Letter to My Congressmen re HR 1022, I need statistics

[TargetTerror]

I am writing a letter to my Senators (actually to all of my representatives in Congress) asking them to vote AGAINST HR 1022. I will post the letter on this board when I am finished with it and anyone that wants to send it along under their name as well is welcome to do so.

I want some sources for statistics. Specifically:

ENGLAND -
When did the Handgun ban go into effect?
What is it specifically called?
What were the rates for violent crime, theft, gun-related crimes, and murder before the ban? What are those rates currently?

AUSTRALIA -
When did the semi-auto gun buyback program go into effect?
What was the program called?
How much money did the Australian government spend on it?
What were the rates for violent crime, theft, gun-related crimes, and murder before the ban? What are those rates currently?

SWITZERLAND -
What specifically is the law regarding/mandating every household own a firearm?
How long has this law been in effect?
What are the rates for violent crime, theft, gun-related crimes, and murder?
What were the rates before this law was enacted?

UNITED STATES -
Examples of cities with very strict gun control laws and high crimes (I got Washington D.C. covered, but want more).
Examples of cities that enacted stricter gun control/ccw laws and have had crime INCREASE.
Examples of cities that enacted stricter gun control/ccw laws and have had crime DECREASE. (we need to be prepared for rebuttals and analyze what else might be going on in these cases)
Examples of cities that loosened gun control/ccw laws and had crime DECREASE.
Examples of cities that loosened gun control/ccw laws and had crime INCREASE.
Statistics of how many "assault weapons" have actually been used in crimes. Both national and local/state statistics would be useful.

For all of these questions above, I am looking for GOOD, SOLID SOURCES. Imagine you are getting your Ph.D. in criminal studies and your thesis is on gun control. I need the types of sources you would put into such a thesis.

For my purposes of this letter, news articles in and of themselves are of limited use. Blogs/independent websites are useless. I want data and/or studies from governments (ideal), educational institutes, independent thinktanks, and other institutions and entities that are not easily dismissed. Links to the websites of such institutions, and specifically their statistics/data that I am looking for is ideal. Sources available only in hard print are good as well.

I plan to do some hunting on my own, but thought I would post up here to see if anyone has any links already. Any and all help is GREATLY appreciated. I read the text of HR 1022 and its scope is downright SCARY. We NEED to defeat this bill, and we will.

 

[Don H]

You do realize that these letters never get past a staffer (unless you are a large contributor) and all you get is a canned response? Seems like an awful lot of work for a checkmark in the "No for 1022" column summary that the congresscritter gets once a week.

 

[TargetTerror]

While you are probably true, I do want to know those statistics as they are useful in any gun debate. And while i am interested in all of the statistics listed, I'd be happy to get even a few. I figured the more I asked for, the more likely someone might have a link to one of them.

I'm not actually writing a thesis, but a few reputable statistics thrown in can't hurt.

 

[threegun]

Gun control is an effective tool when dealing with crime. It has proven to have profound results. Why, in Australia alone gun control has had a dramatic affect on the crime rate. Don't believe it?

Australia banned private ownership of most guns in 1996, crime has risen dramatically on that continent, prompting critics of U.S. gun control efforts to issue new warnings of what life in America could be like if Congress ever bans firearms. After Australian lawmakers passed widespread gun bans, (law-abiding) gun owners were forced to surrender about 650,000 weapons, which were later slated for destruction, according to statistics from the Australian Sporting Shooters Association.

The bans were not limited to so-called "assault" weapons or military-type firearms, but also to .22 rifles and shotguns. The effort cost the Australian government about $500 million, said association representative Keith Tidswell. Though lawmakers responsible for passing the ban promised a safer country, the nation's crime statistics tell a different story:

Countrywide, homicides are up 3.2 percent; Assaults are up 8.6 percent; Amazingly, armed robberies have climbed nearly 45 percent;

In the Australian state of Victoria, gun homicides have climbed 300 percent; In the 25 years before the gun bans, crime in Australia had been dropping steadily, now there has been a reported "dramatic increase" in home burglaries and assaults on the elderly.

At the time of the ban, which followed an April 29, 1996 shooting at a Port Arthur tourist spot by lone gunman Martin Bryant, the continent had an annual murder-by-firearm rate of about 1.8 per 100,000 persons, "a safe society by any standards," said Tidswell. But such low rates of crime and rare shootings did not deter then-Prime Minister John Howard from calling for and supporting the weapons ban.

The statistics speak for themselves, and gun control works. The problem is "who" it works for. Everyone interested in the subject is by now familiar with John Lott's work "More Guns, Less Crime". Dr. Lott admits he had no interest in firearms until he began to research the affects of gun control on society. His conclusions led him to write a very exhaustive piece of research that proved that an armed populace is the greatest deterrent to crime.

States which passed concealed carry laws reduced their murder rate by 8.5%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robbery by 3%; and, If those states not having concealed carry laws had adopted such laws in 1992, then approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults and 12,000 robberies would have been avoided yearly.

Again I will say it: gun control works (for the criminal).

the linkhttp://www.kc3.com/editorial/gun_control_works.htm

You might want to contact John Lott. He has done the research and might be willing to share. Good luck and PM me when the letter is done I will send it also.