But our homicide rate is not all to do with regulation, there are still plenty of firearms out there. It's as much cultural as regulatory.
Also population density. Don't remember where you're from, but I'm always hearing people talk about how the UK has so much of a lower crime rate than the US. The UK also has 1/6 the population that the US has. Most other countries have far less. Add to that the poverty level in some cities and the exponentially widening gap between the lower and upper classes and you start to see why our crime rate is so high, guns or no.
The crime rate has nothing to do with population size or density, it is a measure of the number of criminal events per head of population. On that measure the UK, Canada, Australia, NZ and most of Western Europe (parts of the world most culturally similar to the US) have much lower violent crime rates to the US. Lack of easy access to firearms is one reason, but not the only or main reason. Much of the reason is, in my opinion, cultural, but also there is a large economic reason why our crime rates are lower. If I get into an altercation with someone, I dont reach for any weapon other than to spew a few words at them, it's just not in the culture to do so. Murders is Australia are rarely commited with a firearm, more likely with a knife or blunt instrument.
The firearms thing in the US is a case of wanting to shut the gate long after the horse is bolted. That Brady bill sounds like it is more or less how it works down here, make it very hard for people to obtain a licence to own a firearm in the first place, and make it hard work to keep that licence. I want to make it clear I'm not anti-gun, I'm all for proper and responsible gun ownership. But I think people forget the responsibility attached when they assert their right to own a firearm, and people prove to me all the time that they'll duck responsibility for their actions at all costs.
gun control(Read 8261 times)