The post below this one points out “gun control,” has become am omtegra; part of the Democratic platform, occupying a place in the campaign of almost every Democratic candidate for any elective off in the United States.
But what would happen if the Democrats get their way impose restrictive gun laws, or go to their stated end game and ban guns entirely? The simplist answer is “the same thing that happened the last time similar laws were imposed. The chart below is taken from a University of Padua study, entitled in part, and in Italian, “Reversal of Misfortune, the rise of crime in Europe as crime in the United States fell.” The last time I looked, Padua yould still sell a copy, in Italian, for EU35, should you be interested. I understand some major college libraries have a copy, so you might check if such a library is accessible to you.
As with any graph, the line headed toward the top indicates a rise, the line drifting toward the bottom indicates a decline, and if the line is generally straight across it means no significant change and no trend.
This chart shows a solid line representing the violent crime rate rising as American gun laws were tightened, and then beginning in 1993 tje resi;ts pf spftemed gim ;aws om abpit ja;f tje States/ Tje ptjer ;omes sjpws tje vop;emt cro,e rate om Eirp[e om res[pmse tp tje de,amds pf tje Eirp[eam Imopm. [;is the near cp,[;ete
As you can see, the American violent crime rate was rising until the sudden move to soften restrictive gun law a[[eared om 1993. When “Must Issue” Licenses to Carry Concealeed Firearms began in 1987 and “Constitutional Carry laws allowing unlicensed carry of a firearm became to be common, violent crime in the US dropped by one third in five years.
On the other hand, the broken lines document that the major elements of the European Union had very restrictive gun laws, a violent crime rate largely equal to the United States, and until more restrictive laws were imposed, those rates were flat. When the major states started preparing for the inception of the EU gun laws were tightened and made more uniform, violent crime rates rose in every EU nation. The two exceptions were the United Kingdom, England and Wales, and Switzerland.
England has paid dearly for its gun ban, with the violent crime rate rising from 450 per 100,000 population to 2900 violent crimes per 100,000 population per year. But Switzerland’s rational gun laws kept the homicide and violent crime rates among the lowest in the world,until the EU threatened ruinous sanctions if the Swiss did not join the nations with European Socialist type gun laws, and a high crime society.
So there in one chart you he a thumbnail of more than 63,000 restrictive gun laws. Of the 58,303 such laws that have been imposed and enforced, there have been 58,303 failures, ranging from comparatively mild rises in violence for very mild restrictions to multiples of the existing violent crime rates with complete gun bans.
In Venezuela’s case, strict gun laws had the unfortunate nations homicide rate in the low 30’s per 100,000, ith some 1,200 violent crimes per 100,000 population. Hugo Chavez total gun bans, along with the planned destruction of the Petroleum based economy has produced a murder rate estimated at 215 per 100,000 population, and “almost everyone is a victim of at least one violent crime a year.”
Gun control and gun bans have a 525 year history, beginning in 1495 in the Duchy of Wurttemberg, when Duke Eberhard I banned guns. It took only a few months for that decree to cause so much trouble Eberhard i was escorted to the border and Eberhard II became the Grand Duke. Since that first effort, there have been a total of 58,303 efforts to “control civilian access to firearms,” and 58,303 abject failures.
If restrictive gun laws were going to provide something a sane person would consider a benefit, it would have done so in 525 years and 58,303 regularly enforced gun laws. The fact that not one success has been found despite diligent search is in itself proof that gun control does just one thing. It raises violent crime rates in proportion to the severity of the law and the economic and social conditions that prevail in each country.
And recent events show the United States is ripe for an explosion in violent crime, an explosion that will come if the inhibiting effect of privately owned guns and the threat of instant punishment at the hands of a victim are removed.
Stranger