For the most part, I agree with Lott in his argument about gun bans being ineffective. The statistics that he provided about the public shooting and murder rates are legitimate and you can't argue with them. I don’t believe that allowing guns in every public place will solve the country’s problems as far as deaths by weapons go. However, I do think that if more law abiding people carried them legally it would serve as immense protection against criminals who carry them illegally. I think that this would discourage criminals from using them as much because more people would have an effective way of protecting themselves. All together I think this is a pretty strong argument and I have to say I agree with most of it.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Why Gun Bans Still Don't Work
In John Lott’s article, “Why Gun Bans Still Don’t Work,” he refers to the recent shooting that happened at UT. Lott states that the shooting could possibly have been avoided if the gun ban on campus was not enforced. He explains that when the gun bans were enforced in cities such as Chicago and D.C., murder rates of the two cities sky rocketed. After the Supreme Court abolished the gunlock and handgun ban in D.C., the murder rate declined by 23%, which is about three times more than the national murder rate decline as well as cities with roughly the same population. One thing that is often debated is that if citizens are able to carry concealed hand guns they will use them inappropriately out of fear when not necessary. Lott explains that a very minimal percent of citizens who actually go through the process to obtain a permit have the permits taken away at any time and are generally very law abiding. Lott has found that statistically, from 1977-1999, public shooting rates have dropped in the United States by 60% after the passage of the right-to-carry laws. Death and injury rates resulting from public shootings have also decreased by 78%. Public places that have gun free restrictions are the most typical areas for shootings.
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This post is in response to a class mate’s blog. The subject is Why Gun Bans Still Don't Work.
ReplyDeleteI have to completely agree with her critique. It would have been great if these laws had kept criminals from carrying guns but, of course this isn’t the case. If a law abiding citizen carries a gun legally then we have to assume that they have gone through the proper training in order to obtain a license to carry. Therefore, we should have not much of a reason to worry about a person using them inappropriately as the article stated.
Did you know that guns are banned in DC.. and it has some of the highest rates of gun violence in the nation. Does this tell you anything?
As my classmate states…If more law abiding citizens were to carry guns, I think a criminal would have second thoughts about pulling out there’s. It seems to me that a criminal has more rights, rights as in” lesser punishment” to carry an illegal gun than a “law abiding citizens” has to carry a legal gun.
In other words if I step over a fence as a hunter with a loaded gun and a game warden sees me, I can lose my gun, my car and my boat and pay a large fine. If I am a gang banger in the city caught with a handgun in my car, I'll probably get 6 months probation maximum. The solution: when a cop catches a gang banger with a gun in his car, they should call the game warden.