Myth: Gun control reduces crime

Fact: The U.S. government “found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes”¹ and also concluded in one study that none of the attackers interviewed was “hindered by any law–federal, state or local–that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws.”²

Fact: Violent crime appears to be encouraged by gun control. Most gun control laws in the United States have been written since 1968, yet the murder rate rose during the 70s, 80s and early 90s.³

Fact: In 1976, Washington, D.C. enacted one of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. The city’s murder rate rose 134 percent through 1996 while the national murder rate dropped 2 percent.⁴

Fact: Among the 15 states with the highest homicide rates, 10 have restrictive or very restrictive gun laws.⁵

Fact: Maryland claims to have the toughest gun control laws in the nation and ranks #1 in robberies and #4 in both violent crime and murder. ⁶ The robbery rate is 70% more than the national average.⁷ These numbers are likely low because one of their more violent cities, Baltimore, failed to report their crime levels.

Fact: In 2000, 20% of U.S. homicides occur in four cities with just six percent of the population – New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. – most of which have/had a virtual prohibition on private handguns.⁸

Fact: The landmark federal Gun Control Act of 1968, banning most interstate gun sales, had no discernible impact on the criminal acquisition of guns from other states.⁹

Fact: Washington, D.C.’s 1977 ban on the ownership of handguns (except those already registered in the District) was not linked to any reduction in gun crime in the nation’s capital.¹⁰

Fact: New York has one of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation – and 20% of the armed robberies.¹¹

Fact: There are more than 22,000¹² gun laws at the city, county, state, and federal level. If gun control worked, then we should be free of crime. But the Federal government concluded that no criminal that attacked a police officer was “hindered by any law–federal, state or local–that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws.”¹³

Fact: In analyzing 10 different possible reasons for the decline in violent crime during the 1990s, gun control was calculated to have contributed nothing (high imprisonment rates, more police and legalized abortion were considered the primary factors, contributing as much as 28% of the overall reduction).¹⁴

This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info