I'm interested in getting a sword, mostly as a keepsake and to trick my future children into believing I'm a retired monster slayer. But I'm not sure what would be a keeper, I've seen many swords from different parts of the world and they all look stunning.

Are there any sword enthusiast/collectors that recommend a good starter?

Hey guys, I went through the fantasy land of Misery 2.0
So I found this.

Your thoughts.

>inb4 >>>/v/

Today I examine how people respond to the gun ownership question on the General Social Survey:

>OWNGUN 237. Do you happen to have in your home (IF HOUSE: or garage) any guns or revolvers?

First of all, we learn that gun owners tend to be white.

Then I compared Wordsum scores (a 10 word vocabulary test which is a good proxy for IQ) to gun ownership for white respondents only (and also only for respondents born in the United States).

Although the average white American in this sample set has a Wordsum score of 6.29, respondents with the very low Wordsum score of 3 were the most likely to have a gun in their home. As Wordsum score increases, the likelihood of gun ownership decreases.

A similar pattern is observed for black respondents, but mixing the two races together results in a less informative chart because of the fact that blacks tend to have lower Wordsum scores than whites.

Wordsum score is also a good proxy for class, so we learn that gun hobbies (like collecting them or going hunting with them) are low class.

Why does gun ownership decrease when wordsum score decreases below 3? Probably because (1) these people are more likely to be too poor to afford a gun; and (2) these people may not even be smart enough to learn how to operate and maintain a gun.

>Crime in UK has only gone up
Actually crime rate has kept under the 1981 record low from 2007/08 onwards according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

>Bu-but /k/ told me crime peaked after gun control laws
Police recorded crime increased during most of the 1980s, reaching a peak in 1992, and then fell each year until 1998/99 when the expanded coverage and changes in the Home Office Counting Rules resulted in an increase in recorded offences. This was followed by the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002 which led to a further rise in recording in 2002/03 and 2003/04.

>Bu-but /k/ told me crime is only recorded after conviction
For police recorded crime, the victim-focused approach is enshrined in the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS). The NCRS states that all incidents reported by a victim to the police should be recorded, if the events described amount to a crime in law and unless there is credible evidence to the contrary. This approach is in contrast to evidential approaches that only count those incidents where criminality has been proven or which result in action being taken against an offender.

>Bu-but /k/ told me police under-report crimes
If you don't trust police then you can use the CSEW as an alternative. Since it began, the CSEW has been conducted by an independent survey research organisation using trained interviewers to collect data from sampled respondents. The interviewers have no vested interest in the results of the survey. For the crime types and population groups it covers, the CSEW has a consistent methodology and is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police, recording practice or police activity.

For those of you who do not know, I'm speaking of Phoenix, Arizona, where according to gunsandammo.com

>Arizona is the most recent “Constitutional Carry” state where no permit is required to carry a pistol openly or concealed. Anyone carrying concealed does NOT have to inform law enforcement unless that request comes during a "lawful traffic or criminal investigation, arrest or detention or an investigatory stop by a law enforcement officer," and the State has no restrictions on MSRs or Class 3/NFA weapon ownership beyond the federal laws. Arizona has a Stand Your Ground law.

http://www.gunsandammo.com/2013/03/14/ga-ranks-the-best-states-for-gun-owners-in-2013/

After checking FBI's Crime in U.S 2012, turns out Phoenix violent crime rate is 636.6 per 100,000.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/8tabledatadecpdf/table-8-state-cuts/table_8_offenses_known_to_law_enforcement_by_arizona_by_city_2012.xls

Now, using FBI's Uniform Crime Reports definition of violent crime

>In the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses which involve force or threat of force.

I was able to calculate London's violent crime rate at 554.9 per 100,000 based on Metropolitan Police Data Tables

http://maps.met.police.uk/datatables/borough_2012-13.xls

Please note, London is an 8.3 million people city, while Phoenix is barely 1.5 million.

>mfw

There were 611,903 criminal code infractions recorded by Swiss police in 2012 and 3,502,320 offences recorded by police in England and Wales for the financial year 2012/13.

Considering a total population of 7,954,662 for Switzerland and 56,567,800 for England and Wales at the end of 2012, their crime rates would be 7,692 and 6,191 per 100,000 respectively.

After excluding 208,017 drug offenses from English data (which Swiss police counts separately), the 2012/2013 recorded crime rate for England and Wales falls to 5,823 per 100,000.

If counting drug offenses, Switzerland's crime rate increases to 8,859 per 100,000 for the year 2012.

http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/news/publikationen.html?publicationID=5109
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/224037/hosb0213.pdf

>bu-but in UK crime is only recorded after conviction
Statistics on crimes recorded by the police that appear in the National Statistics for England and Wales are based on notifiable offences. These offences include all offences that could possibly be tried by jury (including some less serious offences, such as minor theft, that would not normally be dealt with in this way) plus a few closely related offences, such as assault without injury.

>bu-but UK police under-report crimes
This is a common misconception popularized by politicians and media that originates from comparing police recorded crime versus estimated crime according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), formerly known as British Crime Survey (BCS). A similar comparison could be made between police recorded crime in U.S. and crime as estimated by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The former puts the U.S national violent crime rate at 386 per 100,000, the later at 2,610 per 100,000, both for year 2012. It's misleading to compare results obtained using two different methodologies for calculating crime.

Hey /k/. Why can't some middle ground be reached on gun control? I'm not saying give up your second amendment but is having more in depth background checks really that bad?

Hey, /k/.

I hope you guys can help me out, my Mother is moving into an apartment (dad passed away a few years ago, and I'm at college in a different state), and she's pretty nervous about being alone and all that, and she's interested in getting a weapon for personal defense.

She's never had a gun before, and I'm not sure how to advise her on the matter, so I'm coming to you guys for help.

Tl;Dr - first time gunz for lady for personal defense, please help.

If it makes any difference, she's in North Carolina.

Thanks for your help, /k/angaroos

What kind of animal made these tracks? Brooklyn btw. Doesn't look like racoon.

Do the mods hate movies or something?