Been a busy weekend, but I took a little time to refill the “Gun Death?” magazine as it ran dry with this morning’s post.
Was talking about a few of the upcoming stories that I’m particularly impressed with, and she started asking me about the project overall. Some of the discussion points are things you should all know, like the other aggregate projects done by various bloggers to create large lists used to give real-world stories to sterile, and sometimes nebulous hard statistical data.
Again I need to thank all who help me with this project, as it wouldn’t be possible without your help! Also remember, the “Gun Death?” Files are a TOOL, not just blog fodder. Be sure to drop a link to the archive anytime you see somebody using the made-up and irrelevant metric of “Gun Death” in attempts to sway a debate, the #1 reason for this project is to take that term away from the antis around the world, and it won’t happen with just my voice alone.
So let’s pop the hood on this great engine a little. First I’ll point out to date there have been over 850 entries in this category! Some don’t actually contain death, but injuries, but many contain multiple murders, as well as massive accidents.
I didn’t want this blog to become the “Gun Death” Blog, so posts are often done one a day, set up in a syndication. I generally just tuck down for an hour and crank out a week or two of posts at a time, and set them to fire off consecutively at 0500 every morning (with a few exceptions). I first started the category with this post on June 23 back in 2010. I did go back and add the category to a few post, and this one is the oldest post to bear the “Gun Death?” tag.
Also I was amused to find that it didn’t take long for me to get a massive influx of “Gun Death” stories from readers. Today if you send me a “Gun Death?” Story you might have to wait a few weeks to a month before it shows up on the blog. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have a few stories waiting in my mailbox to be committed to a post. Also I can’t remember the last time I went searching for stories to fill out the magazine. Sure I still hear a story in the news and write it up, but I haven’t gone looking for them myself in ages, thanks to all the reader submissions. In the early days I was simply trolling Google News with some basic search terms…I was actually disturbed how easy it was to get a LOT of usable stories that way. Non-“Gun Death” is really common, so carry your damn gun, because the other guy doesn’t NEED a gun to kill your ass!
So yeah, thanks again, and keep them coming. This project has been an AMAZING success!
