bang bang, dead bang bang data

As passed by the Congress:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

As ratified by the States:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

As would be passed and ratified by the National Rifle Association:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear ever more lethal, sexy ceramic, plastic, light fantastic, advertised by hollywood arms shall not be infringed.

chewin' some juicy stew burbling around the murderous band of shysters comprising the tendered ranks of the NRA.  fuck, what a scam those bastards got goin' on; rigging up their lavish lifestyles by corn-holing americans with lethal weapons on the back of the second amendment.  that's a conservative dipshit twofer: profit and patriotism.  what could be better than that?  it seems almost certain that god had something to fucking do with it.  million plus per annum.

isn't it great that clever guys like nra honchos get rich by such measures in america, the get rich quick off death scheme?  it sure is.  that's what makes america great.  americans will defend their lethal right to TEK9 slaughter each other -- yowl to rafters about it -- while cheerily, happily and most patriotically swish their money off to further enrich the lavish lifestyles of NRA execs, who are nothing more than arms industry agents bent on selling ever more guns 'n ammo.  it's like cars for them.  gotta keep pumpin' out the new models, and more of 'em.  more killing capacity! faster cycle time! huge magazine! mow down crowds with ease!

seems the ol' nra lads have done a damn fine job, though. can't begrudge 'em that.  yanks got the 2nd amendment shanked into their lip like hooked salmon, convinced that the gubmint will pound down their door an' haul 'em away the moment the glock goes.  confuckkinvinced.  don't seem to have much notion that that is more or less happening now -- has been for awhile -- on a ginned up racist drug war and spooked up security state, guns or no. guess they haven't noticed.  sure do get itchy about the guns, though.   nuttin' bad about 'em.  just rotten people.  who manage to get guns.  easily.  in america.  for the nra, though, well, you simply cannot make it easy enough to get guns.  or patriotic enough to want and own them.  it's an endless, thankless job.  they are patriots, after all.

all of which means you cannot have data about gun deaths in america.

stumbled over this rather amazing segment of the interview with Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center.

Diaz:The industry has been instrumental in suppressing data on gun violence. Think about it: If you run a tire company that is making defective tires, and the tires cause cars to flip over, there are tracking systems that will alert people if there is a problem. There is data on the safety of every product except guns. That data is suppressed. But if we had it, we could end the debate on guns and crime because we would know the facts.

So if the information is being suppressed, who is gathering the data on gun violence?

Diaz:The gun lobby-by that I mean the NRA and the manufacturers-have deliberately shut down the sources of information. There is very little data collected by the federal government. Some data have been patched together from various sources, and much of the research is privately funded. From my point of view, that's insane. And think about it: If the gun manufacturers were so confident about the utilitarian nature of their product, then they wouldn't worry about the data collected on how they're used. The ATF [The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] used to release their list of the top guns used in crimes each year. But legislation was passed and now the ATF can't release this data. We want that changed-we want full data and an open discussion. Even law enforcement has trouble getting this information. And there is no data on the guns being trafficked to Mexico. The ATF information is ridiculous. The Mexican government gave them the information, but the ATF won't break it out according to the types of guns being trafficked.

when you're in the bang bang industry, the only good data, are dead data.