From Jeff Jacoby:
In 1998, Massachusetts passed what was hailed as the toughest
gun-control legislation in the country. Among other stringencies, it
banned semiautomatic "assault" weapons, imposed strict new licensing
rules, prohibited anyone convicted of a violent crime or drug
trafficking from ever carrying or owning a gun, and enacted severe
penalties for storing guns unlocked.
"Today, Massachusetts leads the way in cracking down on gun violence," said Republican Governor Paul Cellucci as he signed the bill into law. "It will save lives and help fight crime in our communities." Scott Harshbarger, the state's Democratic attorney general, agreed: "This vote is a victory for common sense and for the protection of our children and our neighborhoods." One of the state's leading anti-gun activists, John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence, joined the applause. "The new gun law," he predicted, "will certainly prevent future gun violence and countless grief."
It didn't.
The 1998 legislation did cut down, quite sharply, on the legal use of guns in Massachusetts. Within four years, the number of active gun licenses in the state had plummeted. "There were nearly 1.5 million active gun licenses in Massachusetts in 1998," the AP reported. "In June [2002], that number was down to just 200,000." The author of the law, state Senator Cheryl Jacques, was pleased that the Bay State's stiff new restrictions had made it possible to "weed out the clutter."
But the law that was so tough on law-abiding gunowners had quite a different impact on criminals.
"Today, Massachusetts leads the way in cracking down on gun violence," said Republican Governor Paul Cellucci as he signed the bill into law. "It will save lives and help fight crime in our communities." Scott Harshbarger, the state's Democratic attorney general, agreed: "This vote is a victory for common sense and for the protection of our children and our neighborhoods." One of the state's leading anti-gun activists, John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence, joined the applause. "The new gun law," he predicted, "will certainly prevent future gun violence and countless grief."
It didn't.
The 1998 legislation did cut down, quite sharply, on the legal use of guns in Massachusetts. Within four years, the number of active gun licenses in the state had plummeted. "There were nearly 1.5 million active gun licenses in Massachusetts in 1998," the AP reported. "In June [2002], that number was down to just 200,000." The author of the law, state Senator Cheryl Jacques, was pleased that the Bay State's stiff new restrictions had made it possible to "weed out the clutter."
But the law that was so tough on law-abiding gunowners had quite a different impact on criminals.
After
enacting the nation's toughest gun-control law, Massachusetts' murder
rate rose relative to the rest of the nation.
Since 1998, gun
crime in Massachusetts has gotten worse, not better. Instead of
"lead[ing] the way in cracking down on gun violence," the state has seen
gun violence shoot up. In 2011, Massachusetts recorded 122 murders
committed with firearms, the Boston Globe reported this month – "a
striking increase from the 65 in 1998." Other crimes rose too. Between
1998 and 2011, robbery with firearms climbed 20.7 percent. Aggravated
assaults jumped 26.7 percent.
Don't hold your breath waiting for gun-control activists to admit they were wrong. The treatment they prescribed may have yielded the opposite of the results they promised, but they're quite sure the prescription wasn't to blame. Crime didn't rise in Massachusetts because the state made it harder for honest citizens to lawfully carry a gun; it rose because other states didn't do the same thing.
Don't hold your breath waiting for gun-control activists to admit they were wrong. The treatment they prescribed may have yielded the opposite of the results they promised, but they're quite sure the prescription wasn't to blame. Crime didn't rise in Massachusetts because the state made it harder for honest citizens to lawfully carry a gun; it rose because other states didn't do the same thing.
"Massachusetts probably has the toughest laws on the books, but what
happens is people go across borders and buy guns and bring them into our
state," rationalizes Boston Mayor Tom Menino. "Guns have no borders."
This has become a popular argument
in gun-control circles. It may even be convincing to someone
emotionally committed to the belief that ever-stricter gun control is a
plausible path to safety. But it doesn't hold water.
For starters, why didn't the gun-control lobby warn legislators in
1998 that adopting the toughest gun law in America would do
Massachusetts no good unless every surrounding state did the same thing?
Far from explaining why the new law would do nothing to curb violent
crime, they were positive it would make Massachusetts even safer.
It was
gun-rights advocates, such as state Senator Richard Moore, who
correctly predicted the future. "Much of what has been said in support
of this bill will not come to pass," said Moore during the 1998 debate.
"The amount of crime we have now will at least continue."
But crime in Massachusetts didn't just continue, it began climbing.
As in the rest of the country, violent crime had been declining in
Massachusetts since the early 1990s. Beginning in 1998, that decline
reversed – unlike in the rest of the country. For example, the state's murder rate (murders per 100,000 inhabitants) bottomed out at 1.9 in 1997 and had risen to 2.8 by 2011. The national murder rate,
on the other hand, kept falling; it reached a new low of 4.7 in 2011.
Guns-across-borders might have explained homicide levels in
Massachusetts continuing unchanged. But how can other states' policies
be responsible for an increase in Massachusetts homicides?
Relative to the rest of the country, or to just the states on its
borders, Massachusetts since 1998 has become a more dangerous state.
Economist John Lott, using FBI crime data since 1980, shows how dramatic the contrast has been.
In 1998, Massachusetts' murder rate equaled about 70 percent of the
rate for Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and
New York. Now it equals 125 percent of that rate. Clearly something bad
happened to Massachusetts 15 years ago. Blaming the neighbors may be
ideologically comforting. But those aren't the states whose crime rates
are up.
Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.
-- ## --
Massachusetts Gun Control Law of 1998
1998: The year Massachusetts passed what was hailed as the "toughest
gun-control legislation in the country."
1.5 million: Number of active gun
licences in Massachusetts in 1998.
200,000: Number of active gun
licences in Massachusetts in 2002.
65: Number of homicides in Massachusetts in 1998.
122: Number of homicides in Massachusetts in 2011.
1.9 per 100,000: The Massachusetts murder rate in 1997.
2.8 per 100,000: The Massachusetts murder rate in 2011 and represented a rise relative to the rest of the nation, which was decreasing.
6.8 per 100,000: The United States murder rate in 1997 (when the AWB was in place).
4.7 per 100,000: The United States murder rate in 2011 (7 years after the expiration of the AWB).
20.7%: Percentage of increase in robberies with firearms between 1998 and 2011.
26.7%: Percentage of increase in aggravated assault with firearms between 1998 and 2011.
70%: Percentage of Massachusetts' murder rate that equaled the
rate for Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and
New York in 1998.
125%: Percentage of Massachusetts' murder rate that equaled the
rate for Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and
New York in 2012.
1998: The year Massachusetts State Senator Richard Moore accurately predicted:
“MUCH OF WHAT HAS BEEN SAID IN SUPPORT OF THIS BILL WILL NOT COME TO
PASS. THE AMOUNT OF CRIME WE HAVE NOW WILL - AT LEAST - CONTINUE.”
Related Reading:
Gun Control By The Numbers
Gun Control Is Quintessentially Anti-American And Racist
The AWB or CCW Laws: Which Has Had More Of An Impact On The Murder Rate?
Gun Control: Well, The Trouble With Our Gun-Grabbing 'Friends' Is Not That They Are Ignorant, But That They Know So Much That Isn’t So.
Gun Bans: Mad Dogs And Englishmen
Black Religious Leaders: Gun Control Is All About Controlling People
Gun Control & Rape: Just Lie Back, Spread Your Legs, And Take One For The Gun Control Team??? No Thanks.
After The "Toughest" Gun Law, Gun Crime Rose
Gun Control? Surprise! Europeans, Like Americans, Resist Any Gun Ban
Ask An "Educated" Gungrabber: Who's More Dangerous - An American Woman With An Ar-15 Or A Nazi WIth A Sturmgewehr in 1942?
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