Do guns prevent crime?

[Traitorfish]

You're ignoring the fact that there are already millions of guns in circulation. You're also taking a pretty big assumption with the idea that demand for something will drop if it's banned. History tells us that that is simply untrue.

True- "gun bans" can be enforced relatively easily in the UK, because there is little history of public gun ownership and no cultural attachment to them, so the majority of people were completely unaffected by any changes in legislation. Countries with a widespread gun ownership, particularly when it is as culturally ingrained as in the US, are an entirely different story.

 

[Theige]

Hopefully they will but I don't like anything that relies on "hope."

I've been hoping a criminal confronts me in my home, I'd love to kick the crap out of some crackhead

Also I wonder what the machete-crime statistics look like in the U.S.

 

[kulade]

You're seriously underestimating guns as a part of US culture. In one country people will happily allow the government to steal and destroy their property for the sake of public security. In the US they would have to take many guns from ordinary citizens by force. In the end you'd just end up with more bloodshed than would be saved.

I'm not for limiting gun ownership; I stated that several posts back, but I can't see how banning guns will make them more pervasive...

Guns aren't like liquor, they can't be make by John Doe in his back yard; perhaps if guns were banned a few more gutsy criminals would use some leftovers to rob a store, but they don't last forever, and when one needs a need one or more ammo, he'll be buying them for inflated black market costs. I would bet most average law-abiding Americans don't have guns to use for defense anyway; I don't and only one or two people I know do, and I live pretty deep South, so it doesn't make much of a difference...

 

[Bugfatty300]

True- "gun bans" can be enforced relatively easily in the UK, because there is little history of public gun ownership and no cultural attachment to them, so the majority of people were completely unaffected by any changes in legislation. Countries with a widespread gun ownership, particularly when it is as culturally ingrained as in the US, are an entirely different story.

There is a history of gun ownership in Great Britain. The US 2nd Amendment was partially inspired by the English bill of rights. Its just that the UK has since been largely urbanized and hasn't shared the same kind of lawless backwoods environment as the US for quite a while.

 

[ecuwins]

I can't see how banning guns will make them more pervasive...

I think this is simply miss communication. "Increase black market" does not mean an increase in total guns. It refers to the number of people involved. Make guns illegal and a number of normally law abiding citizens become criminals.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

If I recall correctly (and I might not), only property owners were allowed to own arms in England for centuries before the American Revolution. In Britain this was a rather small percentage of the population, but identical laws in America would allow widespread gun ownership.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Do guns in the hands of law abiding citizens prevent crime? This claim is commonly made in the gun control debate but is it accurate? What are your opinions?

Do you have any:
-Speculations?
-Facts?
-Statistics?
supporting/debunking this claim?

Discuss

There was plenty of crime before there were guns, and plenty thereafter. Guns don't have any impact on the incidence of crime. They just make crimes more dangerous and more likely to be fatal.

 

[Cutlass]

I'm not for limiting gun ownership; I stated that several posts back, but I can't see how banning guns will make them more pervasive...

Guns aren't like liquor, they can't be make by John Doe in his back yard; perhaps if guns were banned a few more gutsy criminals would use some leftovers to rob a store, but they don't last forever, and when one needs a need one or more ammo, he'll be buying them for inflated black market costs. I would bet most average law-abiding Americans don't have guns to use for defense anyway; I don't and only one or two people I know do, and I live pretty deep South, so it doesn't make much of a difference...

There are already 10s of millions of unregistered guns in the US. Also, the same people that bring in drugs can have a nifty new sideline.

 

[Sisonpyh]

There is a history of gun ownership in Great Britain. The US 2nd Amendment was partially inspired by the English bill of rights. Its just that the UK has since been largely urbanized and hasn't shared the same kind of lawless backwoods environment as the US for quite a while.

Except that violent crime in the UK has RISEN since the handgun ban.

I guarantee you some random British chav feels much safer randomely mugging or breaking and entering in the UK than the U.S. equilvalent would somewhere in Redneck, Texas.

 

[Ecofarm]

Google can provide you with thousands of examples of guns in the hands of citizens preventing crimes (or, in some cases, preventing the crime from getting worse).

Do deny reality?

 

[IglooDame]

I'm not for limiting gun ownership; I stated that several posts back, but I can't see how banning guns will make them more pervasive...

Guns aren't like liquor, they can't be make by John Doe in his back yard; perhaps if guns were banned a few more gutsy criminals would use some leftovers to rob a store, but they don't last forever, and when one needs a need one or more ammo, he'll be buying them for inflated black market costs. I would bet most average law-abiding Americans don't have guns to use for defense anyway; I don't and only one or two people I know do, and I live pretty deep South, so it doesn't make much of a difference...

In 1994, there were 65 million privately-owned handguns in the United States. I haven't found a more recent number, but I can tell you while guns don't "last forever", they do last longer than most bits of machinery you'll come across. And when used for criminal purposes (which is to say, little to no practice or training), they hardly need more than a magazine or two of ammunition - which can be made by John Doe in his garage, given a few hundred dollars' worth of equipment. As Cutlass says, it'd simply become another sideline for the drug dealers.

And by the way what if some of the people you know do have and and maybe even carry guns for defense and just haven't told you?

@the OP: It is an overly broad question.

 

[sysyphus]

Guns don't prevent crime. Crime prevents crime.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I read in a psychology textbook that more guns are used to commit suicide than prevent crime. And in cities with banned guns, suicide rate drops, because the gun isn't available and they can't do it on impulse., so they think about it That's the way I remember it.

It was in a university textbook, although I don't rememeber whcih one. I get them cheap at yard sales.

 

[Ecofarm]

Are you telling me that I shouldn't be able to protect myself because some POS might shoot themself?

Next thing you know, we can only have dull knives. Dull sporks for everyone, just to keep nutbags from hurting themselves?

No garage doors?

What a joke.


ps. What city bans rifles?

 

[Bugfatty300]

I read in a psychology textbook that more guns are used to commit suicide than prevent crime. And in cities with banned guns, suicide rate drops, because the gun isn't available and they can't do it on impulse., so they think about it That's the way I remember it.

It was in a university textbook, although I don't rememeber whcih one. I get them cheap at yard sales.

Then surely that text book explains why Japan (where gun ownership is practically ZERO) has much higher suicide rate than the gun toting nation of America? I guess you won't find that fact in there. Don't trust university books. They are some of the most biased books around. Just grin and use them to get As in class and throw them in trash as soon as you graduate or sale them at a yard sale with other useless junk.

 

[Angst]

Are you telling me that I shouldn't be able to protect myself because some POS might shoot themself?

Next thing you know, we can only have dull knives. Dull sporks for everyone, just to keep nutbags from hurting themselves?

No garage doors?

What a joke.


ps. What city bans rifles?

What do you actually have to protect yourself against? We're fine in other countries. Why can't USA then not simply agree with the fact that with more guns to prevent crime, crime is easier to do and balances it out?

 

[Bugfatty300]

What do you actually have to protect yourself against?

Murder, violent attack? What do you think?

We're fine in other countries. Why can't USA then not simply agree with the fact that with more guns to prevent crime, crime is easier to do and balances it out?

Because that fact is not true for our country. Why can't you agree that one system can work well for a country and not work well for another?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

In one country people will happily allow the government to steal and destroy their property for the sake of public security. In the US,

You are not this daft.

 

[Bugfatty300]

You are not this daft.

So what do these countries do when they ban a certain type of gun? Ask the people to turn them in and if they don't want to that its fine?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

So what do these countries do when they ban a certain type of gun? Ask the people to turn them in and if they don't want to that its fine?

I'm sorry. I missjudged you