NCJ Number
160169
Date Published
1992
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Gun-control laws increase crime; under such laws criminals would still obtain guns illegally, while law-abiding citizens would relinquish their weapons and consequently be vulnerable to crime.
Abstract
When many people read about gun-related massacres and other gun-related deaths, they often come to the irrational conclusion that strict gun-control laws would have prevented the deaths. Yet, when incidents of mass murder are closely scrutinized, it becomes obvious that gun-control laws could not have stopped the tragedies. In some cases, had one or more victims or witnesses had guns themselves, the death and injury could have been reduced. More than the accessibility of guns, homicides in the United States can be traced to a lax and ineffective criminal justice system, deteriorating ethical values and internal behavioral controls, and mental illness. Given the multiplicity of factors that make so many people prone to kill other people, the police are not sufficient to protect us; we must be prepared to protect ourselves. According to Dr. Gary Kleck, an associate professor at the Florida State University School of Criminology, citizens acting in legitimate self-defense kill approximately three times more assailants and robbers than do police.