Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: "Criminals Will Always Get Guns" is a Poor Argument [View all]DanTex
(20,709 posts)I'm not sure you've got your facts right with Canada. Nevertheless, since guns are only one of many factors that drive homicide and suicide rates, dedicated propagandists will always be able to cherry-pick statistics and find isolated instances where the general trend of more guns/more death doesn't hold.
The US has far laxer gun control laws than the rest of the world, and as a result, we have much higher rates of homicide and gun violence. Besides that, several studies have examined the relationship and found that guns are a significant factor driving homicide rates.
One of the reasons that it is basically only right-wingers make the "criminals will always have guns" argument is that if you look outside the US, the world is full of counterexamples. In Canada, UK, Japan, etc., criminals do not in fact have easy access to guns. Sure, there are a few gun crimes, and a very dedicated criminal can get a gun if he wants one, but the fact that it is so much more difficult means that there are less armed criminals, which means less shootings and less homicides.