Ban Guns, Increase Gun Crime!

"In 1996, there was a shooting at a primary school in Scotland.  16 children ages 5-6 were killed, along with one teacher.  The following year, the UK banned the private ownership of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of calibre.  There have been no school shootings since."

libfreeordie on December 16, 2012 at 10:34 PM

Have you taken a look at what happened to the overall crime rate in the UK after gun bans went into effect?   Gun crime increased by 89% between 1998 and 2009.  In some parts of the country, the number of offences has increased more than five-fold.   In eighteen police areas, gun crime at least doubled.   The Metropolitan Police now has replaced some of the famously unarmed "Bobbies" with armed patrols on some streets and officers armed with "sub-machine guns" are engaged in routine policing for the first time.

From the BBC in 2001:

 

A new study suggests the use of handguns in crime rose by 40% in the two years after the weapons were banned.

The research, commissioned by the Countryside Alliance's Campaign for Shooting, has concluded that existing laws are targeting legitimate users of firearms rather than criminals.

The ban on ownership of handguns was introduced in 1997 as a result of the Dunblane massacre, when Thomas Hamilton opened fire at a primary school leaving 16 children and their teacher dead.

But the report suggests that despite the restrictions on ownership the use of handguns in crime is rising.

The Centre for Defence Studies at Kings College in London, which carried out the research, said the number of crimes in which a handgun was reported increased from 2,648 in 1997/98 to 3,685 in 1999/2000.

It also said there was no link between high levels of gun crime and areas where there were still high levels of lawful gun possession.

Of the 20 police areas with the lowest number of legally held firearms, 10 had an above average level of gun crime.

And of the 20 police areas with the highest levels of legally held guns only two had armed crime levels above the average.

The campaign's director, David Bredin, said: "It is crystal clear from the research that the existing gun laws do not lead to crime reduction and a safer place.

From The Telegraph in 2003:

"Since the Government's "total ban" five years ago, there are more and more guns being used by more and more criminals in more and more crimes. Now, in the wake of Birmingham's New Year bloodbath, there are calls for the total ban to be made even more total: if the gangs refuse to obey the existing laws, we'll just pass more laws for them not to obey. According to a UN survey from last month, England and Wales now have the highest crime rate of the world's 20 leading nations. One can query the methodology of the survey while still recognising the peculiar genius by which British crime policy has wound up with every indicator going haywire - draconian gun control plus vastly increased gun violence plus stratospheric property crime."

The UK also doesn’t have a Second Amendment. We do. If you don’t like it, then get 38 states to ratify an amendment to the COTUS repealing the 2nd amendment. Until then, take Chuck-You Schumer’s advice: 

“The Left needs to admit that Americans have a Second Amendment right to bear arms.”

 
Also, Germany has had very strict gun laws for a very long time. In fact, the German laws are far stricter than existing gun control in the US, or the restrictions that are routinely discussed here. Germany has strict licencing and registration requirements. Valid licences expire after 3 years. To even get a licence, people must past background cheques that include a demonstration of characteristics such as the subjective “trustworthiness” and convince the authorities that they have an urgent necessity for a gun. Of course, Germany also has requirements against licencing alcohol or drug addicts, those with mental disorders, people with violent or aggressive tendencies, and felony convictions.

Those very strict gun laws, did not prevent…

2002: Erfurt, Germany, where 18 were killed at a school.

Of course, after Erfurt, Germany passed even stricter laws. Those laws prevented the next school shooting until they didn’t…

2006: Emsdetten, Germany, 11 murdered. 

Of course, after Emsdetten, Germany passed even stricter laws. I mean really, really, really strict gun laws. Those laws prevented the next school shooting until they didn’t…

2009: Winnenden, Germany, 15 murdered. 

Of course, after Winneden, Germany passed even stricter laws. I mean really, really, really, SO VERY strict gun laws. Those laws have prevented the next school shooting until they don’t…

Between 2006 and 2010, 2,600 threats against schools were officially registered.

Germany, 2012: Study shows increase in school shooting threats 

Gun control laws have the perverse effect of increasing crime because they disarm law-abiding citizens, leaving them defenceless against lawbreakers, who aren’t going to be “controlled” by gun control laws.

"Except that in our own experience, that hasn’t been the case. Restrictions on gun ownership are here correlated with a decrease in violence. The timing of the assault weapons ban matches the large drop in the murder rate post 1994."

- ernesto on December 17, 2012 at 1:58 PM

Wrong. The murder rate peaked at 10.2/100,000 in 1980 and was going down before the AWB. While there was some drop off after 1994, when the AWB was signed, the murder rate began to rise again in 1999, when it was still in effect. It has remained stable since even after the ban expired in 2004.

 

In 2005, the murder rate was at the same level that it was in the 1960s.

2011 - SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE EXPIRATION OF THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN EXPIRED:  New Report: U.S. Homicide Rate Falls to Lowest Rate in Four Decades

From the United States Department of Justice:

"This week, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced that in 2010 the U.S. homicide rate fell to 4.2 homicides per 100,000 residents, the lowest U.S. homicide rate in four decades.

The new homicide statistics are part of a report by BJS: Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008, which details homicide patterns and trends in the United States from 1980 to 2008.

Overall, the U.S. has experienced a significant drop in the total homicide rate since 1980. In 1980, the U.S. homicide rate hovered at 10.2 per 100,000 residents, more than twice the current homicide rate. In the early 1980s, the homicide rate gradually fell for a few years but rose again beginning in the middle of the decade, peaking at an all-time high of 24,703 homicides in 1991. Since the homicide rate spiked in the early 1990s, it subsequently declined, reaching a four-decade low last year.

Much of the decline in the nation’s homicide rate is due to a decrease in homicides occurring in large cities — defined as cities with at least 100,000 residents. Since 1980, 57.7 percent of homicides in the U.S. have occurred in large cities, and more than one third of those homicides occurred in the nation’s largest cities — defined as cities with at least 1 million residents.

The BJS report shows that the largest cities experienced a dramatic decrease in homicide rates since 1980, which is a prominent factor in the total drop in the nation’s homicide rate. From 1991 to 2008, the homicide rate in the largest cities was cut by nearly two thirds, falling from 35.5 homicides per 100,000 residents in 1991 to 11.9 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2008.

In addition to mapping out homicide rates by year and region, the study paints a detailed picture of U.S. homicides by breaking down homicide numbers by a variety of other criteria including:

• Victim/Offender Relationship: More than 56 percent of homicide victims were acquaintances with the assailant.

• Weapon: Handgun-involved homicides increased in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and fell to a low in 2008.

• Circumstance: The number of homicides that occurred during the commission of another felony, such as a robbery or burglary, declined from about 5,300 homicides in 1991 to 2,600 homicides in 2000, then stabilized through 2008.                                                          

For more information about homicide trends over the last three decades, please visit the Bureau of Justice Statistics website and read the full report.