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Rath on 19 March 2008
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Kasz216 said:

Here's the thing. Studies generally show either that legal guns either stop way more crime then they cause or guns don't stop any.

The difference is... the studies that say it doesn't stop any only consider it stopping a crime when someone is physically attacked before they pull the gun.

Also you have to fire a shot. If someone comes at you with a knife, and you pull out a gun, and then they run. That doesn't count.

Meanwhile on the otherside, it's considered stopping a crime so long as the person who pulled out the gun felt threatened. Not perfect either... but much much more reasonable.

Plenty of other places with more gun ownership actually has less crime. America just has a violent culture in general. Blaming it on guns is stupid and won't get to the root of the problem. All getting rid of guns will do is raise the rate of death via illegal guns and raise the rate of stabbing victims.

Note most of the most dangerous cities in the US are in states with very high gun control... including Washington DC.

Where violent crime went up after the handgun ban.

Extensive gun control is just another case where laws are made on the sake of "common sense" and not real research. So common sense really becomes common misconception.

You can't look outside the US to make any comparisons because their cultures are different. You can only look inside the US for comparisons.

 

No country in the world has higher gun ownership than the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_countries_by_gun_ownership 

 

Also have you possibly considered that there are confounding variables as to why violent crime has increased in Washington DC? In fact if you look at this graph.

You will see that immediately after gun control legislation was introduced (1975) murders dropped, it wasnt until over a decade later that crime boomed in the city and since then it has dropped again.

Also a reason why the most violent cities have gun control laws is because they are the most violent cities. The laws were introduced to control the violence, they were not the cause of it.

@Zen. Its safer for only outlaws to carry guns than for everyone to carry guns. Its even safer if nobody is carrying guns. That may sound unrealistic but its what occurs at least in NZ, it is practically unheard of for somebody to have a gun on them at any time other than for sport.