Gun control
Guns don't kill people, bullets do
August 14, 2005
MYTH: States with few gun restrictions have lower crime rates
Someone else said, approvingly, "Everyone keeps a gun in West Virginia. Crime is low." Later I would be told it has the lowest violent crime per capita in the United States. It is very nice, when traveling, to see your beliefs and assumptions statistically borne out.
-- Peggy Noonan, "Almost Heaven," The Wall Street Journal, 08/04/05
REALITY
West Virginia does have a low violent crime rate and a weak set of gun laws. According to the FBI’s 2003 figures, West Virginia had the 45th highest crime rate in the U.S. in 2003. However, is there a correlation between gun control laws and crime, as Peggy Noonan suggests?
Is the West Virginia crime rate low because potential criminals fear that their victims will be armed and dangerous? Well, if would-be violent criminals worry about getting shot by their victims in West Virginia, they don’t seem to worry about it in Texas, which had the 5th highest violent crime rate in 2003 and earned a D- on the Report Card published by The Brady Campaign, the leading gun control advocacy. The seven states with even poorer grades than Texas have state crime rate rankings ranging from 9 to 40 for an average of 24. The 6 states that earned “A” grades from the Brady Campaign have state crime rate rankings from 2 to 42 for an average of 27. Although this is not the most scientific of analyses, it’s fair to say that there is no correlation between weak gun control laws and low crime rates.
Unfortunately, the NRA, and their political lakeys continue to distort the debate and block sensible gun law reforms. In actuality, the gun control movement’s recommendations are rather modest. The Brady Campaign’s report card is a good demonstration of what the gun control movement is all about. Far from asking states to prohibit the use or sale of guns, the Brady Campaign merely advocates legal reform that keeps guns out of the hands of juveniles and felons and makes guns safer for adults that can be trusted with the responsibility of owning a gun. Gun control is about background checks, Juvenile possession laws, safer design standard laws, and prohibitions against assault rifles. These legislative goals seem extraordinarily sensible.
While guns may not cause crime, they clearly facilitate crime. In 2003, a gun was the murder weapon in 66.9% of all murder cases nationwide. Laws that enable states to regulate which residents own guns can only help that state in its efforts to lower its crime rate.
