Brady Rankings: More Gun Laws, More Violent Crime

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=85
   
Once again, the Brady rankings clearly demonstrate that states that have the most gun control tend to have the most violent crime.

Brady says that a state could get a perfect “100” if it would: limit the frequency of gun purchases; prohibit private transfers of firearms; require gun show attendees to sign a ledger to be provided to the police; prohibit the sale of firearms that do not engrave a serial number on fired ammunition and require registration such firearms’ purchasers; license and regulate firearm dealers at the state level; prohibit handguns that do not have “smart” gun features; prohibit detachable-magazine semi-automatics and some pump-action rifles and shotguns; allow the arbitrary rejection of Right-to-Carry permit applications; allow local jurisdictions to impose gun control laws more restrictive than the state legislature; and allow the criminal prosecution of people who use firearms in legitimate self defense. Since most states do not have these kinds of laws — gun control having been rolled back and rejected at the federal, state, and local levels in the last 15-20 years — Brady gave most states “failing” scores. Forty two states received 28 points or fewer, and only one state received a score higher than 63–California.

But, as usual, Brady’s scores correlate inversely with states’ crime rates.  Using crime data published by the FBI for 2006, the most recent year available:

* California, the state that has the most gun control and received Brady’s highest score (79), has violent crime and murder rates that are 14% and 23% higher, respectively, compared to the rest of the country.

* Brady didn’t bother giving a score to Washington, D.C., which has more gun control than California and even higher crime rates.

* Most of the 38 states that Brady gave 20 or fewer points to, have total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates that are below the national rates.

* For states that have total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates that are below the national rates, Brady gave average scores of 19, 19, and 14, respectively.

* For the 10 states with the lowest total violent crime, murder, and robbery rates, Brady gave average scores of 12, 12, and 9, respectively.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=3439

2008-02-02