When It Comes to ‘Gun Violence,’ the UK Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
Reposted from May 27, 2016 : A common argument raised by the citizen disarmament lobby is that the Brits suffer from much less “gun violence.” That’s generally followed by crediting the gun ban that took place after the Dunblane school massacre, along with the assurance that similar draconian laws would yield similar results in the U.S. Common counter-arguments, while true, are generally incomplete. Those typically center on a cultural proclivity to be less violent, especially when such cultures are homogeneous, like the UK for the most part, or Japan. Two points that are raised less frequently: If violence were caused by guns, the millions of members of the NRA and other gun groups wouldn’t have statistically insignificant “gun violence” rates that are lower than those in the “gun-free paradises” by an order of magnitude. The other point is, we can’t draw reliable long-term conclusions from short-term trends, which is a matter of perspective, and things are still unfol...