The headline over at Gawker is “Have to Be Happy Right Away? Watch This Video of Dogs Riding in Cars”. Damned if they’re not right.
Archive for cars
In my previous post, Cars v. guns, there was an OregonLive.com, letter to the editor, that said, in part:
At first, James Johnston’s letter (Feb. 9) troubled me. Because cars kill more Americans than guns do, he reasoned, cars should be banned before guns are. Come on.
Cars are intended to be safe, whereas guns maim and kill by design. Still, his syllogism may offer a solution to the gun control debate. Although we’ll never ban cars nor, alas, guns either, we can and do regulate both to be as safe as possible.
That letter was followed by this one:
In 2009, the last year I could find data on this, the numbers in Oregon and Washington were: Oregon deaths from guns: 417, motor vehicles: 394; Washington guns: 623, cars: 580, according to an analysis by the Violence Policy Center.
The cars vs. guns wrangling continues as you can see below, via today’s L.A. Times Calendar section. The Times doesn’t post the Calendar letters online so I cannot provide a link:
The car-gun argument
My heart bleeds as much as Dan Baum’s does, maybe more ["One of the Gun Guys," Feb. 17]. Like Baum, I earnestly seek to engage in rational, calm discussion about gun control. Put aside for a moment that, though well-regulated car ownership and use are not constitutionally protected. What I wish to understand is how, in the first instance, there is any basis on which to compare the societal worth of cars and guns in the context of gun control.
Cars are absolutely necessary to modern commerce and society. As any number of gunless societies have proved, guns are not necessary, much less absolutely necessary, outside of war or law enforcement by law enforcement personnel.
Terry Sternberg
West Hills, CA
Via OregonLive.com, letters to the editor, Friday February 15, 2013:
At first, James Johnston’s letter (Feb. 9) troubled me. Because cars kill more Americans than guns do, he reasoned, cars should be banned before guns are. Come on.
Cars are intended to be safe, whereas guns maim and kill by design. Still, his syllogism may offer a solution to the gun control debate. Although we’ll never ban cars nor, alas, guns either, we can and do regulate both to be as safe as possible.
Top-fuel dragsters are prohibited from city streets, so it’s likewise reasonable to prohibit large-capacity magazines, rapid fire and various enhancements to otherwise perfectly lethal weapons.
And how about mandatory firearms proficiency certification courses for gun owners (like police officers take)? If you fail to attend, you keep your gun but join a registry of skill-deficient gun owners and pay monthly fines until you renew your competency certificate.
BRUCE TOIEN
Sherwood
And this:
We keep hearing that that cars kill more people than guns, but this is no longer true in the Northwest.
In 2009, the last year I could find data on this, the numbers in Oregon and Washington were: Oregon deaths from guns: 417, motor vehicles: 394; Washington guns: 623, cars: 580, according to an analysis by the Violence Policy Center.
BILL PFEIFER
Vancouver
H/t: Pigboy
Here’s a statistic for you: Second Amendment remedies have surpassed automobile remedies in Arizona. Via the Arizona Daily Star:
The report, by the Violence Policy Center, said Arizona was one of 10 states where firearm deaths outstripped traffic deaths in 2009, the most recent year for which numbers were available.
If you need comforting, you’re not going to get it from Arizona State Sen. Frank Antenori. He said that comparing shooting deaths to car deaths isn’t fair (waaah!), see, because most gun deaths aren’t accidental.
1. Oh swell.
2. What about the ones that are?
3. So what?
“Do you use a car in self-defense?” Antenori asked hypothetically.
Some people do, actually. Usually they’re drunk and just had a huge fight with their significant other. Or they’re just really, really pissed off at someone and sober. And driving. And don’t care what happens to their car.
Traffic deaths went down due to “the combined efforts of government and advocacy organizations.” Hence, if gun control were more effective, if firearms were more regulated the way other things are, then the number of shooting deaths would fall, too. Oversight tends to, you know, protect people from danger.
OgodDon’tHurtMe, I used the “regulate” word!
Not to horn in on Captain Obvious, but deaths can be prevented. Imagine that.
While traffic deaths have fallen nationwide, gun deaths have been largely unchanged. If the trend continues, the report said, firearm fatalities could exceed motor vehicle deaths nationally unless there is further federal regulation. …
When you consider that more people use cars than guns, then the findings are even scarier.
The top states where gun fatalities were more common than motor-vehicle deaths were Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.
When I first read the L.A. Times headline, I couldn’t imagine why troops who returned home would be particularly poor drivers. Are they more prone to driving under the influence? Are they suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, maybe having flashbacks? Have they given up caring? Or do they feel invincible?
Some of the above:
Members of the U.S. military — especially enlisted troops in the Army and Marines — were significantly more likely to cause auto accidents within six months of returning from deployment, according to a study by USAA Property and & Casualty Insurance Group, a major insurer for military families.
These veterans probably are engaging in survival driving habits for a war zone, such as not stopping in traffic, driving fast and making sudden, unpredictable turns, experts said. But those same driving practices create havoc back in the United States. [...]
Officers had far lower accident rates than enlisted troops, and drivers younger than 22 were more prone to crashes than older members of the military.
The good news is that there wasn’t a rise in fatal accidents.
Bradley Hammond, who left the Army after serving in Iraq in 2006:
“I want to drive as close to the middle as I can because subconsciously if I see a box or some trash on the side of the road I am thinking it will explode,” said Hammond of Lakewood, Colo. “Sometimes I get a feeling someone is following me and I just turn. Something will set me off.”
Wars, and in this case IEDs, have taken such a heavy toll on lives and on psyches.
Interestingly, none of the non-deployed service members surveyed reported anxiety while driving.
More here.
Today’s Quickie:
Via LiveWire, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina:
“Any time Romney trying to say someone’s out of touch is a little difficult when he’s shopping for car elevators.”
But at least he wears studied-casual pressed jeans and Everyman USA-rolled-up sleeves.
That was today’s Quickie. Was it good for you?
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