Research Undercuts ‘More Guns, More Crime’ Hypothesis in Europe

AmmoLand ^ | September 25, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In 2021, Katharina Krüsselmann finished her PhD research on a possible link between legal firearms ownership and violent deaths in Europe. The news article was published by the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. From the article:

 Firearms are the most deadly weapons in common use. So you would expect that the more there are, the more murders are committed with them. But Katharina Krüsselmann did not find such a link when she compared studies on firearm use in Europe. She says this is in part because the murder rate is extremely low in many European countries, which makes small differences difficult to measure. In Europe, there are 3,000 firearm deaths each year. And European countries have strict rules and public information campaigns about safe weapon possession.

So why not let anyone buy a firearm in the shops if the number of murders won’t rise anyway? That would be jumping to the wrong conclusion, says Krüsselmann. ‘I didn’t find that higher firearm availability is associated with fewer homicides. So we cannot say that more firearms make a country safer.’

Krüsselmann found that, in some countries, legal firearm ownership was associated with an increase in female homicide victims. The number of female victims appears to be very small, too small to have a statistical effect.

The result is surprising. As the research was done as part of Project Target, whose focus is shaped by the propaganda term “gun violence”. Katharina Krüsselmann emphasizes that European firearms ownership is already highly regulated. Some of the studies claim that non-firearm homicide rates did not change when firearm homicide rates declined. Other studies, across more countries, dispute this conclusion.

The study does not consider positive uses of firearms.  Krüsselmann honestly writes [of] the poor quality and difficulty of research in this area.

[marktwain]

In a PhD thesis, the researcher found no evidence that more legal guns results in more homicide.

[EvilCapitalist]

An armed society is a polite society.

[coloradan]

Did the study distinguish criminal homicides from lawful defensive homicides?

One way to inflate the problem of “gun violence” is to include cases of lawful DGUs.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If I remember my history, Britain began to confiscate handguns in the 1920s claiming it was because of “crime”. In reality it was fear of Communism that they confiscated the guns.
By 1940, Britain had so few guns in private hands the Nazis could have invaded with no problems after Dunkirk. The British begged US citizens to “SEND A GUN TO DEFEND A BRITISH HOME!”

After the war, the government confiscated those gift guns and returned some to their original owners. The rest were dumped into the sea.

[Paperpusher]

Well, there goes her PhD up in smoke.

[Savage Beast]

Every human being as the right to self-protection. He is endowed this right by God, not government, and it is enshrined in the US Constitution.

If government fails to protect the individual citizen, he has the right to protect himself.

He also has the right to protect himself from government, or anything else, if necessary.

[Salman]

The ruling classes of western Europe are strongly against private gun ownership, but not really against crime at all.

[BDParrish]

Stop saying that!
It could only possibly be true if open carry was not only permitted by actually practiced in statistically meaningful numbers.
Furthermore there is considerable hostility toward open carry advocates on all the gun forums.
You cant have it both ways.
Pick one only, either “Open carry is stupid!”
“I dont want to give up the elmentof surprise”
“Open Carry makes you a target”
or “An armed society is a polite society”
“More guns less crime”
“Guns deter criminals.”
Quit with the contradictions.
Pick one idea and stay with it!