Guns are actually an important part of combating crime. Most gun owners are law abiding citizen that own a firearm for protection.
- A 1994 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year.[27]
https://www.nap.edu/read/18319/chapter/3#26
How's gun control working for the UK?
In London, the homicide rate has increased as the British capital experiences a rise in knife-related crime — responsible for 31 deaths this year — while New York City's murder rate has steadily dropped for almost three decades. Of the 54 murders in New York City this year, 32 people died by a firearm.
excellent points
I think the US and UK are completely different stories. Knife-related crime is obviously pretty bad there but if they all had guns more freely available, would they not be the choice for crimes? Is it not crime that needs to be addressed rather than the choice of weapon?
More guns there would obviously mean higher rates of death from guns in my opinion.
So if your statement was true. "More guns equal more crime" We should see a correlation between the number of murders and the amount of guns in a country.
This chart sure doesn't look that way. If fact it looks like the opposite, the countries with the most guns have lower murder rates.
The people of Brazil are figuring this out too that the government lied to them and said gun control would keep them safe.
People Are Ready to Buy Some Guns in the World’s Murder Capital
I think that socio-economic factors are not being taken into account here. The poverty that exists in Brazil far outweighs that of the highly Industrialised countries, including the USA. People have their phones snatched out of their hands in Brazil as they are highly expensive and sought after items in Brazil. These items are much cheaper in the USA. Crime rates are notoriously higher in countries that are much poorer, as you can see from your graphic of murder rates.
Funny how some people compare places like Helsinki to places like Detroit and conclude gun laws explain the different rates of homicide there.
There are different factors occurring rather than just guns. I know it is a contentious issue. I am just putting my view out there that I am glad I live in a country where guns are not part of our culture and we don’t feel the need to be armed to feel safe. I don’t have to worry that the person walking down the road towards me might be crazy and armed and going to shoot me.
Hard to know the feeling if you’ve never lived in a country like ours.
That's weird, I have never worried about that. Not once. Is that what you really think it is like here? Was that how you felt before the NFA? If your countrymen were allowed guns is that how you would feel?
I didn’t worry about it when I visited for a few months last year, but the school massacres are a worry and I would be looking at school security if I was to send my kids to school in the USA.
It’s an interesting debate and I have had my eyes opened a little to why people feel so strongly about their rights to be armed.
Thanks for not being so one-sided in your arguments!
You're right that other factors can play a major role in a country's murder rate but all you hear from the MSM is that we need tougher gun laws to prevent these mass murders when they are a fraction of the overall murders. We'd save far more lives by getting people out of poverty vs taking people's guns away.
Are you trying to say that if your were a mugger, or a rapist, you'd choose victims armed with firearms over those that were unarmed?
Just how silly is that?
No, if you read it correctly, I am saying that a mugger or rapist would choose a gun over a knife to commit crimes!
Would they be as apt to try to rob or rape someone who was armed or potentially armed?
First, in most places, they do choose guns, as guns are better weapons, and thus more useful when committing harms. There's an old saying 'Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.' It's true.
Second, while guns are less available than before the disarming of the English, they are still used to commit crimes there by criminals that are competent enough to get them, unlike the street scum who can only manage knives. There are also crimes committed in the US with knives, so even where guns totally saturate the market, there are criminals of such low intelligence that they cannot manage getting guns.
Third, soon enough, as 3D printing more deeply penetrates the market, it will be unnecessary to buy guns. People have already printed them, and the means of doing so are freely available.
Fourth, criminals don't obey laws. Laws against having guns, for example. Laws against guns only prevent people that obey laws from having guns, and people that obey laws don't commit crimes. They are the victims of crimes however, and in the UK, they are defenseless victims.
Lastly, you are recommending people bring nothing, not even knives, to the gunfights they face on the crime ridden streets of neoliberal police states. That is about the silliest thing I have ever heard. Good luck with that!
But in practice what we see is the exact opposite, the more guns owned by Americans the lower our rate of gun homicide. Of course this is just a correlation, no one is saying more guns is causing the decline in gun homicide but what we can say with certainty is that more guns, and allowing more Americans to carry them in more places, has not caused higher death rates from gun homicide. So your opinion does not jive with what we see happening in the numbers. Do you own any guns or does most of your experience with them come from television and movies?
I grew up around guns and used them to go hunting on the farm. We only ever hat single shot rifles or shotguns. If you can’t hit a wallaby with a rifle in one shot then you need to give up hunting. The need for a fully automatic high powered assault rifle seems pretty extreme for hunting or to defend yourself. These seem to be the weapon of choice for people committing these mass shootings worldwide.
Fully automatic weapons require a federal tax stamp and cost about $30,000 and have to have been made before 1984, can you tell me the last time someone used a legally registered machine gun in a crime in America?
This kid used a stolen shotgun and .38 revolver.