Here’s one crime where gun ownership makes a big difference:
Burglary.
The UK suffers far more from burglary than the US. It’s so bad that many people over there are serial victims - hit two or three times. I don’t know anybody, personally, in America broken into more than once, and that’s a relative rarity.
A disturbing number of burglaries in the UK are “hot” burglaries. By this, I mean they’re committed with the victims at home. And these aren’t quiet, “cat-burglary” situations either. The residents, often whole families, are terrorized by the thugs until they’re gone. I’m shocked this isn’t counted as a violent crime, since it leaved a person feeling terrorized and violated.
The presence of guns in a large number of American households makes this sort of burglary an almost unheard of experience here. Burglary in America in almost invariably committed while the victims are away, which is altogether preferable.
You’d have thought so. However, take a look at the figures Omphaloskeptic has reproduced above. It’s true that the US has lower levels of burglary than the UK. Just looking at these two stats in isolation would seem to support your point:
England & Wales 5.2
U.S.A 3.8
However, Scotland and NI are part of the UK and is subject to the same low level of gun ownership. At 3.2 and 2.5, their rates, and the rates of many nations with far lower gun per capital figures, is less than that of the US.
The point being that, as always, you can’t fixate on one factor.
This is a typical NRA tactic - taking a particular example from a particular country which happens to coincide with the argument. Many countries in Europe have far lower burglary rates than the UK, despite also having restrictive gun laws. As I’ve already mentioned in this thread, the UK has a disproportionatly high level of drug addiction, which is the source of most burglaries (and muggings, and car crime, two others which the UK has a problem with)
Hmm… the early eighties were much tougher, economically, than the early nineties, and overall the nineties were no worse than the eighties and quite possibly better. If crime has risen, there’s no obvious link to per-capita GDP, or whatever you mean by “the economy”.
I do not claim that the existence of gun control causes these crimes. Crime is caused by many things, among them the sources you mentioned.
I will, however, claim that the presence of guns will affect the form crime takes, and the ability of people to resist victimization.
The sheer fact that the person living in the home may well be armed leads American burglars to wait until the home is empty before they break in. This is a good thing in my book. Much safer for everybody involved. It’s the difference between a property crime and a crime of violence (aka armed robbery).
Have you got a cite for the"hot" burglary statistics.
from the Home Office
A person is guilty of aggravated burglary if they have with them any weapon of offence It helps to remember that the offence carries a life sentence for aggravated burglary
I think there is a lot of comparing bananas with apples going on here.
As an example of the some of the issues in comparing generalised statistics
From the British Crime Survey
Common assaults involving no injury accounted for 39 per cent of BCS violence, and those
involving minimal injury accounted for a further 22 per cent. In police recorded crimes, from
April 2002, common assaults involve no injury at all (see above), and accounted for only 27
per cent of police recorded violence in 2002/03. The much lower proportion is a reflection of
the relatively low recording and reporting rates for common assault, and the wider range of
offences included in recorded violent crime.
• A further 14 per cent of recorded violence comprised harassment, which like recorded
common assault resulted in no physical injury to the victim.
So 39 + 14 = 53% of all violent crime in England and Wales didn’t involve any injury
From the FBI web site
Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and
nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and
aggravated assault.
This makes it difficult to compare levels of violent crime
The link in GorillaMan’s last post shows that 45% of all burglaries in the UK are hot burglaries.
Weapons are hardly needed if the burglars are in a group, or if the victims are weaker than they are. The chances of getting caught are low, and sentences are short enough if no weapons are involved.
An elderly or infirm victim, a woman, or a family would not be in a position to resist such a burglary in the absence of a firearm.