Cars Deadlier Than Guns For Cops
Let me preface this by saying that anytime a police officer is killed in the line of duty it is a tragedy. Anytime anyone is killed (I’m not referring to self-defensive incidents here) or murdered it wounds our society. I just want to clear that up so no one thinks I’m being flippant about the following story.
Our nation’s cops face many dangers out there and some would use their firearms fatalities as a reason to ban guns or restrict them to the point that they become useless for personal defense or sporting purposes. The reality is that the automobile has also become a fast growing and deadliest foe of law enforcement. Much of the carnage comes as a result of the cops giving high-speed chase and other drivers not moving out of their way. From the Statesman Journal (OR):
Police deaths soared 44 percent during the first six months of 2007, with 101 local, state and federal officers dying on duty compared with 70 during the first half of 2006, according to the fund’s report.
Traffic-related fatalities led the deadly trend — 45 officers killed in the first half of this year compared with 33 dead by the same time last year.
Of this year’s traffic deaths, 35 officers have been killed in auto crashes. Six officers were hit by a car and died, and four died in motorcycle wrecks.
[…]
The number of fatal shootings of officers also increased this year, from 27 by July 2006 to 39 in 2007, the fund report said.
So should we ban cars? SUV’s? Maybe just ban “assault automobiles” since there is no legitimate need for souped-up engines, rear spoilers, wide tires, or any other characteristic of scary looking sports cars.
In addition, cars are used in crimes. Drunk drivers kill people with them. Autos are used as escape vehicles, or to facilitate kidnapping children. There are fewer functioning cars in America than guns and we heavily regulate cars (inspections, registration, licensing) yet more people are killed by them than by firearms (which most states also heavily regulate). Maybe it’s time to ban auto ownership or restrict it to one car only?
I’m being silly, of course. My point is that there are lots of dangers out there from simple “things” we own or use everyday. Cops have to face them all the time; that’s part of their job description.
I don’t like reading that cops are dying from cars or guns but that isn’t a reason to ban either. Yet, while this particular article in a smaller circulation newspaper puts the emphasis on cars, the mainstream media instead puts it on the firearm deaths.
Exhibit one: From MSNBC:
Police officials and law enforcement groups Thursday blamed a sharp increase in the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty on more violent criminals who have access to deadlier weapons.
[…]
Lapse of assault weapons ban cited
Local and federal law enforcement officials told NBC News that criminals were more likely to use high-powered semiautomatic pistols and handguns today.Some of those weapons, like the widely feared Intratec Tec-9, were banned until 2004, but they became legal when Congress refused to extend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, even though President Bush, an opponent of gun control, promised to sign an extension.
Now you want to see a “news journalist” really spin the story? Without any facts to back him up? From the same article:
The study did not examine how many of the police officers killed this year were shot with weapons that were legalized three years ago, but the study and figures compiled by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics suggest a statistical correlation.
The 39 officers killed in the first half of 2007 exceeds the 36 officers shot to death in all of 2004, the last year the ban was in effect. More broadly, firearm-related crime rose in 2005, the first year after the semiautomatic weapons became legal again, after having declined every year since the ban took effect in 1994.
We can’t prove a causal relationship but we’ll make the implication anyway. What the writer doesn’t mention is that gang activity including shootings is way up and there’s also no attempt to explain why cop deaths by automobiles are way up. Was there an “assault auto ban” that congress allowed to expire that somehow I missed?
What hypocrisy! What astonishing bias!
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue. . .
10 Responses to “Cars Deadlier Than Guns For Cops”
on 20 Jul 2007 at 8:27 am # Keith
For shooting small furry animals, do you think that adding:
a seperate plastic pistol grip,
something that looks like an 50 round mag,
a ventilated hand guard,
a flash hider (now that could be awkard, because i keep a silencer fitted most of the time),
a bayonet lug and
a folding stock
…..to my single shot .22 martini will make it more effective? you know… more deadly? sort of can’t miss and more dangerous?
you know, I don’t want my fitting those parts to get any of my local cops killed in road accidents or shootouts with criminals or anything…
Keith
on 20 Jul 2007 at 8:32 am # Keith
Seriously though, Colin Greenwood, our veteran British gun rights researcher (and retired police superintendant), used to quote a fellow criminology researcher who found a positive correllation between the tonnage of bannannas imported into Britain and the rate of indecent assaults on under age boys….
Back to the golden rule of stats:
Correlation does not necessarily equal causation
Keith
on 20 Jul 2007 at 9:48 am # Jay
One of my co-workers had two sons who were cops. Son #1 died after pulling over a car, while getting the registration and DL from the driver. Four punks were joyriding in Daddy’s Corvette at about 80 MPH above the speed limit and lost control. The driver of the car he was ticketing also died.
I met Son #2 at his father’s retirement party. Son#2 (who works for a different police force than Son#1) told me the scariest part of his job was responding to domestic disputes and pulling over vehicles - but that the deadliest weapon he’s ever seen on the street has been the car.
on 20 Jul 2007 at 9:50 am # Jay
BTW, that was not a typo - 4 guys were driving in a 2 passenger car.
on 20 Jul 2007 at 10:04 am # 1894C
Nicely done Jeff.
Splendid fisking!
on 20 Jul 2007 at 1:42 pm # CAshane
I love how the Tec-9 is stated as “widely feared”. Shoots the same caliber as your common 9mm handguns, and considered by most to be a piece of junk, yet it’s “widely feared”.
on 20 Jul 2007 at 8:19 pm # jayfman
From the MSNBC story you quoted:
“Some of those weapons, like the widely feared Intratec Tec-9, were banned until 2004, but they became legal when Congress refused to extend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, even though President Bush, an opponent of gun control, promised to sign an extension.”
Except that Intratec went out of business BEFORE the AWB expired!
So there have been NO “widely feared Intratec Tec-9(s)” that “became legal” the AWB expired — NONE have been made since!
on 21 Jul 2007 at 8:34 am # tomWright
Cars are more dangerous than guns.
Check the stats.
Per capita drivers vs. licensed gun owners
Per thousand vehicles vs. per thousand guns
total vs. total
and remember, virtually all cars and drivers are registered. Many guns and gun owners are not. That indicates the numbers of guns and gun owners are larger than the statistics account for.
Which only makes the number of deaths from the smaller number of vehicles even more interesting.
I did a superfluous examination of this while discussing bicycles over at my place last year. I have no doubt that current numbers would be equally bad.
on 21 Jul 2007 at 11:45 am # Tom Frank
Back when I was trained as a federally certified traffic RADAR instructor, we were taught that police officers have a 7x higher incidence of involvement in traffic accidents than ordinary drivers. I asked whether this was just work related or overall, and was informed it was overall.
Which suggests that just as we here find the notion that only police should have guns because they are ‘highly trained professionals’ unacceptable; we should cast the same skeptical eye on the ‘highly trained professionals’ canard put forth for allowing said officers to flaunt the speed limits everyone else is expected to comply with.
Something to ponder when next you see an officer driving down the road, or receive a lecture about driving 10 over a speed limit that no one is obeying. $
on 23 Jul 2007 at 7:15 am # Keith
I was driving into Dublin the other day and a BMW shot past me (speed limit is 60, he was doing about 80+ MPH),
A couple seconds later a cop car went past and gave chase, it was aboutr 3 miles B4 the BM pulled in.
When I went past, the cop and BM driver were laughing and slapping each other on the back - it was an off duty cop…
Perhaps the idea of being above the law may go someway to explain the overall (rather than just on duty) higher death rate.
If it does, perhaps it is natural selection doing the job that the forces’ discipline is failing to do: to weed out those who are out of control. A sort of Darwin for cops.