Guns save lives

image from "Self Defense a Human Right"

This morning on NZ's News Talk ZB (which I enjoy listening to on my daily commute), I heard Mike Hosking rank USA's SCOTUS decision to uphold the second amendment a "bad thing" because "they (Americans) just keep shooting each other...". What? Mike Mike Mike... Come on, brother... this is an example of sometimes very sheltered thinking in wee NZ.

Also, its not exactly true: statistics and studies prove Mike's view wrong. One example from 2003 shows Michigan and Ohio crime rate drops when citizens are allowed to carry weapons ("conceal carry"):

"The FBI has just released it's 2002 Uniform Crime Report, which reveals stunning facts about the success of Michigan's concealed carry law: amidst a slight upward trend in crime nationwide, Michigan's crime rate has dropped yet again: down to 3874.1, a 10.5% reduction in just three years. In that same time, Ohio's crime rate has increased 5%."

On same site "buckeyefirearms.org", a clear video example from Jun 2010 of a how this works in "Ohio concealed handgun license-holder defends lives during violent robbery attempt".

As John Stossel points out in a Jun 23, 2010 article "Guns save lives" he admits he had bought into the anti-gun meme but when he researched, found that guns save lives. If you take guns away from law abiding citizens, only the criminals have them:

"If you only hear about the crimes and accidents, and never about lives saved, you might think gun ownership is folly.

But, hey, if guns save lives, it logically follows that gun laws cost lives.

Suzanna Hupp and her parents were having lunch at Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, when a man began shooting diners with his handgun, even stopping to reload. Suzanna's parents were two of the 23 people killed. (Twenty more were wounded.)

Suzanna owned a handgun, but because Texas law at the time did not permit her to carry it with her, she left it in her car. She's confident that she could have stopped the shooting spree if she had her gun. (Texas has since changed its law.

Today, 40 states issue permits to competent, law-abiding adults to carry concealed handguns (Vermont and Alaska have the most libertarian approach: no permit needed. Arizona is about to join that exclusive club.)

Every time a carry law was debated, anti-gun activists predicted outbreaks of gun violence after fender-benders, card games and domestic quarrels. What happened?

John Lott, in "More Guns, Less Crime," explains that crime fell by 10 percent in the year after the laws were passed. A reason for the drop in crime may have been that criminals suddenly worried that their next victim might be armed. Indeed, criminals in states with high civilian gun ownership were the most worried about encountering armed victims."

What about the right of self defense? From the Dana Loesch show this week in Missouri "Discussing the Second Amendment: An Equal Rights Issue"

"When you prohibit law-abiding citizens from owning guns then only criminals will have them because criminals, by definition, are people who don’t follow laws. There is ample proof that when people are allowed to conceal-carry the crime rates drop."

Care to re-think your position on the USA second amendment, Mike?