Look: I am eager to learn stuff I don't know--which requires actively courting and posting smart disagreement.

But as you will understand, I don't like to post things that mischaracterize and are aimed to mislead.

-- Brad Delong

Copyright Notice

Everything that appears on this blog is the copyrighted property of somebody. Often, but not always, that somebody is me. For things that are not mine, I either have obtained permission, or claim fair use. Feel free to quote me, but attribute, please. My photos and poetry are dear to my heart, and may not be used without permission. Ditto, my other intellectual property, such as charts and graphs. I'm probably willing to share. Let's talk. Violators will be damned for all eternity to the circle of hell populated by Rosanne Barr, Mrs Miller [look her up], and trombonists who are unable play in tune. You cannot possibly imagine the agony. If you have a question, email me: jazzbumpa@gmail.com. I'll answer when I feel like it. Cheers!

Friday, January 14, 2011

What the Hell?!? Friday -- Seriously - What the HELL?!?

My lovely wife's late father had an all purpose expression, which was perfectly suited for dealing with many of life's more puzzling events:

WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?

It's a pretty good question to ask whenever somebody does something thoughtless, outrageous, or just plain stupid.

Ed covers it pretty well in this post.

Given this information on gun violence, and a H/T to Rachel Maddow for showing it on her show last night, I have a question.

This graph shows gun deaths per 100,000 population as a function of the percentage of gun ownership, for the five highest and lowest ranking states.  Pretty striking.  I'll post the full data set later, if I can find it.  No time right now.



So ---here is my question to gun nuts:


WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?

Update:

Here is a chart showing this same relationship for all 50 states, 2006 data.   Death rate is per 100,000 population; ownership is percentage of the population owning guns.  Slope is 0.18 death per 1000,000 for every percentage increase of gun ownership.


Update Here.
 .

2 comments:

Jerry Critter said...

Your graph seems to follow common sense. If you have more guns, more people will get killed by them.

Hansi said...

I would prefer to say 'what the heck' :) And how did this country become so factious; can't remember it being that way in my youth. People need to chill out and learn the fine art of compromise.