Nasor said:My point is only that gun control laws don't reduce crime rates, which is contrary to what many people in the U.S. seem to believe. What's the point of reducing the number of shooting deaths if stabbings and bludgeoning increase proportionally? The only thing that matters is the overall murder rate, not the murder rate for any particular weapon.
You won't discover the effect until you impose strict gun regulation, so you can't say that. What we can say though, is that the USA's overall murder rate through any means, is five times that of the UK, and with guns, 25 times higher. Now, do you really think you are going to ascend back to those levels of murder, replacing 66%, ie, over 10,000 murders per year, out of over 14,000 with knives and bats, if you remove guns? I really doubt that somehow, and the UK perspective says not too.
If you ban handguns and the rate of shooting deaths decreases, but the overall murder rate increases, then your gun conrol laws have failed
That's a big if, and proven not to be the case.
if by 'fluctuating' you mean 'plummeting'. If the murder rate continues to decrease through 2004 like it has every year in the last decade, then by 2005 the murder rate in the US will be at it's lowest since the year 1912.The U.S. is currently experiencing the longest period of declining murder rates in the country's history.
Looking at the graph I linked, there was a similar drop starting in 1935, a small peak started in 1945, a drop to 1960, and then an increase starting in 1960 that looks almost exponential. So 'IF' the murder rate keeps dropping, what's to say it won't increase again? History shows it varies wildy. you can trust to dumb luck that it will go down,a dn sty down, but that really isn't very realistic.
England's murder rate, on the other hand, has been climbing steadily since 1997 and is now at a 100 year high.
Climbing slowly, and steadily, and we are passing laws to slow it. What are you doing in the USA?
My point is that banning handguns probably isn't the way to lower the murder rate in the U.S., because all evidence indicates that banning handguns doesn't lower the murder rate.
Oh go on, show me the evidence! And please, don't say 'well NY banned guns, and look at their figures' as there is no border control, guns can still be easily aquired.