Lawful Gun-Totin' Citizens Make Us Safer

More evidence that the lawful exercise of Second Amendment Rights makes the world a safer place.  From Quinnipiac University via Reason.com:

Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius has published a new study, "An examination of the effects of concealed weapons laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder rates," in the journal Applied Economics Letters. From the abstract:

The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of state-level assault weapons bans and concealed weapons laws on state-level murder rates. Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level. The results of this study are consistent with some prior research in this area, most notably Lott and Mustard (1997). [emphasis added]

Harvard Study: Gun Bans Don't Reduce Murder Rates

In a Harvard study, researchers asked, "Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?" To find an answer, they reviewed the crime data of several European countries. They discovered "that countries with HIGHER gun ownership often had LOWER murder rates." Key findings:

• Russia, which enforces very strict gun control on its people, has a murder rate 4 times higher than the US. [So much for the Left's false assertion that the US has the highest murder rate in the world.]
• Luxembourg, "where handguns are totally banned and ownership of any kind of gun is minimal, had a murder rate nine times higher than Germany in 2002."
• Norway, Finland, Germany and France—all nations whose citizens enjoy significant gun ownership—had remarkably low murder rates.

Harvard researchers concluded the study with this:

Over a decade ago, Professor Brandon Centerwall of the University of Washington undertook an extensive, statistically sophisticated study comparing areas in the United States and Canada to determine whether Canada's more restrictive policies had better contained criminal violence. When he published his results it was with the admonition:

If you are surprised by [our] finding[s], so [are we]. [We] did not begin this research with any intent to "exonerate" handguns, but there it is—a negative finding, to be sure, but a negative finding is nevertheless a positive contribution. It directs us where not to aim public health resources. [Brandon S. Centerwall, Author's Response to "Invited Commentary: common Wisdom and Plain Truth," 134 AM. J. EPIDEMIOLOGY 1264, 1264 (1991)]

Summarizing the Harvard study, Steve Adcock noted:

Further, the report cited, "the determinants of murder and suicide are basic social, economic, and cultural factors, not the prevalence of some form of deadly mechanism." Meaning, it's not guns that kill people. People kill people.

Guns

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut was a heart-wrenching tragedy. Yet that tragedy will only be compounded if headline-addicted politicians use it to malign millions of law abiding gun owners and/or limit citizen's Second Amendment rights. Consider the data.

"More people died via automobiles in 2009 alone [34,485 deaths] than died in gun-related deaths for the years 2005 [10,158], 2006 [10,225], and 2007 [10,129] combined," writes Awr Hawkins at Breitbart, citing government data. And "more people died from falls in 2009 alone [24,792 deaths] than died from gun-related deaths for the years 2009, 2010, and most of 2011 combined. Driving down the interstate and climbing rocks and ladders is exceedingly dangerous when compared with owning and using handguns, shotguns, and rifles."

There are "around 300 million guns in the United States and at least one gun in about 45% of all households," write Nick Gillespie and Amanda Winkler. "Yet the rate of gun-related crime continues to drop."

Gillespie and Winkler put together this 5 Facts About Guns, Schools, and Violence that everyone — especially federal and state legislators — should know: