Education
- Math Programs Shift to Protect Students from Md. State Tests
- wjla.com, 16 Jan 2006 (AP).
A Maryland graduation test has school officials in Prince George's County looking to protect students who might fail it. The Washington Post reports . . . . .
- Lagging Freshmen Reassigned Before Test; Pr. George's Creates 2-Year Algebra Class
- Post, 16 Jan 2006 (by Nick Anderson, Washington Post Staff Writer).
At least 2,500 ninth-graders in Prince George's County will abruptly move this week from a standard one-year algebra course into a two-year program, shielding the struggling students from a state graduation test this spring that officials said they were likely to fail. . . .
- [Comment: I can't help wondering how much of the student failure problem is caused by the school system's failure to provide math teachers.]
- Parents want math teacher to replace substitute
- Gazette, 29 Dec 2005 (by Erin Henk, Staff Writer)
Stephen Decatur Middle School students have been without a math teacher for two months and parents are concerned that they are not receiving an adequate education. . . .
- Killing Made Easy
- Post, 16 Jan 2006 (Editorial)
- [Questions: Where are the parents? Were these students and their parents prosecuted fpr violating existing gun laws? If not, why not? Why does the Post tend to ignore enforcement and prosecution issues and failures when reporting and commenting on gun laws?]
. . . Three Maryland jurisdictions -- Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Prince George's -- accounted for more than half of all school weapons incidents (the statistics include knives) in the state. Prince George's tallied 533 weapon suspensions in 2004-05, up 74 percent from 306 in 1999-2000. . . .
uh....huh they should share some of that which they are smoking. Let's take a look at this....imagine that the Post's wet dream comes true, a total ban on handguns. Now lets look and see who will have them: Criminals (who by very definition don't obey laws), cops, and Diane Feinstein (has a permit to carry a concealed .38 special), Rosie O'Donnell bodyguard (they rich always can hire a bodyguard). The rest of us are up the creek.
ReplyDeleteYou only have to look at England and Australia to see what will happen. Crimes committed with now illegal guns up 35% since England's ban. Home invasion style robberies have increased.....with the owners more often than not at home at the time.
What the Post needs to realize is that criminals commit crimes, not guns. If you take away guns, then they will use knives. What then? A ban on steak knives as the beleaguered British are now considering?
Let's enforce the laws we have, with aggressive penalties for those who commit crimes with guns. Let them be the one to take the risks by passing Florida style "Castle Doctrine" laws nationwide. These laws allow law-abiding citizens to defended themselves meeting force with force anywhere they have the legal right to be (car, home, Tacoma Mall. Look at the following statistics:
"RTC states have lower violent crime rates on average: 27% lower total violent crime, 32% lower murder, 45% lower robbery, and 20% lower aggravated assault. (FBI) People who carry legally are by far more law-abiding than the rest of the public."
I think their numbers are off a bit also....only 160 of 12,000 killed sounds very low for justified shootings. Consider the following:
"Anti-gun groups openly oppose the use of firearms for protection and claim that self-defense is not a right under the Constitution. The federal and 44 state constitutions, and the laws of every state, recognize the right to arms for defensive purposes.
Survey research during the early 1990s by award-winning criminologist Gary Kleck found as many as 2.5 million protective uses of guns each year in the U.S. "(T)he best available evidence indicates that guns were used about three to five times as often for defensive purposes as for criminal purposes," Kleck concluded. Analyzing National Crime Victimization Survey data, he found, "robbery and assault victims who used a gun to resist were less likely to be attacked or to suffer an injury than those who used any other methods of self-protection or those who did not resist at all."
In most defensive gun uses, the gun is not fired. In only 1% of instances are criminals wounded, and in only 0.1% are criminals killed."
With 38 States permitting the right to carry a concealed firearm I doubt the Post's dream is going to happen anytime soon.
Gee take a look at the following.....all who have bans on the ownership of handguns:
ReplyDeleteExcerpt:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1786945,00.html
"A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America.
England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest."
"The study, by the UN’s crime research institute, found that 3 per cent of Scots had been victims of assault compared with 1.2 per cent in America and just 0.1 per cent in Japan, 0.2 per cent in Italy and 0.8 per cent in Austria. In England and Wales the figure was 2.8 per cent."
Seems like the problem is criminals, not firearms
More statistics:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.23649/pub_detail.asp
"Everyone wants to prevent criminals from getting guns. But the experience in other countries, even island nations that have gone so far as banning guns and where boarders are relatively easy to monitor, should give Mr. Bloomberg and his supporters some pause. The regulations seem to have only kept law-abiding citizens from getting guns.
Not only didn't violent crime and homicide decline as promised, but they actually increased.
* The British government banned handguns in January 1997 but recently reported that gun crime in England and Wales nearly doubled in the seven years from 1996 to 2003. Since 1996, the rate of serious violent crime has soared by 88%, armed robberies by 101%,rapes by 105% and homicide by 24%.
* Australia's 1996 gun-control regulations banned many types of guns and the immediate aftermath was similar. While murder rates remained unchanged, armed robbery rates averaged 59% higher in the eight years after the law was passed (from 1997 to 2004) than in 1995.
The Republic of Ireland banned and confiscated all handguns and all center fire rifles in 1972, but murder rates rose fivefold by 1974 and in the 20 years after the ban has averaged 114% higher than the pre-ban rate (never falling below at least 31% higher).
* Jamaica banned all guns in 1974, but murder rates almost doubled from 11.5 per 100,000 in 1973 to 19.5 in 1977, and soared further to 41.7 in 1980."