Quote:
Originally Posted by scardog
Yes.
http://www.ncpa.org/pi/crime/pdcrm/pdcrm20.htm
States with right-to-carry laws have lower overall violent crime rates, compared to states without right-to-carry laws. In states whose laws respect the citizen's right-to-carry guns for self defense the total violent crime is 13% lower, homicide is 3% lower, robbery is 26% lower and aggravated assault is 7% lower. (Data: Crime in the United States 1996, FBI Uniform Crime Reports) |
You can discuss stats all day long but this on it's own does not prove a correlation between right-to-carry and crime rates. For stats like this to mean anything you have to look at the whole picture: What are the poverty rates, laws and social conditions in those states? What about stats in the urban centers in these stats (i.e. if a high % live in rural areas vs. cities).
Anyhow, as someone who is definitely anti-gun I recognize that with the current laws there is no answer. If you allow people to own guns then things like this will happen, period, regardless of right-to-carry or not. You put guns in the hands of citizens and some will misuse them (an understatement).
Having said that, I believe it's one or the other: No guns for anyone or let everyone carry them. Would this have happened if the shooter knew that some students may be carrying guns on campus? No one will ever know. But at least if people can be armed, this may have ended a lot sooner.
Thankfully, I live in a country where we've never had to debate this. We have no first amendment so the number of guns in people's hands is very small and that makes everyone safer.