Study: racists more likely to own guns

boing
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Tea Party members can type?

Huh.

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Type yes, I didn’t say reason!

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If I am racist does this mean I need to go get a gun? Will more guns means I’m more racist that that other guy?

Math is hard.

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Well the point is that if you have a gun in the home, people in that household are 4.7 times more likely to kill themselves with that gun, 2.8 times more likely to kill someone in the household, than people who don’t have a gun in the household. So whats the logic of having a gun in the home when two thirds of all gun deaths are suicide??? best Kerry

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I looked over this “racism scale” and

  1. It isn’t about “racism” it is only about prejudice against blacks. Apparently you can hate Jews or Arabs or Japs or Germans or Hispanics for their ethnic identity all you want and get a perfect “you are not a racist” score. Forgive me if that doesn’t make me suspicious that the test creator is a little racist herself.
  2. You can have some VERY racist attitudes towards blacks and get a “you are not a racist” score too, as long as those racist attitudes amount to “they can’t help being inferior and society shouldn’t try to hold them to the same standard it does other races.”
  3. OTOH, because I am optimistic that one day blacks will no more be stigmatized than Irish, Italians or Jews… I’m a racist.

So, basically this means crap IMHO, but it confirmed the bias of the somebodies so LOOK, WE WERE RITE; ITS THEM HICKS IN THE STICKS THAT WANT ME TO HAVE A GUN I’LL LIKELY SHOOT MYSELF WITH!

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Protection! Duh.

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I suspect that this isn’t the Official Smiling Happy People answer; but if I were in a suicidal mood, I’d damn well rather have a gun in the house than make the mistake of resorting to a bottle of tylenol…

(There are, of course, options that are better still; but guns beat most common household products, and a substantial percentage of the non-controlled drugs.)

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Thats a positive spin?

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Based on all the ignorant-ass comments appearing in the comments under stories about this study, it seems very likely that there are a lot of gun owners out there.

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Not anymore! Modern technology has brought the internet and a plethora of information on offing yourself effectively, quietly, and cleanly. No muss no fuss. No gun necessary.

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Delay in response, allows reconsideration doesn’t it?

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46% of Americans own guns… or something like that. Maybe its just 46% of households.

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It means guns cause racism.

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Look on the bright side

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It’s probably a regional thing. I know that you get a lot more guns/hunting/etc in rural areas, and that there’s often a lot more racism there too. So they might not be owning guns because they’re racist, or racist because they own guns, but maybe both are true because they live in an area that does both.

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That is accounted for in the statistical models read the paper it goes over what it takes into account

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Fear being the element that links them. Conservatives defining feature is fear.

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Well, if someone is suicidal, that’s a mental problem or another personal issue; someone who is suicidal, homicidal, or mentally unstable in another way is by default not going to be a good gun owner. Owning a gun is a big responsibility, and statistics like yours really just make blanket statements when the decision to own a gun is a personal one.

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gallup.com says that 47% of American households have a gun.

This is actually a really interesting page:

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I took a year of statistics back in high school, and while it interested me, it’s been a long time. Skimming through the article didn’t help me much with that question, and I pretty sure my supervisor would frown on me spending much more time at the present puzzling through a paper so far removed from my subject. It’s an interesting question though. Is there a short for-dummies answer you could give me?