On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 23:09:11 GMT, yourname wrote:
Second, you have shown no connection between shall
issue permits and lower murder rates.
http://www.rkba.org/research/suter/s...cw.4sep95.html
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdgcon.html
First, what are "liberalized" concealed carry laws? They are a set of
requirements, when met by an applicant, require the issuance of a
concealed carry permit, which allows a permit holder to carry a gun
(concealed) in public places. These requirements may consist of a
license fee, a safety training program or exam, fingerprinting, a
"clean" record, no history of mental illness, etc. In other words it
is not left to the discretion of local authorities to decide whether
or not to issue a permit. Liberalized concealed carry laws are more
often referred to as "shall-issue concealed carry weapons" laws.
In 1987, when Florida enacted such legislation, critics warned that
the "Sunshine State" would become the "Gunshine State." Contrary to
their predictions, homicide rates dropped faster than the national
average. Further, through 1997, only one permit holder out of the over
350,000 permits issued, was convicted of homicide. (Source: Kleck,
Gary Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, p 370. Walter de
Gruyter, Inc., New York, 1997.) If the rest of the country behaved as
Florida's permit holders did, the U.S. would have the lowest homicide
rate in the world.
David Kopel, Research Director at the Independence Institute comments
on Florida's concealed carry experience:
"What we can say with some confidence is that allowing more people to
carry guns does not cause an increase in crime. In Florida, where
315,000 permits have been issued, there are only five known instances
of violent gun crime by a person with a permit. This makes a
permit-holding Floridian the cream of the crop of law-abiding
citizens, 840 times less likely to commit a violent firearm crime than
a randomly selected Floridian without a permit." ("More Permits Mean
Less Crime..." Los Angeles Times, Feb. 19, 1996, Monday, p. B-5)
John Lott and David Mustard, in connection with the University of
Chicago Law School, examining crime statistics from 1977 to 1992 for
all U.S. counties, concluded that the thirty-one states allowing their
residents to carry concealed, had significant reductions in violent
crime. Lott writes, "Our most conservative estimates show that by
adopting shall-issue laws, states reduced murders by 8.5%, rapes by
5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robbery by 3%. If those states that
did not permit concealed handguns in 1992 had permitted them back
then, citizens might have been spared approximately 1,570 murders,
4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults and 12,000 robberies. To put
it even more simply criminals, we found, respond rationally to
deterrence threats... While support for strict gun-control laws
usually has been strongest in large cities, where crime rates are
highest, that's precisely where right-to-carry laws have produced the
largest drops in violent crimes."
http://www.azccw.com/More%20Facts%20&%20Statistics.htm
Today, there are only 5 states that do not have a right-to-carry
system.
States with right-to-carry laws have lower overall violent crime
rates, compared to states without right-to-carry laws. In states whose
laws respect the citizen's right-to-carry guns for self defense the
total violent crime is 13% lower, homicide is 3% lower, robbery is 26%
lower and aggravated assault is 7% lower. (Data: Crime in the United
States 1996, FBI Uniform Crime Reports)
Right-to-carry license holders are more law-abiding than the general
public. In Florida, for example, the firearm crime rate among license
holders, annually averaging only several crimes per 100,000 licensees,
is a fraction of the rate for the state as a whole. Since the carry
law went into effect in 1987, less than 0.02% of Florida carry permits
have been revoked because of gun crimes committed by license holders.
(Florida Dept. of State) Research reports printed in "More Guns, Less
Crime", John R. Lott, Jr., the John M. Olin Visiting Law and Economics
Fellow at the University of Chicago, examined data ranging from gun
ownership polls to FBI crime rate data for each of the nation's 3.045
counties over a 1977 too 1994 time span. Lott's research amounts to
the largest data set that has ever been put together for any study of
crime, let alone for the study of gun control. Among Prof. Lott's
findings:
• While arrest and conviction rates being the most important factors
influencing crime.... non discretionary concealed-handgun laws are
also important, and they are the most cost-effective means of reducing
crime.
• Non discretionary or "shall-issue" carry permit laws reduce violent
crime for two reasons. They reduce the number of attempted crimes
because criminals can't tell which potential victims are armed, being
able to defend themselves. Secondly, victims who do have guns are in a
much better position to defend themselves. Concealed carry laws deter
crime because they increase the criminal's risk of doing business.
• States with the largest increases in gun ownership also have the
largest decreases in violent crime. And, it is high crime, urban
areas, and neighborhoods with large minority populations that
experience the greatest reductions in violent crime when law-abiding
citizens are allowed to carry concealed handguns.
• There is a strong relationship between the number of law-abiding
citizens with permits and the crime rate--as more people obtain
permits there is a greater decline in violent crime rates.
• For each additional year that a concealed handgun law is in effect
the murder rate declines by 3%, rape by 2% and robberies by more than
2%.
• Murder rates decline when either more women or more men carry
concealed handguns, but the effect is especially pronounced for women.
An additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder
rate for women by about three to four times more than an additional
man carrying a concealed handgun reduces the rate for men.
• The benefits of concealed handguns are not limited to those who
carry them. Others get a free ride from the crime fighting efforts of
their fellow citizens.
• The benefits of right-to-carry are not limited to people who share
the characteristics of those who carry the guns. The most obvious
example of this "halo" effect, is the drop in murders of children
following the adoption of non discretionary laws. Arming older people
not only may provide direct protection to these children, but also
causes criminals to leave the area.
• The increased presence of concealed handguns "does not raise the
number of accidental deaths or suicides from handguns."
Gunner
"No man shall be debarred the use of arms.
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm those only who are neither
inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants.
They ought to be designated as laws not preventative but fearful of crimes,
produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by
thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree."
- Thomas Jefferson