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Old August 22, 2011, 10:41 AM   #85
Frank Ettin
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Join Date: November 23, 2005
Location: California - San Francisco
Posts: 9,471
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordTio3
...But here is some actual evidence to support the practical claims that more honest people who own powerful and deadly weapons for the purposes of self defense has a desirable effect on crime....
Not quite, I'm afraid.

Clearly that data shows that increasing the numbers of guns in the hands of private citizens does not lead to an increase in crime, and that crime can decrease even when the numbers of gun in private hands increases. But it doesn't necessarily show that, "...more honest people who own powerful and deadly weapons for the purposes of self defense has a desirable effect on crime...."

Not having an undesirable effect on crime rate is not the same as having a desirable effect on crime rate. Correlation does not prove causation.

There are probably many reasons for the reduction in crime over the last couple of decades.

In NYC, beginning in 1990, the crime rate dropped precipitously. Murders were reduced by two-third, felonies fell by 50%; and by 2000, felonies on the subways had declined 75% (The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, Back Bay Books, 2002, pg. 137). The RKBA and liberalized right to carry laws certainly had nothing to do with that.

I have no doubt that liberalized gun laws and an increased willingness for people to take responsibility for their own safety is one factor in the Nationwide declining crime rate. But it's still only, at best, one factor, and it's very tough to prove.

What the data does clearly demonstrate is that right to carry laws and increasing the numbers of guns in private hands have not led to the bloodbaths that the anti-gun crowd so often predicts.

But we do have to be careful about making claims that we can't substantiate. When we do, it erodes our credibility.

What we can substantiate by collecting data on successful defensive gun use, especially published accounts, is that there are many ordinary people who have been able to avoid becoming victims of violent crime because they did have guns.
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