I think the comparisons between US states with different laws are more useful then comparisons between the US and the UK in this case. The UK despite less easy access to guns, has a much lower non-gun murder rate as well. People seem to be less violent there for some reason besides gun control laws. Maybe if we can figure out this reason we will have some ideas for the US but I'm not sure that it is a reason that is subject to easy government control. Also violent crime in the UK has been up since the gun ban while in the US it is going down. The UKs level is still noticeably lower even after this change but it does give some reason to doubt that a gun ban would greatly reduce violent crime in the US. Also the countries calculate their stats differently.
've lived 30-odd years in cities (I'm in a smaller town now, by UK standards anyhow). Barring a few soldiers (obviously),
- I don't know anyone who's fired a gun at someone, ever.
- I don't know anyone who's been shot.
- I don't know anyone who's even been shot at.
Can you say the same?
Yes, except the part about living in cities. I've lived almost 33 years in the suburbs of Ney York and DC. I don't know anyone who's fired a gun at someone, or who's been shot or been shot at and talked about it later. I guess it depends on exacly what you mean by knowing someone. I did talk to someone about 16 years ago that had been accidently shot but I wouldn't really say I knew him.
My argument is simple: the fewer guns in society, especially general circulation, the fewer people get shot by them.
The fewer guns in the hands of criminals and lunatics the fewer people get shot. However criminals could still get guns if they where illegal, just as people can still get drugs or hire prostitutes despite these things being illegal. If a significant proportion of criminals are armed people might be less likely to be shot if they are armed and able to defend themselves.
Example: after little training, even I was able to 'kill' a man-size target at 600m 7/10 times, using an SLR on aimed single shot with 1.5 seconds per target flip (the SLR was the British Army standard-issue rifle, until the SA-80 came in last decade)
You are apparently a better shot then I am. I had some dificulty hitting man sized targets at 300m with an M-16 at basic training. Of course the conditions for shooting at basic training were not that great. You only had a few rounds to zero your rifle and it was often not in good shape or perfectly cleaned. I imagine if I went on to infantry training after basic the extra practice and probably rifles in better shape would have improved my score, but I was a computer operator not an infantryman.
That's why I'd rather know that no one in a crowd
near me is carrying something designed to kill me.
If the US passed strict gun control laws you still would not be able to know that if you where here.
Tim |
