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Harvard gun study concludes gun bans don’t reduce the murder rate
Hotair ^ | 08/28/2013 | BRUCE MCQUAIN

Posted on 08/28/2013 12:59:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

In fact, it appears, bans may actually see them increase. Here’s a summary of the study’s findings:

The Harvard study attempts to answer the question of whether or not banning firearms would reduce murders and suicides. Researchers looked at crime data from several European countries and found that countries with HIGHER gun ownership often had LOWER murder rates.

Russia, for example, enforces very strict gun control on its people, but its murder rate remains quite high. In fact, the murder rate in Russia is four times higher than in the “gun-ridden” United States, cites the study. ”Homicide results suggest that where guns are scarce other weapons are substituted in killings.” In other words, the elimination of guns does not eliminate murder, and in the case of gun-controlled Russia, murder rates are quite high.

The study revealed several European countries with significant gun ownership, like Norway, Finland, Germany and France – had remarkably low murder rates. Contrast that with Luxembourg, “where handguns are totally banned and ownership of any kind of gun is minimal, had a murder rate nine times higher than Germany in 2002.

The study found no evidence to suggest that the availability of guns contributes to higher murder rates anywhere in the world. ”Of course, it may be speculated that murder rates around the world would be higher if guns were more available. But there is simply no evidence to support this.”

And, as the study points out, where guns are banned, murderers still find weapons with which to do their dirty work. The difference is that the victims potential means of self-defense. With guns available, one would assume their deterrent effect if not outright effectiveness in the self-defense realm would predictably knock the murder rate down. Criminals and murderers are less likely to attack if the possibility the potential victim is armed exists. Common sense 101.

The study found no evidence to suggest that the availability of guns contributes to higher murder rates anywhere in the world. ”Of course, it may be speculated that murder rates around the world would be higher if guns were more available. But there is simply no evidence to support this.”

And finally:

Further, the report cited, “the determinants of murder and suicide are basic social, economic, and cultural factors, not the prevalence of some form of deadly mechanism.” Meaning, it’s not guns that kill people.

People kill people.

Well how about that? The study is published in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. You can read it here. Pass it around to your anti-gun friends. Point out this isn’t some right-wing think tank that pumped out the study. Then appeal to their common sense. Of course that may be difficult to do with someone who actually believes that the simple act of banning a weapon will magically lower the murder rate because without that weapon, people just wouldn’t murder each other … or something.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; guns; gunstudy; harvard; secondamendment
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To: SeekAndFind

I’d like to see that chart correlate violent crimes with CCW licenses.


21 posted on 08/28/2013 1:50:44 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (Islam offers choices: convert, submit, or die.)
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To: jeffc

Finish your point, please. You totally neglected ‘baseball bat violence’, shoe/boot violence, golf club violence, human fist violence, telephone cord violence, lamp cord violence, bicycle violence and probably about 20 more minutes typing things frequently used to injure a fellow human.
I simply MUST mention the Alfred Hitchcock wife who brained her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, and then cooked the murder weapon and made lunch for the cops.


22 posted on 08/28/2013 1:57:08 PM PDT by CaptainAmiigaf (NY TIMES: We print the news as it fits our views.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Don’t look for this story in the mainstream press; it won’t deter anti-gunner rhetoric in the slightest.

Reality never does.


23 posted on 08/28/2013 2:17:58 PM PDT by Jack Hammer (American)
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To: SeekAndFind
The CDC also did a similar study, at the President's behest.

I am impressed with this organization on a daily basis, and once again, the CDC did not waver. They stuck to hard scientific principles and reported results that went counter to anti-gunner desired outcomes. HOOAH for them.

24 posted on 08/28/2013 2:22:08 PM PDT by Lazamataz (Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Of all the guns in America I have never Never seen a gun commit a crime. The stupid things just sit there doing nothing. All of them just sit there minding their own business most just lay around collecting dust.

Show me a study that a gun ever did anything.

Like you can’t get to the moon on fractions, it takes whole numbers!


25 posted on 08/28/2013 2:23:13 PM PDT by Southern by Grace (kickbacks, bribes, maifia payoffs is how the D's get R' done!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Study? What study? I don gotta show you no stinkin’ study.


26 posted on 08/28/2013 2:24:40 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: SeekAndFind

If you ban young black males from owning/operating guns, for sure that will substantially reduce gun violence. Study that!


27 posted on 08/28/2013 3:06:13 PM PDT by sagar
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To: SeekAndFind

Don’t try to confuse these people with facts.


28 posted on 08/28/2013 3:35:43 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (When you vote for evil because you can't see evil, you ARE evil.)
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To: Lazamataz

RE: The CDC also did a similar study, at the President’s behest.

The CDC? CDC?

Why them? Are guns considered a disease to be controlled now?


29 posted on 08/28/2013 3:41:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: sagar

Many of those young black males are already banned from having guns, either by age or prior criminal convictions. That banning doesn’t seem to slow them down any more than I think that any new bans would. Criminals will break new laws just as quickly as they break existing ones.


30 posted on 08/28/2013 3:46:27 PM PDT by Bob
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: Grampa Dave
In 1881 a left wing radical Democrat shot James Garfield, President of the United States who later died from the wound.

Whatever he was, Guiteau wasn't a Democrat. His words on shooting Garfield, "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. .. Arthur is president now!" identify him as a Republican. But he was a lunatic more than anything else.

32 posted on 08/28/2013 4:44:59 PM PDT by x
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33 posted on 08/28/2013 4:47:39 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: x

Thanks, I have removed Guiteau from the list.


34 posted on 08/28/2013 5:04:08 PM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Obozoliar and his thugs in his outhouse lie 24/7/365. They are unable to tell the truth.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Meanwhile in CT, a suspected bank robber fired shots outside a MetroNorth train station, despite Mallofs new gun control laws.


35 posted on 08/28/2013 5:06:25 PM PDT by matt04
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To: SeekAndFind

Edited and revised:

In 1863 a Democrat shot and killed Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States .
In 1963 a radical left wing communist shot and killed John F. Kennedy, President of the United States.
In 1975 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at Gerald Ford, President of the United States.
In 1983 a registered Democrat shot and wounded Ronald Reagan.
In 1984 James Huberty a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 22 people in a McDonalds restaurant.
In 1986 Patrick Sherril a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 15 people in an Oklahoma post office.
In 1990 James Pough a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 10 people at a GMAC office.
In 1991 George Hennard a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 23 people in a Lubys cafeteria.
In 1995 James Daniel Simpson a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 5 coworkers in a Texas laboratory.
In 1999 Larry Asbrook a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 8 people at a church service.
In 2001 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at the White House in a failed attempt to kill George W. Bush, President of the US.
In 2003 Douglas Williams a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 7 people at a Lockheed Martin plant.
In 2007 a registered Democrat named Seung - Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people in Virginia Tech .
In 2010 a mentally ill registered Democrat named Jared Lee Loughner shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed 6 others.
In 2011 a registered Democrat named James Holmes went into a Colorado movie theater and shot and killed 12 people.
In 2012 Andrew Engeldinger a disgruntled Democrat shot and killed 7 people in Minneapolis.

One could go on, but you get the point, even if the media does not.

Clearly, there is a problem with Democrats and guns.

No NRA member, Tea Party member, or Republican conservatives are/were involved.

SOLUTION: It should be illegal for Democrats to own guns.


36 posted on 08/28/2013 5:15:34 PM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Obozoliar and his thugs in his outhouse lie 24/7/365. They are unable to tell the truth.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I know the CDC very well, I serve them directly. There is a Violence Prevention group and even an Injury Prevention group. Toxic chemical spills are tracked. Newborn infants are screened worldwide at birth. The CDC does a lot more than just disease.

The point of my post is they were intellectually honest in the firearms study. They were probably under a lot of pressure to emit a study that wasn't intellectually honest, but the people I know and work around -- no matter their political affiliations -- believe in hard science and in facts, politics be damned. I don't know the people who did this study, but I was delighted to see they were of the same moral character as the ones I do know.

That's the point I was trying to make. The President had an agenda, and the CDC simply reported facts instead of following an agenda. Because of that, I remain proud to be associated with them.

37 posted on 08/28/2013 5:28:42 PM PDT by Lazamataz (Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)
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To: SeekAndFind; JohnRLott; Travis McGee; Joe Brower
Bump & a BANG!
38 posted on 08/28/2013 5:39:11 PM PDT by neverdem (Register pressure cookers! /s)
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To: Grampa Dave
Clearly, there is a problem with Democrats and guns.

This agrees with liberalism being a mental disease. These mentals kill people.

39 posted on 08/28/2013 6:24:25 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: Bob

What I meant was not to keep the status quo in terms of enforcement. If action has to be performed, it better be to prevent young black males from using guns. Preventing the rest of the population is not going to solve “gun” violence. It is a “young black male” violence that needs to be solved.


40 posted on 08/28/2013 7:42:48 PM PDT by sagar
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