What Britain’s Burglary Rate Shows About How To Make Gun Violence Almost DISAPPEAR

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Some of the outright lies and misinformation coming from those who are supposed to be looking out for the American people is disturbing. Time and time and time again, the current administration (and anti-gunners outside of government) have been caught saying things that are plainly not true in order to prop up their push for gun control.

It’s disgusting to see.

One of the biggest lies used to push for gun control is saying that “safe storage” laws save lives.

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Now, in case you’re unfamiliar with the term, “safe storage” laws require gun owners to keep firearms at home locked up pretty much all of the time… regardless of who is in the house. The reasoning is that it will keep kids from getting their hands on firearms. The reality about how many lives those laws save, though, is quite different (hat tip to here for the lead). Dr. John Lott writes,

Safe storage laws may also sound like a reasonable proposal, but making people lock up their guns actually costs lives. According to my research, published in the Journal of Law and Economics and elsewhere, these laws make it more difficult for people to respond quickly and successfully defend themselves and their families. As a result, criminals became more emboldened to invade people’s homes. 

There have been 300 more total murders and 4,000 more rapes each year in states with safe storage laws. Burglaries are also significantly higher.

If you want to see the importance of deterrence, consider “hot” burglaries, where residents are at home when criminals strike. The United Kingdom not only has twice the burglary rate of the United States, but 59% of break-ins there are hot burglaries. By contrast, the U.S. has a hot burglary rate of 13%. Consistent with this, surveys of convicted burglars in the two countries indicate that American criminals spend about twice as much time casing a home and making sure no one is home. American burglars frequently comment that they avoid late-night break-ins because ‘‘that’s the way to get shot.” These are concerns that British burglars don’t share, given the UK’s strict gun laws.

Interesting, don’t you think? Burglars are more likely to try to avoid a person being home in the U.S. because they are scared of getting shot.

But not in the U.K. where firearms are almost impossible to get legally. Burglars there don’t care because they know that’s it’s pretty unlikely that they’ll get shot when try to rob you, steal from you, or kill you.

The fact of the matter is that, when you look at gun violence statistics in context so that you can see what is really going on, it’s absolutely clear that legal gun ownership decrease violence and death.

And that’s the truth about gun control that people need to know.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. Moreover, a homeowner cannot use more force than the burglar, and a firearm is almost always deemed to be excessive force. Thus, in most cases that homeowner faces more severe punishment (seven or eight years in prison) that the burglar (who is looking at no more than two).

  2. In England as well as the rest of Europe there is a presumption that you have no self defense rights, even if attacked with what we here in the United States would consider lethal force. I am grateful that the Founding Fathers were omniscient enough that they included the Bill of Rights as the first ten amendments to the Constitution so that it would be plainly acknowledged that we have a natural God given right to defend our homes and loved ones with whatever force is necessary to stop the threat of harm should it be necessary. The folks in England and many other parts of the world do not have that acknowledgment of their natural rights and their rights are manipulated in whatever manner their political classes wish to do, and there is a lot closer example of that just north of the United States, the Canadians are in the same boat, they elected a radical totalitarian to be their national leader and they are paying for that with all kinds of nonsensical edicts from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is basically a totalitarian despot. Thankfully we have a Constitution that is our established national foundation for the administration of laws and practices in this country, although the progressive community is working as hard as they can daily to abrogate all of the elements of it that they can so that they can turn the United States into a clone of the rest of the despotic world. I hope that it doesn’t happen and that voters in this country learn better and vote accordingly, but I don’t think I will hold my breath.

    • Between the US and the UK which country had the most murders by one person and what was the weapon and when did it happen? Excluding 9/11 which was an act of war.
      1. Britain 2 turn of the last century 3 nurse murdered 300 people with a syringe.

  3. One other truth is, if you can’t own guns legally, own ’em illegally. You’ll still be alive to discuss the matter if need be. Our British friends also need to see Phil Luty’s book on improvising weapons, including shotguns made from plumbing pipe. It may still be available on line.

  4. The strange thing is this. Most of the European countries with strict gun control laws seem to have a population that’s wound pretty tightly. I guess that we’d be wound pretty tightly too if we had such high burglary rates without a legal means of protection. Still, we have the progressives trying to treat everyone like a criminal.

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