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What Difference Would Banning Guns Make?
Townhall.com ^ | December 21, 2012 | Political Calcultions

Posted on 12/21/2012 9:50:27 AM PST by Kaslin

In the wake of the Newtown school massacre, we've noted a strong uptick in our site traffic by people wanting to find out how different the U.S. might be if the nation adopted Canada's much more restrictive firearms laws. This post gathers all our analysis on that topic from 2011 in one place.

Who Kills Who

We examine the FBI's data on the race of victims and their killers. We find that the vast majority of offenders prefer to kill their own kind (that evidence is borne out elsewhere, where criminals also seem to prefer killing other criminals!)

U.S. vs Canada: Comparing Oranges and Apples

We want to compare the U.S. and Canada's murder statistics, but find we can't do a direct comparison because Canada is significantly lacking in two things the U.S. has in much greater quantities: blacks and Hispanics!

U.S. vs Canada: Comparing Apples to Apples

We work out how to get around Canada's demographic deficiencies in reporting its homicides to be able to directly compare the populations of both nations.

U.S. vs Canada: Homicide Edition

We determine the real difference in the number of homicides per 100,000 people between Canada and the most demographically-similar-to-Canada portion of the U.S. population.

U.S. vs Canada: Homicide Modi Operandi

This is the one post that has drawn the most attention since the shootings in Connecticut. We break down the number of homicides per 100,000 by method for Canada and the most demographically-similar-to-Canada portion of the U.S. population, finding that Canada's much more strict laws regulating firearms "saves" about one life for every 100,000 people, although Canadian homicide offenders have adapted to the lack of firearms available to them by making murder more brutal.

U.S. vs Canada: Assault Edition

We find that there's an additional price to be paid for saving that one life for every 100,000 people with strict gun control laws. It turns out that after adjusting for the major demographic differences between the two nations, Canada is a much more violent place than is the U.S. (Ed. At least Canadians are polite, eh? Just don't cross them....)

U.S. vs Canada: Suicide Edition

Do Canada's stricter gun-control laws reduce the number of suicides per 100,000 people compared to the U.S.? We find the answer is not at all....

Update: Doc Palmer picks up on a report that indicates the U.S. is also much less violent than the U.K., Sweden, Belgium and Holland - all places that also feature much more restrictive gun laws than does the U.S....


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; secondamendment
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1 posted on 12/21/2012 9:50:30 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
What Difference Would Banning Guns Make?

It would make it much easier to move the people into the concentration camps and keep them there even when ya don't feed 'em.

2 posted on 12/21/2012 9:56:21 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Kaslin
What Difference Would Banning Guns Make?

It would cause more Sandy Hook style massacres.

3 posted on 12/21/2012 9:57:21 AM PST by TheDon (Criminalizing self defense contributed to the Sandy Hook massacre.)
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To: Kaslin

It would create a lot more incidents where disparity of force is greatly in favor of the attacker/criminal thug/big brother thug.


4 posted on 12/21/2012 10:02:13 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
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To: Kaslin

Unarmed peasants are easier to control


5 posted on 12/21/2012 10:02:32 AM PST by txnativegop (Fed up with zealots)
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To: txnativegop

With torches in hand and pitchforks as spears, even the boldest of armies would be hard-put to totally control a crowd like that.

And a small, determined band of a few hundred can hold off an army of 100,000, if they hold the choke points.


6 posted on 12/21/2012 10:13:22 AM PST by alloysteel (Bronco Bama - the cowboy who whooped up and widened the stampede.)
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To: alloysteel
determined band of a few hundred can hold off an army of 100,000, if they hold the choke points.

Ha! that's like saying 300 Spartans could hold back the Persian army. Wait...

/johnny

7 posted on 12/21/2012 10:16:53 AM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Here is an argument I am fond of.. (hat tip to former conservative star ann coulter)

Will you compromise and also support “common sense laws for unborn children” something like finding the youngest preemie to survive and make that the last date for an abortion, as it is now proved that babies that young are viable. I some what doubt you will support that due to the slippery slope you would now be standing on. We the people that believe the founders meant for us to have effective arms feel the same way .. first “assault weapons” then it will be “easily hidden” then well you get the idea I think.


8 posted on 12/21/2012 10:19:04 AM PST by Bidimus1
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Self-ping


9 posted on 12/21/2012 10:28:58 AM PST by Hieronymus ( (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. --G.K. Chesterton))
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To: Kaslin

Canadians do not have a cultural history that is intimately, intricately and deliberately tied to personal ownership of firearms, as we do.

We, on the otherhand, have a cultural history of severe distrust and dislike of government authority at all levels, from the very beginning of our nation.

Our first civil war was a result of these two basic differences.

Our second will finally decide both issues.........


10 posted on 12/21/2012 10:32:03 AM PST by Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
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To: JRandomFreeper; alloysteel

I have often wondered, if push came to shove, like the Soviet Army, would our armed forces refuse to fire upon their own citizens?.......


11 posted on 12/21/2012 10:36:42 AM PST by Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
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To: Squawk 8888

Ping


12 posted on 12/21/2012 10:41:08 AM PST by Hieronymus ( (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. --G.K. Chesterton))
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To: Kaslin
Would a gun ban stop Eric Holder from selling guns to Mexican drug gangs?
13 posted on 12/21/2012 10:41:53 AM PST by Baynative
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To: Baynative

Nope


14 posted on 12/21/2012 10:43:15 AM PST by Kaslin ( One Big Ass Mistake America (Make that Two))
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To: Red Badger
would our armed forces refuse to fire upon their own citizens?.......

Interesting philosophical question, but mostly meaningless, given the disparity of forces. Rule of thumb since forever is 3:1 advantage to the defending forces. Not always the case, and force multipliers come into play, but the US military, much as I was one, and much as I love them, just isn't very large.

/johnny

15 posted on 12/21/2012 10:44:58 AM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Kaslin

We would find out that they lied to us about information not being collected in background checks.


16 posted on 12/21/2012 10:48:22 AM PST by Starstruck (Washinton is presently building a diving board on the fiscal cliff)
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To: Kaslin
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
17 posted on 12/21/2012 10:57:00 AM PST by MtnMan101
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To: MtnMan101

That is just perfect.


18 posted on 12/21/2012 11:01:28 AM PST by Trod Upon (Civilian disarmament is the precursor to democide.)
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To: Kaslin
The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy agrees with John Lott; More Guns = Less Crime

Harvard Study: Gun Control Is Counterproductive

WOULD BANNING FIREARMS REDUCE MURDER AND SUICIDE?, A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence by Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser, Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy (pp. 649-694)

19 posted on 12/21/2012 11:19:01 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (You cannot prevent evil. You can only defend against it.)
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To: Kaslin
Interesting, but I wish this analysis would have analyzed why more black and Hispanics mean more murders...

The answer would be out of wedlock births which is now 60% in the Hispanic community and 80% in black community. Total out of wedlock is 30% for Canada and 40% for the US. Furthermore, Canada single parent home is 16% vs 27% for the US.

A better analysis would be to factor out murders committed by people of absent Dad households. Black and Hispanics disproportionately make up this group, but the analysis is less race based and more moral based. With this analysis, I would bet that the murder rates in Canada and the US are the same. This is an easy bet since an analysis of US prison population concluded it is the same among ethic groups when factoring for absent Dads.

20 posted on 12/21/2012 11:31:22 AM PST by 11th Commandment (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/)
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