WaPo: statistician at 538 debunks gun control myths

[Angel Eyes]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-used-to-think-gun-control-was-the-answer-my-research-told-me-otherwise/2017/10/03/d33edca6-a851-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html?utm_term=.9bef823e2a2d

Before I started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate me. I wished the National Rifle Association would stop blocking common-sense gun-control reforms such as banning assault weapons, restricting silencers, shrinking magazine sizes and all the other measures that could make guns less deadly.

Then, my colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States, and I wound up frustrated in a whole new way. We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I’d lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence. The best ideas left standing were narrowly tailored interventions to protect subtypes of potential victims, not broad attempts to limit the lethality of guns.

Not surprised by the findings.  Quite surprised that The Washington Post published it. 

Good ammo (heh) for debating a hoplophobe.

[griz]

Yea, "limiting the lethality of guns" quickly runs in the the same problems one would have in making hammers less ouchy when you hit your thumb, but still having a tool that a carpenter can use.  It is surprising they published it though.

[K Frame]

What I don't understand is that every time one of these incidents happens there's a hue and cry about saving lives, yet there's no similar reaction whenever someone uses a car, van, or truck in a similar fashion.

And, the daily death toll from motor vehicle deaths is often far greater than those from gunshots. Yet there's no MATVC (Mothers Again Trucks, Vans and Cars) lobbying congress to DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILLRUNS?

[Hawkmoon]

What I don't understand is that every time one of these incidents happens there's a hue and cry about saving lives, yet there's no similar reaction whenever someone uses a car, van, or truck in a similar fashion.

And, the daily death toll from motor vehicle deaths is often far greater than those from gunshots. Yet there's no MATVC (Mothers Again Trucks, Vans and Cars) lobbying congress to DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILLRUNS?

That's because there's no NTVA (National Truck and Van Association) they can prop up and point to as the source of all evil. I think we should create the NTVA, register the NTVA-ILA as a lobbying organization, and see who salutes.

[K Frame]

That's because there's no NTVA (National Truck and Van Association) they can prop up and point to as the source of all evil. I think we should create the NTVA, register the NTVA-ILA as a lobbying organization, and see who salutes.

But what about NASCAR?

[Hawkmoon]

But what about NASCAR?

Call me when someone drives a NASCAR Busch Cup car down Martin Luther King Boulevard, knocking off a few dozen pedestrians. Then we'll talk about NASCAR.

[AJ Dual]

I guess there's a chance that the honest fraction of the anti-gun side that is genuinely concerned about crime and death will listen to the data-driven people on their side.

A chance.

For the rest, it doesn't matter. Gun control is at best just a proxy battlefront in the Culture War or the ongoing Cold Civil War we have. At worst, gun control is a wedge issue and a club in that war.

The author even indicates in a sideways fashion that she gets this:

By the time we published our project, I didn’t believe in many of the interventions I’d heard politicians tout. I was still anti-gun, at least from the point of view of most gun owners, and I don’t want a gun in my home, as I think the risk outweighs the benefits. But I can’t endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them. Policies that often seem as if they were drafted by people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news.

[Pb]

Some gun controllers honestly (and mistakenly) believe they are trying to save lives.

Others have a moral revulsion against guns and gun owners and want to ban guns no matter if it makes a difference or not. (very common)

Some just want to be able control other people (politicians).