Question: Why are there lower major crime rates in states that have concealed carry laws than those that don't? Originally Posted by CuteOldGuyLike Atlanta?
Question: Why are there lower major crime rates in states that have concealed carry laws than those that don't? Originally Posted by CuteOldGuyI thought that there were only 2 states that did not have concealed carry laws. Can you give us some statistics to back up your claims?
Only in your world, Timmy, does defending the 2nd Amendment equate to defending murder. You are really reaching, there, dude.
Question: Why are there lower major crime rates in states that have concealed carry laws than those that don't? Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
Note that Speed Racer's link includes suicides, homicides, self-defense, etc.You want to have a "meaningful discussion on gun control"?!?!??
What percentage of deaths are suicides (a crime in many states) ? About half I think. And what percentage of suicides use a gun ?
No surprise Hawaii has the lowest suicide rate and Alaska one of the highest !!!!!!!!!!!
Useless data if you want to have a meaningful discussion on gun control. Originally Posted by Whirlaway
Note that Speed Racer's link includes suicides, homicides, self-defense, etc.In typical Whirlaway fashion, you have taken something out of a post that was hardly the theme of the post, and made a major issue out of it. The link was added as one source of data, and I clearly stated that COG or anyone else could cite another data source. It wasn't there to prove ANYTHING, one way or the other.
What percentage of deaths are suicides (a crime in many states) ? About half I think. And what percentage of suicides use a gun ?
No surprise Hawaii has the lowest suicide rate and Alaska one of the highest !!!!!!!!!!!
Useless data if you want to have a meaningful discussion on gun control. Originally Posted by Whirlaway
In typical Whirlaway fashion, you have taken something out of a post that was hardly the theme of the post, and made a major issue out of it. The link was added as one source of data, and I clearly stated that COG or anyone else could cite another data source. It wasn't there to prove ANYTHING, one way or the other.
COG made a statement (Why are there lower major crime rates in states that have concealed carry laws than those that don't?) and I simply wanted to know where he got his information from.
How about this from
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews...te%3A_findings
"Firearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation. Though the sample sizes are small, we find substantial negative correlations between firearm deaths and states that ban assault weapons (-.45), require trigger locks (-.42), and mandate safe storage requirements for guns (-.48).." Originally Posted by SpeedRacerXXX
"I don't know if you can contribute it all to conceal carry," Hilton said, but he insisted some part of that drop in crime is due to more responsible, armed citizens. More than 275,000 North Carolina residents hold active concealed weapons permits, a little less than three percent of the population.http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccap...tory/11204311/
"The tools that we have show a long-term, steady decline in violent crime and property crime both nationally," said James Brunet, an associate professor and crime expert at N.C. State's Department of Public Administration. "We really don't exactly know why. We've had so many different crime policies over the past 20 years which may have contributed to the drop, but we can't disentangle them."
Brunet said it's unlikely that any one policy is the "magic bullet" that has lowered crime.
"There's no firm, solid evidence that the growth in concealed weapons permits has contributed to a drop in crime rates," said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston.
Among the reasons most criminologists think crime is dropping, he said, are better policing strategies, an end to the crack cocaine epidemic and high rates of incarceration. Even the fact that more Americans have cameras in their phones, and are able to capture crime as it happens, may have contributed.
Fox notes that crime rates have dropped even in states like Massachusetts, which have very restrictive gun laws.
At least one academic has put forward the theory that a higher availability of guns lowers crime. John Lott, author of the book More Guns Less Crime is often cited by proponents of expanding concealed-carry laws.
But as PolitiFact noted when a claim by the head of the NRA that "violent crime in jurisdictions that recognize the Right to Carry is lower than in areas that prevent it," Lott's work is deemed flawed by many other academics. Fox called it "controversial" and said that it was not widely accepted.
And as PolitiFact also noted, a National Academies of Sciences report in 2005 said current crime data doesn't allow policymakers to draw a conclusion one way or the other.
"The evidence to date does not adequately indicate either the sign or the magnitude of a causal link between the passage of right-to-carry laws and crime rates," reads one conclusion in the report.
About the numbers, yes. Violent crime has dropped during the same time period North Carolina has allowed citizens to obtain concealed weapons permits. However, that drop in crime is part of a national trend, and there's not good evidence that expanding concealed weapons laws has contributed to that drop in crime.
Hilton adds one note. In 1995, he said, many worried out loud that offering concealed weapons permits would lead to a Wild West mentality and cause violent crime to go up.
