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Quote by: Shaw Two of the most common annoying sayings: “If guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns,” and “If you take guns away people will still find ways to kill each other (implying that the numbers will be the same). Let’s see:
Crime Statistics for England and Wales - Long-term national recorded crime trend: Homicide
There were a total of 765 homicide offences recorded in 2005/06, a decrease of twelve per cent compared to the previous year. The figure of 765 includes 52 homicide victims of the 7 July London bombings.
England's a much smaller country though, so let's look at per capita:
According to NationMaster - World Statistics, Country Comparisons, murders per capita in the US are 0.042802 per 1,000 people, murders by firearms are 0.0279271 per 1,000 people. In the UK, murders are 0.0140633 per 1,000 people, while murders by firearms are 0.00102579 per 1,000 people. This tells me that both assertions are false. |
Why do people insist on using this argument in every gun control debate? You can't infer
anything about crime in America based on crime stats from England. There are too many confounding variables.
As for open carry, I don't see any reason to ban it. The fact that the risk is low doesn't change the fact that it exists. In the minds of some people, openly carrying a gun protects them from this small risk, and I don't see any reason to deny them this peace of mind.