There are a lot of people here in the U.S. that want to impose more stick gun control laws. Many people would actually like to ban handguns altogether. It makes sense that there would be fewer murders if there were fewer guns, but apparently that isn't really the case. Three countries – England, Australia, and Brazil – all recently imposed tough gun control laws, but it didn't have any effect on their crime rates. In Brazil and England, the murder rates actually increased after the gun ban. In Australia the murder rate had been constant for years before the ban, and remained unchanged after the ban. It's interesting to note that in all three countries shooting deaths have indeed gone down, but murders with other types of weapons rose to compensate as guns became unavailable. It would seem that we now have pretty conclusive evidence that gun control laws don't reduce murder rates.
So why are there still people who clamor for gun control laws? Do they have any reason to believe that the results in the United States will be any different than the results in every other country that has imposed strict gun laws? Are they simply ignorant of the fact that gun control has already failed spectacularly in other countries? I'm sure that there are some pro-gun control people here at sciforums, so I'd really like to hear from them.
So why are there still people who clamor for gun control laws? Do they have any reason to believe that the results in the United States will be any different than the results in every other country that has imposed strict gun laws? Are they simply ignorant of the fact that gun control has already failed spectacularly in other countries? I'm sure that there are some pro-gun control people here at sciforums, so I'd really like to hear from them.