Gun Facts

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Fact: The average citizen doesn’t need a Sport Utility Vehicle, but driving one is arguably safer than driving other vehicles. Similarly, carrying a concealable gun makes the owner – and his or her community – safer by providing protection not otherwise available.


Myth: Police and prosecutors are against concealed carrying by citizens

Fact: 66% of police chiefs believe that citizens carrying concealed firearms reduce rates of violent crime.82

Fact: “All the horror stories I thought would come to pass didn’t happen ...I think it’s worked out well, and that says good things about the citizens who have permits. I’m a convert.”83

Fact: “I ... [felt] that such legislation present[ed] a clear and present danger to law-abiding citizens by placing more handguns on our streets. Boy was I wrong. Our experience in Harris County, and indeed statewide, has proven my fears absolutely groundless”.84

Fact: “Virginia has not turned into Dodge City. We have not seen a problem.”85

Fact: “The concerns I had - with more guns on the street, folks may be more apt to square off against one another with weapons - we haven't experienced that.”86

Fact: “… to the best of my knowledge, we have not had an issue. I had expected there would be a lot more problems … But it has actually worked out.”87

Fact: Explain this to the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, Second Amendment Police Department, and Law Enforcement for the Preservation of the Second Amendment, all of whom support shall-issue concealed carry laws.


82 National Association of Chiefs of Police, 17th Annual National Survey of Police Chiefs & Sheriffs, 2005

83 Glenn White, president, Dallas Police Association, Dallas Morning News, December 23, 1997

84 John B. Holmes, Harris County Texas district attorney, Dallas Morning News, December 23, 1997

85 Jerry Kilgore, Virginia Public Safety Secretary, Fredricksburg Freelance Star, February 2, 1996

86 Chief Dennis Nowicki, Charlotte-Mecklenburg North Carolina Police, News and Observer, November 24, 1997

87 Lt. William Burgess of the Calhoun County (Michigan) Sheriff Department, Battle Creek Enquirer, January 28, 2005

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LICENSING AND REGISTRATION

Myth: Other countries register guns to fight crime

Fact: Most of these laws were enacted in the post World War I period to prevent civil uprisings as had occurred in Russia. A report of “Committee on the Control of Firearms,” written by British Home Office officials in 1918, was the basis for registration in the U.K., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.88

Fact: Though restrictions were few in the United States and the number of legally held handguns exceeded those on the Canadian side by a factor of ten, rates of homicide were virtually identical.89

Fact: Even so, it does not prevent gun crimes. In a one week period a licensed gun owner killed 12 people in England90 and a Chinese security guard killed three judges in a court building.91


Myth: Gun registration works

Fact: Not in California. California has had handgun registration since 190992 and it has not any impact of violent crime rate.93

Fact: Not in New Zealand. They repealed their gun registration law in the 1980s after police acknowledged its worthlessness.94

Fact: Not in Australia. One report states, “It seems just to be an elaborate system of arithmetic with no tangible aim. Probably, and with the best of intentions, it may have been thought, that if it were known what firearms each individual in Victoria owned, some form of control may be exercised, and those who were guilty of criminal misuse could be readily identified. This is a fallacy, and has been proven not to be the case.”95 In addition, cost to Australian taxpayers exceeded $200 million annually.96


88 Response to Philip Alpers' submission to the California State Assembly Select Committee on Gun Violence, Steven W. Kendrick, January 2000.

89 American Journal of Epidemiology, Brandon Centrewall, Volume 134, Page 1245-65. Though the rate of homicides as a whole were different, when demographics between the two cities were equalized, the homicide rates matched.

90 Gun control and ownership laws in the UK, BBC, June 3, 2010

91 Man shoots dead three judges in China court, Bangkok Post, June 1, 2010

92 In conversation between the author of Gun Facts and a representative of California Department of Justice.

93 FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, via the Data Online data analysis tool on the website of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

94 Background to the Introduction of Firearms User Licensing Instead of Rifle and Shotgun Registration Under the Arms Act 1983, (Wellington, New Zealand: n.p., 1983)

95 Registration Firearms System, Chief Inspector Newgreen, CRB File 39-1-1385/84

96 The Failed Experiment: Gun Control and Public Safety in Canada, Australia, England and Wales, Gary Mauser, The Fraser Institute, 2003.

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Fact: Not in Canada. More than 20,000 Canadian gun-owners have publicly refused to register their firearms. Many others (as many as 300,00097) are silently ignoring the law.

• The provincial governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have dumped both the administration and the enforcement of all federal gun-control laws right back into Ottawa's lap, throwing the Canadian government into a paper civil war.

• And all at a cost more than 1,646% the original projected cost98 (the original cost was estimated at 5% of all police expenditures in Canada99). "The gun registry as it sits right now is causing law abiding citizens to register their guns but it does nothing to take one illegal gun off the street or to increase any type of penalty for anybody that violates any part of the legislation," according to Al Koenig, President, Calgary Police Association.100 "We have an ongoing gun crisis, including firearms-related homicides lately in Toronto, and a law registering firearms has neither deterred these crimes nor helped us solve any of them," according to Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino .101

• The system is so bad that six Canadian provinces (British Columbia joins Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Ontario) are refusing to prosecute firearm owners who fail to register.102

• A bill to abolish the registry has been tabled (introduced) in the Canadian Parliament, which if passed, would eliminate the registry completely.103

• A Saskatchewan MP who endorsed the long gun registry when first proposed has introduced legislation to abolish it stating that, “[the registry] has not saved one life in Canada, and it has been a financial sinkhole … absolutely useless in helping locate the 255,000 people who have been prohibited from owning firearms by the courts.”104

Fact: Not in Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany began comprehensive gun registration in 1972. The government estimated that between 17,000,000 and 20,000,000 guns were to be registered, but only 3,200,000 surfaced, leaving 80% unaccounted for.105

Fact: Not in Boston, Cleveland, or California. These cities and state require registration of “assault weapons.” The compliance rate in Boston and Cleveland is about 1%.106


97 Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Evidence number 55, June 5, 2003

98 Ottawa Under Pressure Over Gun Registry Fiasco, David Ljunggren, Reuters, December 4, 2002.

99 When ‘Gun Control’ costs lives, John Lott, Firing Line, September 2001.

100 Calgary Herald, September 1, 2000.

101 Opponents increase pressure to halt Canada's gun control program, Associated Press, Jan 3, 2002.

102 Victoria won't enforce firearms act, Vancouver Sun, June 06, 2003.

103 An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, Received first reading June 19, 2006.

104 $2 billion worth of police will save more lives than one gun registry, Garry Breitkreuz, National Post, February 27, 2009.

105 Why Gun Registration will Fail, Ted Drane, Australian Shooters Journal, May 1997.

106 The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies, David B. Kopel, 231, n.210 (1992).

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Fact: Criminals don’t register their guns.


Myth: Gun registration will help police find suspects

Fact: Registration is required in Hawaii, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Yet there has not been a single case where registration was instrumental in identifying someone who committed a crime.107 Criminals very rarely leave their guns at the scene of the crime. Would-be criminals also virtually never get licenses or register their weapons.


Myth: Registration does not lead to confiscation

Fact: It did in Canada. The handgun registration law of 1934 was the source used to identify and confiscate (without compensation) over half of the registered handguns in 2001.108

Fact: It did in Germany. The 1928 Law on Firearms and Ammunition (before the Nazis came into power) required all firearms to be registered. When Hitler came into power, the existing lists were used for confiscating weapons.

Fact: It did in Australia. In 1996, the Australian government confiscated over 660,000 previously legal weapons from their citizens.

Fact: It did in California. The 1989 Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act required registration. Due to shifting definitions of “assault weapons,” many legal firearms are now being confiscated by the California government.

Fact: It did in New York City. In 1967, New York City passed an ordinance requiring a citizen to obtain a permit to own a rifle or shotgun, which would then be registered. In 1991, the city passed a ban on the private possession of some semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, and “registered” owners were told that those firearms had to be surrendered, rendered inoperable, or taken out of the city.

Fact: It did in Bermuda, Cuba, Greece, Ireland, Jamaica, and Soviet Georgia as well.


Myth: Licensing will keep bad people from obtaining or using guns

Fact: Not in Canada. Canadian homicide rates were virtually unchanged before and after gun registration requirements were implemented (151/100,000 people in 1998 and 149/100,000 in 2002).109

Fact: In New York State alone, approximately 100,000 persons are convicted of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle each year, and this is probably a small proportion of the actual number of people who drive without a valid license.110 Licensing requirements don’t stop ineligible people from driving, and they do not stop ineligible people from acquiring guns.


107 Gun Licensing Leads to Increased Crime, Lost Lives, John Lott, L.A. Times, Aug 23, 2000.

108 Civil Disobedience In Canada: It Just Happened To Be Guns, Dr. Paul Gallant, and Dr. Joanne Eisen, Idaho Observer, August 2000,

109 Statistics Canada, Oct 1, 2003.

110 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Northwestern University School of Law, 1998.

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Fact: As long as the unlicensed purchaser is never caught with the handgun, the unlawful sale will go unnoticed. The risk of detection is negligible. If the unlicensed handgun owner is arrested, he could claim that he did not need a license because he had owned this handgun before licensing went into effect.111

Fact: Currently, federal prosecutors do not eagerly accept felon-in-possession cases for prosecution unless the felon is a hardened criminal who represents a threat to the public.112

Fact: According to the Supreme Court, criminals do not have to obtain licenses or register their weapons, as that would be an act of self-incrimination.113

Fact: Prohibition (which started as a ‘moderation’ movement) didn’t keep people from drinking. Instead it turned millions of otherwise honest and sober citizens into criminals, overnight.

Fact: Most police do not see the benefit. “It is my belief that [licensing and registration] significantly misses the mark because it diverts our attention from what should be our common goal: holding the true criminals accountable for the crimes they commit and getting them off the street.”114

Fact: In 2005, agencies reported 1,400 arrests of persons denied a firearm or permit; but the U.S. Department of Justice accepted only 135 of those denial cases for prosecution.115 Given the poor performance of the Federal government in prosecuting felons identified by an instant background check trying to buy firearms, there is little to support firearm licensing as a crime prevention measure.


Myth: Guns from the U.S. create crime in other countries

Fact: Canada, which shares the longest and most open border with the U.S., doesn’t think so, saying that guns from the U.S. are a "small part" of the problem.116

111 Ibid.

112 Old Chief v. United States: Stipulating Away Prosecutorial Accountability, Daniel C. Richman, 83 Va. L. Rev. 939, 982-85 (1997).

113 Haynes vs. U.S. 390 U.S. 85, 1968.

114 When ‘Gun Control’ costs lives, Bob Brooks, Firing Line, September 2001.

115 Background Checks for Firearm Transfers 2005, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, November 2006.

116 Globe and Mail, Paul Culver, August 15, 2005.

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CRIME AND GUNS

Basic to the debates on gun control is the fact that most violent crime is committed by repeat offenders. Dealing with recidivism is key to solving violence.

• 71% of gunshot victims had previous arrest records.
• 64% had been convicted of a crime.
• Each had an average of 11 prior arrests.117,118
• 63% of victims have criminal histories and 73% of the time they know their assailant (twice as often as victims without criminal histories).119

Most gun violence is between criminals. This should be the public policy focus.


Myth: Guns are not a good deterrent to crime

Fact: Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year or 6,849 every day.120 Often the gun is never fired and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed.

Fact: It seems to be slowing down property crime (especially burglaries). The chart shows the legal handgun supply in America (mainly in civilian hands) to the property crime rate.121

Fact: Every day 550 rapes, 1,100 murders, and 5,200 other violent crimes are prevented just by showing a gun. In less than 0.9% of these instances is the gun ever actually fired.122


117 Richard Lumb, Paul Friday, City of Charlotte Gunshot Study, Department of Criminal Justice, 1994

118 Homicides and Non-Fatal Shootings: A Report on the First 6 Months Of 2009, Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission, July 13, 2009

119 Firearm-related Injury Incidents in 1999 – Annual Report, San Francisco Department of Public Health and San Francisco Injury Center, February 2002

120 Targeting Guns, Dr. Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University, Aldine, 1997

121 National Crime Victimization Survey, 2000, Bureau of Justice Statistics, BATF estimates on handgun supply

122 Ibid

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Fact: 60% of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed. 40% of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they thought the victim might be armed.123

Fact: Felons report that they avoid entering houses where people are at home because they fear being shot.124

Fact: 59% of the burglaries in Britain, which has tough gun control laws, are “hot burglaries”125 which are burglaries committed while the home is occupied by the owner/renter. By contrast, the U.S., with more lenient gun control laws, has a “hot burglary” rate of only 13%.126

Fact: Washington D.C. has essentially banned gun ownership since 1976 and has a murder rate of 56.9 per 100,000. Across the river in Arlington, Virginia, gun ownership is less restricted. There, the murder rate is just 1.6 per 100,000, less than three percent of the Washington, D.C. rate.127

Fact: 26% of all retail businesses report keeping a gun on the premises for crime control.128

Fact: In 1982, Kennesaw, GA passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate dropped 89% the following year.129

Fact: A survey of felons revealed the following:130

• 74% of felons agreed that, "one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime."
• 57% of felons polled agreed, "criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police."


Myth: Private guns are used to commit violent crimes

Fact: 90% of all violent crimes in the U.S. do not involve firearms of any type.131

Fact: Even in crimes where the offender possessed a gun during the commission of the crime, 83% did not use or threaten to use the gun.132

Fact: Less than 1% of firearms will ever be used in the commission of a crime.133


123 Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms, James Wright and Peter Rossi, Aldine, 1986

124 Ibid

125 A “hot burglary” is when the burglar enters a home while the residents are there

126 Dr. Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University (1997) and Kopel (1992 and 1999)

127 Crime in the United States, FBI, 1998

128 Crime Against Small Business, U.S. Small Business Administration, Senate Document No. 91-14, 1969

129 Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force, Dr. Gary Kleck, Social Problems, February 1988

130 The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons, U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics Federal Firearms Offenders study, 1997: National Institute of Justice, Research Report, July 1985, Department of Justice

131 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 1998

132 National Crime Victimization Survey, 1994, Bureau of Justice Statistics

133 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994

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Fact: Two-thirds of the people who die each year from gunfire are criminals being shot by other criminals.134

Fact: 94.4% gang murders are committed with guns.135 Gangs are responsible for between 48% and 90% of all violent crime.136


Myth: High capacity, semi-automatics are preferred by criminals

Fact: The use of semi-automatic handguns used in crimes is slightly less than the ratio of semi-automatic handguns owned by private citizens. Any increase in style and capacity simply reflects the overall supply of the various types of firearms.137


Myth: Banning “Saturday Night Specials” reduces crime

Fact: This was the conclusion of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Policy and Research – and it is wrong. They studied firearm homicide rates from Maryland after passage of a Saturday Night Special ban in 1998. It seems the firearm homicide rate has gone up and stayed up, while the homicide rate declined over the rest of the country.138

Fact: Even banning guns does not slow down criminals. In the U.K., where private ownership of firearms is practically forbidden, criminals have and use guns regularly, and even build their own. One enterprising fellow converted 170 starter pistols to functioning firearms and sold them to gangs. Hundreds of such underground gun factories have been established, contributing to a 35% jump in gun violence.139
Myth: Criminals prefer "Saturday Night Specials"140

Fact: “Saturday Night Specials” were used in less than 3% of crimes involving guns.141

Fact: Fewer than 2% of all "Saturday Night Specials" made are used in crimes.

Fact: “What was available was the overriding factor in weapon choice [by criminals].”142


133 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994

134 Ibid

135 Homicide trends in the United States, Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 17 2007

136 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, FBI, September 2011

137 Targeting Guns, Dr. Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University, Aldine, 1997

138 Injury Mortality Reports 1981-1998, Center for Disease Control, online database

139 Gun crime spreads 'like a cancer' across Britain, The Guardian, Oct 5, 2003

140 “Saturday Night Special” is a term, with racist origin, describing an inexpensive firearm. Part of the origin of the term came from “suicide special”, describing an inexpensive handgun purchased specifically for committing suicide. The racist origins are too detestable to repeat here.

141 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994

142 Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation's Law Enforcement Officers, U.S. Department of Justice, August 2006

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Myth: Gun shows are supermarkets for criminals

Fact: Only 0.7% of convicts bought their firearms at gun shows. 39.2% obtained them from illegal street dealers.143

Fact: Less than 1% of “crime guns” were obtained at gun shows.144 This is a reduction from a 1997 study that found 2% of guns used in criminal offenses were purchased at gun shows.145

Fact: The FBI concluded in one study that no firearms acquired at gun shows were used to kill cops. “In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study were obtained from gun shows.”146

Fact: Only 5% of metropolitan police departments believe gun shows are a problem.147

Fact: Only 3.5% of youthful offenders reported that they obtained their last handgun at a gun show.148

Fact: 93% of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally (i.e., not at gun stores or gun shows).149

Fact: At most, 14% of all firearms traced in investigations were purchased at gun shows.150 But this includes all firearms that the police traced, regardless if they were used in crimes or not, which overstates the acquisition rate.

Fact: Gun dealers are federally licensed. They are bound to stringent rules for sales that apply equally whether they are dealing from a storefront or a gun show.151

Fact: Most crime guns are either bought off the street from illegal sources (39.2%) or through family members or friends (39.6%).152


Myth: 25-50% of the vendors at most gun shows are “unlicensed dealers”

Fact: There is no such thing as an “unlicensed dealer,” except for people who buy and sell antique – curio – firearms as a hobby.

Fact: This 25-50% figure can only be achieved if you include those dealers not selling guns at these shows. These non-gun dealers include knife makers, ammunition dealers, accessories, dealers, military artifact traders, clothing vendors, bumper sticker sellers, and hobbyists. In short, 50% of the vendors at shows are not selling firearms at all!


143 Firearm Use by Offenders, Bureau of Justice Statistics, February 2002

144 Ibid

145 Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities, National Institute of Justice, December 1997

146 Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation's Law Enforcement Officers, U.S. Department of Justice, August 2006

147 On the Front Line: Making Gun Interdiction Work, Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, February 1998, survey of 37 police departments in large cities

148 Patterns in Gun Acquisition and Use by Youthful Offenders in Michigan, Timothy S. Bynum, Todd G. Beitzel, Tracy A. O’Connell & Sean P. Varano, 1999

149 BATF, 1999

150 BATF, June 2000, covers only July 1996 through December 1998

151 BATF, 2000

152 Firearm use by Offenders, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2001

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Myth: Regulation of gun shows would reduce “straw sales”

Fact: The main study that makes this claim had no scientific means for determining what sales at the show were “straw sales.” Behaviors that Dr. Wintemute cited as, “clear evidence,” of a straw purchase were observational only and were more likely instances of more experienced acquaintances helping in a purchase decision. No attempts were made to verify that the sales in question were straw sales.153


Myth: Prison isn't the answer to crime control

Fact: From 1960-1980, per capita imprisonment for violent crimes fell from 738 to 227. In the same period, violent crime rates nationwide tripled.

Fact: Why does crime rise when criminals are released from prison early? Because they are likely to commit more crimes. 67.5% were re-arrested for new felonies or serious misdemeanors within three years. Extrapolating, those released felons killed another 2,282 people.154

Fact: 45% of state prisoners were, at the time they committed their offense, under conditional supervision in the community – either on probation or on parole.155 Keeping violent convicts in prison would reduce violent crimes.

Fact: Homicide convicts serve a little more than ½ of their original sentences.156 Given that men tend to be less prone to violent behavior as they age157, holding them for their full sentences would probably reduce violence significantly.

Fact: Los Angeles County saw repeat offender and re-arrest rates soar after authorities closed jails and released prisoners early. In less than three years, early release of prisoners in LA resulted in:158

• 15,775 rearrested convicts
• 1,443 assault charges159
• 518 robbery charges42
• 215 sex offense charges42
• 16 murder charges42


153 Gun shows across a multistate American gun market, Dr. GJ Wintemute, British Medical Journal, 2007

154 Reentry Trends in the U.S., Recidivism, Department of Justice, 1999

155 US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991

156 Firearm Use by Offenders, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November , 2001

157 Homicide rates peak in the 18-24 year old group, Bureau of Justice Statistics, online database

158 Releasing Inmates Early Has a Costly Human Toll, Los Angeles Times, May 14, 2006

159 Keep in mind these are just charges. Each arrested convict may have committed multiple crimes.

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Fact: In 1991, 13,200 homicides were committed by felons on parole or probation. For comparison sake, this is about ½ of the 1999 annual gun death totals (keep in mind that gun deaths fell from 1991 to 1999).


Myth: Waiting periods prevent rash crimes and reduce violent crime rates

Fact: The “time-to-crime” of a firearm ranges from one to 12 years making it rare that a newly purchased firearm is used in a crime.160

Fact: The national five-day waiting period under the Brady Bill had no impact on murder or robbery. In fact, there was a slight increase in rape and aggravated assault, indicating no effective suppression of certain violent crimes. Thus, for two crime categories, a possible effect was to delay law-abiding citizens from getting a gun for protection. The risks were greatest for crimes against women.161

Fact: Comparing homicide rates in 18 states that had waiting periods and background checks before the Brady Bill with rates in the 32 states that had no comparable laws, the difference in change of homicide rates was “insignificant”.162


Myth: Gun makers are selling plastic guns that slip through metal detectors

Fact: There is no such thing as a ‘plastic gun’. This myth started in 1980163 when Glock began marketing a handgun with a polymer frame, not the entire firearm. Most of a Glock is metal (83% by weight) and detectable in common metal and x-ray detectors. "[D]espite a relatively common impression to the contrary, there is no current non-metal firearm not reasonably detectable by present technology and methods in use at our airports today, nor to my knowledge, is anyone on the threshold of developing such a firearm."164
Incidentally, Glock is one of the favorite handguns of police departments because it is lightweight, thanks to the polymer frame.


Myth: Machine guns165 are favored by criminals

Fact: In the drug-ridden Miami of 1980, fewer than 1% of all gun homicides were with machine guns.166


160 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as reported by Time Magazine, July 12, 2002

161 Dr. John Lott Jr., University of Chicago School of Law, 1997

162 Dr. Jens Ludwig , Dr. Philip J. Cook, Journal of the American Medical Association, August 2000

163 Heckler and Koch made a polymer framed firearm earlier, in 1968, but the myth seems to have erupted after Glock began promoting theirs to police departments.

164 Billie Vincent, FAA Director of Civil Aviation Security, House Subcommittee on Crime, May 15, 1986

165 In this myth, “machine gun” represents “fully automatic” firearms, ones that fire bullets as long as the trigger is pulled.

166 Miami Herald, August 23, 1984, based on figures from Dr. Joseph Davis, Dade County medical examiner

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Fact: None of over 2,220 firearms recovered from crime scenes by the Minneapolis police in 1987-89 were machine guns.167

Fact: 0.7% of seized guns in Detroit in 1991-92 were machine guns.168

167 1994, Minnesota Medical Association Firearm Injury Prevention Task Force

168 J. Gayle Mericle, 1989, Unpublished report of the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad, Will and Grundy Counties

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THE AVAILABILITY OF GUNS

Myth: The availability of guns causes crime

Fact: Though the number of firearms owned by private citizens has been increasing steadily since 1970, the overall rate of homicides and suicides has not risen.169 As the chart shows, there is no correlation between the availability of firearms and the rates of homicide and suicide in America.

Fact: Internationally speaking “There’s no clear relationship between more guns and higher levels of violence.”170

Fact: “... a detailed study of the major surveys completed in the past 20 years or more provides no evidence of any relationship between the total number of legally held firearms in society and the rate of armed crime. Nor is there a relationship between the severity of controls imposed in various countries or the mass of bureaucracy involved with many control systems with the apparent ease of access to firearms by criminals and terrorists.”171


Handguns, Homicides and Suicides

Fact: Handgun ownership among groups normally associated with higher violent crime (young males, blacks, low income, inner city, etc.) is at or below national averages.172

Fact: The most significant correlation between the use of guns in the commission of crimes occur when parents (27.5% of inmates) abuse drugs or have friends engaged in illegal activities (32.5% with robberies and 24.3% for drug trafficking).173

Fact: Five out of six gun-possessing felons obtained handguns from the secondary market and by theft, and “[the] criminal handgun market is overwhelmingly dominated by informal transactions and theft as mechanisms of supply.”174

169 Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, Gary Kleck, Aldine de Gruyter, 1997. (With supporting data from the FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1972 to 1995.)

170 Small Arms Survey Project, Keith Krause, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, 2007

171 Minutes of Evidence, Colin Greenwood, Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs, January 29, 2003

172 Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, Gary Kleck, Aldine de Gruyter, 1997. (Ownership tables derived from the annual “General Social Survey.”)

173 Firearm Use by Offenders, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2001 SOURCE: FBI Uniform Crime Reports, CDC WISQARS, BATF Firearms Commerce Report, 2002

174 The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons , James D. Wright, Peter H. Rossi, National Institute of Justice (U.S.), 1985

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Fact: The majority of handguns in the possession of criminals are stolen, and not necessarily by the criminals in question.175 In fact, over 100,000 firearms are stolen in burglaries every year, and most of them likely enter the criminal market (i.e., sold or traded to criminals).176

Fact: In 1968, the U.K. passed laws that reduced the number of licensed firearm owners, and thus reduced firearm availability. U.K. homicide rates have steadily risen since then.177 Ironically, firearm use in crimes has doubled in the decade after the U.K. banned handguns.178

Fact: Most violent crime is caused by a small minority of repeat offenders. One California study found that 3.8% of a group of males born in 1956 were responsible for 55.5% of all serious felonies.179 75-80% of murder arrestees have prior arrests for a violent (including non-fatal) felony or burglary. On average they have about four felony arrests and one felony conviction.

Fact: Half of all murders are committed by people on “conditional release” (i.e., parole or probation).180 81% of all homicide defendants had an arrest record; 67% had a felony arrest record; 70% had a conviction record; and 54% had a felony conviction.181


175 Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, Gary Kleck, Aldine de Gruyter, 1997.

176 Victimization During Household Burglary, Bureau of Justice Statistics, September 2010

177 A Century of Change: Trends in UK Statistics since 1900, Hicks, Joe; Allen, Grahame (SGS), Social and General Statistics Section, House of Commons

178 Weapons sell for just £50 as suspects and victims grow ever younger, The Times, August 24, 2007

179 The Prevalence and Incidence of Arrest Among Adult Males in California, Robert Tillman, prepared for California Department of Justice, Bureau of Criminal Statistics and Special Services, Sacramento, California, 1987

180 Probation and Parole Violators in State Prison, 1991: Survey of State Prison Inmates, Robyn Cohen, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995

181 Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 1998, Brian Reaves, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2001

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Fact: Per capita firearm ownership rates have risen steadily since 1959 while crime rates have gone up and down depending on economics, drug trafficking innovations, and “get tough” legislation.182

Thoughts: Criminals are not motivated by guns. They are motivated by opportunity. Attempts to reduce public access to firearms provide criminals more points of opportunity. It is little wonder that high-crime cities also tend to be those with the most restrictive gun control laws – which criminals tend to ignore.


Myth: Gun availability is what is causing school shootings

Fact: Schoolyard shootings have been occurring since at least 1974, so it is not a new phenomenon due to increases in gun ownership.183

Fact: More than 50% of these terrorists started thinking about their assaults two or more weeks before the shooting, and 75% planned-out their attacks.184

Thoughts: In rural areas, guns are everywhere and children are taught to shoot at young ages – yet these areas are almost devoid of schoolyard shootings. Clearly, availability is not the issue.


Myth: Gun ownership is linked to higher homicide rates

Fact: This “study”185 has multiple defects which, when corrected, reverse the results. Some of the defects of this study include:

• Exclusion of the District of Columbia, a high crime city
• Use of other crime rates to indirectly explain homicide rates
• Use of purely cross-sectional data that never allows control variable analysis
• Data from different years is used without any explanation (unemployment rate from 2000 to explain the homicide rate from 2001 to 2003, etc.).


Myth: Handguns are 43 times more likely to kill a family member than a criminal

Fact: Of the 43 deaths reported in this flawed study, 37 (86%) were suicides. Other deaths involved criminal activity between the family members (drug deals gone bad).186


182 Ibid. (Based on a compilation of 85 separate surveys from 1959 through 1996.)

183 U.S.S.S. Safe School Initiative: An Interim Report on the Prevention of Targeted Violence in Schools, B. Vossekuil, M. Reddy, R. Fein, R. Borum, & W. Modzeleski, U. S. Secret Service, Threat Assessment Center, 2000

184 Ibid.

185 State-level homicide victimization rates in the US in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001–2003, Matthew Miller, David Hemenwaya, Deborah Azrael, Harvard School of Public Health, October 27, 2006

186 Protection or Peril? An Analysis of Firearm-Related Deaths in the Home, Arthur L. Kellerman, D.T. Reay, 314 New Eng. J. Med. 1557-60, June 12, 1986. (Kellerman admits that his study did "not include cases in which burglars or intruders are wounded or frightened away by the use or display of a firearm." He also admitted his study did not look at situations in which intruders "purposely avoided a home known to be armed." This is a classic case of a “study” conducted to achieve a desired result. In his critique of this “study”, Gary Kleck notes that the

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Fact: Of the remaining deaths, the deceased family members include felons, drug dealers, violent spouses committing assault, and other criminals.187

Fact: Only 0.1% (1 in a thousand) of the defensive uses of guns results in the death of the predator.188 This means you are much more likely to prevent a crime without bloodshed than hurt a family member.
estimation of gun ownership rates was “inaccurate”, and that the total population came from a non-random selection of only two cities.)

187 Ibid.

188 Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, Gary Kleck, New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991

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ACCIDENTAL DEATHS

Myth: Accidental gun fatalities are a serious problem

Fact: Firearm misuse causes only a small number of accidental deaths in the U.S.189 For example, compared to being accidentally killed by a firearm, you are:

• Five times more likely to burn to death
• Five times more likely to drown
• 17 times more likely to be poisoned
• 17 times more likely to fall
• And 68 times more likely to die in an automobile accident

Fact: In 2007, there were only 54 accidental gun deaths for children under age 13. About 12 times as many children died from drowning during the same period.190

Fact: In 2007, there were 999 drowning victims and 137 firearm-related accidental deaths from ages 1-19. Firearms outnumber pools by a factor of over 30:1. Thus, the risk of drowning in a pool is nearly 100 times higher than from a firearm-related accident for everyone, and nearly 500 times for children ages 0-5.191

189 WISQARS Injury Mortality Report, Center for Disease Control, 2007

190 Ibid

191 National Center for Health Statistics, and the National Spa and Pool Institute

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