Ten reasons why I don’t believe the USA has a gun problem.
1. According to FBI statistics, 80% of homicides are from gang-related activities.
2. Firearm homicide rates have decreased while gun ownership has increased. Over the past 20 years, gun sales have absolutely exploded, but homicides with firearms are down 39 percent during that time and “other crimes with firearms” are down 69 percent.
3. Generally, there is an inverse correlation between gun ownership and crime. A study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy discovered that nations that have more guns tend to have less crime.
4. Mass shootings mostly occur in areas with strict gun control laws. Almost every mass shooting that has occurred in the United States since 1950 has taken place in a state with strict gun control laws. Despite strict gun regulations, Europe has had three of the worst six school shootings.
5. There isn’t a strong correlation between gun ownership and homicides. The United States is #1 in the world in gun ownership, and yet it is only 28th in the world in gun murders per 100,000 people. Australia, after banning guns, has indeed had a decrease in homicides, but so has the USA without banning guns.
6. Despite rising gun ownership, the violent crime rate is actually falling. The violent crime rate in the United States fell from 757.7 per 100,000 in 1992 to 386.3 per 100,000 in 2011. During that same time period, the murder rate fell from 9.3 per 100,000 to 4.7 per 100,000.
7. Despite what the media shows, guns do save people. Approximately 200,000 women in the United States use guns to protect themselves against sexual crime every single year. Compare that to the 32,000 deaths by firearms. People also frequently stop robberies because of gun ownership. You just don’t hear about it because mass and social media don’t report it for some reason.
8. Many people want to ban guns while frequently misidentifying them. It puzzles me when people say to ban assault rifles, when semiautomatic pistols are the firearms utilized in most mass shootings.
9. Usage of guns to protect outweighs usage of guns for crime. Guns are used 2.5 million times annually or 6,860 times a day. This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than they are to take lives.
10. You are more likely to die from playing high school football than a gun.
I don’t believe the USA has a gun problem. I believe it has a mismanagement problem coupled with a sensationalism and culture problem. That said, I’m open to a civil discussion, as long as I don’t see any “heartless conservative” rhetoric thrown at me. Make no mistake; I do not believe the USA is perfect and I believe the USA can do better.
