From Europe Rick:
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Not really because the overwhelming majority of firearms in private hands are of no risk to anyone. Approximately 3.5 million guns are added to the citizen's arsenal each year; estimates of civilian gun ownership center on about 65-75 million people owning 300 million guns. If more guns equal more murder how do you explain 8000 fewer murders in 2003 than in 1993 when some 30+ million more guns were added to the nation?
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For one thing, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was enacted in 1993 and went into effect on February 28, 1994.
Instead of comparing the USA to itself, let's take a look at the rest of the planet:
The following information was extracted from the World Health Organization Report on Violence and Health, 2001 (see the link below).
Annual Homicides by Guns:
- Austria 1999: 17 total/0.0 per 100,000 population
- Australia 1998: 56 total/0.3 per 100,000 population
- Germany 1999: 155 total/0.2 per 100,000 population
- Japan 1997: 22 total/0.0 per 100,000 population
- Sweden 1996: 11 total/0.0 per 100,000 population
- U.K. 1999: 45 total/0.1 per 100,000 population
- USA 1998: 11802 total/4.4 per 100,000 population
This information can be found in Table A.10 beginning on Page 322 of the report.
You'll note that all of the listed countries are wealthy, first-world, industrial democracies. You'll also note that the gun homicide rate in the USA is
20 times that in Germany,
40 times that in the U.K. and
200 times that in Japan. Comparisons with other democracies are similarly unfavorable. How would you explain this apparent anomaly?
http://www.who.int/violence_injury_p...en/full_en.pdf
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Most gun crime is committed by people who have already shown no regard for the rules of society; 75% of murderers have prior histories of violent crime. The money and time wasted watching and worrying about the law-abiding would be better applied watching the law-breakers.
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Most proponents of gun regulation are not concerned with law-abiding gun owners. The idea is to dry up the supply of illegal firearms on the street to get them out of the hands of the law-breakers. Steps could be taken to achieve this objective with minimal inconvenience to legitimate gun owners and without violating their 2nd Amendment rights. Sorry: I mis-spoke: I meant to say "without violating their inherent right since the beginning of time to bear arms."