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<div>Don et. al.</div>
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<div>Thanks for this correction of the 2007 Latah County "murder" rate "per year," when compared with the national per year rate for 2006. I think it is clear from Don's post that the figures in discussion were for comparisons of per year rates between Latah County and the national average?
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<div>And 2007 is far from over...Hopefully 2007 so far represents a random clustering of incidents for Latah County, not a longer term causal trend.</div>
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<div>It is rather astonishing that the very misleading figure for the murder rate in Latah County was published. I have not read these figures in the Daily News, so I trust you reported these accurately. It seems a decimal point was moved over three digits to the left... 19 per year or .019 per year? An innocent mistake? Wishful thinking?
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<div>What is a fact not in dispute, as far as I know, is that six of the deaths (I'm not sure about the suspicious death in Deary) this year in Latah County were all from firearms deliberately fired at a human being to cause harm (not an accident), although the death in Genesee might be in self defense.
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<div>We often hear the argument that people kill people, not guns, from the pro gun rights lobby, but it is indisputable that the proximity to a weapon, loaded and ready, increases the rates of irrational impulsive violence (including suicide), not rational self defense, resulting in death. I suppose it could be argued this is an unfortunate consequence of people having the right of self defense with weapons, a right that will be abused by some. For self defense to be a practical option in many cases, a gun must be accessible and loaded. AK-47s, however, are a difficult sell for use in citizens self defense, given how easily they are modified to fully automatic, unless someone expects a siege by a murderous gang. Which is perhaps the mentality that many function under in the USA.
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<div>Even if the death in Deary is not murder, and the Genesee death is in self defense, 5 murders in a year is a rate of about 14 per 100,000 for Latah County.</div>
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<div>Ted Moffett<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/7/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Don Coombs</b> <<a href="mailto:mushroom@moscow.com">mushroom@moscow.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">According to a headline in this morning's Daily News,<br>the "rash of violent crimes have taken toll on Moscow,
<br>Latah County." The story says "Despite concerns, Latah<br>County's murder rate isn't high when comparing it to<br>similarly-sized counties."<br><br>And: "With seven murders and 35,600 people in Latah
<br>County, the murder rate is .019 murder per 100,000<br>people this year.... In the United States, the overall<br>murder rate was 5.6 per 100,000 in 2006."<br><br>People at the newspaper apparently had no problem with
<br>a murder rate of .019 per 100,000. Actually, if you<br>accept that there have been seven murders, the rate is<br>easily calculated to be about 19 per 100,000.<br><br>Also: Some of the homicides were murders, but with<br>
living suspects the term would be best saved for<br>application after they are found guilty of that<br>specific crime.<br><br>Don Coombs<br><br>=======================================================<br>List services made available by First Step Internet,
<br>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a><br> mailto:<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================
<br></blockquote></div><br>