Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Damn Your Ground: Gun Zealot Castle Doctrine Predictably Increases Homicides Everywhere Without Decreasing Crime Anywhere

Dylan Scott reports at TPM:
Researchers at Georgia State and Texas A&M universities used different methodologies and data sources to reach their conclusions, but they ended up in the same place: More people are killed after these laws are passed. Researchers at Texas A&M University, for a study published in the Journal of Human Resources, concluded that homicides had increased by 8 percent in the more than 20 states that had passed "castle doctrine" laws, many of which include Stand Your Ground provisions. That equals 600 additional homicides every year in those states, they wrote. At the same time, however, the researchers found no detectable decrease in burglary, robbery or aggravated assault.
Act Surprised. Of course, gun-nuttery is rarely about self defense anyway, except in the sense of the ritual defense of threatened bearings of white racist patriarchal selfhood with gunmetal prosthetic cock compensating angst-shriveled peen or sociopathic indulgence in serial-killer wannabe revenge spree daydreams. It pays to remember that the You in "Stand Your Ground" is White, the Ground is America, and the legal standing of White Fears over Black Lives is clearly the Stand.

No comments: