Lott on Heller
John Lott has a FoxNews piece on Heller:
Thus far the District of Columbia has spent a lot of time making a public policy case. Their argument in their brief to the court is pretty simple : “banning handguns saves lives.”
Yet, while it may seem obvious to many people that banning guns will save lives, that has not been D.C.’s experience.
The ban went into effect in early 1977, but since it started there is only one year (1985) when D.C.’s murder rate fell below what it was in 1976. But the murder rate also rose dramatically relative to other cities. In the 29 years we have data after the ban, D.C.’s murder rate ranked first or second among the largest 50 cities for 15 years. In another four years, it ranked fourth.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:11 am
BTW, is there any source for statistics on how many people are shot or shot at but not killed by criminal use of firearms in a given city? Or other methods of assault and homicide?
I ask because I wonder how often the number of gun murders goes down due to better EMS response versus a reduction in crime?