: : Don: Note that England had a much lower homicide rate than the US before either country had gun control. The US also has a much higher non-firearm homicide rate, suggesting gun control isn't the reason for the difference. Don: Note that Japanese living in the US have a homicide rate lower than those living in Japan. Don: Note that Mexico and Taiwan have higher homicide rates than the US, despite their strict gun control laws. Don: Note that almost every adult male in Switzerland has a full auto assault rifle, and that they have a very low homicide rate.: Erm, excuse me, though, doesn't this also show that Gun ownership is incidental to over-all crime rates eitehr way, i.e. that Widespread Gun Ownership does not actually reduce crime, nor does it create crime, and that in fact guns are a near irrelevence when compared to economic factors in dealing with crime and social order? Just a thunk.
Don: Not necessarly. In a society where people rarely engage in violence, guns are probably irrelevent to the violent crime rate. If the violent crime rate is high, however, private arms can reduce it, at least that is the suggestion of studies like that done by John Lott. This also makes intuitive sense: the potential cost of criminal acts is very high in an armed society.
Don: I think violent crime rates are more due to culture than to economics. The US violent crime rate was higher in the affluent 20's and 60's than in the 30's.
:
: : Don: Lott and Mustard are the only ones to do a nation wide study on the effects of liberalized concealed carry laws.
: But not an international one, which would tend to poke some holes in the causation,a nd show that widespread Gun ownership dopsn't prevent murder- apparently there are over 100,000 legally held firearms in the North of Ireland....
: :It is by far the best study of its type.
: I always note this 'best' with interest, if previous studies were crap,. or non existent, then 'best so far' carries little weight.
Don: Previous studies were done on limited regions (one studied 5 cities), controlled for few factors (such as the economy, etc.) and were of very limited span (one or two years).
Don: Lott's study was quite good. It has been improved since it first came out, with new factors being controlled for and different algorithms being employed.
:What time span did it cover (as compared with the past 100 years studies showing poverty and crime going hand in hand?)
Don: I believe it was the past 15 years. The time period in which over half of all US states enacted "shall-issue" concealed carry permit laws.
