From: [b--o--h] at [mdd.comm.mot.com] (Greg Booth) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: Gun Control around the world Date: 3 Jan 1994 09:52:02 -0800 15. Gun control around the World o How anyone knows how many people are killed in England with firearms is an interesting issue, because no-one compiles any comprehensive statistics related to armed murder in the United Kingdom. The English Home Office does compile some statistics relating to firearms homicides, but they exclude "politically motivated" killings, so these statistics are "cooked." As barely a day goes by without the provisional IRA or the Ulster Volunteer Force or the Welsh National Liberation Front or some other bunch of loonies killing someone, these figures are unreliable at best. o However, even these figures show an increase in handgun related crimes between 1976 and 1988 on the order of 200%.The Scottish Home Office, which compiles more reliable figures, tabulated an increase of 27% in armed crime in Scotland in 1990 alone. The most interesting part of all this is that the largest increases in armed crime in the UK occurred after the enactment of the 1988 Firearm Act, which banned the possession of all centrefire semi-auto and pump action rifles, and most semi-auto and pump action shotguns. As the number of these guns, turned in to the police, were tiny in comparison to the numbers in circulation, it is a fair bet that many of them found their way in to the hands of criminals o Switzerland is a country with an assault weapon and ammunition in almost every home, yet there is very little crime. o Japan has a total ban on civilian firearm ownership, yet in Sept-Oct 1990 in Okinawa prefecture, there were 28 shootings, resulting in the deaths of several police officers as reported in November 1990, Japan Today, CBC Newsworld. o Holland has probable the strictest gun controls on the continent while Switzerland on the other hand legislates the obligation of every male citizen to accept the issued selective fire battle rifle, and a sufficient quantity of ammunition and keep it at home. Practise with the rifle is required at the local rifle range. Officers and NCO's must in addition accept and practise with the service issue semi automatic pistol. Crime rates in Holland are very much higher than Switzerland including murder, rape, and armed robbery o Stated by Chief Inspector Colins Greenwood, West Yorkshire Constabulary, Police Review, Britain after six months of study of firearms control systems at Cambridge University: "At first glance, it may seem odd or even perverse to suggest that statutory controls on the private ownership of firearms are irrelevant to the problem of armed crime: yet that is precisely what the evidence shows. Armed crime and violent crime generally are products of ethnic and social factors unrelated to the availability of a particular type of weapon. The number of firearms required to satisfy the crime market is minute, and these are supplied no matter what controls are instituted. Controls have had serious effect on legitimate users of firearms, but there is no case, either in the history of this country (Britain) or in the experience of other countries in which controls can be shown to have restricted the flow of weapons to criminals, or in any way reduce crime." o Following tables are from the study conducted by the Pacific Research Institute. They can be contacted at Dept. GAH, 177 Post St., San Francisco, CA 94108. o o Country Percentage Of Households With Guns Homicide o England/Wales * 4.70 0.67 o France 24.70 1.00 o Norway 31.20 1.16 o Switzerland 32.60 1.17 o Netherlands 2.00 1.18 o W. Germany 9.20 1.48 o Belgium 16.80 1.85 o Australia 20.10 1.95 o Canada 30.80 2.60 o Finland 25.5 2.86 o United States 48.90 7.59 o Rates are per 100,000 population. * Homicide rate does not include "political" murders. Based on figures from two different sources: Swiss Criminologist Killias, average murder rates for the years of 1983 - 1986. France data derived from World Health Organization information 1980. o Consider the above table: The only support for the anti- gun argument is that the lowest murder rate is for England where only 4.7 percent of the households have guns. But this can not be attributed to low gun ownership since the french murder rate is only slightly higher. However, the rate of French gun ownership is more than five times greater than in England. Note: The real English murder rate might actually be as high or higher than the French. The English artificially reduce their murder rate by excluding "political" murder, (example: assassinations by the IRA), whereas French and American rates include all types of murder. This brings up a further issue, If firearm bans reduce murder why is "political" murder so much more common in Europe than in the United States or Canada? Further review of the above table shows the English correlation between low gun ownership and low murder is mere coincidence rather than a general rule. The country with the lowest gun ownership is not England but the Netherlands where only two percent of the households have guns. Yet the Netherlands has more murder than most other European countries, including those with rates of gun ownership much higher, as much as 12 to 16 times higher in the cases of France, Switzerland, and Norway. Those countries happen to be three of the highest European countries in household gun ownership, yet they are also three of the four European countries with the lowest murder rate. o Compare the murder rates for the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Norway. They are nearly identical. Yet Switzerland and Norway have 15 to 16 times more gun ownership than the Netherlands. Now compare Canada and Finland. Both of these countries have rates of gun ownership that are almost as high as Norway or Switzerland, but their murder rates are more than twice that of the Netherlands, Norway, or Switzerland. When the full range of comparisons are made, no pattern of correlation appears between high gun ownership rates and high murder rates. o The point of these studies is not that more gun ownership causes more or less murder, but that it has no effect on either. The kind of people who will murder, commit armed robbery, rape, etc are going to to do so with or without guns. The argument that guns are necessary or useful for murder, does not apply to legal gun ownership. There are always going to be enough illegal guns on the market to satisfy a criminals needs. o Since the Firearm Control Act was brought in 1978, the number of assaults with firearms in Toronto has quadrupled. o The anti gun movement is always quoting the crime statistics of England, saying that because England has extremely strict gun control they have less crime. How anyone knows how many people are killed in England with firearms is an interesting issue, because no-one compiles any comprehensive statistics related to armed murder in the United Kingdom. The English Home Office does compile some statistics relating to firearms, homicides, but they exclude "politically motivated" killings, so these statistics are cooked. As barely a day goes by without the provisional IRA or the Ulster Volunteer Force or the Welsh National Liberation Front or some bunch of loonies killing someone, these figures are unreliable at best. o However, even these figures show an increase in handgun related crimes between 1976 and 1988 on the order of 200%. The Scottish home office, which complies more reliable figures, tabulated an increase of 27% in armed crime in Scotland in 1990 alone. The most interesting part of all this is that the largest increases in armed crime in the UK occurred after the enactment of the 1988 Firearm Act, which banned the possession of all center fire semi auto and pump action rifles and most semi auto and pump action shotguns. As the number of these guns, turned in to the police were small in comparison to the number in circulation it is fair to assume that many of them found there way into the hands of criminals. o -- Greg Booth BSc />_________________________________ BCAA-PCDHF-BCWF-NFA-NRA-IPSC [########[]_________________________________> /\/\OTOROLA Wireless Data Group, \> I don't speak for Motorola / \Subscriber Products Division, [b--o--h] at [mdd.comm.mot.com]