Thanks to World66 for the map

I am for the most part not an overtly political person, but thought this deserved a comment.

Gunner at No Quarters posted regarding the release of the Brady Campaign's state by state reportcard on gun control. I noticed a pattern, and decided to create a map showing those states that made a C or better. I waffled a bit on including North Carolina for various reasons but decided eventually to go ahead and include it because, after all, they did get a C.

I find it interesting that for the most part the "passing" states are all clumped together. A clump in the northeast around New York (surprise surprise) and another one in the Midwest around Illinois. Then you have California (who amazingly only got an A-), Hawaii (sorry, almost forgot them) and North Carolina.

I went looking for a map showing the number of gun crimes per capita(I have been looking now for over 2 hours) for 2003 or even 2002, but nobody seems to have one. I would really have liked one for comparison.

I did find some very interesting stuff while doing my research.

This is a timeline of gun control laws from Infoplease.

A rather interesting review of a book titled "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws". The reviewer is impressed for the most part with the author's statistics and methodology. I tend to be leery of statistics though, being the daughter of a statistician I know that you can make numbers say virtually anything you want. However I might need to check this book out.

The Bureau of Justice statistics on firearms and crime overall.

I also found it interesting that the Department of Justice agrees with me on the purpose of the Second amendment (yes, it secures the rights of the individual not just the armed forces). It's obviously written by lawyers, as it is incredibly windy and drawn out, but worth taking that time to read. I also find it interesting that there has not been much interest in it in the news.

I am not one for ramming my opinions down other persons throats, and for every person who thinks the way I do on the subject there is sure to be someone else with a completely different opinion.

I will climb up on my soapbox a take a moment to state that I do believe the Second amendment secures the rights of the individual to keep and bear arms, and for that matter that all that gun control laws will ever do is create criminals out of law-abiding citizens. I believe the surest way to keep our children safe from accidents is proper education of our children(these are not toys) not denial or fear of guns and proper storage (yes, I use a gun lock).

And yes, I know someone out there will think I am an absolute loon. So, f*** off, I am entitled to my opinions, its my blog.