Chris Britt by Chris Britt

Tags: Chica...BANG....goooo thud! Add Tags

Comments (55) Jump to Comments Form

parrotthead2009 said, about 1 month ago

I thought that the Honors Student in Chicago was killed with a railroad tie?
Are they now going to try to outlaw wood?
cdward said, about 1 month ago

Actually, most gun deaths are by people who legally own them, and most are perpetrated against people the shooter knows. And though guns don’t kill by themselves, people WITH guns do – so the solution is to allow guns but not to allow people to have them.

The fact remains that we have a very high rate of death by gun, and that it is too high. Regardless of the laws, it is pure paranoia for people to have all the handguns (don’t have a problem with hunting, target shooting, skeet…). The self-protection meme is disproved over and over – more people get themselves killed or hurt (or loved ones) than “bad guys.”

What annoys me is that people think gun ownership shouldn’t even have responsibilities. I’ve argued that all gun owners should be required to take certified classes before being issued a permit to own a gun – and I was told that this was un-American. Geez, we make people get a drivers license.

BTW wtf has a point about cars. What that could mean in our car-addicted society is that we invest more in mass transit (American made trains, tracks, and buses) rather than propping up dying American companies or – what most people do – buying all those foreign cars. Mass transit saves lives and is better for the economy. So yes, wtf, I could see some move away from cars.
wminfield said, about 1 month ago

cdward…The fact remains that people kill people whether it is a railroad tie, baseball bat, knife, sword, bare hands, or whatever. If people grow up and are taught not to value human life our nations morals decline. I understand the point that gun owners should be required to go through some sort of certification as they do to get a drivers license. I don’t know that it would change the statistics that much, other than reducing a small percentage of accidental deaths.

As far as mass transit goes it works in some areas, but not all areas. If it is viable due to high parking fees, high concentrations of people working/living in an area, and other circumstance I have no problem propping it up. I do have a problem with gov’t propping up car companies because they have a poor business model. Business models of the past with unions holding car companies hostage and not changing with the times mean companies aren’t competitive.

The way I see it is if GM went out of business the same amount of people would have wanted to buy cars, so they would have bought other, more competitive brands. Many people that worked for GM & GM subsidiaries could have found work for the other car companies & the subsidiaries of the other companies that would have needed a few more employees.
senorbullwinkle said, about 1 month ago

How many people can you kill with a rail road tie in a minute ? Can you conceal it, and take into a store, bank, school, work place ?
How many people can you kill in a minute with a Bat or knife ? Which would you rather confront, a bat, knife, rail road tie, or a gun ? I can run away from all but a Gun. Stupid !
Devonshade said, about 1 month ago

I say outlaw people. Well,.people in other states that is.
lalas said, about 1 month ago

If guns weren’t handed out like candy (and idolized like fake-gods) killing someone would surely be less easy.

Chris Rock had it right when he said that guns should be cheap but bullets should cost $1000/each. You’d think twice about firing one, that’s for sure!
John Roach said, about 1 month ago

Just to keep everyone honest, here’s some statistics from the CDC about death causes. You can look up the info here: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf

Deaths by Firearm – 30,896
-Unintentional – 642
-Suicide – 16,883
-Homicide – 12,791
-Undetermined – 220
-Legal intervention/war – 360

Here’s some info on related death rates:
Homicide death rate – 6.2 per 100,000 deaths
-By Firearms – 4.3 per 100,000 deaths
-By other means – 1.9 per 100,000 deaths
Suicide death rate – 10.9 per 100,000 deaths
-By firearms – 5.5 per 100,000 deaths
-By other means – 5.4 per 100,000 deaths
Motor vehicle accident death rate – 15.0 per 100,000 deaths
nlnap19 said, about 1 month ago

According to the UN Survey of crime rates in 2004 Mexico had a 13.04 murder rate per 100,000 inhabitants with only 2.58 by firearm. The vast majority of murders in Mexico are done with knives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Mexico
striper77 said, about 1 month ago

Through all values and morals out the window and the end result is this.

This scene resembles the results of gangs.
DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

wminfield said: ” If people grow up and are taught not to value human life our nations morals decline.”

DrCanuck questions (seriously): Correlation not being causation, is it the decline of morals that lead to higher death rates by guns, or is it the easy availability of guns that leads to the cheapening of life and the decline of morals?
believecommonsense said, about 1 month ago

^^^^ We should not be satisfied with the homicide and suicide death rates by firearms. Surely we can do better than this! What an abomination for our nation that its 2nd amendment rights are so poorly represented by these statistics. I propose the NRA subsidize the cost of automatic assault weapons and give out free ammunition to worthy individuals. We could easily double or triple those death rates by firearms, get ‘em up there where they should be!
wminfield said, about 1 month ago

Dr C….If fast food is available on every street corner that doesn’t mean that our family values will break down and that our obesity level will rise in the US. If a generation of people grow up not learning the value of a family dinner and understanding what is quality food vs. easy, convenient, fatty fast food, on the run at every meal I suspect obesity rates will rise.

This comic depicts Chicago gun crime which is primarily in a small portion of the metro area, as it is in many major cities. These areas tend to have a lot of broken homes, single parent homes, less educated & poor people, and considerable drug and alcohol abuse. The people there don’t have a lot of hope and may put less value on human life to survive the way that they know how. Easy availability of guns doesn’t cheapen lives and decline morals in the majority of the US. Just because you and I can buy a handgun relatively easily, does that mean that you and I don’t value human life and have less morals?
senorbullwinkle said, about 1 month ago

LOOK, GUNS AIN’T THE PROBLEM, IT’S ARGUMENT’S, AND I’LL SHOOT THE FIRST ONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME !
ReasonsVentriloquist said, about 1 month ago

“Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.
In fact bullets by themselves do not kill people either.”

RIGHT!

Most people who die AFTER a bullet injection die from either bleeding or, if they’re real wusses, the shock of impact.

Let’s outlaw blood. After all if it weren’t for blood running out of someone who got an other wise harmless lead splinter , or worse running backwards through the circulatory system and causing clotting ,bullets wouldn’t be falsely blamed for deaths.
wminfield said, about 1 month ago

Sr..First you have to develop fire and the wheel. Cavemen Rock!

2:33 min clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5JV0Fs_GE8

0:31 min clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Dognr3BII&NR=1

I love the “newscommentary show” commercial.
Corosive Frog said, about 1 month ago

I still think some people just buy guns for the power trip, and people on power trips get dumb. I’d say it is a macho thing, but actually women do it too, and it’s still dumb.
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

Guns arent the problem, idiots are that problem. Sharp objects arent outlawed and the fake government is breaking the law by not allowing some usa citizens to have guns.

Second Amendment: 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.
devlyn99 said, about 1 month ago

How about just legalizing drugs. The idiots would stop killing each other (and innocent by-standers) if there was no longer a profit to be make in the drug trade. Look what happened with alcohol during prohibition. People were killing each other over alcohol (the Mafia was born). Then the government decided to legalize it again (and tax it). No one gets killed over a bottle of vodka anymore. The same thing should be done with drugs. Legalize it and tax it.
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

Using harmful drugs, may as well go shoot yourself.
DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

Minefield says: “Easy availability of guns doesn’t cheapen lives and decline morals.”

DrCanuck disagrees: I’m suggesting it may very well do just that. Easy availability of guns exacerbates the idea that guns are the proper way of solving personal dilemmas. Someone breaks in your house in a country with no guns, we call the police and the rule of law prevails. We have guns and we open fire on the housebreaker, and now it becomes established that property is more valuable than life, i.e.; cheapening life. We have a conflict with a neighbour and we go to court or arbitration if we have no guns, preserving life. With guns, we have a tendency to “take the law into our own hands,” same result.
(The death sentence also sends out the message that life is cheap and not worth saving in some situations.)
DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

For anyone of a scientific bent who needs evidence to support the above, check out a social psychologist named Berkowitz who demonstrated that the mere presence of guns acts as a cue for aggressive behaviour (“stimulus control” for all you Behaviourists).
wminfield said, about 1 month ago

Dr C: I guess we disagree, but why do you insult everyone you disagree with (Minefield?)?

You cite rare instances and brush them over the entire population. You cite one social psychologist who wrote a paper. That is science? You ignore other factors such as are drugs and alcohol the cause of these situations. Are there personal feelings of hatred already between the person breaking in and the resident. There are break ins all the time, but the rare ones that involve someone shooting the intruder make the news for ratings (the generic break ins don’t get much coverage at all if any). Also, it is not legal to shoot someone intruding in your house unless the intruder is endangering your life. There is no general feeling that as soon as someone busts through the door or window guns are going to be blazing.

I would agree with you on the message that the death penalty sends, but I am for it in certain situations where there is no doubt and the person is a huge danger to society.
cdward said, about 1 month ago

mustbeunique, where does the “well regulated Militia,” part come in?
person918 said, about 1 month ago

I like being able to buy guns legally. I’d would also like to be able to buy drugs legally… but hey it’s not like it’s the “land of the free” or anything crazy like that
olddude said, about 1 month ago

Chris Britt is an idiot.
DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

wminfield: My apologies; I had mistaken you for someone capable of an intelligent conversation. Good-bye.

PS: Sorry about the name typo.
olddude said, about 1 month ago

cdward
Nice story you made up about gun fatalities, but it’s all fiction.
The self protection theme is valid, you just don’t hear about it when a gun is used for protection because it doesn’t make a good story, and the media likes the sensational.
I’m a bit of a liberal myself, but I believe every law abiding citizen has an obligation to have a firearm for his protection and the protection of his neighbors.
NoFearPup said, about 1 month ago

Some people shouldn’t have guns…in fact they probably should be behind bars for their own good.
senorbullwinkle said, about 1 month ago

^ Or on a leash !
senorbullwinkle said, about 1 month ago

WT MESTAKEN, They gonna blow up the moon at 4:00 am this morning. West Cost time. they gonna blow it up good !
nomad2112 said, about 1 month ago

Well DrCanuck, as any farm boy can attest to, firearms have ALWAYS been easily available. So it must be the lack of moral teaching that is causing your rise in gun deaths.
cdward said, about 1 month ago

olddude, you might disagree but I did not pull it out of my hat. FBI stats (you can go there pretty easily) show that of 14,408 murders they tracked in 2003 (most recent year I could get stats for), only 1,795 were strangers. Biggest known category was “Acquaintance” with 3,294. Now, I’ll grant you one piece: the “Unknown” category – that is, they don’t know who the assailant was, so it could be friend, family or stranger – was the largest single category with 6,408. But even in the highly unlikely event that all of those were strangers, nearly half were by someone they knew. To be fair again, only 9,638 of those were firearms murders, and I couldn’t find a breakdown of those by relationship.

However, In the Annals of Emergency Medicine (41) 771-782, there is an article (“Homicide and suicide risks associated with firearms in the home: A national case-control study.”) in which the author states, “more than half of firearm homicide victims knew their assailant.”

FWIW, Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center compiled an anthology of studies on gun and murder, and they note that in states with the most guns, murder rates soar.
motivemagus said, about 1 month ago

Thanks, cdward. I was looking for similar sites earlier and couldn’t find the right one.
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

Outlaw Killing!!!!.
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

cdward, it states that as a us citizen you and I are entitled to keep and bear arms in case of national emergencies where that government cannot protect the united states.
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

Stop the fighting in america and focus on Usama Bin Laden, he is worth $25 million dollars for capture on the most wanted list of the fbi.

Btw, the mafia started in italy when their little island, sicily, was attacked over and over again. Those people there were family and started getting organized to defend their land, there was only their family there to protect themselves so it was a familia. (I watched that on the history international channel, awesome channel)

Apologies in advance for any mispelling throughout my comments.
cdward said, about 1 month ago

mustbe said, “to keep and bear arms in case of national emergencies where that government cannot protect the united states.”

Really? Can you show me where it specifies that? Or is this your interpretation?
EnglishTeacher said, about 1 month ago

mustbeunique2: Your apologies for misspelling are insufficient. There is no excuse for it; buy a dictionary.

And remember to capitalize the first letter of proper nouns such as “Sicily.”
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

Haha EnglishTeacher. I checked and rechecked my huge comment and didnt come across any misspells that stood out, so was hoping it wasnt all chopped up.

Thank you for the tip. I notice I do that on alot of spellings of countries. Sometimes on purpose.
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

cdward, it says “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The right of the people, us.

“We the people…”
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,”
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html
EnglishTeacher said, about 1 month ago

mustbeunique2: There is no such word as “alot.”
NoFearPup said, about 1 month ago

What are we going to do about the people in Chicago who shouldn’t have guns?
Should we round them up and incarcerate them for their own good?
Should we conduct person and property searches to round up the illicit arms?
Should we keep the gun offenders we have in prison locked up where they belong?
Should we force the ones who have weapons but are without sufficient parental supervision into retraining camps where they might learn some discipline before they end up killing themselves?
Should we incarcerate the parents of illegal gun-owners who are under age?
Hmmmm…Just think what fixing this problem would REALLY entail…
mustbeunique2 said, about 1 month ago

Their getting paid our hard earned tax dollars, thats their problem not mine, not yours.

“…shall not be infringed.” Thats the law. It should not be broken.

Currently, If my check wasnt taxed, Id be making enough cash to pay my bills, and not living paycheck to paycheck. If they cant do their job and they still want to take my tax dollars to pay their paychecks so they can comfortably pay their bills when Im struggling to pay mine, and want me to “try” to make excuses how come they cant do their job, they have another thing coming.
NeoconMan said, about 1 month ago

Don’t see what the problem is, when these people kill each other off. Kind of thins the heard. Less people to worry about in the future and less to support now with our taxes. I say sell them more guns.
DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

Catch the news several months ago of the woman who often brought an open handgun to her son’s soccer games, celebrating her second amendment rights (and terrifying the other parents)?

Yesterday, her husband took the gun away from her and shot her with it. She’s dead.

Can you say “Darwin Awards”? Sure. I knew you could.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/gun-totingmommeleaniehainh.html
NoFearPup said, about 1 month ago

Can you say, “Irrelevant?”
omQ R said, about 1 month ago

^^ Yeah, I read it and thought about cross-posting it in here but seeing as you have already, nevermemind.
M Henri Day said, about 1 month ago

Those who believe in «safety through possession of firearms» might be advised to read the results of Charles Brana’s recent Philadelphia study (http://preview.tinyurl.com/y95hlk7), which found, among other things, that «people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When the team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher.» So can it go….

Henri
cdward said, about 1 month ago

pup, irrelevant because why? Because it wasn’t the despised city of Chicago?

M Henri Day has it right.
DrCanuck said, about 1 month ago

In the news: Guy in Florida gunned down his fiance on Friday, mistaking her for an intruder. They were to be married the next day.
Ooops! Well, that was the price he was willing to pay to protect his rights.

« Previous 1 2 Next »

Editorials A-Z Navigation

About Chris Britt

A self-described liberal, award-winning editorial cartoonist Chris Britt nevertheless delights in skewering deserving politicians of every persuasion. Britt's sardonic, biting cartoons are sometimes controversial, often outrageous and always thought-provoking.

© 2009 Chris Britt - All Rights Reserved.