For or against?

Originally Posted by David4516

[...]
About the question "why is there so much crime in the US"... Before you open that can of worms, you might want to do some research... the US crime rate has been going steadily DOWN for many years now... while it remains high in countrys where firearms are illegal (such as the UK)...

Ok, first of all, knowing that one crime rate is going down, and the other going up doesn't say anything about how big they are in relationship to each other. Also, try to do some more research on what kind of crimes you are talking about, not all involve guns.

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/810522.stm, they are talking about a report saying that Britain is more violent than the USA (it's from 2000, but I didn't have the time to search for more recent figures):

Quote:

But the Home Office has hit back at the statistics, claiming that the average American is seven times more likely to be murdered than their British counterpart and 60 times more likely to be shot.

[...]

Home Office figures showed the murder rate in the US in 1998 was 6.3 per 100,000 people compared with 1.4 per 100,000 in England and Wales.

The murder rate in London is 2.9 per 100,000 compared with 8.6 per 100,000 in New York and 49.15 per 100,000 in Washington DC.

A report produced by the US Department of Justice in 1998 would appear to support the Home Office's claims.

It shows the murder rate was 5.7 times higher in the US than England and Wales and the rape rate was about three times higher.

The report also showed firearms were used in 68% of murders in the US compared with 7% in England and Wales, and in 41% of robberies in America against 5% in England and Wales.

I believe these figures do show quite clearly that making gun-ownership legal is a bad idea.

How ya doing, buddy?