I believe all the items mentioned are not as bad as they would be with no enforcement IE regulation.
Could regulations be created that would do a better job? Yes more severe penalties and less leniency from the Courts. So answer is, the regulation of each has had an impact.
Key word here is better
You must be from the right. Say something and it must be true? LOL Canada's population has about 29% gun ownership compared to US 39%. They do have guns. Canada has a rate of homicide by guns of .076 per 100k population, US 3.72 per 100k.
England has about 5% gun ownership and deaths by guns at 0.11 per 100k
Both countries have much less total homicide then the US
What are you smoking?
I know it is a long read but we needed the facts.
Gun Ownership and Homicide Rates
GUNS IN OTHER COUNTRIES
Myth: Countries with strict gun control have less crime
Fact: In America, we can demonstrate that private ownership of guns reduces crime, but from country to country there is no correlation between gun availability and the violent crime rate. Consider this:
Use detailed data, we can contrast the per capita homicide rate with the per capita gun ownership rate between different industrialized countries. Doing so shows zero correlation between the availability of guns and the overall homicide rate.
Fact: Countries with the strictest gun-control laws also tended to have the highest homicide rates.324
Fact: According to the U.N., as of 2005, Scotland was the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America. Violent crime there has doubled over the last 20 years. 3% of Scots had been victims of assault compared with 1.2% in America 325
Fact: “ ... the major surveys completed in the past 20 years or more provides no evidence of any relationship between the total number of legally held firearms in society and the rate of armed crime. Nor is there a relationship between the severity of controls imposed in various countries or the mass of bureaucracy involved with many control systems with the apparent ease of access to firearms by criminals and terrorists.”326
324 “Violence, Guns and Drugs: A Cross-Country Analysis”, Jeffery A. Miron, Department of Economics, Boston University.
325 “Scotland tops list of world's most violent countries”, The Times, September 19, 2005
326 Colin Greenwood, “Minutes of Evidence”, Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs, January 29, 2003. Contact Crime Victimization Rates
Fact: Switzerland has relatively lenient gun control for Europe327, and has the third-lowest homicide rate of the top nine major European countries, and the same per capita rate as England and Wales.328
Fact: Indeed, the Swiss basically have a military rifle in nearly every closest. "Everybody who has served in the army is allowed to keep their personal weapon, even after the end of their military service."329
Fact: “We don't have as many guns [in Brazil] as the United States, but we use them more.”330 Brazil has mandatory licensing, registration, and maximum personal ownership quotas. It now bans any new sales to private citizens. Their homicide rate is almost three (3) times higher than the U.S.331
Fact: In Canada around 1920, before there was any form of gun control, their homicide rate was 7% of the U.S rate. By 1986, and after significant gun control legislation, Canada’s homicide rate was 35% of the U.S. rate – a significant increase. 332 In 2003, Canada had a violent crime
327 In Switzerland, handguns are obtainable once a person obtains a simple police permit that is valid for six months. “Federal law over weapons, weapon accessories and ammunition (weapon law, WG)”, Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation, May 2007 -
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/5/514.54.de.pdf
328 Carol Kalish, International Crime Rates, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report (Washington: Department of Justice, May 1988). 1984 data for Switzerland, and the 1983 data for England and Wales.
329 Swiss Defense Ministry statement, May 15, 2004 ,”Army rifles remain racked at home”,
swissinfo - Swiss news and information platform about Switzerland, business, culture, sport, weather.
330 Rubem César Fernandes, executive secretary of Viva Rio, a nongovernmental agency that studies urban crime, Christian Science Monitor, “Chocolates for guns? Brazil targets gun violence.”
331 U.S. data Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Homicide trends in the United States”, September, 2004. Brazil data Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2005.
332 Gary Kleck, “Targetting Guns”, 1997 at 360.
U.K. Violent Crime and Firearm Ownership rate more than double that of the U.S. (963 vs. 475 per 100,000).333
Fact: Many of the countries with the strictest gun control have the highest rates of violent crime. Australia and England, which have virtually banned gun ownership, have the highest rates of robbery, sexual assault, and assault with force of the top 17 industrialized countries.334
Fact: The crime rate is 66% higher in four Canadian prairie provinces than in the northern US states across the border.335
Fact: Strict controls over existing arms failed in Finland. Despite needs-based licensing, storage laws, transportation restrictions,336 Finland experienced a multiple killing school shooting in 2007.337
Myth: Britain has strict gun control and a low crime rate
Fact: Since gun banning has escalated in the UK, the rate of crime – especially violent crime – has risen.
Fact: Ironically, firearm use in crimes has doubled in the decade since handguns were banned.338
Fact: 67% of those with an opinion believe that “As a result of gun and knife crime, the area I live in is not as safe as it was five years ago.”339
333 Juristat: Crime Statistics in Canada, 2004 and FBI Uniform Crime Statistics online.
334 Dutch Ministry of Justice, Criminal Victimization in Seventeen Industrialized Countries, 2001.
335 “A Comparison of Violent and Firearm Crime Rates in the Canadian Prairie Provinces and Four U.S. Border States, 1961-2003”, Parliamentary Research Branch of the Library of Parliament, March 7, 2005.
336 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, “National Report by Finland”.
337 Pekka-Eric Auvinen shooting in Tuusula, Finland on November 8, 2007.
338 “Weapons sell for just £50 as suspects and victims grow ever younger”, The Times, August 24, 2007.
339 YouGov survey of 2,156 residents in Sept 2007.
U.K. Violent Crime and Firearm Ownership
Fact: Street robberies soared 28% in 2001. Violent crime was up 11%, murders up 4%, and rapes are up 14%.340
Fact: This trend continues in 2004 with a 10% increase in street crime, 8% increase in muggings, and a 22% increase in robberies.
Fact: In 1919, before it had any gun control, the U.K. had a homicide rate that was 8% of the U.S. rate. By 1986, and after enacting significant gun control, the rate was 9% – practically unchanged.341
Fact: “ ... [There is] nothing in the statistics for England and Wales to suggest that either the stricter controls on handguns prior to 1997 or the ban imposed since have controlled access to such firearms by criminals.”342
Fact: Comparing crime rates between America and Britain is flawed. In America, a gun crime is recorded as a gun crime. In Britain, a crime is only recorded when there is a final disposition (a conviction). All unsolved gun crimes in Britain are not reported as gun crimes, grossly undercounting the amount of gun crime there. 343 To make matters worse, British law enforcement has been exposed for falsifying criminal reports to create falsely lower crime figures, in part to preserve tourism.344
Fact: A continuing parliamentary inquiry into the growing number of black market weapons has concluded that there are more than three million illegally held firearms in circulation - double the number believed to have been held 10 years ago - and that criminals are more willing than ever to use them. One in three criminals under the age of 25 possesses or has access to a firearm. 345
Fact: Handgun homicides in England and Wales reached an all-time high in 2000, years after a virtual ban on private handgun ownership. More than 3,000 crimes involving handguns were
340 British Home Office, reported by BBC news, July 12, 2002.
341 Gary Kleck, “Targetting Guns”, 1997 at 359.
342 Colin Greenwood, “Minutes of Evidence”, Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs, January 29, 2003.
343 Gallant, Hills, Kopel, “Fear in Britain”, Independence Institute, July 18, 2000.
344 “Crime Figures a Sham, Say Police “, Daily Telegraph, April 1, 1996.
345 Reported in The Guardian, September 3, 2000.
recorded in 1999-2000, including the 42 homicides, 310 cases of attempted murder, 2,561 robberies and 204 burglaries.346
Fact: Handguns were used in 3,685 offences in 2000 compared with 2,648 in 1997, an increase of 40%.347 It is interesting to note:
• Of the 20 areas with the lowest number of legal firearms, 10 had an above average level of "gun crime."
• Of the 20 areas with the highest levels of legal guns, only 2 had armed crime levels above the average.
Fact: Between 1997 and 1999, there were 429 murders in London, the highest two-year figure for more than 10 years – nearly two-thirds of those involved firearms – in a country that has virtually banned private firearm ownership.348
Fact: Over the last century, the British crime rate was largely unchanged. In the late nineteenth century, the per capita homicide rate in Britain was between 1.0 and 1.5 per 100,000.349 In the late twentieth century, after a near ban on gun ownership, the homicide rate is around 1.4.350 This shows that the homicide rate does not vary with either the level of gun control or gun availability.
Fact: The U.K. has strict gun control and a rising homicide rate of 1.4 per 100,000. Switzerland has the highest per capita firearm ownership rate on the planet (all males age 20 to 42 are required to keep rifles or pistols at home) has a homicide rate of 1.2 per 100,000. And to date, there has never been a schoolyard massacre in Switzerland.351
Fact: "… the scale of gun crime in the capital [London] has forced senior officers to set up a specialist unit to deal with ... shootings."352
Myth: Gun control in Australia is curbing crime
Fact: Crime rose after a sweeping ban on private gun ownership. In the first two years after gun-owners were forced to surrender 640,381 personal firearms, government statistics show a dramatic increase in criminal activity.353In 2001-2002, homicides were up another 20%. 354
Offence category
Increase from pre-ban
Armed robbery
170.1%
Kidnapping/abduction
144.0%
Assault
130.9%
Attempted murder
117.6%
Sexual assault
112.6%
346 “42 killed by handguns last year “, The Times, January 10, 2001, reporting on statistics supplied by the British Home Office.
347 “Illegal Firearms in the UK”, Centre for Defense Studies at King's College in London, July 2001.
348 Ibid.
349 Clive Emsley, Crime and Society in England 1750-1900, at 36 (1987).
350 Stephen P. Halbrook, “Where Kids and Guns Do Mix”, Wall Street Journal, June 1999.
351 Ibid.
352 Associated News Media, April 30, 2001.
353 Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Crime and Justice - Crimes Recorded by Police”, 2000.
From the inception of firearm confiscation to March 27, 2000, the numbers are:
• Gun murders up 19%
• Armed robbery up 69%
• Home invasions up 21%
The sad part is that in the 15 years before national gun confiscation:
• Firearm-related homicides dropped nearly 66%.
• Firearm-related deaths fell 50%.
Fact: Gun crimes are rising throughout Australia after guns were banned. In Sydney alone, robbery rates with guns rose 160% in 2001, more in the previous year.355
Fact: A ten year study that concluded Australian firearm confiscation had no effect on crime rates.356
Myth: Japan has strict gun control and a less violent society
Fact: In Japan, the murder rate is almost 1 per 100,000. In the U.S., there are about 3.2 murders per 100,000 people each year by weapons other than firearms.357 This means that even if firearms in the U.S. could be eliminated, we would still have three times the murder rate of the Japanese. Japan’s murder rate may be low, but its suicide rate is over 20 per 100,000 people. Japanese are being murdered and committing suicide at a rate of about 21 per 100,000. In the U.S., our combined murder and suicide rate is about 21 also.
Myth: Gun bans enacted elsewhere work
Fact: Though illegal, side-street gun makers thrive in the Philippines, mainly making submachine guns which are the simplest to manufacture. Estimates are that almost ½ of all guns in the Philippines are illegal.358
Fact: Chinese police destroyed 113 illegal gun factories and shops in a three-month crackdown in 2006. Police seized 2,445 tons of explosives, 4.81 million detonators and 117,000 guns.359
354 Australian Institute of Criminology, “Report #46: Homicide in Australia, 2001-2002", April 2003.
355 The Sydney Morning Herald, “Costa targets armed robbers”, April 4, 2002.
356 "Gun Laws and Sudden Death: Did the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996 Make a Difference?", Dr. Jeanine Baker and Dr. Samara McPhedran, British Journal of Criminology, November 2006.
357 Japan data “1996 Demographic Yearbook”, United Nations, 1998: US data FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1996.
358 “Filipino gunsmiths are making a killing”, Taipei Times, May 7, 2005.
359 China Radio International Online, September 7, 2006.
Myth: The United States has the highest violence rate because of lax gun control
Country
Homicides per 100,000 population
Colombia
62
Jamaica
32
Russia
20
Mexico
13
Estonia
10
Latvia
10
Lithuania
10
Belarus
9
Papua New Guinea
8
Kyrgyzstan
8
Fact: The top 10 countries for homicide do not include the U.S.360
360 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention, Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 – 2000.
I listed all my sources, where did you get your facts from?
Mikey
