And gun related deaths are down.
The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.
Not particularly surprising to any of us, since most studies have shown that when carry laws are opened up, crime either goes down or the carry laws have no effect, but rarely does crime go up when CCW laws are expanded. According to the article in the Free Press, 1 in about every 65 residents of Michigan now has a permit to carry a concealed firearm, a rate which I find absolutely fantastic.
I don’t really have much to say about that article, but there is one humorous part later on when the reporter talks to the head of the Michigan chapter of the Million Mom March about Michigan’s gun laws. It’s not “ha-ha” funny, but rather it’s amusing because it demonstrates the “we cannot be wrong” mindset that a lot of these folks are driven by.
Shikha Hamilton of Grosse Pointe, president of the Michigan chapter of the anti-gun group Million Moms March, said she believes overall gun violence (including suicide and accidental shootings) is up in Michigan since 2001. Many incidents involving CCW permit holders have not been widely reported, she said.
That’s right, since the government statistics don’t agree with her pre-conceived notions, than the government statistics must be wrong, because her ideology cannot possibly be wrong.
Michigan is one of those states with political bipolar disorder. You’ve got a lot of conservative elements in the less-populated areas, where rifle season for deer is nearly a religious observance. Then you have the large cities, where people tend to think rather differently.
Anyway, both lines of reasoning smack somewhat of post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Well, one line of reasoning given in the news article is more along the lines of shoot the messenger than post hoc ergo propter hoc…
(If you can tell which is which, then you really know the classical logical fallacies.)
The annual Michigan State Police reports on CCW permits is available online. Whether or not incidents involving CCW holders have been reported widely in the press, any incidents of CCW holders breaking the law and losing their permit are counted there.
I wasn’t talking about the article so much as the reasoning Ahab presented and the quote from the Million Mom March thing.
The MMM quote doesn’t have a post hoc error in it.
They don’t believe in defensive use anyway, so they’d rather count all justified homicides as unjustified.
They seem to think that CCW carriers are evil people with violent tendencies.
Ahab, it’s implicit in the statement. The implication is that a greater number of CCWs caused a secret increased in firearm violence. An increase is being imagined, and the post hoc is tied to that.
I see what you’re saying; I thought you were talking about my statement that “crime did not go up even though CCW’s increased”. Hence my confusion.