Snopes included excerpts from at least two peer reviewed studies directly on topic that seem to contradict your contention....why dismiss it offhand?

In a peer-reviewed paper published by American Law and Economics Review in 2012, researchers Andrew Leigh of Australian National University and Christine Neill of Wilfrid Laurier University found that in the decade following the NFA, firearm homicides (both suicides and intentional killings) in Australia had dropped significantly:

In 1997, Australia implemented a gun buyback program that reduced the stock of firearms by around one-fifth (and nearly halved the number of gun-owning households). Using differences across states, we test[ed] whether the reduction in firearms availability affected homicide and suicide rates. We find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%, with no significant effect on non-firearm death rates. The effect on firearm homicides is of similar magnitude but is less precise [somewhere between 35% and 50%].

Similarly, Dr. David Hemenway and Mary Vriniotis of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center found in 2011 that the NFA had been “incredibly successful in terms of lives saved”:

For Australia, the NFA seems to have been incredibly successful in terms of lives saved. While 13 gun massacres (the killing of 4 or more people at one time) occurred in Australia in the 18 years before the NFA, resulting in more than one hundred deaths, in the 14 following years (and up to the present), there were no gun massacres.

The NFA also seems to have reduced firearm homicide outside of mass shootings, as well as firearm suicide. In the seven years before the NFA (1989-1995), the average annual firearm suicide death rate per 100,000 was 2.6 (with a yearly range of 2.2 to 2.9); in the seven years after the buyback was fully implemented (1998-2004), the average annual firearm suicide rate was 1.1 (yearly range 0.8 to 1.4). In the seven years before the NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate per 100,000 was .43 (range .27 to .60) while for the seven years post NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate was .25 (range .16 to .33)

Additional evidence strongly suggests that the buyback causally reduced firearm deaths. First, the drop in firearm deaths was largest among the type of firearms most affected by the buyback. Second, firearm deaths in states with higher buyback rates per capita fell proportionately more than in states with lower buyback rates.

Are you calling them liars?

So, they want full representation, but not to have to follow the full federal laws (any pay full federal taxes).

Last year was the first time (in 5 votes since 1967) that they have clearly voted for statehood, however, there was record low voter turnout (23%) due to the party supporting keeping territory status boycotting the election (and IMO not being done in an election year), and possibly skewing the results.

2017-
97% voted yes, to statehood with only 23% turnout (78% turnout in the 2012 election).
A poll done in 2017 found that only 52% supported statehood (Although in my opinion, it was a very small sample size at 966 people)

It is trending toward statehood, but so far, it is not even clear that Puerto Ricans want it.

I believe I am impartial as I really don't care one way or the other, but this video feels like it is only telling half of a sob story, but it is a mess.

I feel, in 2020, they need a measure that ask 1 question: statehood, colony, or independent. Last time they asked it that way was 1993.

In 2010 this was how Mike Edwards, one of the founding members of ELO died.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/08/article-2229854-15EA90C8000005DC-485_634x366.jpg

I bought 32 bitcoins throughout 2012. Now worth close to half a mil. I bought about 4 or 5 grams of DMT over the next two years... each 20 mg of DMT - in my mind - is worth at least $1,000,000. Regardless, even when I started putting money in, there was serious paranoia about the volatility that exists today but isn't as bad as it was back then. You could not trust any of the bitcoin banks or markets back then. A lot of them would just close down and take off with your motherfucking bitcoins, a lot of them would get hacked or say they got hacked, so I always just wanted to get the money transferred out of the bank to a market and released to a trustworthy vendor as fast as possible. So, if you're thinking woulda coulda shoulda - you too probably wouldnah. That on top of the fact that bitcoin transactions took dayyyyssss sometimes, it was fucking slow and a lot of it was through cold hard cash not debit/credit cards...

Tim Minchin - White Wine In The Sun has been added as a related post - related requested by mxxcon.

Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun" (Studio 360 Live) has been added as a related post - related requested by mxxcon.

Tim Minchin - White Wine in the Sun (2012) has been added as a related post - related requested by mxxcon.

White Wine In The Sun an Atheist Xmas Song by Tim Minchin has been added as a related post - related requested by mxxcon.

*related=https://videosift.com/video/Tim-Minchin-White-Wine-In-The-Sun
*related=https://videosift.com/video/Tim-Minchin-White-Wine-in-the-Sun-Studio-360-Live
*related=https://videosift.com/video/Tim-Minchin-White-Wine-in-the-Sun-2012
*related=https://videosift.com/video/White-Wine-In-The-Sun-an-Atheist-Xmas-Song-by-Tim-Minchin

See this article in Forbes for an explanation:
https://goo.gl/rNq7W3

Facebook bought Instagram in 2012.

Ah, I see you didn't read the links.

Else you would know :

* The post 1990 borders of Ukraine include historically Russian lands populated by Russian people.

* Ukraine's nukes could not be to guard against Russia because Russia had the crypto keys and guidance control over Ukrainian nukes.

* U.S. support for the 2014 coup against Ukraine's government was arguably also a treaty violation. (I don't actually care about this one)

* Government corruption, rising nationalism, and anti-Russian sentiment, are what led to the coup, which kicked off the fighting, which led to Russian intervention, which led to the "land grabs".


(Anti-Russian sentiment was brewing for years before the 2014 coup. You can see it play out in the 2012 language law issue, which was one of the historical turning points leading up to conflict: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_Ukraine#Proposals_for_repeal_and_revision)


Sidenote, this statement is pure insanity : "We should be at war with Russia today over it's murderous expansions"
War with Russia would last less than an hour, and the only winner would be South America and Africa.
Nuclear powers can never go to war. I mean _never_ never.






Regarding collusion, here :
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/opinion/collusion-meaning-trump-.html

"
President Trump declared on Twitter: “There is NO COLLUSION!”
"
There ya go. A Trump declaration that the campaign was not illegally secretly coordinated (i.e. no collusion). Not backwards at all.

The link also explains the irrelevance of the term regarding legal issues.

-scheherazade

@SDGundamX you're confusing psychopathy with insanity. Lots of psychopaths are perfectly sane. Being a psychopath vastly increases the likelihood of committing murder. And it's heritable. And it's a continuum. But it's rare enough to be a relatively minor cause of murder rates. In place of "genes for psychopathy" I should have said "genes for anything that predisposes one to commit murder".

First degree murder is less than 10% of all murder. Most murders are spur of the moment. Having a higher IQ correlates with doing better on the marshmellow test and having greater impulse control to avoid spur of the moment destructive behavior. IQ is a vastly better predictor of criminality than parental SES ( http://akarlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/bell-curve-crime-iq.jpg ) Japanese have 7 points higher average IQ than the US. IQ is >50% heritable.

Your video, The Sweeping Shadow - Total Solar Eclipse, Nov 14 2012,, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, December 2nd, 2012 1:53am PST - promote requested by Zawash.

I think that really is it - http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/01/guide-to-rum-basics-types-history-regions-terms-rum-cocktails.html

The point is that it's not Caribbean rum (which generally has a good name) or Australian rum (which is lucky for them )

Self promoting this video back to the front page; last published Monday, August 6th, 2012 3:41am PDT - promote requested by original submitter lurgee.

Self promoting this video back to the front page; last published Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 9:51am PDT - promote requested by original submitter ulysses1904.

@Mordhaus @ChaosEngine
I knew about the 2012 referendum, and the lack of overwhelming support for the direct yes/no question to change the current status or stay with the status quo (about 55% wanted to change, 45% wanted to stay back then). Didn't know about the most recent vote on it -- thanks for the heads up.


Personally I'd like to see PR become the 51st state, but I think my opinion is drastically less important than that of the people actually living there. Basically, I think they should make the choice and the US government should honor it whichever way they choose.

I'm not in the know enough to have a good opinion on whether or not they would need some sort of payout / debt severance / whatever, but I'd be OK with it if it was deemed a good thing to do. On the other hand, if they went independent they'd have the right to set corporate tax rates etc. to pay off debts and/or chase out US based businesses that are taking unfair advantage. Maybe that'd be enough of an olive branch without requiring an additional "severance package", I dunno.