From today's National Center for Policy Analysis email newsletter:
INCONVENIENT FACTS FOR GUN-CONTROL ADVOCATES
Gun ownership is at record high levels, but deaths due to
firearms are at the lowest levels in decades -- two facts that
must pose an embarrassment to those who want the government to
disarm ordinary citizens. The realities simply do not support
their pleas.
o Firearms deaths are at low levels not seen since the
1960s, while Americans owned 230 million guns as of 1996,
according to a Police Foundation study -- and the
industry has been producing roughly three million guns
each year for domestic sales.
o From 1973 to 1992, the American gun supply nearly doubled
-- but homicide rates were stable.
o Fatal gun accidents among children ages 14 and under have
fallen from an average of about 500 a year in the early
1970s to 121 in 1998.
o Crime rates are lower for regions such as the Rocky
Mountain and North Central states, and population groups
such as whites and older males, where gun ownership is
higher.
President Clinton's anti-gun rhetoric in recent years ignited a
frenzy of gun purchases among citizens panicked at the prospect
that their right to bear arms was about to be curtailed, experts
report.
Now comes a report in the Journal of the American Medical
Association that the Brady Act -- which requires background
checks on potential gun purchasers -- has not had any impact on
gun homicides.
Source: David B. Kopel (Independence Institute and Cato
Institute), "More Guns, Less Gun Violence," Wall Street Journal,
August 4, 2000.
For text (interactive subscription required) http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB965350049530124217.htm
For more on Gun Control http://www.ncpa.org/pi/crime/crime51.html
INCONVENIENT FACTS FOR GUN-CONTROL ADVOCATES
Gun ownership is at record high levels, but deaths due to
firearms are at the lowest levels in decades -- two facts that
must pose an embarrassment to those who want the government to
disarm ordinary citizens. The realities simply do not support
their pleas.
o Firearms deaths are at low levels not seen since the
1960s, while Americans owned 230 million guns as of 1996,
according to a Police Foundation study -- and the
industry has been producing roughly three million guns
each year for domestic sales.
o From 1973 to 1992, the American gun supply nearly doubled
-- but homicide rates were stable.
o Fatal gun accidents among children ages 14 and under have
fallen from an average of about 500 a year in the early
1970s to 121 in 1998.
o Crime rates are lower for regions such as the Rocky
Mountain and North Central states, and population groups
such as whites and older males, where gun ownership is
higher.
President Clinton's anti-gun rhetoric in recent years ignited a
frenzy of gun purchases among citizens panicked at the prospect
that their right to bear arms was about to be curtailed, experts
report.
Now comes a report in the Journal of the American Medical
Association that the Brady Act -- which requires background
checks on potential gun purchasers -- has not had any impact on
gun homicides.
Source: David B. Kopel (Independence Institute and Cato
Institute), "More Guns, Less Gun Violence," Wall Street Journal,
August 4, 2000.
For text (interactive subscription required) http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB965350049530124217.htm
For more on Gun Control http://www.ncpa.org/pi/crime/crime51.html
