International study confirms, more guns equal less crime.

[KimberPB]

This was a good read so I thought I'd post it. Something you may want to pass on to those anti friends of yours.

Knight Shooting Sports
By now, any informed American is familiar with Dr. John Lott's famous axiom of "More Guns, Less Crime." In other words, American jurisdictions that allow law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms are far safer and more crime-free than jurisdictions that enact stringent "gun control" laws. Very simply, the ability of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms has helped reduce violent crime in America.

Now, a Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy study shows that this is not just an American phenomenon. According to the study, worldwide gun ownership rates do not correlate with higher murder or suicide rates. In fact, many nations with high gun ownership have significantly lower murder and suicide rates.

In their piece entitled Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and some Domestic Evidence, Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser eviscerate "the mantra that more guns mean more deaths and that fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths." In so doing, the authors provide fascinating historical insight into astronomical murder rates in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they dispel the myths that widespread gun ownership is somehow unique to the United States or that America suffers from the developed world's highest murder rate.

To the contrary, they establish that Soviet murder rates far exceeded American murder rates, and continue to do so today, despite Russia's extremely stringent gun prohibitions. By 2004, they show, the Russian murder rate was nearly four times higher than the American rate. More fundamentally, Dr. Kates and Dr. Mauser demonstrate that other developed nations such as Norway, Finland, Germany, France and Denmark maintain high rates of gun ownership, yet possess murder rates lower than other developed nations in which gun ownership is much more restricted.

For example, handguns are outlawed in Luxembourg, and gun ownership extremely rare, yet its murder rate is nine times greater than in Germany, which has one of the highest gun ownership rates in Europe. As another example, Hungary's murder rate is nearly three times higher than nearby Austria's, but Austria's gun ownership rate is over eight times higher than Hungary's. "Norway," they note, "has far and away Western Europe's highest household gun ownership rate (32%), but also its lowest murder rate. The Netherlands," in contrast, "has the lowest gun ownership rate in Western Europe (1.9%) ... yet the Dutch gun murder rate is higher than the Norwegian."

Dr. Kates and Dr. Mauser proceed to dispel the mainstream misconception that lower rates of violence in Europe are somehow attributable to gun control laws. Instead, they reveal, "murder in Europe was at an all-time low before the gun controls were introduced." As the authors note, "strict controls did not stem the general trend of ever-growing violent crime throughout the post-WWII industrialized world."

Citing England, for instance, they reveal that "when it had no firearms restrictions [in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries], England had little violent crime." By the late 1990s, however, "England moved from stringent controls to a complete ban on all handguns and many types of long guns." As a result, "by the year 2000, violent crime had so increased that England and Wales had Europe's highest violent crime rate, far surpassing even the United States." In America, on the other hand, "despite constant and substantially increasing gun ownership, the United States saw progressive and dramatic reductions in criminal violence in the 1990s." Critically, Dr. Kates and Dr. Mauser note that "the fall in the American crime rate is even more impressive when compared with the rest of the world," where 18 of the 25 countries surveyed by the British Home Office suffered violent crime increases during that same period.

Furthermore, the authors highlight the important point that while the American gun murder rate often exceeds that in other nations, the overall per capita murder rate in other nations (including other means such as strangling, stabbing, beating, etc.) is oftentimes much higher than in the United States.

The reason that gun ownership doesn't correlate with murder rates, the authors show, is that violent crime rates are determined instead by underlying cultural factors. "Ordinary people," they note, "simply do not murder." Rather, "the murderers are a small minority of extreme antisocial aberrants who manage to obtain guns whatever the level of gun ownership" in their society.

Therefore, "banning guns cannot alleviate the socio-cultural and economic factors that are the real determinants of violence and crime rates." According to Dr. Kates and Dr. Mauser, "there is no reason for laws prohibiting gun possession by ordinary, law-abiding, responsible adults because such people virtually never commit murder. If one accepts that such adults are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than to commit it, disarming them becomes not just unproductive but counter-productive."

John Lott couldn't have stated it better himself

[tattedupboy]

No surprise here. What is laughable to me is the antis' propensity to suggest that the presence of guns causes more suicides, and that in their absence, suicide deaths would decrease. Why are they so oblivious to the fact that guns do not cause depression and that removing them does not remove whatever is making them suicidal? Only professional help will fix whatever is wrong with them.

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by tattedupboy

No surprise here. What is laughable to me is the antis' propensity to suggest that the presence of guns causes more suicides, and that in their absence, suicide deaths would decrease. Why are they so oblivious to the fact that guns do not cause depression and that removing them does not remove whatever is making them suicidal? Only professional help will fix whatever is wrong with them.

+1 to that. people need to learn to think before they speak.. and have facts to back their moronic statements up would not be a bad idea either.

thanks for the post

[HK4U]

No kidding. How in the world did they figure that out.

[Teufel]

Now that is just super!

[Boofreakinyah]

What boggles my mind is that these statistics and statistics just like them have been available for as long as the guns themselves.

The numbers are real...they are common sense....and they speak for themselves.

Do the anti-gunners actually not comprehend that which has been simply laid out before them or are they so blinded by fear and ignorance that they truly believe that somehow gun control is the only solution to a violent crime rate that was partially CAUSED BY gun control?

I just don't get it.

[kwo51]

They are using the same rational that is used with cars .The more cars mean more green house gas and accidents. Cars dont run or crash if their is not a driver behind wheel.More guns more shootings seems to make sense to really smart people. Might be just men are shooting ,lets not let men have guns just women. Upside down world. OK in Florida for sex offender to have porno just not of kids.

[brey1234]

Does anyone have a link to the study? It would be handy to pass around to my anti gun friends

[Ruger Lady]

Here's the study. http://www.knightshooting.com/Vol30_No2_KatesMauser.pdf

The problem with people that are anti-gun is they don't use facts to argue, they use emotion. We as gun owners have to learn to use both. Facts are great but to also add an emotional context to the discussion is very good.

[tattedupboy]

Originally Posted by Ruger Lady

Here's the study. http://www.knightshooting.com/Vol30_No2_KatesMauser.pdf

The problem with people that are anti-gun is they don't use facts to argue, they use emotion. We as gun owners have to learn to use both. Facts are great but to also add an emotional context to the discussion is very good.

You're right. Have you heard one of their lamest excuses for banning assault weapons. Apparently, pistol grips on rifles allow shooters to spray fire from the hip. If you don't believe me, it's right here:

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

I guess they would rather a criminal kill his victim by firing from the shoulder instead of spray firing from the hip. Just like you said, emotion, not facts, are what drive them.