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The new push around gun control it to treat it like a "public health crisis". King County Public Health has put out a <broken link removed> on this topic.
A couple of thoughts:
1) <broken link removed> for firearm deaths, it sure doesn't seem like there's a "crisis" - the trend seems to be declining.
2) This page points out that the <broken link removed> are suicides (68%). If you're really looking at this from a "public health" perspective, I'm not sure how the mix of things being proposed (assault weapons bans, background checks, magazine bans, gun show loophole closure, etc - and, yes, I know these are loaded terms) do anything to prevent the bulk of firearm related deaths.
3) And, <broken link removed> , it talks about homicide rates - we have basically 1/2 the rate of the US. King County is 2/100k, Washington is 1.5/100k while the US is 4/100k. Just in comparison - King County, NY (8.6), Los Angeles, CA (8.1) and Cook County, IL (11.1) all have significantly higher homicide rates while also having significantly more stringent gun control measures than King County, WA.
4) <broken link removed> describes "gaps" in Washington State Firearms Laws compared to other states. Given the comparative homicide rates listed above, I'm not sure I see these as "gaps" and describing these differences as such seems to show bias that shouldn't be included if we're really thinking about his as public health/data-driven issue. (and, I know they aren't...)
Anyway, just wanted to draw your attention to this report. Describing gun control in <broken link removed> is the new front on this topic. KC Executive Constantine has been making a big deal about this. However, I think if you look carefully at the numbers, it doesn't suggest that there is any "crisis".
A couple of thoughts:
1) <broken link removed> for firearm deaths, it sure doesn't seem like there's a "crisis" - the trend seems to be declining.
2) This page points out that the <broken link removed> are suicides (68%). If you're really looking at this from a "public health" perspective, I'm not sure how the mix of things being proposed (assault weapons bans, background checks, magazine bans, gun show loophole closure, etc - and, yes, I know these are loaded terms) do anything to prevent the bulk of firearm related deaths.
3) And, <broken link removed> , it talks about homicide rates - we have basically 1/2 the rate of the US. King County is 2/100k, Washington is 1.5/100k while the US is 4/100k. Just in comparison - King County, NY (8.6), Los Angeles, CA (8.1) and Cook County, IL (11.1) all have significantly higher homicide rates while also having significantly more stringent gun control measures than King County, WA.
4) <broken link removed> describes "gaps" in Washington State Firearms Laws compared to other states. Given the comparative homicide rates listed above, I'm not sure I see these as "gaps" and describing these differences as such seems to show bias that shouldn't be included if we're really thinking about his as public health/data-driven issue. (and, I know they aren't...)
Anyway, just wanted to draw your attention to this report. Describing gun control in <broken link removed> is the new front on this topic. KC Executive Constantine has been making a big deal about this. However, I think if you look carefully at the numbers, it doesn't suggest that there is any "crisis".