plagueinjected:
http://gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/6.1/gun_facts_6_1_screen.pdf

According to this, it is a myth that crime has fallen in Australia since gun control laws came in

I just had a quick look, and yeh, Australia may have more violent crime, but how much of that is gun crime? Also what were the fatalities? We may be more violent, but im going to say in confidence that we have much less death and murder per capita. You cant massacre with a knife, with a gun you can drop a whole lot of people very quickly, I’d much rather see no guns but have more “violent” crime because at least you have a better chance of survival…

Also Video Games do increase aggression, but increasing crime is major bull. If anything it provides an outlet to vent aggression, and I find that after having a good rage I cool down very quick and return to normal, whereas if someone really shits me I can be pissy for days

Patrick Vuleta:
Couple of comments…

The American constitutional right to bear arms only supports the militia’s right to bear arms. Which is the National Guard. This has been supported over and over in the American Supreme Court in favour of gun control laws.

This was once the case.

However, in recent decades the Court has ruled in favour of a right to bear arms.

I don’t know if it’s intentional but the picture used above ‘Better Policing’ is either from, or directly reminiscent of that recent video depicting three of the NYPD’s finest shooting a guy who was homeless and mentally ill in a crowded street. Admittedly the guy was carrying a knife, but had done nothing threatening except back away from 3 heavily armed cops.

Good thing that they were able to shoot him so many times that they killed him AND got a handful of bystanders with stray bullets.

So that makes me think that maybe it’s a bad idea to have guns walking around in public at all, even if they are held by police. Given that the NSW constabulary have demonstrated they’re more than capable of killing a mentally troubled guy with just tasers and pepper spray along with being piled on by 6 cops, I’d say we’ve proven we’re capable of handling any situation, including flagrant police brutality without firearms.

So gun control is great, but I think everyone should be included. Plus, having been through several Indian airports, I can vouch for the fact that having guys wandering around everywhere in camouflage with assault rifles does NOT promote an atmosphere of safety and relaxation….

Patrick Vuleta:
According to the ABS myths perpetrated by the media are myths. :P

While researching this article I came across a publication by ABS (or whoever collected statistics on this) lamenting how many in the media and private interest groups twist crime statistics into saying crime has gone up, when it’s really gone down.

Link?

While researching this article I came across a publication by ABS (or whoever collected statistics on this) lamenting how many in the media and private interest groups twist crime statistics into saying crime has gone up, when it’s really gone down.

According to this, it is a myth that crime has fallen in Australia since gun control laws came in

handsomesandwich:

This also ignores the fact gun crime has been dropping in the US and relative to almost everything else, smoking, eating, etc it kills very few people.

Tell that to someone who has had a family member murdered and I’m pretty sure you would get a kick in the face.

On the article however, it’s well written and it makes some good points. On the topic of violent tendencies being noticeable in males only (however short that period is), it should be noted that the vast majority of violent crime is committed by males which means that having no appreciable affect in females is not nearly as significant as it sounds.

inaugral: I didnt want to write a novel in the comments section.

That’s fine. I’m just interested in the topic. Tends to spew out at unforeseen moments lol.

Except that is not begging the question, it is raising it. Begging the question is a circular argument where the answer or solution is embedded in the premise.

Just saying, Mr Radioguy…

The American constitutional right to bear arms only supports the militia’s right to bear arms. Which is the National Guard. This has been supported over and over in the American Supreme Court in favour of gun control laws.

Second, the War on Drugs is exactly the kind of thing that’s causing ineffective policing. The Baltimore example I gave was an example of how policing switched from focusing on drugs (outright ignoring them) to focusing on guns and resulted in improvements.

There are more gun stores than Starbucks and McDonalds COMBINED… about 51,000 gun stores 11,000 Starbuck 13,000 McDonalds

There are hundreds of millions of guns in the US – The most armed society in the world – about 90 per 100 people as of 2007 – next closest is India with about 4 per 100 people then China about 3 per 100

With that many guns in circulation – in a culture like that – no wonder they have more gun crime of that type than anywhere else in the world…

spoidar: It’s more “constitutional right”, rather than a “God given right”

My read is that America don’t see any difference between the two.

Anyway, this dicussion needs to be more logical instead of jumping to try and prove/disprove video games effects. For starters, these kind of mass murders are only happening in America, whose gun laws aren’t as strict compared to the rest of the world. Likewise, no other country in the world has a gun culture like America. Already it’s easy to see what’s going wrong here. 100% of the people committing these acts usually have known underlying mental/anger issues to begin with, while 99% (guessing here) of people who play games do not go out and commit crimes, much less because of them. Lastly, violence has existed as long as humans have, so why would they think it’s just one little thing causing it? If we banned all video games and these murders still occured (and they woud obviously) what would they blame then? Movies? Angry rap and rock music? How much do we have to ban before they realise a lack of mental healthcare and over importance of gun violence are the real issues here?

This also ignores the fact gun crime has been dropping in the US and relative to almost everything else, smoking, eating, etc it kills very few people.

gammad: Your version of history is a bit vague, the assassination is only 1 part, it has more to do with the tripple alliances, the hurt feelings from the Franco Prussian war and the imperialism that occurred during the Victorian era. The great war was inevitable, even had he not been assassinated the war would’ve occurred anyway, Germany already was gearing up for war well before the war had even started, it had plans already laid out ready to invade France and Belgium. This just gave them an excuse to do it. Hence why the Kaiser gets more blame for the war than Franz Ferdinand.

I didnt want to write a novel in the comments section.

inaugral:
History would tell you that World war one started because of a trivial assasination of a single archduke. For one nations national pride over 37 (estimated) million people died.

Your version of history is a bit vague, the assassination is only 1 part, it has more to do with the tripple alliances, the hurt feelings from the Franco Prussian war and the imperialism that occurred during the Victorian era. The great war was inevitable, even had he not been assassinated the war would’ve occurred anyway, Germany already was gearing up for war well before the war had even started, it had plans already laid out ready to invade France and Belgium. This just gave them an excuse to do it. Hence why the Kaiser gets more blame for the war than Franz Ferdinand.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/counterpoint/mike-ward/3991432

“Video games and Violence”

EDIT: YUP ITS THE ONE

excerpt:
“So the first thing I did was got a proxy for demand for videogames in different areas of the country, which is the number of video games stores, and related that to the amount of crime in each of these areas. And I found that when the number of stores increased in an area, the amount of…a number of different measures of crime actually fall. That begs the question; why does this happen?”

one of the things they said was;
when you plot all the computer game stores in america, the places with the most game stores have a lower gun crime rate.

the other thing they mentioned;
violent games DID lead to violent emotions, however these emotions left immediately or soon after the gaming session.

im gunna have to try and hunt it down now…

Read full article here:
http://www.freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/