On the murder of the Australian baseball player in Oklahoma. the teenagers who did it said their motive was boredom. I do not think anyone is dumb enough to need me or anyone else to characterize the shooting or the motives of the shooters. It’s obvious and I hate all the ritualistic incantations politicians and quasi-politicians issue in these cases. I feel the same about it as everyone else. . I heard some in Australia, and no doubt, the US, cite this as evidence that gun laws are too lenient in the U.S. They may be right. But we have learned to wait until some facts are in. In this situation, the question is whether the gun used was legally possessed by the shooter. If not, then the issue of whether the laws are strict enough is irrelevant to this case. There is also the issue of whether the pertinent laws were adequately enforced. Those questions await investigation. . So the Australians and Americans saying that may be right that Oklahoma’s laws or the enforcement of them are too lenient. Or it may be they are right, but this case is not evidence of that because the shooter was using a gun it was illegal for him to have. We will probably find out soon enough. When I said something previously about Australia not having guns, an Australian reader wrote to say I was misinformed—that there are plenty of illegal guns in Australia. . We have 314 million people in the U.S. With so many people—the third largest national population in the world—you can find evidence for just about any conclusion you want if you are willing to rely on samples that are too small to be statistically significant. Not everything that happens in such a large population warrants a sweeping conclusion about American society as a whole or the laws of one of their states.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 23:32:53 +0000
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