Monday, May 27, 2013
Charting the "Success" of Massachusetts Gun Control Legislation
Here is a chart, from leftie Democratic Underground, which shows a marked decline in the American homicide rate since 1994. Indeed, the rate has dropped by more than 50%. We gun nuts argue that the cause of the decline was that a lot of states started legislating "shall issue" concealed carry permits in 1994. Gun haters can't believe that. It must be something else, they think.
OK, let's look at some stats from a gun control state, Massachusetts, which in 1998 passed laws which made it very onerous even to own a gun, much less carry a concealed gun legally in the state. Legal gun ownership declined in Massachusetts from 1.5 million gun licenses to around 200,000 by 2002. What happened then? Certainly murders, assault and gun related robberies declined as in the rest of the United States.
Oops. Homicides went precisely the opposite way of the rest of American and doubled. Other crimes rose too. Between 1998 and 2011, robbery with firearms
climbed 20.7 percent. Aggravated assaults jumped 26.7 percent. If not the disarming of the law abiding in 1998, then what was the cause of the doubling of Massachusetts' homicide rate and the increase in other gun related crimes?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
(h/t Ace of Spades and Jeff Jacoby)
OK, let's look at some stats from a gun control state, Massachusetts, which in 1998 passed laws which made it very onerous even to own a gun, much less carry a concealed gun legally in the state. Legal gun ownership declined in Massachusetts from 1.5 million gun licenses to around 200,000 by 2002. What happened then? Certainly murders, assault and gun related robberies declined as in the rest of the United States.
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
(h/t Ace of Spades and Jeff Jacoby)
Labels: Gun Control; Real World Effects
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:51 AM 
