l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 芝加哥和华盛顿放松枪支管制后，没有发生左派预言的枪支犯罪飙升，恰恰相反，谋杀
和枪支犯罪率下降，并且降幅超过美国平均水平
Media Silence Is Deafening About Important Gun News
By John Lott
Published September 30, 2011
Murder and violent crime rates were supposed to soar after the Supreme Court
struck down gun control laws in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Politicians predicted disaster. "More handguns in the District of Columbia
will only lead to more handgun violence," Washington’s Mayor Adrian Fenty
warned the day the court made its decision.
Chicago’s Mayor Daley predicted that we would "go back to the Old West, you
have a gun and I have a gun and we'll settle it in the streets . . . ."
The New York Times even editorialized this month about the Supreme Court's "
unwise" decision that there is a right for people "to keep guns in the home.
"
But Armageddon never happened. Newly released data for Chicago shows that,
as in Washington, murder and gun crime rates didn't rise after the bans were
eliminated -- they plummeted. They have fallen much more than the national
crime rate.
Not surprisingly, the national media have been completely silent about this
news.
One can only imagine the coverage if crime rates had risen. In the first six
months of this year, there were 14% fewer murders in Chicago compared to
the first six months of last year – back when owning handguns was illegal.
It was the largest drop in Chicago’s murder rate since the handgun ban went
into effect in 1982.
Meanwhile, the other four most populous cities saw a total drop at the same
time of only 6 percent.
Similarly, in the year after the 2008 "Heller" decision, the murder rate
fell two-and-a-half times faster in Washington than in the rest of the
country.
It also fell more than three as fast as in other cities that are close to
Washington's size. And murders in Washington have continued to fall.
If you compare the first six months of this year to the first six months of
2008, the same time immediately preceding the Supreme Court's late June "
Heller" decision, murders have now fallen by thirty-four percent.
Gun crimes also fell more than non-gun crimes.
Robberies with guns fell by 25%, while robberies without guns have fallen by
eight percent. Assaults with guns fell by 37%, while assaults without guns
fell by 12%.
Just as with right-to-carry laws, when law-abiding citizens have guns some
criminals stop carrying theirs.
The benefit could have been even greater. Getting a handgun permit in
Chicago and Washington is an expensive and difficult process, meaning only
the relatively wealthy go through it.
Through the end of May only 2,144 people had handguns registered in Chicago.
That limits the benefits from the Supreme Court decisions since it is the
poor who are the most likely victims of crime and who benefit the most from
being able to protect themselves.
The biggest change for Washington was the Supreme Court striking down the
law making it illegal to have a loaded gun. Over 70,000 people have permits
for long guns that they can now legally used to protect themselves.
Lower crime rates in Chicago and Washington, by themselves, don’t prove
that gun control increases murders, even when combined with the quite
familiar story of how their murder rates soared and stayed high after the
gun bans were imposed.
But these aren’t isolated examples. Around the world, whenever guns are
banned, murder rates rise.
Gun control advocates explained the huge increases in murder and violent
crime rates Chicago and Washington by saying that those bans weren’t fair
tests unless the entire country adopted a ban.
Yet, even island nations, such as Ireland and the U.K. -- with no neighbors
to blame -- have seen increases in murder rates. The same horror stories
about blood in the streets have surrounded the debate over concealed
handguns.
Some said it was necessary to ban guns in public places. The horror stories
never came true and the data is now so obvious that as of November, only one
state, Illinois, will still completely ban law-abiding from carrying
concealed handguns.
Forty-one states will have either permissive right-to-carry laws or no
longer even require a permit.
The regulations that still exist in Chicago and Washington primarily disarm
the most likely victims of crime.
Hopefully, even the poor in these areas will soon also have more of an
opportunity to defend themselves, too.
John R. Lott, Jr. is a Fox News.com contributor and the author of the
revised third edition of "More Guns, Less Crime (University of Chicago Press
, 2010)." |
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