Python 2.1 release candidate, ESR and guns

[Tim Churches]

"Eric S. Raymond" wrote:
> Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org>:
> >   - Eric Raymond extended the pstats module with a simple interactive
> >     statistics browser, invoked when the module is run as a script.

For which we owe Eric S. Raymond, and all the other contributors to
Python 2.1,
many thanks.

However, Eric's posting come with the following .sig postscript:

> According to the National Crime Survey administered by the Bureau of
> the Census and the National Institute of Justice, it was found that
> only 12 percent of those who use a gun to resist assault are injured,
> as are 17 percent of those who use a gun to resist robbery. These
> percentages are 27 and 25 percent, respectively, if they passively
> comply with the felon's demands. Three times as many were injured if
> they used other means of resistance.
>         -- G. Kleck, "Policy Lessons from Recent Gun Control Research,"

Now, I think that the juxtaposition of Eric's open source advocacy, and
more recently, Python advocacy, with his pro-gun and anti-gun control
social (and possibly political) activism is very unfortunate. However,
it is not appropriate to argue this point in this forum. But I do feel
obliged to point out that Eric is being a bit disingenuous by not giving
the full reference for his quote from Gary Kleck's paper. This is
particularly so given the use of the word "recent" in the title of the
paper which Eric quotes. In fact, the full reference is:

Kleck, Gary. "Policy Lessons from Recent Gun Control Research. (Gun
Control Symposium)."
Law and Contemporary Problems 49, no. 1. (Winter 1986.): 35-62.

Clearly the use of the adjective "recent" in the title of the paper is
somewhat relative. Given the publication date of 1986, and considering
publication delays, it is reasonable to assume that the statistics which
Gary Kleck quotes date from a survey performed in the early 1980s.
Perhaps Eric, who no doubt has access to the full text of this article
since he is quoting from it, could enlighten us on this point? In any
case, data which is recent in the more usual sense of the word does
appears to be available - for example see
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cv99.htm 

Tim Churches
Sydney, Australia