WHICH HAS MORE GUN VIOLENCE A COUNTRY WHERE ONLY THE CRIMINALS HAVE GUNS OR A COUNTRY WHERE BOTH CRIMINALS AND LAW ABIDING CITIZENS HAVE GUNS? Whenever any law is proposed that would regulate guns the NRA and pro-gun extremists immediately oppose it. They argue that there is no point in passing any gun laws because law abiding citizens will follow them but criminals will not. In the end, they say, only the criminals will have guns and we will all be living in a dangerous society destined to be victims of gun violence. But the interesting thing is that we would have a far safer society if only the criminal had guns. How do we know this? THERE IS A COUNTRY WHERE ONLY THE CRIMINAL HAVE GUNS—ENGLAND. In England handguns have been outlawed—no one can own them. The only guns private citizens can own are long guns (the kind used for hunting or marksmanship) and they can only shoot 2 bullets at a time or collector guns. However, the criminals can illegally get all the guns they want. They can get semi-automatic hand guns that shoot 32 bullets in under 15 seconds—just like the Tucson murderer. Or assault rifles that shoot 50 to 100 bullets per minute just like the Aurora murderer. ENGLAND IS A COUNTRY VERY SIMILAR TO OURS. They hunt, they collect guns and marksmanship is a big sport. They have serious drug problems, poverty, gangs and immigration issues. Because this is a country where only criminals have guns, we would expect there to be rampant gun violence – huge numbers of gun homicides and gun crime assaults. Even the police do not carry guns. ENGLAND HAS 45 GUN HOMICIDES PER YEAR. As our population is 5 times that of England’s (300 million vs. 60 million) we should expect 5 times their gun homicides each year or 225. However, because our gun laws are not sane, we have 10,000 gun homicides each year. Further, in our country, not only do criminals have all the guns they want, but so do the law-abiding citizens. THE FACT IS THAT IT IS THE LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS WITH GUNS, NOT THE CRIMINALS, WHO ARE COMMITTING THE GREAT MAJORITY OF THE GUN HOMICIDES. Each of the recent high-profile gun massacres (Tucson, Aurora, Charleston, Umpqua, the reporters in Virginia etc.) were committed by a law abiding citizen—not one was from the hand of a criminal. WE WOULD HAVE A FRACTION OF THE GUN VIOLENCE WE HAVE IF ONLY THE CRIMINALS HAD GUNS AND THERE IS EVERY POINT IN PASSING GUN REGULATIONS. Elliot Fineman CEO - Founder National Gun Victims Action Council www.gunvictimsaction.org/donate www.gunvictimsaction.org