Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Gun control laws do not save lives, studies show

Thomas Sowel has a neat article in today's version of NationalReview.com, "Do Tun Control Laws Control Guns?" which is regarding the latest controversy over gun control laws.  Liberals champion that gun laws will get rid of all crime, and Conservatives champion that gun laws will only take guns away from free, law biding citizens.

The article basically comes down to the following few paragraphs:

1.  The central issue boils down to the question: What are the facts? Yet there are many zealots who seem utterly unconcerned about facts or about their own lack of knowledge of facts.

2.  Most factual studies show no reduction in gun crimes, including murder, under gun-control laws. A significant number of studies show higher rates of murder and other gun crimes under gun-control laws.

3.  When it was legal to buy a shotgun in London in the middle of the 20th century, there were very few armed robberies there. But, after British gun-control zealots managed over the years to disarm virtually the entire law-abiding population, armed robberies became literally a hundred times more common. And murder rates rose.

So, in conclusion: 

4.  One can cherry-pick the factual studies, or cite some studies that have subsequently been discredited, but the great bulk of the studies show that gun-control laws do not in fact control guns. On net balance, they do not save lives but cost lives.

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