On 4/21/2002 at 1:03 AM aaron tester said:
>and here is an opposing viewpoint (worth a read):
>
>http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lambert/guns/lott/onepage.html
>
>i live in a country with quite tight gun control laws (australia). gun
>crime is very low. go figure!!!
>
>regards,
>
>aaron tester.
>
>
>---------To Which I Say---------
This clearly is not the forum for this - but I want to at least respond to
this one post. I perused the document you referred to, and the author
begins by discounting Lott's argument by claiming that there weren't "more
guns" - ie that when laws were passed, gun ownership and % of citizens
arming themselves did not go up. I don't suppose that the author of the
piece might have realized that more guns in the context of Lott's argument
might have meant areas in which more people had the right to own guns as
opposed to areas in which less people are allowed to own guns. Hmmm. How'd
he miss that? After that bit of reasoning, I gave up on the piece.
Frankly I don't what to rebut the entire argument written there - but you
ought to know this: I do not believe that comparing gun ownership between
different countries is relevant. For better or worse, the US has always
been a gun culture. And, as access to firearms has been decreasing, as the
rights guaranteed in our Constitution are steadily eroded, violence has
trended upwards. We need to compare the US states and cities with the US
states and cities - not Japan, Austrailia or the UK.
But if you want to know how gun control has affected you, you might want to
know the following: according to Australian crime statistics, since you
banned most privately owned guns:
Homicides are up 3.2 %
Assaults are up 8.6%
Armed Robberies are up 45%
Also, according to the International Crime Victims Survey (conducted by
Leiden University in Holland) Austrailia LEADS industrialized nations in
violent crime, with England and Whales (also just banned guns) second.
In England, overal violent crime rates have increased 15% last year alone.
I am happy to debate this all day, just not on the list anymore.
b
Bradford Schmidt
Bradford Schmidt IMC
http://www.bsimc.com
845-708-9082
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