Duke University Researchers Find Gun Control Has No Impact on Homicide Rate

By Tom Knighton Bearing Arms

At a time when violent crime is still way too high, we're told that we need to suck it up and accept some “common sense” restrictions on our right to keep and bear arms. After all, people are being killed and gun control is the only viable solution we have for the problem.

We've long argued that it's not, that gun control doesn't work, but it's amazing how often people ignore this.

History has shown a lot of instances when the homicide rate declined without any gun control being enacted, it go up after gun control was passed, and any number of other variations. It seems pretty clear to me.

But I'm biased. I favor the right to keep and bear arms and even if one could definitively prove gun control works, I would still oppose it because I know the dangers of gun control, especially when it works.

A new study from Duke University found something that your average gun control advocate isn't going to like.

Gun control laws have no impact on homicide rates. Those in the gun rights community have always known that. Now, a recent study led by researchers at the Duke University School of Medicine has substantiated it. The study looked at suicide and homicide rates involving children under the age of 18 for the period of 2009 through 2020. Using mortality data from the CDC and a database of state-level firearms laws maintained by the Rand Corporation, they examined the impact of 36 different gun control laws. These laws included regulations for background checks, mandatory waiting periods, “stand your ground” laws, safe storage provisions, and so-called Red Flag laws. During this 12-year study period, they found 6,735 suicides and 10,278 homicides reported that involved a firearm. The authors stated that they examined “suicide deaths by all firearms, including intentional self-harm by handguns only, intentional self-harm by rifles, shotguns, or large firearms only, and intentional self-harm by other or unspecified firearms, as well as homicide deaths for the same firearm types in each state.”

The study did find, at best, a marginal difference made with regard to mandatory storage laws and suicides. However, I'd argue that sufficient education, combined with tax incentives for gun safes would probably have a similar impact.

The reason for no dip in homicide rates, though, is pretty simple. Most guns used in crimes of any kind are either obtained illegally or are purchased by people who have no criminal record and wouldn't be denied some kind of gun by any laws remotely permissible under the Second Amendment.

Because that's the case, there's absolutely no way for gun laws to have an impact. Ban semi-autos and these murders would take place with revolvers. Ban revolvers and they'd be committed with single-shot or double-barreled guns. And that's just for the sake of argument. That's me providing a scenario that assumes gun control actually impacts what criminals can get.

At this point, that's not what's going to happen. Any prayer in Hades of that happening set sail long ago. Today, there are so many black market guns that you're likely never going to curtail what the bad guys are carrying no matter how many bans you enact, especially in the era of 3D printers.

So yeah, gun control isn't going to have any kind of an impact on homicides. Why would it?

“But it's worth it if it saves just one life.”

The problem is that the study found that it won't.

Find the original article in its entirety on Bearing Arms.

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