Five Inconvenient Facts For Gun Control Proponents

Here’s an excellent video from Reason detailing five facts about guns that are pretty devastating to the case for tough new regulations and controls on gun sales, purchases and ownership.

First, the violent crime numbers (including numbers for gun violence) have been declining in the Unites States for decades.

Second, this decline in crime has taken place despite there being more guns in circulation in America than ever before. Some 45% of households have guns in them. There are more than 300,000,000 guns in circulation in the US, and over the last two decades, just about every state in the union has liberalized gun laws.

Third, mass shootings of the sort that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School are actually far more rare than they’ve been in the past. The peak for mass shootings in the US happened in 1929, not coincidentally the height of prohibition-era gang violence (that year saw the infamous Valentine’s Day Massacre).

Fourth, our schools are much safer than they’ve been in the past. Over the past 20 years, the theft rate per 1,000 students dropped from 101 to 18. The violent crime rate per 1,000 students dropped from 53 to 14.

Fifth, “assault weapons bans” don’t seem to work. There has been no link between that sort of policy and decreased crimes or violence.