The mainstream media blames *two* things for our homicide problems: racism and guns. You’re going to counter their distorted narrative with more distortions? I suggest that a neutral angle, one not obviously black or blue, will be more credible and persuasive. Otherwise you’re just going to preach to the choir. Your answer was 5x longer than my simple, concise point, and mostly arguing with some phantom. Yes, *I agree that racism is not a factor*, but that doesn’t mean that 1) the US doesn’t have a policing problem, or that 2) the answer is disarming the population.
One of your “bonus graphics” unintentionally points out the source of the problem. Yes, there is an “epidemic” of police executing civilians: roughly 1000/year, insanely higher than in our peer OECD nations. One of the factors, listed on the graphic, is the high number of police-civilian interactions. Are all those interactions justified? Are there any interactions that could be reduced, e.g. by removing traffic enforcement from police? One major category of fiat crimes is vice, and the biggest chunk of that is drug prohibition.
>It's not drug prohibition (which are 14% of arrests, according to the FBI,
>of both blacks and whites), it's living in a dangerous country where people shoot,
>stab and kill cops -- just as people shoot, stab and kill each other -- on a regular basis
John Pfaff, author of “Locked In”, makes a similarly bizarre statement about drug offenders being “only” 16% of prisoners. First, is that really a small percentage? Most of us would be pretty happy to get a raise of 16%, or to buy something on sale for 16% off. Second, as we know from Alcohol Prohibition, black markets create a lot of secondary crime besides the literal trafficking. Al Capone was busted for tax evasion. A lot of the murders and thefts are related to drug trafficking, and drug trafficking causes people to carry weapons, whether as a tool of the trade or just for self-defense when living in a dangerous neighborhood.
Of course there are other factors, but drug prohibition is tractable—same as Alcohol Prohibition, it could be ended with the stroke of a pen. Fortunately we are moving that way, if agonizingly slowly.
Meanwhile our right to bear arms is being eroded by people like you who attribute homicide to weapons instead of circumstances.
