Excuse the double post, but hey - it's 3am, who else is going to posts?
I think of the gun-prohibition lobbies as no different than any other prohibition activists; prohibition is a ridiculously awful way of trying to change people's behavior, whether it's aimed at guns, drugs, alchohol, whatever. Looking at history, did the Japanese feudal era policy of forbidding all but samurai the use of swords prevent non-samurai from violence? Of course not. In fact, just like alcohol-prohibition in the states birthed and bred the rise of gangsters, sword-prohibition fueled the rise of shadow arts using non-sword weapons with the same effect. Just like drug prohibition fuels powerful gangs raking in drug profits. The same way that gun prohibition in countries implementing it fuels other weapon-related murders and other crimes. I hate to turn this into a debate (oh hell, you know that's a lie) about gun/other substance control, but a recent entry in Reason.com seemed related:
There's a broader philosophical point regarding whether or not using the law to curb private behavior is a moral and appropriate use of government coercion, but let's put that aside for a moment. The inevitable rise in use that would follow legalization (note: I extrapolate this into any legalization, be it drugs or gun ownership) is a point proponents of drug prohibition often fault drug war critics for not acknowledging, though I really don't know of any critics who don't willingly concede the point.
The more appropriate response to "more users" argument is "so what?" A slight rise in the number of recreational drug users is only a problem if you believe that there's something inherently immoral and destructive about smoking a joint or snorting a line of coke--any worse, say, than downing a shot of whiskey or a taking drag off a tobacco pipe. The subset of people who refrain from drug use today out of respect for the law, but who might experiment with drugs should they one day be legal, probably isn't one we need to worry about becoming addicted in mass numbers, or committing crimes to support their habit (which probably wouldn't happen anyway if drugs were legal--how many alcoholics mug, burgle, or kill for gin money?). Unless you buy the "gateway" theory of marijuana, or the "instant addiction" theory about cocaine, both of which have zero scientific validity, I'm just not sure having slightly more overall users will have much of a negative impact on society at large.
The same can be said for gun prohibition. It goes on to hit the nail on the head regarding the motives of activists: "{they} insist alcohol prohibition was a success because it reduced alcohol consumption. This assertion itself is debatable (see Jeff Miron's terrific research on the subject). But even assuming they're right, this line of argument is revealing. To call alcohol prohibition a "success," one would have to consider overall consumption of alcohol in America the only relevant criteria. You'd have to ignore the precipitous rise in homicides and other violent crime; the rise in hospitalizations due to alcohol poisoning; the number of people blinded or killed by drinking toxic, black market gin; the corrupting influence on government officials, from beat cops to the halls of congress to Harding's attorney general; and the erosion of the rule of law.
Of course, the 18th Amendment was passed because prohibitionists convinced the country that Prohibition would alleviate many of these problems. But once prohibition was in place--and still today among its defenders--it became not about externalities, but about preventing people from drinking as an end, indeed the only end. If it did that, it was successful. Never mind that it was exacerbating the very justifications for its enactment."
And of course, despite evidence to the contrary, those in favor of more stringent regulations on all kinds of items carry the banner of prohibition in spirit. They triumphantly proclaimed recently that "Reductions in illicit drug use among 8th and 10th graders exceeded the President's goal, falling 30 and 26 percent since 2001, respectively. "There has been a substance abuse sea change among American teens," Drug Czar John Walters said in the release. "They are getting the message that dangerous drugs damage their lives and limit their futures. We know that if people don't start using drugs during their teen years, they are very unlikely to go on to develop drug problems later in life." When in fact, the CDC reported that deaths from drug overdoses rose nearly 70 percent over the last five years. Half the overdose deaths were attributable to cocaine, heroin, and prescription drugs. The number of overdose deaths caused by marijuana--the drug most targeted by the ONDCP--remained at
zero. And among the biggest increases (
113%) were those aged 15-42, those same teenagers the ONDCP was celebrating in its prior press release.
It finishes with what would seem really funny, if it weren't so painfully true:
"Prohibition advocates are again measuring success not on how well the drug war (see: war on guns) is preventing real, tangible harm, but simply on how effectively they're preventing people from getting high (see: owning guns).
And of course overdoses are only one aspect of the harm done by the drug war. There is also the appalling rate of incarceration in America, the evisceration of the Bill of Rights, the erosion of the rule of law, the government infringement on the doctor-patient relationship, the contempt for property rights, the arrest of promising developments in the treatment of pain --the list goes on.
Nevertheless, so long as there are fewer joints in teen backpacks, the drug warriors are content to say we're "winning."
Some interesting statistics:
Concealed Weapons
* Concealed carry laws are dropping crime rates across the country. A comprehensive national study determined in 1996 that violent crime fell after states made it legal to carry concealed firearms. The results of the study showed:
* States which passed concealed carry laws reduced their rate of murder by 8.5%, rape by 5%, aggravated assault by 7% and robbery by 3%;29 and
* If those states not having concealed carry laws had adopted such laws in 1992, then approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults and over 11,000 robberies would have been avoided yearly.30
Usefulness in cases of rape
* Orlando, FL. In 1966-67, the media highly publicized a safety course which taught Orlando women how to use guns. The result: Orlando’s rape rate dropped 88% in 1967, whereas the rape rate remained constant in the rest of Florida and the nation.40
* Nationwide. In 1979, the Carter Justice Department found that of more than 32,000 attempted rapes, 32% were actually committed. But when a woman was armed with a gun or knife, only 3% of the attempted rapes were actually successful.41
More guns less crime?
In the decade of the 1990s, the number of guns in this country increased by roughly 40 million—even while the murder rate decreased by almost 40% percent.7 Accidental gun deaths in the home decreased by almost 40 percent as well.8
* CDC admits there is no evidence that gun control reduces crime. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has long been criticized for propagating questionable studies which gun control organizations have used in defense of their cause. But after analyzing 51 studies in 2003, the CDC concluded that the "evidence was insufficient to determine the effectiveness of any of these [firearms] laws."
TOKYO -- When Nagasaki's mayor was fatally shot in southern Japan, it wasn't much of a surprise that a gangster was arrested for the attack. In a country where regular citizens face strict gun laws, the mob does most of the shooting.
Handguns are strictly banned for ordinary citizens in Japan, and only police officers and others _ such as shooting instructors _ with job-related reasons can own them. Hunting rifles are also strictly licensed and regulated.
Crime syndicates, however, have the money, numbers and international connections that enable them to smuggle foreign guns into Japan.
"Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters." - Sammy "The Bull" Gravano
"When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns." - Common Sense