ONLY CRIMINALS WILL HAVE GUNS
The NRA claims that if we pass sane gun laws only criminals will have guns (they do not follow laws.) FACTS: 1) In England, where they have sane gun laws, no one can legally own a handgun or an assault rifle. Only criminals have them. 2) England has 75 gun homicides per year. Adjusting for population, if we had England’s gun laws—and only criminals had guns—we would expect 375 homicides per year. 3) But because U.S. “law abiding citizens” have handguns and assault rifles—as do our criminals—we have 12,000.
Notice the qualifier "gun" homicides, when the only thing that matters is overall homicide. And also remember that crime in England started out lower, before the bans. What has happened since then? The BBC reported back in 2001, "A new study suggests the use of handguns in crime rose by 40% in the two years after the weapons were banned." More recently:
Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it has been revealed.
Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world's most dangerous countries.
The figures comes on the day new Home Secretary Alan Johnson makes his first major speech on crime, promising to be tough on loutish behaviour. (emphasis added)
Most of the rest of the article is similarly factually challenged, and offers facts without citation.
