Banning Handguns Would Save Lives? It Just Ain't So!

[JoeyB]

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/departments/banning-handguns-would-save-lives-it-just-aint-so/

Here is an oldish article from the Foundation for Economic Education in response to an emotionally charged Los Angeles Times editorial. I get daily emails from FEE and this was an article they posted in response to a USA Today article that discussed how Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas are considering legislation to allow people to open carry.

You'll find your usually arguments from the anti-self defense crowd, with some statistics from handgun murders closely examined.

Ms. Price [USA Today Editorialist] seems to have missed that handguns can be a deterrent. Unlike in California, where concealed weapon permits are usually available only after making a large campaign contribution to the sheriff, in many American states, law-abiding adults can get a permit to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. Criminals know that in many of these states about 3–4 percent of the people have permits to carry handguns. The next victim a criminal attacks might be the last victim he attacks. Liberalization of concealed-weapon permit laws appear to have caused mild but statistically significant reductions in rates for murder, rape, and robbery.

As long as we focus on the instruments of murder, as Ms. Price does, we’ll never solve the underlying problem: violence. I grew up in Los Angeles, but now live in Boise, Idaho, which has lots of handguns and almost no gun-control laws. The FBI says it had five murders in the years 1999–2001. That’s 0.95 murders per 100,000 people per year—with all weapon types. Pretty clearly, handguns aren’t much misused here.

Thoughts?