Do strict gun laws reduce crime?

Summary of those who say YES:

·       Handgun use increases the rate of death by up to a factor of 5

·       Guns are not what are most used in criminal events. On 4% of all crimes and only 20% of all violent crimes

·       However assaults involving guns are 7xs more likely to end in a killing

·       While stats looking at crimes involving knives compared to guns do not show a extreme difference as one may expect.

·       Guns are more likely to kill because of there make up and bullets

·       The article went on to describe three general types of gun control in which we have previously discussed.

·       Stated that asking the question whether or not gun controls work or not is a fallacy

Summary of those who say NO:

·       The term strict gun control has no clear meaning so he then clarifies is opinion of what the definition is.

·       Stell identifies many of the arguments that zimring makes

·       However, he then goes on the point out some of the areas in which they both agree such as well enforced gun control laws would only lead to a marginal dip in the crime rate.

·       The next section talks about Zimring’s argument about the challenges facing the reformation of U.S. firearm policy.

·       Stell notes that Zimring includes suicide which according to Stell is not a crime and makes up 30,000 deaths by firearm and should not be counted.

·       Countries with strict gun laws or even forbid guns have extremely high suicide rates.

·       He then goes on to talk about what types of weapons most offenders use. If any weapons at all. Furthermore he gives us stats about those whom are shot and those who actually do the shooting

Reflection:

            There is no arguing the fact that guns are meant to kill. Of all the murders committed and suicides, guns were used more than anything else. Ok not that we have established that I must fall back to the general and popular argument and that being that even if there were no guns in America people will still kill and people will still take their own lives.

            Since we have never had a complete handgun ban and the fact that America has always had a lot of firearms within our borders, we can never know rather or not high or increasing homicide rates are solely linked to firearm control or lack thereof. There is simply no way to answer this question fully and truthfully especially when one is trying to analyze the homicide rate of the whole U.S. for example let’s say San Francisco places strict gun controls and then someone notices that the homicide rate has dropped. Does that mean that the gun controls that were implemented are the sole cause for the drop? Maybe there was also an increase in homosexuals who tend to be less violent or maybe since we are in a recession people cannot afford guns or ammo. There is simply no way to know if gun controls by themselves influence the homicide rate. We must look at many other external factors throughout the United States.