TITLE: US, UK See Wide Gap in Gun Laws, ‘Violent Crime’ (2013)
SOURCE: CBS Atlanta
BITLY STATS: http://bit.ly/X21KUX+
AUTHOR(s): Ray Downs
NOTES: UK does NOT have a higher violent crime rate; they just classify violent crimes differently, leading to inaccurate comparisons. USA has higher rape, murder, burglary rates than UK.
TWEETS: https://twitter.com/hospiceman/status/304660581808492544
TITLE: US Gun Policies: Facts You Should Know (2012)
SOURCE: Morss Global Finance
AUTHOR: Elliott R. Morss, Ph.D.
LINK: http://www.morssglobalfinance.com/us-gun-policies-facts-you-should-know/
NOTES: (1) The US ranks 1st against 177 other countries in the number of civilian guns owned – 270 million. (2) Of the countries that have more shootings than the US, most are from Central and South America where criminal elements developed to provide illegal drugs to the US. (3) In Japan, most kinds of guns are illegal…in 2008, there were 11 shooting homicides. Similarly, in 2009, only 18 people were murdered with a firearm in the UK. (4) In high income countries, guns are used primarily for suicides, not homicides. (5) Unintentional gun deaths are much higher where citizens own more guns.
TITLE: The gun control that works: no guns (2012)
SOURCE: The Economist
LINK: http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2012/12/gun-control
NOTES: Having few guns does mean that few people get shot. In 2008-2009, there were 39 fatal injuries from crimes involving firearms in England and Wales, with a population about one sixth the size of America’s. In America, there were 12,000 gun-related homicides in 2008.
TITLE: Number of Police Officers Killed Last 22 Years; USA 1,132, England 10; Why? (2012)
SOURCE: National Gun Victims Action Council
URL: http://bit.ly/W1qxt2
WEB STATS: http://bit.ly/W1qxt2+
RESEARCH QUESTION: Why are police killed by firearms much more frequently in USA vs. England?
FINDINGS: Americans should not be allowed to carry guns in public. English criminals can get any gun they want, yet only 10 police officers were killed by guns. Since USA population is 5x England’s, there should only have been 50 police killed by guns in USA during same time frame.
TITLE: Comparing international trends in recorded violent crime (2006)
SOURCE: Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), Crime facts info no. 115
LINK: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/cfi/101-120/cfi115.html
NOTES: (1) The way in which crime is recorded is not necessarily an accurate indicator of differences in actual levels of crime. (2) Rather than indicating a sharp rise in actual violence in England/Wales, the post-1998 increase is largely the direct result of major changes to the way crime data are recorded. First in 1998 and then again in 2002, amendments were introduced to include a broader range of offenses…and to take a more victim-led approach.
This source debunks sources such as Slack (2009): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196941/The-violent-country-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html
Read Dont Shoot! 