Carl Moody, Economics Professor at William and Mary, and co-author with Dave Kopel and me on a published paper, was kind enough to analyze the data from an earlier article. His response:When I did the regressions, I found that Economic freedom, Overall freedom, and Personal freedom were all negatively correlated with Brady score, significant at the .01 level (highly significant). Violent crime and LEO rates were positively correlated with Brady at the .001 level (very highly significant).
Sorting by Brady quartiles, the three graphs above still show very strong, negative correlations. (Both have R-values over .90; read here for a brief description of R-values.) As Brady scores increase, personal and economic freedoms decrease. [emphasis added]
The lowlands corridor along Interstate 90 some 38 miles east of Seattle which runs through the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is being closed to recreational shooting starting this weekend and continuing for at least 12 months, while the Forest Service determines whether the closure should become permanent.
The problem: Slob shooters. The bane of all responsible gun owners, these people are responsible for other such closures on public lands all over the map. For years, they have brought their garbage onto public property, shot it to pieces, and left it as an eyesore. On rare occasions, they accidentally shoot one another while ricocheting bullets off of boulders against which they have propped a target.
Their litter in the North Bend-Snoqualmie Ranger District – where this closure is taking effect – has included aerosol cans, televisions, computer monitors, appliances and even stolen cars. In the shooting community, these individuals are not simply black sheep, they are social lepers. Responsible shooters don’t want them around, as they are typically responsible for the low image some people have of all gun owners.
STEUBENVILLE - To participate in a cleanup on the streets of the Labelle neighborhood, about a dozen residents brought not only rubber gloves and plastic garbage bags.
They also brought handguns, which they kept in holsters worn around their waists - some in plain view and some not - in a move they said was aimed at promoting awareness of laws allowing Ohioans the right to carry firearms in public.
Wayne Johnson, a resident of Belleview Boulevard - one of the streets where the group worked - said under state law, anyone may carry any gun they have the right to legally own. ...
A New Orleans man is suing the city and its district attorney for refusing to give back a gun that police seized when he was arrested on drug and firearms charges that were later dropped.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana filed the federal lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Errol Houston Jr., who was arrested last year following a traffic stop. The lawsuit says the district attorney's office declined to prosecute Houston but has refused to return his .40-caliber firearm.
Houston's lawsuit claims District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro has instituted a policy that firearms seized during arrests will not be returned to their owners. The ACLU says that policy violates Houston's constitutional rights.
"Mr. Houston has done nothing wrong. There are no criminal charges against him. His firearm, which he is and was entitled to carry, has been confiscated for no reason," ACLU of Louisiana executive director Marjorie R. Esman said in a statement. ...
When Ronald "R.J." Richard jumps on his tractor to do yard work, he normally clips his cell phone to the hip pocket of his overalls.
But Saturday he decided to hook it to bib of the garment, just over his heart. It was a decision made without a second thought, but it was one that might have saved Richard's life a short while later.
"Something hit me in the chest really hard, " said Richard, who initially thought he had been struck by a rock kicked up by the motor.
But when he took off his sweater and opened the nylon case for his Motorola Razr phone, a .45-caliber bullet fell out.
The stray bullet, probably fired from the woods near his 5-acre property on North Lee Road near Covington, shattered Richard's cell phone but left him with little more than a bad bruise.
NEW ORLEANS -- In Lakeview, Barbara Majoue is still living in a trailer almost three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded her neighborhood.
"We're moving along. What can I say?" she said.
Majoue said at times, things are not moving fast enough. She wants more from her elected leaders, including Mayor Ray Nagin, who is set to receive an award for recovery, courage and leadership.
"I'm not surprised. I'm disappointed," she said. "I don't see what (Nagin), as an individual, did."
According to the invitation, a group called the Excellence in Recovery Host Committee is handing out the award at an event at the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Aug. 22.
NEW ORLEANS - Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten a lesson from four decades ago and believe once again that the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind.
...
... A recent University of New Orleans survey of residents found concern about levee safety was dropping off the list of top worries, replaced by crime, incompetent leadership and corruption.
This sense of security, though, may be dangerously naive.
For the foreseeable future, New Orleans will be protected by levees unable to protect against another storm like Katrina.
When and if the Army Corps of Engineers finishes $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work, the city will have limited protection — what are defined as 100-year levees.
This does not mean they'd stand up to storms for a century. Under the 100-year standard, in fact, experts say that every house being rebuilt in New Orleans has a 26 percent chance of being flooded again over a 30-year mortgage; and every child born in New Orleans would have nearly a 60 percent chance of seeing a major flood in his or her life.
"It's not exactly great protection," said John Barry, the author of "Rising Tide," a book New Orleans college students read to learn about the corps' efforts to tame the Mississippi.
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