Do Gun Control Laws Work

Do Gun Control Laws Work

Gun control was rarely a major political issue in Norway — where gun laws are considered strict but ownership rates are high — until right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed seventy-seven people in attacks in Oslo and at a summer camp on an island in 2011. Although Norway ranks fourteenth in the world for gun ownership, according to the Small Arms Survey, it ranks at the bottom of firearm homicide rates. (The U.S. rate is about thirty-one times higher.) Most Norwegian police officers, like the British, do not carry firearms. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: “A well-regulated militia necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to own and bear arms, shall not be violated. Gun ownership is an American tradition older than the country itself and protected by the Second Amendment; More gun control laws would violate the right to bear arms. Judge Antonin Scalia, LLB, in the District of Columbia et al. of June 26, 2008 v. The Heller Supreme Court Majority Justice Curriculum states: “The Second Amendment protects the individual right to own a firearm that has nothing to do with serving in a militia and using that weapon for traditionally legal purposes, such as self-defense inside the house. [3] McDonald v.

The City of Chicago`s decision (2010) also stated that the Second Amendment is an individual right. [51] Lawrence Hunter, president of Revolution PAC, said, “The founders understood that the right to own and accept laws is as fundamental and essential to maintaining freedom as the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and any other protection against state interference with the freedom described in the Bill of Rights.” [52] Mexico has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, and yet Mexico recorded 11,309 shootings (9.97 gun homicides per 100,000 people) in 2012 compared to the United States, which had 9,146 gun homicides (2.97 per 100,000 people). [88] [89]. The country has only one legal arms contract (the Directorate of Arms and Ammunition Sales), compared to at least 63,709 gun stores and legal pawnshops in the United States as of February 10, 2014. [90] [91] Mexico`s weapons store is located on a secure military base and customers must present valid identification, go through a metal detector, and hand over mobile phones and cameras to the guards. To purchase a firearm, customers must provide honest proof of income, provide references, pass a criminal background check, prove that all military duties were honorably completed and fingerprints taken and photographed. If authorized to purchase a weapon, the customer can only purchase one weapon (with a choice of pistols of .38 caliber or less) and a box of bullets. [90] [92] [93] Between 2006 and 2010, Mexico`s arms contract alone sold 6,490 weapons, [92] But in 2012, Mexicans owned about 15,000,000 weapons, or about 13.5 weapons per 100 inhabitants. [44] At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court repealed certain gun laws. In 2008, the court struck down a law in Washington, D.C., that banned handguns.

I have examined this issue and broken down gun laws in several developed countries based on media reports, gun violence studies, national databases, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence`s analysis of U.S. gun laws, and the Law Library of Congress` review of gun laws around the world. Gun control advocates regularly cite Japan`s highly restrictive gun regulations in conjunction with its exceptionally low rate of gun homicides, which is among the lowest in the world with only three deaths in 2015, the latest year for which data is available. Most weapons are illegal in the country and the possession rates, which are quite low, reflect this. And these glaring methodological flaws are not specific to gun control research; They are typical of how the academic publishing industry responds to demands from political supporters for scientific evidence that does not exist. On her way to the funeral of a victim of another shooting in Buffalo, New York, Vice President Kamala Harris said Sunday, “We know what works about it, it includes a ban on assault weapons.” Population averages can be useful when a rule needs to be applied to everyone – for example, estimating how many lives would be saved by a pollution control order or how many dental cavities will be prevented by fluoridating the water supply. But when it comes to guns and personal safety, the relevant question is not whether guns make the average gun owner safer, but which people make guns safer and which people make guns less safe. The problem with this is that national rates of violence do not coincide well with the violence rates of different states. Based on UCR data from the FBI, annual changes within states only correlate about 0.4 with national rates if there is no change in legislation. This means that the difference between the rate of a single state and the national rate is more volatile than the change in the rate of the state alone. The controller adds noise to the study instead of filtering out the noise. The same problem exists when you try to compare the condition with similar or neighboring states.

We simply do not have good controls over government homicide rates. However, the same report found “moderate” evidence that certain gun control measures can reduce homicides – for example, by expanding background checks to cover more domestic offenders. In recent years, Switzerland has reformed its gun laws for militia members following several incidents in which militia members committed suicide or killed others with their weapons. In 2010, for example, the rules were changed to allow militia members to voluntarily lay down their weapons in an armory. And if the police, courts, prosecutors or a military commander determine the risk of misuse or improper handling or maintenance of a militia member`s personal weapon, it can be seized – with the possibility of additional sanctions, including fines and imprisonment. However, Australian gun control advocates have warned of relaxing gun laws in some states and territories, as well as an increase in gun sales.

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