Do you want to know the Truth, FINALLY, about Gun Control?

Question

At last, Harvard has done a study on the correlation between gun violence and murder and suicide rates. This will blow your mind if this subject interests you.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf

Answer 1

I'm impressed that Harvard published this paper. Gun control is usually a liberal issue and Harvard is notoriously liberal. It's nice to know that what common sense said, the more armed the population the lower the homicide rate, now has some hard data from a reputable, liberal source to back it up.

Answer 2

Don't Canadians own firearms too?

Answer 3

Interesting:

"Looking at

Tables 1–3, it is easy to find nations in which very high gun ownership

rates correlate with very low murder rates, while other nations

with very low gun ownership rates have much higher murder

rates. Moreover, there is not insubstantial evidence that in the

United States widespread gun availability has helped reduce murder

and other violent crime rates. On closer analysis, however, this

evidence appears uniquely applicable to the United States.

More than 100 million handguns are owned in the United

States primarily for self‐defense, and 3.5 million people have

permits to carry concealed handguns for protection. Recent

analysis reveals “a great deal of self‐defensive use of firearms” in

the United States, “in fact, more defensive gun uses [by victims]

than crimes committed with firearms.” It is little wonder that the

National Institute of Justice surveys among prison inmates

find that large percentages report that their fear that a victim

might be armed deterred them from confrontation crimes.

“[T]he felons most frightened ‘about confronting an armed

victim’ were those from states with the greatest relative

number of privately owned firearms.” Conversely, robbery

is highest in states that most restrict gun ownership.

Concomitantly, a series of studies by John Lott and his coauthor

David Mustard conclude that the issuance of millions of permits

to carry concealed handguns is associated with drastic declines in

American homicide rates.

--

thecatsmother: "Your desire for

individual liberties has always outstripped your desire for

a safe and peaceful society."

Yep, you got it in one.  "He who would give up essential liberty for temporary security deserves neither and loses both."

Answer 4

As a Canadian I am used to gun control and I am fully in favour of it. I am sorry that the U.S. has such a gun culture and I suspect that it has to do with the fact your country was

born in violence and blood unlike my own. Your desire for

individual liberties has always outstripped your desire for

a safe and peaceful society.  It is an interesting contradiction

considering how we share a border that our cultures are

so different in attitudes.

Answer 5

note the title international and some domestic. I think they should do an either or.

Answer 6

Well, it doesnt blow my mind.  It's common sense.  If you are a criminal, the likelihood of your victim owning and being able to use a gun will make the criminal think twice before comitting a crime.  

It does blow my mind the number of women who are in favor of gun control.  A single women or single mother versus an armed robber (criminals can always get guns, they are criminals, after all) is a scary thought, or should be.  Having a gun to protect yourself and your family ought to be something every woman in America would want.  

I know a woman who confronted an burglar with a shotgun, and the burglar fled.  She also had children in the house.  Imagine what could have happened had she not had the gun.  She could have called the cops, once the criminal had terrorized her family and taken everything of value, and they most likely would have never found him.  Thanks to owning a gun and quick thinking, the children were never disturbed.

But just for the sake of argument, lets say the burglar was not able to get a gun.  Now you have a big stocky man versus a woman and 3 children.  And, although the man may not have a gun, he will probably have a weapon of some sort.  

All this amounts to is brute force....the strong pillaging the weak.  Guns level the playing field quite a bit.  Even the smallest woman can confront the biggest man and win every time if she knows how to use a gun.  And Im not talking about "old west shootouts", Im talking about a law abiding citizen confronting a criminal.

Answer 7

I support the 2nd Amendment.

Answer 8

"More Guns Less Crime" is a book written by a Havard Law Professor I believe - he wanted to prove the opposite but had to be true to the research...look it up.

Answer 9

I don't think having the name "Harvard" lends any credibility to this study.  Facts are facts.