Reasons to vote
again the ban
Dissecting sponsor
statements
Crime rate
comparison

The following table compares violent crime rates in San Francisco with other large metropolitan cities in the United States.  Other listed cities either have handgun bans or severe restrictions.  Across all cities and all forms of violent crime, cities with strong gun control have an average violent crime rate 3.6 times higher than San Francisco.  On the high end, crime can be as much as 13.2 times higher (New York City aggravated assaults).

  San Francisco Baltimore Boston Chicago Detroit New York City D.C. (average)
Population 772,065 644,554 589,795 2,898,374 927,766 8,098,066 563,384  
Violent crime total 5,725 11,183 7,173 37,684 18,724 59,448 8,839  
Violent crimes per 100,000 742 1,735 1,216 1,300 2,018 734 1,569  

Number of times more than SF

  2.3 1.6 1.8 2.7 1.0 2.1 1.9
Murders & non-negligent man-slaughter 69 270 39 598 366 597 248  

Number of times more than SF

  3.9 0.6 8.7 5.3 8.7 3.6 5.1
Forcible rape 215 204 262 0 814 1,609 273  

Number of times more than SF

  0.9 1.2 0.0 3.8 7.5 1.3 2.5
Robbery 3,065 4,339 2,759 17,302 5,817 25,989 3,836  

Number of times more than SF

  1.4 0.9 5.6 1.9 8.5 1.3 3.3
Aggravated assault 2,376 6,370 4,113 19,784 11,727 31,253 4,482  

Number of times more than SF

  2.7 1.7 8.3 4.9 13.2 1.9 5.5
          Average 3.6
Bureau of Justice Statistics
FBI's Uniform Crime Reports
2003
http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/Local/LocalCrimeLarge.cfm