AT HIS blog, Malcolm Pollack handily demolishes the logic of “gun control” in a few sentences. If guns were the problem, towns in Vermont would be much more dangerous than Chicago:

In Chicago, a city of 2.7 million people, fewer than 8,000 people are licensed to own a gun – less than 0.3%. The city’s gun-homicide rate is about 18 per 100,000. In Vermont, by contrast, where 42% of the population are gun owners, the rate of gun murders in 2010 was 0.3 per 100,000. So Chicago has a gun-homicide rate about 60 times Vermont’s, despite Vermonters being 150 times as likely to own a gun. To put that another way, in Chicago the ratio of the gun-homicide rate to the percentage of citizens who legally own guns is nine thousand times higher than it is in Vermont.

— Comments —

John writes:

The case of Vermont and guns is becoming a little more complicated:  The other day I hosted a get together where a Vermont woman––a transplant from Massachusetts––mentioned that her state had the “worst gun laws in the country.  There are no laws.”  She went on to explain that Vermont’s guns laws were written for “farmers and hunters,” and needed to change fast.  No doubt they will change, and for the worse.

This year the governor of Vermont devoted his entire State of the State address to the exploding heroin and crime problem there.  Even the rural parts of the state are becoming infested with drugs, gun running, and even gang activity.  Nothing on this scale existed even a few years ago.

I might have thought these two things unrelated, but a month ago I was at a dinner party where the man sitting next to me happened to be a Vermont state representative.  He talked about the problems of drug addiction, gun running, crime and gangs.  There is a direct pipeline between Vermont and its old nemesis, New York.  Drugs come in to Vermont; while guns, legally and easily purchased, go back.

But then he let slip the actual cause of this sudden reversal in the state’s quality of life.  It is almost entirely related to the influx of immigrants from Latin America, many of whom come to work at agricultural jobs Vermonters no longer want, but bring with them a host of social pathologies including gang activity.  Of course, he quickly added that it was not his intent to “bash these people.”

In other words, “the worst gun laws in the country” were never that big a problem for indigenous Vermonters, with their long history of coupling this relative freedom with responsible use.  But now, with the arrival to the state of ethnic and cultural diversity, the lax gun laws are identified as the problem, and they need to be changed in the interests of keeping everyone “safe.”

As the Vermont legislature eventually takes up the matter of tightening its gun laws, no doubt the real reasons impelling the change will be studiously ignored by a room full of elected officials who understand quite well what is going on, but are unwilling to bring it into the open.

Once again, liberalism shows itself very good at spotting problems, but unwilling or unable to come to grips with actual causes and effects.  If countervailing facts come to the liberal mind, they are quickly quarantined and neutralized.  If I had pointed to the obvious fact that the proximate cause of the drug wave was the recent cultural shift, I would have been, not so much argued with, as shunned and disinvited from future parties.

This is one reason I no longer talk about political matters with my neighbors. The only people still worth speaking with are the younger generation whose minds have not yet been completely taken over.

Laura writes:

Drug use is big among the whites of Vermont, so I would think the increasing problem with crime and gangs is attributable to other cultural factors as well.

Buck writes:

There were only ten homicides in Vermont during 2011. Five by firearm. Seven homicides in each 2010 and 2009. Over the past eleven years there has been an average of under eleven. Half by firearm. 

Looking at the drug crimes listed by cities I see a disproportionatly huge number for Vergennes PD. The city of Vergennes has a population of 2,588 and is located in Addison County (middle of state, bordering New York) which had a population of 36,821 by the 2010 census. “Incidents” by drug type Marijuana/Hashish is 310 where most are single digits or low double digits. No other city or jurisdiction comes even close to 310. So, I looked into the demographics.

The year 2000 racial makeup of Vergennes was 93.43% White, 2.01% African American, 0.22% Native American, 0.36% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.06% from other races, and 2.88% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.92% of the population.

The year 2000 racial makeup of Addison county was 96.86% White, 0.54% Black orAfrican American, 0.26% Native American, 0.73% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.29% from other races, and 1.29% from two or more races. 1.10% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

What gives?

Laura writes:

Drugs are a major problem in the Burlington area, near Vergennes. Scrawny, white drug addicts are a common sight on the streets of Burlington. As John mentioned, and has been discussed here before, the governor announced earlier this year that drug use is a serious crisis in the state. There are very few Hispanics in the Burlington area, and, I believe, there are few Hispanics anywhere in Vermont. I read an interview with the police chief of Vergennes in the town newspaper about two years ago, in which he talked about the devastation of heroin use and the young adults he knew who had died of overdoses. I am sure they were all white. I seriously question John’s point that the social pathologies of Vermont are almost entirely related to Latin American agricultural workers. In fact, I wonder if that is a major factor at all.

James P. writes:

John writes,

“Once again, liberalism shows itself very good at spotting problems, but unwilling or unable to come to grips with actual causes and effects.”

As always, they are spotting the problem they want to spot, not the actual problem. This is because the “solution” to the fake problem reacts to their political advantage, whereas a real solution to a real problem would not.

If nobody addresses the real problems — for fear of being ostracized at parties — then the real problems most certainly will not be solved. This is the path to becoming England, which Larry Auster called “the Isle of the Dead,” where people do nothing more than grumble privately and wring their hands as their civilization crumbles around them.

Kevin writes:

Thank you for sussing out that the primary underlying cause of the exploding drug problem in Vermont is almost certainly not a Latin American influx. Increasing drug abuse is simply another in a growing number of indicators of the ongoing decay of our society; the causes of which are discussed on your site in many other posts.

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