The Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

From As more people get guns and carry permits, Philly sees a sharp rise in homicides ruled justified by Mensah M. Dean.  The subheading is More people in Philadelphia are legally arming themselves and shooting their armed attackers amid a violent crime spike.  

Keep an eye on Mensah Dean.  He is a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer.  This piece has more facts and more empirical observation than anything equivalent you might see in the NYT or the Atlantic.  

So much information that Dean struggles with distilling the essence of what is happening.  But the data is there to discern it.

Philadelphia has a high and rapidly rising gun crime rate.

In response to increasing lawlessness, citizens are rapidly and legally arming themselves, even in the face of strict gun controls.

With more armed citizens, there are an increasing number of justifiable homicides when a criminal is killed by an armed citizen.

Phildelphia has suffered from the winds of defund the police, though resulting more in depolicing than in defunding.  They have a Soros District Attorney, Larry Krasner who has not met a criminal he didn't want to set free.  Between depolicing and decriminalizing crime, Philadelphia has seen its murder rate rocket up.  There were 562 murder victims in 2021; there were 326 in 2011.  

Philadelphia has a high and rapidly rising gun crime rate.  The number of people murdered rose 72% from 2011 to 2021.  

In response to increasing lawlessness, citizens are rapidly and legally arming themselves, even in the face of strict gun controls.  Approved gun permit applications rose 600% from 2020 to 2021.  

With more armed citizens, there are an increasing number of justifiable homicides when a criminal is killed by an armed citizen.  There was a 67% increase in justifiable homicides from 2020 to 2021.  

Dean does a good job of both lots of data and treating the related concerns.  Increased gun ownership might increase number of suicides, increased gun ownership will likely lead to increased accidental deaths.  Citizens defending themselves from criminals can lead to an increase in by-stander deaths and wounds.

What most totalitarian and authoritarian leftists don't understand is that these are complex systems which will always reach some sort of balance.  It isn't about guns, its about governance.  It is about a range of choices which create a range of incentives (and disincentives) for out comes.  

Trying to decrease gun violence by reducing access to guns reflects a cramped and fallacious understanding of what is going on.

If you want to depolice and decriminalize then you are creating an incentive for increased crime and violence.

A free citizenry, not wishing to be victims of increased crime and violence, will take steps to defend themselves.

All things being equal, at some point a new balance will be reached.  As more and and more citizens resist being victimized (with mortal consequences), criminals will eventually moderate their violent acts.  The number of citizens killed, the number of violent criminals killed and the number of innocent by-standers killed may be higher than one would want and will almost certainly be higher than if the city had effective policing and an effective criminal justice system, but it will happen regardless.

The most effective means of reducing gun violence is to have effective policing and an effective judicial system.  Citizens have less reason to arm themselves and fewer will arm themselves.  The body count will come down.

Those on the utopian left want there to be no policing, no criminal justice system, and no armed citizens but with low violence rates.  That cannot exist in a heterogeneous society.  

What we are currently experiencing is once again the Gods of the Copybook Headings teaching is that this is so.  

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,

I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.

Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all. 

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn

That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:

But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,

So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind. 

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,

Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,

But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come

That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome. 

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,

They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;

They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;

So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things. 

The poem goes on to elaborate but it comes down to the hard reality that there is a reality.  Utopian dreams are no substitute for good governance.  Violent crime is a choice which many City leaders are choosing despite the desires of their constituents.  Ignoring Constitutional freedoms and prattling on about coercive gun control is a mere diversion from reconciling that naive utopian vision with reality.

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew

And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true

That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more. 

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man

There are only four things certain since Social Progress began. 

That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, 

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; 

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, 

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, 

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!