Monday, January 5, 2009

The Guns of Brittin

I've never owned a gun. Outside of my time in the Air Force (for training purposes) and one misguided hunting expedition I don't handle guns. This is because I don't feel the need. If I ever live in a neighborhood where I don't, I want to be able to get one. One of the big reasons given for the need for gun control laws comes from the (supposedly) common sense argument that more guns means more gun deaths.

How to explain this, then? It turns out that North Dakota had two murders in all of 2008. Both of them were the result of stabbings. Obviously North Dakota's strong gun laws are to thank for this remarkable record. Except North Dakota doesn't rank very high on the Brady Campaign's list of good soldiers in the war for stronger gun control laws.

One might infer from this that gun control laws don't deter gun violence. Or maybe North Dakotans are just so darn nice.

(P.S., Brittin is a town in North Dakota. If they were awesome they'd change the name to Brixton. If you don't get the reference, shame on you. Your pennance is to watch this.)

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