National Review has a commentary on the long running gun control debate in which it points out that “It is a heck of a lot easier to win [a gun control debate] if strict gun control does not reduce crime or is even counterproductive.” https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/book-review-gun-control-myths-handbook-useful-numbers/
It is a good article, with a nice plug for Dr. John Lott’s “Myths About Gun Control” which I have mentioned in recent posts So click on over, and come back for the commentary.
First, any law can do only one of three things.
The first, the one gun control activists always use, is to succeed in bringing down crime rates – many propagandists claim an end to crime with gun control.
Or gun control could do essentially nothing, or have such mixed results that you can select cases to make your case for or against guns.
Or imposition of a restrictive gun law can trigger a massive increase in crime, particularly violent firearms facilitated crime.
As of August 3, 2020, the Strangers know of just over 63,000 restrictive gun law, but 4,699 of those appear to have never been enforced. They are “ead letters, having only a slight effect on crime, and that minor effect generally a small rise in crime rates.
The other 58,303 restrictive gun laws have all triggered a massive increase in violent firearms facilitated crime. In some cases the violent crime rate tripled or quadrupled in a single year, in other cases where the laws were tied up in court it took a yer or more for the violent crime rates headed for outer space.
In the end, after twenty or so years, the violent crime rates settled down at rates three to seven times greater than it was when restrictions were imposed. The difference is due to social and economic issues, with more affluent societies hitting the stratosphere more slowly that economically distressed societies, where crime is an easy alternative to abject poverty.
Further, in more than 50 years of searching, I have found not even one case where crime fell, anyone was safer4 or any restrictive gun law that have provided what a sane person would consider benefits – with the sole exception of those so afraid of their armed neighbors they are happy to upt up with the violence that results from gun control.
The chart below, taken from a University of Padua study titled, in part, “Reversal Of Misfortune, The rise of Crime in Europe as Crime Declined in the United States” shows the results of the total ban on guns in the UK, the EU demanded stiffening of gun laws in principal EU countries, and the decline in crime that came with softening US gun laws. [The last time I looked the study was EU35, in Italian}
One can easily see the sharp rise after the UK’s gun ban, the steady rise as Brussels demanded progressive tightening of member States gun laws, and the decline in the solid line marking the decline in crime in the US as gun laws were relaxed and “Must Issue Concealed Carry Permits” became the nomr.
One note, the hook at the upper end of the UK trace did not occur. That is a result of the British Police “fiddling the numbers” they give the Office of National Statistics. When John Major rammed through the gun ban, the violent crime rate was 450 per 100,000 population. The current UK rate is 2,800 per 100,000 with “fiddling” accounting for a decline of 1,200 to 1,500 additional crimes per 100,000.
Even with the heavy editing of UK statistics, it is clear that these European gun laws are, as Chief Inspector Of Police Colin Greenwood commented “bloody failures.”
Look as you will, you will find no collection of real statistics that that document a successful gun law. The successful gun laws are the permissive gun laws that encourage, allow, or grudgingly permit citizens of good repute to purchase, transport, store, and carry firearms without let or hindrance.
And that is why those who provide data are careful to provide the source of the data,and, if the source is available on the internet, a link to the source.
So the bottom line is simple enough. Gun control is the longest series of bloody failures in history, with 58,303 consecutive failures and no successes.
Unless you call the denial of any ability to resist criminal predation and oppressive government a success. The Founders did not believe gun control was desirable, and put their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor on the line to free us from a despot, and preserve us from those who would do us harm.
Stranger