Gun Control: Hiding Their Heads in San Francisco

Chron Watch ^ | 21 December 2004 | Howard Nemerov

[Lando Lincoln]

          “We know that for even law-abiding folks who own guns, the rates of suicide and mortality are substantially higher. So while just perceived to be a crime thing, we think there is a wide benefit to limiting the number of guns in the city.” – Bill Barnes, aide to Supervisor Chris Daly (1)

With this erroneous claim to bolster them, San Francisco supervisors kicked off a campaign to get voters to approve a city-wide handgun ban to take effect in 2006. What they are ignoring, besides statistical data, is history.

Gun Ownership and Murder Rates

Mr. Barnes used the term “mortality.” The US did have higher total mortality rates in 1999––the most recent World Health Organization statistics available online––than either Australia and the United Kingdom. (2) Both countries, Australia in 1996 and UK in 1997, instituted massive gun bans, and are surrounded by water, theoretically making it easier to restrict smuggling, yet drastically reduced lawful gun ownership has not correlated decisively with murder rates.

	1999 Mortality Rate/1,000	Change Since 1996
UK	10.6	-1.8%
USA	8.8	.5%
AUS	6.8	-3.4%

But to say this is due to greater US firearms ownership is misleading at best. The murder rate trend in the US compares favorably to the UK and AUS since the latter two countries’ banned guns.  

Homicide 1996-2001 (3)
	1996			2001
	Murders	Population	Rate/1,000	Murders	Population	Rate/1,000	Change
UK (Eng/Wales)	679	52,010,000	0.013	850	52,041,916	0.016	25.1%
USA	19,645	265,228,572	0.074	16,037	285,317,559	0.056	-24.1%
AUS	350	18,310,700	0.019	340	19,357,594	0.018	-8.1%

With no conclusive relationship between civilian disarmament and murder rates, the onus of proving that law-abiding gun owners represent a threat to public health and safety rests firmly with the SF supervisors. Unless, of course, they intend to force a legal system upon residents that presumes guilt.

Internationally, the US compares even more favorably, rated 24^th overall in murder rate. All countries with higher rates have far more gun control; they have no Constitutional right to own guns, and self-defense is not a valid reason for ownership. (4)

Gun Ownership and Suicide Rates

The following table summarizes World Health Organization statistics. (5)

Suicide Rates (per 100,000 population)
	1995	1999/2000	Change
UK	7.4	7.5	1.4%
USA	11.9	10.4	-12.6%
AUS	12.0	12.5	4.2%

 

Again, there is no relationship between civilian disarmament and suicide rates. As with murder rates, the US is 27^th overall in suicide rate, and countries with higher rates have more gun control. (6)

Further confirmation that gun ownership has no consistent correlation with murder and suicide comes from a study that collated a United Nations report and found no positive correlation between gun ownership and higher levels homicide or suicide. (7)

Washington, D.C.: Grave Warning

In 2003, our nation’s capitol experienced a murder rate of 44.2 per 100,000 population, about 10 times the rates of nearby states and nearly 8 times the national rate. (8) This is a continued trend begun in 1976, when D.C. instituted a gun ban, claiming the dubious title of “Murder Capital of the World” 14 of the last 15 years. (9)

Conclusion

Certain San Francisco supervisors are choosing to ignore history. With so much evidence casting doubt upon the wisdom of banning civilian firearm ownership, they would be wise to abandon their plan. Considering all the easily-accessible information contradicting their claims of noble intent, one must pause and ponder what their true motivation may be.

Since it has been in vogue for cities to sue firearms manufacturers for criminal use of highly-regulated, non-defective products, it would seem legal ground has been prepared for similar suits in the reverse direction: that city politicians should be held accountable for death and destruction of public safety resulting from the flawed policies they enact. Perhaps we need to start a new holiday: Take a Politician to Court Day.

Footnotes

(1)    San Francisco supervisors propose sweeping gun ban, Lisa Leff, Associated Press Writer, Wednesday, December 15, 2004.http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/12/15/state1859EST0145.DTL

(2)    World Health Organization, WHO Statistics: Mortality Database.
http://www3.who.int/whosis/mort/table1.cfm?path=whosis,mort,mort_table1&language=english

(3)    UK Murder rates: Crime in England and Wales 2002/2003. British Home Office, July 2003, page 53. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hosb703.pdf  

England & Wales Pop 1996, page 51
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/PT90book_V2.pdfEngland & Wales Pop 2001, page 10 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/downloads/pop2001ew.pdf  

USA Stats and population:
FBI Uniform Crime Reports. At http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/03cius.htm , Table 1.   

AUS murder rates:
Australian Crime Facts and Figures 2002, Australian Institute of Criminology, November, 2002, page 6.
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/facts/2002/facts_and_figures_2002.pdf

AUS Population:

1996 Australian Population, Year Book Australia 2002, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs%40.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/0db74c39eee3a02fca256b350010b402!OpenDocument

2001 Australian Population, Nation by Nation
http://www.nationbynation.com/Australia/Population.html

(4)    Crime: Murder, Nationmaster.com.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_mur_cap

(5)    Suicide rates for United Kingdom 1950-1999, World Health Organization, 2004.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/373.pdf

Suicide rates for United States 1950-2000, World Health Organization, 2004.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/374.pdf

Suicide rates for Australia 1950-2001, World Health Organization, 2004.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/281.pdf  

(6)    Mortality: Self-Harm, Nationmaster.com.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mor_sel_har_cap

(7)    Cross-Sectional Study of the Relationship Between Levels of Gun Ownership and Violent Deaths, Greenwood, March 2000.
http://www.wfsa.net/adobe_documents/Cross_Sectional_Study.PDF

(8)    Crime in the States, 2003, FBI. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_03/xl/03tbl05.xls

(9)    House Republicans Want to Get Rid of D.C. Gun Ban, Jon E. Dougherty, NewsMax.com, September 15, 2004. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/9/14/161546.shtml

 

About the Writer: Howard Nemerov is a Bay Area freelance writer who has a special interest in the preservation of the Second Amendment. Howard receives e-mail at hnemerov@netvista.net.

[Lando Lincoln]

Lando

[Lando Lincoln]

ping

[Puppage]

All you need to know is here.....

http://www.gunfacts.info/

[HMFIC]

You know the Gun Grabbers are REALLY hating it that the DOJ has taken a stance that the SECOND AMENDMENT IS an INDIVIDUAL RIGHT! Makes it very very hard for the Hitler Brady Bunch to seize weapons.

Their pain

is

my

SCHADENFREUDE!!!!!

[starfish923]

You DO all know that Senator Dianne Feinstein, former mayor of San Francisco, DOES have a license to pack.

The three of them have a nice time of it: Dianne, Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson.

[paul51]

Since it has been in vogue for cities to sue firearms manufacturers for criminal use of highly-regulated, non-defective products, it would seem legal ground has been prepared for similar suits in the reverse direction: that city politicians should be held accountable for death and destruction of public safety resulting from the flawed policies they enact. Perhaps we need to start a new holiday: Take a Politician to Court Day

Excellent suggestion

[odoso]

Start enforcing laws to protect Freedom, instead of destroying Freedom with protectionism.

Ping!

[TigersEye]

Being San Francisco, we all know where they are hiding their heads. This just confirms why.

[HMFIC]

True.

But they ALREADY take an oath to uphold the Constitution against all enemies....

And when they violate it, like Leaky Leahy dripping secret info to the press,

NOTHING HAPPENS!

[Joe Brower]

This thread has just added to the FreeRepublic "bang list" (firearms interest list) by adding the keyword "banglist".

Any time a firearms-related thread is created on FreeRepublic, please be sure to add the "banglist" keyword to it so that interested FReepers don't miss it.

Let Freedom Ring,

Click the pic to go to the Gun Facts v4.0 download page!

[elbucko]

It is futile to argue the facts to these SF City Council morons. The initiative will be on the ballot, San Franciscan's will vote in its favor, and the carnage will begin.

[atomic_dog]

It would appear that no one in San Francisco has read Section 53071 of the California Government Code which unambiguously states:

53071. It is the intention of the Legislature to occupy the whole field of regulation of the registration or licensing of commercially manufactured firearms as encompassed by the provisions of the Penal Code, and such provisions shall be exclusive of all local regulations, relating to registration or licensing of commercially manufactured firearms, by any political subdivision as defined in Section 1721 of the Labor Code.

They also don't know an history there as this was attempted in 1982 and slapped down then by the courts in Doe v. San Francisco

Idiots! Spending tax dollars to pass and then defend a law that THEY KNOW WITH CERTAINTY will not be upheld just to pander to their extremist constituents.

[animoveritas]

Nice logic San Fran, how bout this: The sun rose in the East today. That proves that guns need to be banned.

These gun haters are so blind in their fury to disarm us that they don't even listen to their own arguments. The end result is all that counts to these pathetic fear-mongers.

[elbucko]

..that city politicians should be held accountable for death and destruction of public safety resulting from the flawed policies they enact.

Exactly. Since a citizen cannot protect themselves, the protection from liability that the police enjoyed, under the doctrine that the police have no duty to protect citizens, should no longer have effect. The cities may now be sued for a murder by the deceased estate.

[elbucko]

Idiots! Spending tax dollars to pass and then defend a law....just to pander to their extremist constituents.

Exactly. It's not about guns, it's about reelections.

[jonestown]

--- they ALREADY take an oath to uphold the Constitution against all enemies....
And when they violate it,
NOTHING HAPPENS!
9 HMFIC

---

It is futile to argue the facts to these SF City Council morons. The initiative will be on the ballot, San Franciscan's will vote in its favor, and the carnage will begin.
11 elbucko

---

And, -- it is futile to argue the facts to the USSC, Congress or the President.

They, and ALL of the above, have -- "ALREADY take an oath to uphold the Constitution against all enemies....
And when they violate it,
NOTHING HAPPENS!"

Is it time?

[gradient_salient]

Anyone in the State Legislature planning on introducing a bill to strip away the liability immunity from the politicians?

[HannagansBride]

Most laws in this country have an accompanying punishment or sanction for those who violate them. The fear of punishment prevents people from violating them.

The United States Constitution is said to be "the supreme law of the land." If that's the case, why aren't there sanctions or punishments applied to those that violate consitutional laws? (... but then we all know why.)

A law with no provision for enforcement becomes a joke. That's why politicians thumb their nose at the Constitution. There's nothing to lose.

We'd have Constitutional government if there were stronger enforcement of "the supreme laws" by something more meaningful than an oath of office.

[GOP_1900AD]

I will put on my most cynical hat. Having driven most of the "red state" types out of San Francisco (in many cases, out of the Bay if not out of California) the revolutionary marxist and homosexual mob are now going after the remnent. Examples would be a scattering of people such as some of the older native Californian families who still held out on the street my wife and I rented a house on '94 - 96 in the Sunset District. No doubt, they've got guns, hunt, target shoot, etc. This attempt at a gun ban is specifically aimed at making the hold outs leave so they can be replaced by US born lefist revolutionaries, sexual perverts and non assimilating anti Western immigrants.

[GOP_1900AD]

Did you know she was the Rodeo Queen at one of the Grand National back we she was a young lady? Something obviously went badly wrong with her since.