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm homicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. State-level homicide victimization rates in the U.S. in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001-2003. Social Science and Medicine. 2007; 64:656-64.
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