Reply #106: "70 percent have at least one felony conviction" [View All]

[DanTex]

Are you ever right about anything? Even your pro-gun buddy Kleck, quoted in the staunchly pro-gun website guncite, in an article that you just linked to in a post right above this, gives an estimate of 25%. You might want to try reading your own links next time, before you start making up statistics.

"The overwhelming majority of people who shoot to kill are not convicted felons; in fact, most would be considered law-abiding citizens prior to their pulling the trigger."
--- Webster, Daniel W., C. Patrick Chaulk, Stephen P. Teret, and Garen J. Wintemute. "Reducing Firearm Injuries." Issues in Science and Technology. Spring 1991, p.73.
Although the first part of the claim of Webster et al. is probably correct (Kleck and Bordua conservatively estimate that 25% of homicide offenders have prior felony convictions. ), their conclusion that most homicide offenders "would be considered law-abiding citizens prior to their pulling the trigger" is not.

The rest of your post is the usual gunner talking points about how the entire academic establishment is biased except for one criminologist named Gary Kleck. Just because you personally choose to ignore the bulk of the scientific research on gun violence, you can't expect that everyone else is going to as well. And honestly, I think it would do you good to read some of it, because if you were exposed to more of the science and statistics, you wouldn't get so many facts wrong.