You have to normalize the data for larger or smaller populations so actually your numbers compare apples to oranges.
we live in a gun-phobic world. People don't like to hear this. They just don't want to see any more guns. They call self-defense "extremism" and "vigilante justice". This is bizarre and borders on mental disorder.
The anti-gun mentality has been the subject of psychological examination, but that is not really my domain. The consequence of that mentality is that, as millions of people every year defend themselves with guns, gun control is deadly. The case of Great Britain will be our example here.
The toughest anti-gun laws in the Western world are in Great Britain, as established in 1996 : handguns are banned, and even Olympics athletes are forced to train in other countries. Anti-gun advocates should consider this a utopia. But disarming its own citizens has caused grief to the country :
"[I]n the four years from 1997 to 2001, the rate of violent crime more than doubled. Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York. England’s rates of assault, robbery, and burglary are far higher than America’s, and 53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the U.S., where burglars admit to fearing armed homeowners more than the police." (Reason Magazine, "Gun Control’s Twisted Outcome", November 2002).
"In 1996, the U.K. banned handguns. Prior to that time, over 54,000 Britons owned such weapons. The ban is so tight that even shooters training for the Olympics were forced to travel to other countries to practice. In the four years since the ban, gun crimes have risen by an astounding 40%.
(...)
Australia also passed severe gun restrictions in 1996, banning most guns and making it a crime to use a gun defensively. In the subsequent four years, armed robberies rose by 51%, unarmed robberies by 37%, assaults by 24%, and kidnappings by 43%. While murders fell by 3%, manslaughter rose by 16%." (Wall Street Journal Europe, "Gun Control Misfires in Europe", April 2002). |
