Search Results for: "firearm deaths"

Laws, Social Costs

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Myth: Gun control reduces crime Fact: There are more than 22,000 gun laws at the city, county, state, and federal level.  If gun control worked, then we should be free of crime. Yet the U.S. government “found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes”   and also concluded in one study that none of the attackers interviewed was “hindered by any law – federal, state or local –that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws.” Fact: Violent crime appears to be encouraged by gun control.  Most gun control laws in the United States have been written since 1968, yet the murder rate rose during the 70s, 80s and early 90s. Fact: In 1976, Washington, D.C. enacted one of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. The city’s murder rate rose … Continue reading →

Crime and Guns

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Basic to the debates on gun control is the fact that most violent crime is committed by repeat offenders.  Dealing with recidivism is key to solving violence. 71% of gunshot victims had previous arrest records. 64% had been convicted of a crime. Victims had an average of 11 prior arrests., 63% of victims had criminal histories and 73% of that group knew their assailant (twice as often as victims without criminal histories). 74% of homicides during the commission of a felony involve guns. Only 25% of victims and 13% of perps did not show any evidence of engaging in criminal/deviant lifestyles (i.e., prior arrests, gang mem­bership, and/or drug dealing) prior the homicide. Recidivism is exceptionally high among criminals with previous gun-related charges, 70% higher than for non-gun first offenders. Most gun violence is between criminals with collateral damage. This should be the public policy focus. Myth: Gun violence is widespread in America Fact: … Continue reading →

Concealed Carry

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As of the summer of 2024, there were: 21.5 million people with carry permits 90.8 million adults living in permitless states NOTE: About 26.3% of gun owners are “public carriers”, meaning that carry in public at least “sometime”.. This equates to a little more than 10% of the population age 21 or higher. Myth: Concealed carry doesn’t prevent crimes Fact: There are approximately 182,000 defensive gun uses in public each year. Fact: News reports tell many stories of armed civilians preventing mass murder in public. A few selected at random include: A citizen with a gun stopped a knife-wielding man as he began stabbing people in a Salt Lake City store. Two men retrieved firearms from their cars and stopped a mass murder at the Appalachian School of Law. Citizen takes out shooter while police were pinned down in Early, Texas. Citizen stops apartment shoot-up in Oklahoma City. Fact: The … Continue reading →

Availability of Guns

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Myth: The availability of guns causes crime Fact: Though the number of firearms owned by private citizens has been increasing steadily since 1970, the overall rate of homicides and suicides has not risen (though suicide rates did start to rise during the Great Recession). As the chart shows, there is no correlation between the availability of firearms and the rates of homicide and suicide in America. Fact: Internationally speaking “There’s no clear relationship between more guns and higher levels of violence.” Fact: When homicide modes (weapon type) are charted against gun ownership rates and total homicide rates, homicides rise as per capita gun ownership rates decline. Fact: “A detailed study of the major surveys completed in the past 20 years or more provides no evidence of any relationship between the total number of legally held firearms in society and the rate of armed crime. Nor is there a relationship between the … Continue reading →