Myth: The availability of guns causes crime

Fact: Though the number of firearms owned by private citizens has been increasing steadily since 1970, the overall rate of homicides and suicides has not risen.¹ As the chart shows, there is no correlation between the availability of firearms and the rates of homicide and suicide in America.

Fact: Internationally speaking “There’s no clear relationship between more guns and higher levels of violence.”²

Fact: “… a detailed study of the major surveys completed in the past 20 years or more provides no evidence of any relationship between the total number of legally held firearms in society and the rate of armed crime. Nor is there a relationship between the severity of controls imposed in various countries or the mass of bureaucracy involved with many control systems with the apparent ease of access to firearms by criminals and terrorists.”³

Fact: Handgun ownership among groups normally associated with higher violent crime (young males, blacks, low income, inner city, etc.) is at or below national averages.⁴

Fact: The most significant variables to the use of guns in the commission of crimes are when parents (27.5% of inmates) abuse drugs or have friends engaged in illegal activities (32.5% with robberies and 24.3% for drug trafficking).⁵

Fact: Five out of six gun-possessing felons obtained handguns from the secondary market and by theft, and “[the] criminal handgun market is overwhelmingly dominated by informal transactions and theft as mechanisms of supply.”⁶

Fact: The majority of handguns in the possession of criminals are stolen, and not necessarily by the criminals in question.⁷

Fact: In 1968, the U.K. passed laws that reduced the number of licensed firearm owners, and thus reduced firearm availability. Their homicide rate has steady risen since then.⁸ Ironically, firearm use in crimes had doubled in the decade after the U.K. banned handguns.⁹

Fact: Most violent crimes is caused by a small minority of repeat offenders. One California study found 3.8% of a group of males born in 1956 were responsible for 55.5% of all serious felonies.¹⁰ 75-80% of murder arrestees have prior arrests for a violent( including non-fatal ) felony or burglary. On average they have about four felony arrests and one felony conviction.

Fact: Half of all murders are committed by people on “conditional release” (i.e., parole or probation).¹¹ 81% of all homicide defendants had an arrest record; 67% had a felony arrest record; 70% had a conviction record; and 54% had a felony conviction.¹²

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