From: "Alex Hamilton", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Actually I'm just looking at Ian Taylor's submission to the HAC
report and there is a huge mistake in it, he says that Killias
did a Spearman rank order correlation on the data he collected
that shows a connection between firearm ownership and homicide
rates, but that's not accurate, Killias did a Pearson correlation.
I did a Spearman correlation for the Dunblane Public Inquiry and
it doesn't show a statistically significant positive correlation.
For those of you who enjoy statistics ;)
Killias' study is nonsense anyway, have a read of it.
Steve.
__________________________________
Let me confess that I am not familiar with either Killias of Pearson
correlation, but a correlation will exist even if one or two FAC holders
in 50 years lose their marbles and commit a crime, but it will be tiny
even by mathematical standards. So, what level of correlation
justifies banning a sport?
If one studies any group of people with common interest, it is
inevitable that some of them, however few, might turn to crime, or
develop a mental disorder.
That is a risk we as a society have to take in order to be free. Only a
person in a straight jacket, locked in a well padded room is relatively
safe as regards the opportunity to do any harm to the public or himself!
Am I in danger of arrest of loss of some privilege because several
people in some way similar to me committed crimes?
Believe me, this is not a wind up, because I am genuinely worried as to
what our politicians are planning and what their motives are.
Alex
--
A correlation would not exist if only one or two FAC holders shot
someone, this is a correlation between gun ownership levels and
armed crime across a variety of countries. The only correlation
that Killias' research indicates is strong enough to rely on
(at least IMO) is the link between gun ownership levels and
the rate of firearm-related suicide. However, there is not a
link between gun ownership levels and the overall rate of suicide,
as graphically illustrated by the Australian Institute of
Criminology figures for the past few years in Australia. There
has been a decline in firearm-related suicides, but the overall
rate has increased significantly.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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