What do the numbers show?

As always check the facts, see what the numbers tell you.
It's a key step in trying to decode what the news is saying,

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2008/06/28/4636/
Don Surber on DC gun Ban

Question: Did the murder rate really triple under the Washington, DC, gun ban?

Answer: Yes. The murder rate was 26.8 homicides per 100,000 people in 1976, when the ban became law. That would be its lowest rate for the next 30 years. It peaked at 80.6 homicides per 100,000 people in 1991.

Question: What’s the highest the murder rate has been in gun happy West Virginia in that time?

Answer: 6.9 homicides per 100,000 people.

Surber has more questions and answers on his report.


Also is the US in a recession?

Well if you go by the actual definition of one... No. No, we are not.

A 1% annual growth rate won’t excite many people. It follows a quarter with 0.6% growth, making it the weakest two-quarter period in the last four years, as the chart demonstrates. However, this is hardly the worst economy we’ve seen in memory. The 2000-2001 recession and the damage done to the economy after 9/11 was far worse than what we see now. In fact, the slight rebound may indicate that the worst of the slowdown is over and that we may start seeing a return to the stronger growth we have experienced since 2003.

Remember this when politicians and the media talk about “the worst economy since the Great Depression”. When the real numbers come out, no one bothers to report them. The hyperbole serves them better than the truth.

And Glen has a Gallup poll on what Americans thing should be done to help the economy.

Some good news there.