Despite what you may hear, gun control will not cut crime. Gun control increases violence as proven in the cities and countries where implemented. Those that do not own guns benefit from those that do because criminals are wary of homeowners with guns. When the newspaper in New York printed a list of the homes that had guns, they inadvertently put those households without guns at greater risk.
Of the roughly 16,272 total murders committed in 2008, about 10,886 or 67% were committed with firearms. At the current homicide rate, approximately one in every 240 Americans will be murdered. The U.S. Department of Justice said that roughly 5.34 million violent crimes were committed in 2008. Violent crimes include simple/aggravated assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, rapes, and murders. Offenders visibly armed with a gun committed about 436,000 or 8% of these violent crimes.
A U.S. Justice Department study based on crime data from 1974-1985 found that 42% of Americans would be the victims of a completed violent crime (assault, robbery, rape) in the course of their lives. Another 83% of Americans will be the victim of an attempted or completed violent crime and 52% more than once.
A 1993 nationwide survey found that over the previous five years, at least 3.5% of households had members who had used a gun "for self-protection or for the protection of property at home, work, or elsewhere." Applied to the U.S. population, this amounts to 1,029,615 such incidents per year. This survey found that at least 0.5% (162,000) of households thought someone "almost certainly would have been killed" if they "had not used a gun for protection." These figures exclude all "military service, police work, or work as a security guard."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1994) found that Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year. The Journal of Quantitative Criminology (2000) stated U.S. civilians use guns to defend themselves and others from crime at least 989,883 times per year.
A 1982 survey of male felons in 11 state prisons found that 34% had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim." Another 40% had decided not to commit a crime because they "knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun" and 69% personally knew other criminals who had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim." Another survey of prison inmates in 1997 found that among inmates serving time for a violent crime, "30% of State offenders and 35% of Federal offenders carried a firearm when committing the crime."
A 2002 U.S. Justice Department study of 272,111 felons released from state
prisons in 1994 found that within three years of their release at least
67.5% committed a new offense. At
least another 21.6% committed a new violent offense. Overall,
these former inmates were charged with committing at least 2,871 new homicides,
2,444 new rapes, 3,151 other new sexual assaults, 2,362 new kidnappings, 21,245
new robberies, 54,604 new assaults, and 13,854 other new violent crimes.
Of 1,662 murders committed in New York City during 2003-2005, people with criminal records committed more than 90%.
During the years in which the D.C. handgun ban and trigger lock law was in effect, the Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower.
Since the outset of the Chicago handgun ban, the percentage of Chicago murders committed with handguns has averaged about 40% higher than it was before the law took effect. In 2005, 96% of the firearm murders involved handguns.
As of 2002, 15 states automatically restore the firearm rights of convicts upon their release from prison or completion of parole, and six other states automatically restore the firearm rights of juvenile convicts upon their release from prison or completion of parole.
A 1997 U.S. Justice Department survey found that among those inmates who carried a firearm during the offense for which they were sent to jail, 0.7% obtained the firearm at a gun show, 1% at a flea market, 3.8% from a pawn shop, 8.3% from a retail store, 39.2% through an illegal/street source, and 39.6% through family or friends. The proposed gun regulations will do little to curb felon use of firearms.
The evidence shows that more guns, not less, in citizens (non-felons) hands leads to less crime. Not only should be felons be locked up longer, the figures show they should not have their gun rights reinstated, and they should be monitored after release. Guns are the only effective means of self-protection that citizens have against criminals who are often armed. When a criminal is entering your home, and the cops are 20 minutes away, are you going to count on the mercy of a hardened criminal? The fact is that our rights to gun ownership as guaranteed by the Second Amendment, when exercised, deter crime.
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