5 ms·
It is hard to dispute that inner city gun violence is drug related, which is probably why they don't mention it.
by happyscrappy 11y ago
It is hard to dispute that inner city gun violence is drug related, which is probably why they don't mention it.
- nitrogen 11y agoThe article quoted national statistics, which would probably include inner cities in those statistics. Also, the question isn't whether guns imply drugs, but whether drugs imply guns. P(A|B) != P(B|A).
- seanp2k2 11y agoI think that the distinction between drug use and black-market drug distribution is important here as well, I.e. If legalizing or decriminalizing certain drugs would lead to less violence.
- happyscrappy 11y agoYes this is dealers fighting for territory not users shooting each other.
- angdis 11y agoIndeed, all you have to do is to read up on who's murdering who. Drugs and violence are intimately tied together at least in the USA. The laws are set-up to punish drug offenders based on the quantity of drugs in one's possession. Beyond a certain quantity, the offender crosses a threshold into "distribution" rather than "use"-- and long histories of violent, organized crime is typical for those folks.
- rconti 11y agoI recommend reading the article.
- borkabrak 11y agoThe text of the article is designed to respond to exactly this familiar argument. If you're reading this, angdis, you may be interested in reading the article.
- monochromatic 11y agoThe article conflates drug users and drug dealers.
- anigbrowl 11y agoI can't help observing that the major vendors of alcohol, tobacco, and coffee - all three of which I hope you'll agree qualify as recreational drugs in terms of psychactivity - somehow manage to stay in business without shooting each others' employees or attacking each others' distribution operations with violence. You could certainly say they engage in a sort of abstract violence through ruthless profit-driven corporate behavior or through selling products that are likely to damage your health to some degree, but they don't get engaged in shootouts the way some illegal drug dealers do.
- qnaal 11y agoperhaps one could alternatively say the violence is black market related
- gress 11y agoThe police use violence to protect the regular market. One could just as easily say that violence is market related.
- msandford 11y agoOr perhaps violence is enforcement related, generally.
- borkabrak 11y agoAnd now I'm dying to know what percentage of violent crimes involve police.
- msandford 11y agoIt's an interesting though, that it's possible (no idea how likely) that violence could be decreased through a reduction in laws such that the amount of enforcement -- and thus violence -- is reduced. I really wish that we had good stats on this stuff so that the laws could be crafted to minimize violence. Anyone who says we're civilized and "beyond that" isn't paying attention, it's just that the violence has largely been outsourced so that a portion of affluent society can feel that we're "beyond that".
- happyscrappy 11y ago>violence could be decreased through a reduction in laws such that the amount of enforcement -- and thus violence -- is reduced. Gang members seem to have no regard for enforcement of any kind and throw their lives away with abandon, but I still think less enforcement will only embolden them.