Het is stuitend om te zien hoe politici weer de focus leggen op het makkelijk grijpbare. Het legale wapenbezit is zichtbaar. Het is goed geregistreerd, zelfs in Nederland het redelijk belang min of meer dicht getimmerd.
De link tussen legaal wapenbezit en de onderwereld - laat staan terrorisme - is nog steeds niet bewezen. Het laatste "rapport"wat er over verscheen zat zo vol met veronderstellingen en vermoedens dat het zelfs op de politieacademie in de meeste stoffige la is verdwenen.
Je voorkomt hier geen enkele terroristische aanslag mee. Het gaat de overheid alleen maar geld kosten. Dit verbod leidt direkt tot compensatie claims. Waar ook al binnen Europa jurisprudentie over is.
Ergo: dure grap en je stopt er geen enkele aanslag mee.
Er is daar eigenlijk best veel wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar gedaan:
We analyzed the relationship between homicide and gun availability using data from 26 developed countries from the early 1990s. We found that across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides. These results often hold even when the United States is excluded.
Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Firearm availability and homicide rates across 26 high income countries.
Journal of Trauma. 2000; 49:985-88.Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and homicide across states, 2001-2003. We found that states with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups, after accounting for rates of aggravated assault, robbery, unemployment, urbanization, alcohol consumption, and resource deprivation (e.g., poverty). There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm homicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. State-level homicide victimization rates in the U.S. in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership,
2001-2003. Social Science and Medicine. 2007; 64:656-64.We use epidemiological theory to explain why the “false positive” problem for rare events can lead to large overestimates of the incidence of rare diseases or rare phenomena such as self-defense gun use. We then try to validate the claims of many millions of annual self-defense uses against available evidence. We find that the claim of many millions of annual self-defense gun uses by American citizens is invalid.
Cook, Philip J; Ludwig, Jens; Hemenway, David. The gun debate’s new mythical number: How many defensive uses per year?
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 1997; 16:463-469.Using data from a national random-digit-dial telephone survey conducted under the direction of the Harvard Injury Control Center, we examined the extent and nature of offensive gun use. We found that firearms are used far more often to frighten and intimidate than they are used in self-defense. All reported cases of criminal gun use, as well as many of the so-called self-defense gun uses, appear to be socially undesirable.
Hemenway, David; Azrael, Deborah. The relative frequency of offensive and defensive gun use: Results of a national survey.
Violence and Victims. 2000; 15:257-272.Using data from a national random-digit-dial telephone survey conducted under the direction of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, we investigated how and when guns are used in the home. We found that guns in the home are used more often to frighten intimates than to thwart crime; other weapons are far more commonly used against intruders than are guns.
Azrael, Deborah R; Hemenway, David. In the safety of your own home: Results from a national survey of gun use at home.
Social Science and Medicine. 2000; 50:285-91.We analyzed data from a telephone survey of 5,800 California adolescents aged 12-17, which asked questions about gun threats against, and self-defense gun use by these young people. We found that these young people were far more likely to be threatened with a gun than to use a gun in self-defense, and most of the reported self-defense gun uses were hostile interactions between armed adolescents. Males, smokers, binge drinkers, those who threatened others and whose parents were less likely to know their whereabouts were more likely both to be threatened with a gun and to use a gun in self-defense.
Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Gun threats against and self-defense gun use by California adolescents.
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 2004; 158:395-400.Using data from surveys of detainees in six jails from around the nation, we worked with a prison physician to determine whether criminals seek hospital medical care when they are shot. Criminals almost always go to the hospital when they are shot. To believe fully the claims of millions of self-defense gun uses each year would mean believing that decent law-abiding citizens shot hundreds of thousands of criminals. But the data from emergency departments belie this claim, unless hundreds of thousands of wounded criminals are afraid to seek medical care. But virtually all criminals who have been shot went to the hospital, and can describe in detail what happened there.
May, John P; Hemenway, David. Oen, Roger; Pitts, Khalid R. Medical Care Solicitation by Criminals with Gunshot Wound Injuries: A Survey of Washington DC Jail Detainees.
Journal of Trauma. 2000; 48:130-132.This paper uses data from two national random-digit-dial surveys to examine public attitudes about gun carrying. By a margin of 5 to 1, Americans feel less safe rather than more safe as more people in their community begin to carry guns. By margins of at least 9 to 1, Americans do not believe that regular citizens should be allowed to bring their guns into restaurants, college campuses, sports stadium, bars, hospitals or government buildings.
Hemenway, David; Azrael, Deborah; Miller, Matthew. U.S. national attitudes concerning gun carrying.
Injury Prevention. 2001; 7:282-285.Using data from mailed surveys of over 10,000 undergraduates in 2001, we examined correlates of gun possession at college. The 2001 survey confirmed the findings of the 1997 surveys, and also showed that guns on college campuses were more common in regions with higher levels of gun prevalence, and that gun threats to college students were also more common in these regions.
Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David; Wechsler, Henry. Guns and gun threats at college.
Journal of American College Health. 2002; 51:57-65.
