The USA does not have a gun violence problem

The United States does NOT have a Gun Violence problem.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” –    Albert Einstein.

We had another shooting; this time the shooter was white and was of an acceptable religion, so instead of radical Islam being the culprit it is the Second Amendment that will get the blame and come under attack. The gun control crowd is in already in the thralls of ecstasy at the prospect of another reason to attack the Second Amendment.

I don’t have the time or inclination to clear up the common misconceptions about the 2^nd – the misunderstandings regarding militias, need to have an automatic weapon, or restrictions on type of weapon. I am a pure constitutionalist so let it suffice to say that only two basic pieces of knowledge are required to completely comprehend the Second Amendment. If you understand the function a commaserves and grasp the definition of “shall not be infringed”, you will understand the Second and need no interpretation; but that’s another article altogether.

For now, pretend we live in Bernie Sander’s world and the Second Amendment is void; pretend that gun control legislation has no constitutional hurdles and private gun ownership may be restricted at the whim of whatever lesser evil we elect.   – Is it a good idea?

Well… Let’s think on it a spell; what kind of a track record does international gun control have? – Has it been tried before? – Has it ever worked anywhere? – Is there empirical data available?  The answer to the last question is an emphatic YES! 

Gun control isn’t a new concept. It has been around in one form or another for a few thousand years. From Cyrus to Caesar; from Stalin to Saddam every world despot has placed some form of weapons control on the masses. History proves it didn’t work for them and the only effective way to enforce such law is with brutality.

But even if gun control legislation was constitutional and could be enforced in a civilized manner – is it worth the effort?   It should be easy to figure out. A little research should give a definitive answer so I’ll do the research, you check my facts , and together we can come to an educated conclusion.

If Gun ownership or guns in public hands are a significant factor in gun violence, research will show some kind of correlation between gun ownership and gun violence –let’s see if we can find one.

The most popular statistic the Gun control movement uses is the fact that the United States has more guns per capita than any other nation. This is true; we have a whopping – 89 guns per 100 people in the US, and it could almost make sense that the number of guns on the street would be a factor in gun violence – but just almost; and only if you ignore history and the available data.

What does the data tell us about the correlation between guns and gun violence? If a correlation exists then the Gun Lobby has it right; if it does not – you can decide what the data reveals. 

If guns are even a minor factor, the connection should be clear and we should be able to easily establish a causal relationship between guns and a high rate of violent crime.

Table 1 shows the ten nations with the highest per capita gun ownership. If guns are a problem it would stand to reason that the same nations would have a high per capita murder rate and the lists should be about the same. i.e. If gun ownership or availability is a factor, the nations with the highest guns per capita should also be the nations with the highest murder rates.

Table 2shows the ten highest murder per capita nations. How odd; not one of the Top Ten gun nations is on the Top Ten murder nations list. Maybe they use clubs and knives in those places because they don’t have guns. Hmmm – does that mean even without guns there will be violence?

You think I made a bad comparison? Does it include too many variables? OK, I’ll bite – The conclusion could be skewed so let’s see how the highest gun ownership nations list matches up with the highest “GUN” murder per capita rate list. Comparing apples to apples we can get clearer picture of the correlation between gun ownership and gun violence.

Table 3shows the top ten nations for the total number of Gun Murders and Table 4 shows the nations with the highest per capita “GUN” murder rates. I find it intriguing that only one of those nations is on the Top Ten gun ownership list. That nation – The United States, in spite of a much larger population, has a lower per capita murder rate than any other nation on the list.

The United States ranks 92nd in the world for per capita homicidesand 29th in the world for per capita gun homicides with less than three gun homicides per 100k – the world average is 5.3 gun murders per 100,000 population.

Now… I may not be much on ciphering and I might have issues counting any higher than 21 unless I take off my shoes – but even I can see these statistics don’t support gun control as a viable solution to gun violence. In fact the data reveals exactly the opposite; it shows a correlation between gun ownership and a lower murder rate.

Given that The United States is #1 in per capita gun ownership and an estimated 35 – 50 % of the world’s civilian-owned guns are found in the United States, a simple mathematical analysis shows that gun control is a waste of energy. The data shows that an armed society is much safer than an unarmed one.

Just a thought … there are 92 sexual assaults per 100,000 people in the US,  more than 30 times the gun murder rate — Is it possible that calls for “Common Sense Penis Legislation” will be in our future?

Gun violence is not a problem in the US; it is a symptom of a dozen other problems that our Politicals are too busy to address so they default to old faithful –Treat the symptom and let the media deal with it. Gun Control is just the civilian version of “two Motrin and some Robitussin.”

“I have done; you have heard me; the facts are before you; I ask for your judgment.”  -Aristotle

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