International Gun Laws Show Firearm Availability is Related to Deaths
After the massacre of 16 schoolchildren in Dunblane, Scotland, the United Kingdom restricted access to guns. In the U.K. all gun owners must be licensed and all guns must be registered. Handguns are prohibited for civilians. The law makes no exceptions. Overall, four percent of households keep firearms. There are only 0.4 intentional gun deaths per 100,000 people. In Japan, where the laws are similar, the numbers are even lower. Firearms are present in only 0.6% of homes in Japan and the intentional gun death rate is 0.07% per 100,000 people.
In Canada, where guns laws are somewhat looser, some hand guns are available, but assault weapons are banned, 26% of homes have guns present. Almost four people per 100,000 are killed in intentional gun violence each year. Switzerland requires registration of guns and licensing of gun owners, but places no restriction on the types of guns owned. Gun deaths are 6.2 per 100,000 people and 27.2% of homes have weapons.
In the United States, where gun registration, licensing requirements and gun availability vary from state to state, 41% of homes keep firearms and a staggering 13.47 people per 100,000 are killed in intentional gun violence. The number of intentional gun deaths per 100,000 people in the United States is more than double of that of Norway, which has a per 100,000 death rate 6.65, the highest rate next to the United States.
The statistics show a clear correlation between gun availability and gun violence. What is less clear is what should be done with the increasing amount of data that proves access to guns takes thousands of lives and costs the taxpayer millions of dollars as court cases move through the judicial system.
Published by Kari Livingston
Kari Livingston is a freelancer writer living and loving life in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks. She specializes in local restaurants, attractions and family events. Her work has appeared on HubPages,... View profile
- The Proper Role of Gun LawsThe proper role of gun laws
- Gun Rights Group Calls New San Francisco Anti-Gun Laws PointlessThe SAF spoke to the news media about the San Francisco Board's new gun laws. The SAF called them pointless and unconstitutional.
- The Second Amendment: A Shield of Freedom with Gun ControlThis explains how the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a shield of freedom against tyranny by our own government.
- Ohio Gun LawsIn America it is legally our right to bear arms for protection or hunting but there are laws that must be followed. Following is a brief summary of Ohio Gun Laws.
The Second Amendment & High-School Shootings in AmericaThis paper argues that the Second amendment of the American constitution, should not be dissolved in the face of recent school shootings in an attempt to deter such incidents in...
- Jesse Jackson Protests at Local Illinois Gun Shop
- Second Amendment Issues
- Second Amendment's Right to Bear Arms Requires Re-examination
- We Should Value Our Second Amendment: The Right to Bear Arms
- Does the Second Amendment Say What We Think it Says?
- Virginia Tech Shootings Spark New Debate Over Gun Laws
- U.S. Receives Criticism Over Gun Laws
- The U.S. has the most lenient gun laws in the world.
- Over 13 people per100,000 are killed by intentional gun violence each year in the U.S.
- In Japan the intentional gun death rate is 0.07% per 100,000 people.
34 Comments
Post a CommentWhile I would consider myself quite "liberal" on most issues, I don't think that there should be a ban on firearms. I think that there should be regulation on who can own one, not on the type of weapon, to a large extent. Firearm availability does not change an incentive to kill, they simplify the action. Of course, it takes a much colder person to look someone in the eye and stab than to kill from distance and, while murder is wrong which is why I think who can buy guns should be regulated, I think it is necessary for the protection of self and property better than any other weapon and for protection from a government which gets more and more tyrannical by the day ever since september 11th 2001 in the face of it's own people, unlike foreigners in foreign countries who have felt this for a long time.
Um, it should be entierly obvious that the there would be a correlation between the availability of guns and their use to commit crimes. There's no news there. However, do these countries that have and enforce strict gun laws have lower murder or crime rates, and can you prove it is purely because they have strict gun laws? Let's take an example from your article, say Scotland vs Switzerland. You say in Scotland only 4% of households have guns whereas in Switzerland ~27% of households have guns. Now, according to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate the homicide rate per 100,000 people in Scotland is 2.17 whereas the homicide rate in Switzerland is only 1.01 so despite there being more guns and more gun related crimes, there are approximately half of the homicides per 100,000 people. The real problem here is human nature and it something no laws can stop. We, as humans, have violent sides to ourselves and taking guns away
if individuals have the right to use lethal force, there is no civil society. Gun advocates apparently don't want to have a civil society. Instead, we have the war of all against all. And our lives are often shorter.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
If you think they were specifying hunting guns, you're an idiot.
It was about the prevention of persecution.
An armed populace makes tyranny difficult.
Enforcing existing gun laws would do wonders, sort of like enforcing all the other existing laws that liberals ignore...
Not everybody lives in a city or near one. The gun dealers where I live are very strict, though friendly. Crime is very low, let alone violent crime. No "real" gun owner likes seeing firearms used in a crime, or seeing crimes at all!!!! All boys(or girls) in this area know better to take a gun to school, they receive better discipline & are taught what a gun can do. As unfortunate as it may be, there is a weapons trade world wide. Many "guns" make it through & are never caught. Those are the one's that are causing such catastrophies!!!! And sadly,....... yes,.... the occasional kid that grabs his daddy's rifle. MORE PEOPLE DIE FROM VEHICLE ACCIDENTS! Let me ask ya this!!!?? With all the vehicle accidents all over the U.S., are ya trying to ban vehicles????!!!!!!!!!!!
I here all of you people talking about the NRA and all this other perspectives. No matter what spin you put on it to justify having guns is small minded thinking and this country has too many small minds. For even one child to be killed by a gun is more than enough reason to ban guns. People say criminals have guns. What you idiots don't see is that they get there guns from the same low life gun dealers you guy get them from. Or you have a right to go hunting. That's okay until your child takes that rifle, go to school and blow away 10 or more of there classmates. But I guess even if someone blow your kid brains out you'll find a way to justify that too!
"If lenient gun laws actually reduce gun violence as the NRA claims, the U.S. should have the lowest rate of gun violence."
That's a Straw Man argument. To my knowledge, no one has claimed that gun ownership would reduce GUN related deaths specifically. Claiming that would be absurd - it would be like saying "more cars means less car accidents".
What has been claimed, however, is that gun ownership reduces the OVERALL number of homicides and violent crime. And to this, there is statistical evidence. There is also statistical evidence that tightening gun laws actually INCREASES violent crime - the UK is a prime example of this.
well look at brazil they have very strict gun laws but they have 50 percent more gun homicides then the us, and you arnt paying much attention the nra supported the 60s ban on importing fully automatic weapons and the 1987 ban on us made full auto weapons and u are uneducated in firearms using words like assualt weapons to refer to semi auto weapons
Michael Moore journalism.
I dont know one person who owns a gun where im from. If we have a problem we fight with fist. We avg .25 shootings per 100 000. Cross the boarder to the US and its the total opposite. More guns = more shootings.