Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Hands & Feet

How easy is it to kill a man with your bare hands?



It happens more than twice a day, on average. Fists and feet were responsible for 745 murders in 2010, or 5.7 percent of all murders that year, according to FBI statistics. (The data on this have been remarkably stable in recent years. In the five preceding years, the percentage of murders perpetrated by fists or feet fluctuated between 5.6 and 6.1.)


Anecdotal evidence and boxing mechanics are discussed as well, but what is not mentioned is that a stat I vaguely recall that hands and feet cause more deaths than the dreaded evil "Assault Weapons".

"Assault Weapons" i.e. semi-auto rifles would only be a subset of All Rifles in the FBI Uniform Crime Report. In 2010 Rifles where used in 358 murders less than half the number for hands & feet. That trend continues back through the years.

It is a nice little stat to have in your toolbox and pull out next time you hear calls to renew the "Assault Weapons Ban". 

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Black Sunday


...


"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with."

-- Douglas Adams