The Unfounded Myth that Gun Ownership Decreases Crime Rates

Posted on May 31, 2008 by thereadingblogger

Here is a follow-up to my May 30, 2008 post on John R. Lott Jr.’s commentary about the supposed negative effects of gun laws on crime reduction. First, Tom Diaz, one of the people Mr. Lott selectively quoted in his piece, wrote in a letter (“Quote on weapons ban misused“) to the Philadelphia Inquirerthat he and the group he represents, The Violence Policy Center, have once again been misrepresented. Mr. Diaz says,

” To correct the record, the Violence Policy Center has not changed its position one whit on the need for a ban since the last time Lott misrepresented our position on your op-ed pages, Sept. 26, 2006. Our letter to Lott’s distortion then (Oct. 3, 2006) is just as appropriate today:”The Violence Policy Center has long advocated for an effective assault-weapons ban. The key word is effective. The point of my statement . . . was that the former federal assault-weapons law was so riddled with loopholes, so easily evaded by the gun industry, and so poorly enforced by the Clinton and Bush administrations, that it was useless. That is not at all to say that an assault-weapons ban with teeth is not needed.”

Then, check-out some recent perspective and analyses on the subject.

  • Garen J. Wintemute, M.D., M.P.H. published a Perspective titled, “Guns, Fear, the Constitution, and the Public’s Health” in the April 3, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). In reference to the move to de-regulated gun use, Dr. Wintemute says, “Such policies are founded on myths. One is that increasing gun ownership decreases crime rates — a position that has been discredited… Gun ownership and gun violence rise and fall together… Another myth is that defensive gun use is very common. The most widely quoted estimate, 2.5 million occurrences a year, is too high by a factor of 10… “
  •  Also in the same issue of NEJM, read the accompanying editorial, “Handgun Violence, Public Health, and the Law” by Gregory D. Curfman, MD and colleagues.
  • The NEJM Website has also posted an interview with Damid Hemenway (a professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health) “on gun violence in the United States and the likely effects of the Supreme Court case D.C. v. Heller.”
  • The Violence Policy Center April 28, 2008 press release, “Pro-Gun” States Lead the Nation in Per Capita Firearm Death Rates”  is an analysis of 2005 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Among other things, this analysis shows that the 5 US states (Louisiana, Alaska, Montana, Tennessee, Alabama) with the highest gun-related deaths also have the highest (by far) percentages of household gun-ownership compared with the 5 states (Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York) with the lowest gun death rates. For example, in Alaska where 60.6% of households own guns, the gun-related death rate was 17.49 per 100,000 persons. In contrast, with 9.7% of households owning guns, Hawaii had a gun-related death rate of 2.20 per 100,000.
  • The ACLU position piece on gun control (published 3/4/2002)

Finally, my Google searches using the terms “gun control and crime rates,” “gun control,” “gun control debate” spewed long lists of pro-gun Websites (some masked as fair-balanced information sources), with few Websites presenting the other side of the coin. So here is a short list of informative Websites from organizations that advocate for gun control.

 

Filed under: Current Events, Gun Control, Media watch | Tagged: , , , , |

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6 Responses

  1. thanks, on June 3, 2008 at 3:39 pm said:

    Have you considered editing at Wikipedia? Presently there is a small army of Wikipedia gun nuts pushing their pro-gun agenda. I can see from your blogging that you have a thoughtful, balanced and well sourced writing style. You could help bring some sorely needed counter-balance to the present ‘pro-gun’ bias in Wikipedia. I encourage you to pick any gun issue Wikipedia article, and edit your reasoned point of view to bring some balance to the gun nuts there.

  2. Another Case of Mass Murder With a Legally Owned Gun–How About Some Effective Gun Control? « The Reading Blog, on June 26, 2008 at 3:40 pm said:

    […] the tragedy might have been averted if all the victims had guns to protect themselves. Check out my previous blog that discusses facts showing that gun ownership does not decrease crime rates, au […]

  3. Theo, on April 17, 2009 at 1:49 pm said:

    >>I encourage you to pick any gun issue Wikipedia article, and edit your reasoned point of view to bring some balance to the gun nuts there.<<

    Wikipedia’s NPOV (No Point of View) policy specifically prohibits this. If you believe that they’re editing a bias, simply go to the discussion page and inform them that they’re violating the NPOV policy.

    More likely, you’re letting your personal bias get in the way of the objective truth that is most likely present on wikipedia.

  4. ObiJohn, on April 27, 2009 at 3:13 pm said:

    You realize, of course, that the three websites you cite are in fact the same organization, don’t you? An organization with an anti-gun position, and one that has put forth misleading (to say the least) statistics and statements in the past.

    You also realize that the gun violence stats you cite are misleading? Sure, Louisiana has a high per-capita gun violence rate… but exclude New Orleans and it drops to last place. Washington state is way down on the list, but the percentage of gun ownership here is very high. Similarly, Idaho has almost universal gun ownership but the gun crime rate is very low. How can that be, if guns cause crime? Maybe it’s because guns DON’T cause crime.

    The biggest indicator for violent crime is illegal drug sales/usage. This is why Washington DC, with a smaller population, a universal ban on handguns for the law-abiding, and much smaller per-capita LEGAL gun ownership, dwarfes Washington state for violent crime.

  5. Renee, on May 18, 2009 at 10:28 pm said:

    Oh, get real…how come anybody who wants to own a gun to protect themselves is a “gun nut”? I own one, count ’em, one. I rarely shoot it, but I have one for self defense. This makes me a “gun nut”? Oh, yeah, I forgot…I support the 2nd Amendment. that makes me a “gun nut” AND a “right wing extremist”. Get over it, I’m a moderate Libertarian. I don’t like Republicans any more than I do Democrats. Both sides support issues I don’t agree with.

    Further, you obviously have not heard of Kennesaw, GA…a law was passed a while back requiring homeowners to own a firearm. Not enforced. The crime rate went down 89% the following year. Where on earth do you gun control freaks get your statistics from?

  6. thereadingblogger, on May 19, 2009 at 8:41 am said:

    Renee offers another fine example of name calling and poorly thought out argument from the pro-gun lobby. Us gun-control advocates find support statistics from sound sources like the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, the Violence Policy Center, and yes the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. You might actually want to read some of the articles cited above to learn about some hard data about the subject. Also, if you want to provide counter examples how about giving a link to a reference so that the rest of us can cross-check your data? And by the way, what happens in a small town does not necessarily apply to crime dynamics in large cities.

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