Three felonies a day....

[GunLawyer001]

There's a book out, that has been cited from time to time here and elsewhere, as support for the claim that the average American commits 3 felonies per day, mostly without even being aware of them.

http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/You...6/Default.aspx

I have yet to see any evidence for this claim. Further, the claim itself seems to be "the average PROFESSIONAL commits 3 ARGUABLE felonies per day", which is a lesser claim, but still lacks substance. I'm a professional, I have a better-than-average grasp of the laws, and I manage to keep the felony count way below that. A little speeding, maybe. Once I was late in renewing the dog's license. Not too many federal felonies, and certainly not 3 per day, not even 3 per business day. That would be around 750 federal felonies per year, just for me. You'd think someone would have noticed. Especially me.

It's been a few years since this came out, and so far, it's smelling a whole lot like that old bogus claim that there are 3 million homeless Americans at any given time.
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/...isis-was-hyped

More recently, the focus on homelessness has changed to bogus numbers about "homeless children", and child "food insecurity". Kids are always a hot ticket in Progressive land....

Anyway, about those 3 felonies per day.... No evidence of research, studies, or even the millions of anecdotes that would make this claim believable. Anybody aware of anything solid that would allow someone to double-check that number? See if it's up to 4 per day, or 10, or zero?

[ideaman]

Glad you posted that.

Just being an average John Doe, I thought there was substance to it. Why would some one publish a book like this, putting his reputation at risk, by stretching the truth or exaggerate?

[GunLawyer001]

Glad you posted that.

Just being an average John Doe, I thought there was substance to it. Why would some one publish a book like this, putting his reputation at risk, by stretching the truth or exaggerate?

it's hardly the first time that someone published a book premised on fraud, and the rewards can be substantial. Remember the anti-gun hack job, "Arming America"? He won an award, he got glowing reviews from the activists on his side, he was quoted a lot. It was a fluke that his fraud was discovered and challenged, and that the challenges got enough air time to bring him down.

http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/930

Whenever I see startling claims, statements that are surprising and counter-intuitive, I look for the proof. I'm not seeing those 3 felonies per day.

[Cyclops]

Glad you posted that.

Just being an average John Doe, I thought there was substance to it. Why would some one publish a book like this, putting his reputation at risk, by stretching the truth or exaggerate?

It sells books, and the author thinks 'let the truth be damned. if I can make a buck.'

[Ranger P229]

Blink your hi-beams to warn other drivers of the PSP running radar over the next hill = obstruction of justice.

You find someone elses mail in your mailbox and you forget to put it back and eventually get tired of looking at it so you throw it away.

The car you sold to a guy in WV on Ebay had to have the tail light replaced because you backed into your kids bicycle and you sold it as never being involved in an accident.

Three felonies, two of which are federal. Now I don't think everyone does three things a day but I think it's possible there are people who do six of these things every day and other people who only do one every day, averaging three per day.

You're really reaching. That's an incredibly broad definition of "obstruction of justice" and even if (and that's a gigantic if) anyone was ever stupid enough to bring that in front of an ADA, and the ADA agreed to run with it, they'd have have a lot of proving to do before it would become a felony and not a misdemeanor.
Backing into your kids bicycle does not count as an accident. That's not my opinion either, there are legal definitions about what a reportable accident is.

[Emptymag]

Between the gas and what he deposits in the yard, my dog commits an absolute minimum of 6 felonies a day.

If that smell isn't a felony, it should be.

[Ranger P229]

Of course I'm reaching...
I think the point of it all is there are so many laws that are vague and silly that they can be broken without even knowing it.

Sure, and most of those are summary offenses that law enforcement don't even know about. Breaking numerous summary offenses a day that no one cares about let alone enforces isn't exactly a big deal.

Now, if law enforcement are enforcing these laws simply as a form of revenue generation then we have a legitimate complaint, but as it is, this is really a non-issue.

[streaker69]

You have the 1st amendment right to flash your highbeams (hear that ladies?).

While I think the 3 per day is kind of high, I think it's quite possible that people are committing that many a week. Probably the most common one that every day people violate is the second hand selling of recalled merchandise. It's now illegal at the federal level to sell any product that has a safety recall on it (outside of motor vehicles). You decide to have a yard sale and put out some toys, some baby items, a couple of small kitchen appliances and you could be committing multiple crimes all at once.

The CSPC puts out recalls nearly every day, sometimes 3 or 4 items at time. That's hundreds of items per year, thousands in just a few years. Most people have no idea that items they have are illegal to resell. I have a PowerWheels Quad that I bought from a neighbor after this law was passed and had no idea that they shouldn't have been selling it, and I doubt they did either. I've repaired the reason for the recall myself, and it provided many many hours of fun for the kids.

[Ricochet]

I too think 3 per day is a bit much.
But we have to consider what state someone lives in too.
Some states have a lot of felonies on the books that in other states are just misdemeanors.


.

[Fighting_Fool]

While 3-a-day is WAAAAY high... How many people drive into Jersey or Maryland and back with a gun in the glove box and never give it a second thought?

...Until they get jammed up by the other state's LEOs and find out that ignorance of the law is not a legal defense. Shaneen Allen anyone?

How many people could get gigged by 922r on an imported VEPR or Saiga?

How many folks are vulnerable to assault or terroristic threats charges for posts on Facebook or other social media? You may think that it's OK to be salty on the 'anonymous' web, but...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/25/us/new...reats-arrests/

"Among the other arrests this week, a 26-year-old allegedly posted pictures of weapons on his Facebook page along with threats to kill police officers, NYPD spokeswoman Sophia Mason said.

The man's Facebook post indicated that he wanted to kill two police officers, NYPD Detective Annette Markowski said. He was charged with making terroristic threats."