In article ,
mcculloch@mail.utexas.edu (Jim McCulloch) wrote:
......
> > REASON CRIME WAS AVERTED  # OF CRIMES AVERTED  BASED ON DATA FROM 
> > ------------------------  -------------------  ------------------
> > Firearm owned by                  3475         Independant Research by
> > Law-abiding citizen                            Criminologist Gary Kleck
> 
> Hmm.  Let's see.  The Austin metropolitan area, as of this morning,
> contains about 1/254 of the US population.  Mr. Hass is therefore asking
> us to believe,  based on "independent research by criminologist Gary
> Kleck", that in the first twelve hours of the new year here is Austin,
> approximately 14 crimes were averted by citizen ownership of firearms. 
> 

If Austin is typical, there must be A couple of hundred resident
criminals, who have to commit crimes to get money since they disdain
work.  It would not surprise me that 140 crines were committed in the wee
hours of the morning, so 14 averted would be only 10% - it at least sounds
plausible.

-- 

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