Dr. John Lott appeared on Fox News earlier this month to discuss Michael Bloomberg’s controversial remarks about minorities and homicides.
At an event in Aspen, Colorado, in February 2015, Bloomberg said, “95 percent of your murders — murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops.”
“They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York. That’s true in virtually every city…And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them,” he continued.
That statement is problematic because (a) it is factually incorrect and (b) it perpetuates the stereotype that most minorities are inherently violent people.
As Lott explained in a Fox News op-ed, “According to the FBI data, among murderers whose race we knew, almost 44 percent of murderers were white. Unfortunately, the FBI doesn’t break down the Hispanic murderers by race, but even if we assume all Hispanic murderers were white, at least 23 percent of murderers were non-Hispanic whites. We don’t know the race of all murderers, but even if one assumes that all murderers whose race isn’t identified are minorities, about 31 percent of murderers were white.”
SEE ALSO: Lott: 1.4 Million New Concealed Carry Permits Issued Last Year
Indiscriminately throwing young minorities against the wall isn’t going to solve the issue of violence. What it will do, however, is terrorize a lot of responsible citizens while giving them a negative impression of law enforcement in the process.
We do know that a small number of bad actors are ultimately responsible for the majority of crime. It’s hard to quantify precisely, but some estimates suggest that half of all crime is committed by 5-8 percent of the population. What’s also true is that authorities usually have a good idea who these perps are even though they may not have the evidence to arrest and prosecute them.
If we as a society are going to target anyone to disarm, it should be the known criminals and repeat offenders who have through some failure (or limitation) in our justice system slipped through the cracks and are back out on the streets. Random citizens who look a certain way or live in a particular neighborhood should not be harassed simply because they fit a certain racially-biased profile.
What’s more, and Lott mentions this as well, is that minorities are more likely to be victims of violent crime. As a result, they are the ones who benefit the most from permissive concealed carry laws.
We’ve witnessed this recently in Detroit where the local police chief has openly encouraged residents to carry concealed firearms. Murders are their lowest in 50 years and justifiable homicide rates are 25 times the national average!
Turns out that empowering citizens to exercise their right to keep and bear arms is an effective way to combat violent criminals. When we can’t put violent offenders behind bars or when we fail to disarm them on the streets, the next best thing, if not the best thing, is to ensure good guys have the tools they need to defend themselves and their loved ones from those that might do them harm.
Sadly, presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg does not see it that way. He has made it his mission to chill the 2A rights of law-abiding citizens, thus making us more vulnerable to violent crime.
Listen, I believe Bloomberg is just perpetuation the same demo dumbo line about not allowing minorities to defend themselves with guns. The demo dumbos have always been the party of terrorism and racism. KKK, Jim Crow, reversing what Lincoln did immediately after he died, etc., etc…. One of the reasons the NRA was a formidable organization back in the 19th cent. was because it defended the rights of blacks during a time when they were denied guns for self defense. Back then, many if not all black leaders carried guns for self defense. It’s no accident that big cities or any city run by demo dumbos is fervently anti-gun. And its not just blacks. When you add to that minorities from Latin American countries that fear guns and assume that only corrupt LE and gangs own them, they tend to perpetuate that same philosophy in the US. They will support demo dumbos because…free everything and empty promises that sound palatable. The same demo dumbo leaders pander, stereotype and patronize the minorities they claim to care so much about. It’s a never ending, vicious circle in ghettos–the modern day plantations.
Stop each person with a soda. They’re a threat to themselves and society. He’ll also ban drinking straws and plastic bags if elected.
And maybe he can remember the nuclear launch codes as a side note.
The fact is, all citizens have the same Constitutional Rights. What Bloomberg is describing, is a violation of those rights focused at a specific group based on the color of their skin. Bloomberg has apologized because he is running for President, not because he thought it was wrong. If Bloomberg will support conducting illegal search and seizure against one group, I assure you his solution is to conduct this same actions against everyone if elected for President.
About 30 years ago, I was sitting in a room watching TV with a bunch of people, and an FBI agent came on and said that majority of violent crime was being committed by 7% of repeat offenders. The sheeple just continued to graze. My idea of executing the repeat offender convicted of 3 separate violent felonies was scoffed at because it was too draconian. Give it another 20 years, and I think it will come to fruition.
Let’s hope so….incarceration, “rehabilitation,” and “supervised parole” haven’t worked out that well
Could it be rehab has not worked is because of the techniques used? While I am skeptical of the “slant” ’60 Minutes almost always puts on their stories, I was intrigued by their story on the German model – an seeming level of success – of rehabilitation