jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com wrote:
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> Why do you say 'probably' ...? Most murder in the US happens during the comission of a violent crime. By violent criminals. People make the mistake of hearing that many murderers know their victim and think it must be two drunk idiots -- one of which would be alive today, the other of which wouldn't be in prison today -- if there just wasn't a gun in the house.
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> Well, I don't know a lot about 'interesting sociological questions' but I know that there are a lot of drunk idiot relationships in the US tonight that have guns nearby that will result in two hangovers and another round tomorrow night and zero gun play.
>
> It's absurd to believe that access to a gun makes you a criminal or induces criminality any more than having access to a TV makes you a pornographer.
In Israel, since the beginning of the second Intifada, there has been a large increase in the demand for security for almost every public place, be it restaurant, school, pub, shopping center, grocery, etc. In order to staff these places, there has been a significant rise in private security guards, who are then licensed weapons. In this same period, there has been a rise in gun in, as the title of the Ha'aretz article from several months ago, a "Sharp rise in number of women killed by men carrying licensed guns"
Bryan
Sharp rise in number of women killed by men carrying licensed guns
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/650552.html
27/11/2005
Some 47 percent of women murdered by their partners or relatives in the past five years were killed by security guards, soldiers or police officers who carried licensed weapons, according to a report compiled by a team of Haifa University researchers studying the impact of the intifada on the lives of Jewish and Arab women.
The data compiled by researchers on behalf of "Isha le Isha," a Haifa feminist center, indicates that between October 2000 and April 2005, 38 women were murdered with the use of firearms, compared to 14 women in the four years preceding the intifada.
One of the factors the researchers ascribed to the increase in murders is the significant rise in the number of weapons issued to security guards, reserve soldiers and others linked to security services during the course of the intifada.
Some 18 of 38 murders committed within families during the intifada were carried out by security guards and reserve or regular soldiers, who used their personal weapons.
"Paradoxically, the existence of weapons, mainly in the hands of men, aimed at increasing the public's sense of security, increases the sense of lack of security in the private sphere," the report states.
In August, an inter-ministerial panel established by former Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz determined that too many weapons are being held in Israel, that there are too many armed guards, that a reevaluation of establishments that necessitate armed guards should be made. The panel was established in light of the high number of violent incidents, including the murder of women, involving security guards' weapons.
The panel found that regulation stipulating that firearms be held by the guards only during work hours is not upheld. It proposed reducing to a minimum the number of permits allowing guards to take their weapons home after work. The panel called for personal interviews for all security guards requesting the permit.