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July 12, 2006
More guns, less crime
In my post about safer roads with higher speeds (Can't drive 55), I mentioned that the safety nazis were similarly flabbergasted by the counter-intuitive (to them) result that more liberal gun laws resulted in . . . wait for it . . . less violent crime.
David Kopel reports that Florida, the original shall-issue concealed-carry state -- that anti-Second Amendment activists like the Brady Campaign claimed would see the streets run red with the blood of yahoos gunning and running over parking spaces -- has seen another drop in crime.
Florida is, of course, the inventor of liberalized handgun concealed carry permits, of "castle doctrine" laws that allow lethal force in self defense without having to retreat, and a few other such measures.
Naturally, the Brady Campaign used Florida as their poster child for a gun-crazy state. Brady began an advertising campaign to warn tourists against entering this dangerous state.
"The 'Shoot First' law is a new law in Florida that police, prosecuting attorneys and gun violence prevention advocates worry may lead to the reckless use of guns on the streets of Florida cities." Sarah Brady intoned, "The net effect of the new 'Shoot First' law in Florida is, unfortunately, precisely what we feared. People are dying who did not deserve to die." Just for good measure, Brady added "Gun violence in Florida could increase in 2005 because Congress failed to renew the federal assault weapon ban, which expired last fall, and Florida has no state law restricting assault weapons or rapid-fire ammunition magazines. Florida also does not require background checks at gun shows, does not require child-safety locks to be sold with guns, does not have any handgun safety standards to limit Saturday night specials and even forces police to let people carry hidden handguns in public."
Well, the Palm Beach Post reports that Florida's crime rates have fallen to the lowest level since 1971. "A telephone message left for comment after hours with the The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. was not immediately returned."
You can get the report, in pdf format, here. It shows that, even though the state's population is growing, total homicides fell by 6.9%, and firearm homicides by 6.1%. Given the population increase, the decrease in rates would have been greater.
The anti-gun folks like to respond that crime would have fallen anyhow, tracking with general trends, and the increase in guns -- and the more liberalized self-defense and no-need-to-retreat laws had nothing to do with said decrease.
But then, they've always claimed that guns cause crime, triggering homicidal impulses in the monkey brains of gun owners. Following their own logic, more guns must have an effect on the incidence of crime, must result in more shootings of innocent women, children, Bambi, Thumper and Flipper, too.
Well, they're right. Guns do have an effect on crime; it's just not the one they hoped for.
What a bunch of maroons.
Posted by Mike Lief at July 12, 2006 07:30 AM
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