Gun Myths Page 4
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Murders would go up if we all had guns, wouldn't they ?
Though the number of firearms owned by private citizens in the U.S. has been increasing steadily since 1991 (with a huge increase in gun ownership following the 9/11 attacks in New York City) the overall murder rate has actually decreased by 42 percent.
In fact, the more people that acquire legally held guns, the lower the murder rate drops.
The reason for this is very simple - armed citizens both frighten and deter criminals.
( Source - Federal Bureau Of Investigation - 1988 - 2007 Crime Statistics)
Allowing homeowners to own guns would encourage intruders to arm themselves.
A "hot" burglary is a break in where the residents are at home when the criminals strike.
In the United Kingdom 59 percent of burglaries are classed as "hot" burglaries. By contrast, the United States has a hot burglary rate of just 13 percent.
Consistent with this, surveys of convicted felons in America reveal that during burglaries they are much more worried about encountering armed victims than they are about running into the police. This fear of potentially armed victims causes American burglars to spend more time "casing" a house to ensure nobody is home.
Felons frequently comment in these interviews that they avoid late night burglaries because "that's the way to get shot".
(Source - The Bias Against Guns by John R Lott, Jr Page 140)
But look at all the gun deaths in the United States ?
In 2006 the United States had around 31,000 deaths from firearms, of those 55 percent were suicides.
Around 650 gun deaths were classed as "accidental" or "unintentional".
Of these accidental deaths, less than 130 were of children under the age of 18. This is a very low figure when compared to the 5,600 unintentional deaths of under 18's in the same year that were attributed to the use of motor vehicles.
In fact the number of people killed by motor vehicles in America is more than 3 times the number of people killed every year in accidents and murders involving guns.
With regards to the US murder rate, two thirds of murder victims in the US are not innocent victims but themselves have criminal records.
In addition, 55 percent of all firearm homicide victims in the USA are black males killed using illegal held weapons in poor, run down areas during gang or drug-related activity.
If gang related violence is removed from the murder statistics, the US has a murder rate that is actually not far from the overall murder rate of the United Kingdom, and may actually be slightly lower.
Many people talk about "gun murders" but murder is murder, no matter what weapon is used to carry it out.
In a country with over 250 million guns owned by over 80 million people, the odds of an innocent, law-abiding person being killed by gunfire are actually quite low.
(Source - Center For Disease Control - Injury Mortality Reports 1999 - 2006 )
(Source - US Department Of Justice - Bureau of Justice Statistics ) (PDF File)