The gun control debate is an interesting one as both ‘sides’ have a wealth of stats they can cherry pick from in order to make their case. However, it would appear that the self-ascribed “pro-gun” crowd (a bit misleading because it implies that any argument for tighter gun control or regulation makes a person “anti-gun”) amounts to a plethora of really bad arguments that encompass a wealth of standard fallacies that are repeated time and again. These “anti-gun control facts” run the entire gamut; from logical fallacies and factual errors. The recent and unfortunate mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida has reignited the debate, and the same false claims have made their way back onto the internet.
“In Mexico, guns are illegal and look at all of the gun violence there.”
First, it should be noted that guns are NOT illegal in Mexico (for some reason this gets repeated often, but it is not true). See Gun politics in Mexico
Another anti-gun control fallacy here is that the proponents of these arguments are using a developing country as their example. Comparing developed countries to one another gives us a different picture. It’s clear that the US (which has the loosest gun laws among developed nations) is off the charts in terms of gun deaths. So international stats don’t bode well for gun regulation opponents (unless they stick to using undeveloped or developing nations to make their point–and that’s a pretty low baseline to use). Many gun control opponents counter that in other countries, similar deaths occur but with other weapons. However, murder rates are also higher in the US. This also leaves little room to use stats to argue that loose gun restrictions make it easier for murder victims to defend themselves against attempted murders/homicides (at least enough to offset the increased murders/homicide attempts they face under looser gun laws).
Intentional Homicide and Rape? The US also ranks #1 or close to #1 among developed nations. Keep in mind, these are the crimes that anti-gun control sources claim our high gun ownership helps prevent. It’s also worth noting that that Nordic nations have high rates when it comes to rape. Many anti-gun law activists cite the Nordic countries as a high gun owning havens (at least by European standards) and note their relatively low homicide rates as evidence that higher gun ownership suppresses homicide. On the other hand, also using rape as a leading reason for loose gun restrictions (to help women offset the size/strength advantage of men) makes the high rate of rape in these countries result in an awkward contradiction.
A scatter plot of OECD countries showing their relationship between intentional homicides and gun freedom index does reveal an overall correlation between lower rates of intentional homicide and “lower gun freedom.”
Mexico, whose gun freedom index puts it at more or less at the center of the pack is in a league of its own in regards to homicides. This is why simply comparing the US and Mexico is convenient for those arguing against the efficacy of gun control legislation. However, beyond a mere US-Mexico comparison, the overall OECD stats show lower homicides alongside higher gun control.
A comparison of OECD countries shows lower homicide rates among countries with higher gun restrictions (or “lower gun freedom”). 2011 stats were used for both metrics. While the Freedom Index has updated their Gun Freedom Index to 2014, the stats for homicide rates have not been updated. 2011 is the most recent year where both metrics are available.
“But the UK/England has more violence than the US!”
One of the talking points we hear often is the claim that England has more “violent crime” than the United States and other countries in Europe. Generally, this is intended as a talking point to counter England’s lower homicide rates. There is one problem, what’s considered a “violent crime” is not the same in England as it is in the United States. In England, even an affray is considered a “violent crime.” Here in the US we generally associate “violent crime” with an actual physical injury.
Seriousness and injury • The majority of incidents categorised as violent crime involve no significant physical injury to the victim, although they can still be extremely traumatic experiences.
• In 48 per cent of all BCS violent incidents there was no injury, rising to 62 per cent and 63 percent for common assault and robbery respectively (year ending December 2003 interviews).
• There was no injury in at least 51 per cent1 of all recorded violence against the person offences in 2003 (Table 1a).
• At the other end of the spectrum, the more serious offences within violence against the personaccounted for five per cent of recorded violence in the year to December 2003 (Table 1a).
• Eleven per cent of BCS violent incidents, from 2002/03 BCS interviews, resulted in medical attention from a doctor. Two per cent of all BCS violent incidents resulted in a hospital stay, ranging from six per cent of wounding victims to one per cent of robbery victims (Simmons and Dodd, 2003).
Anti-Gun Control Either-Or Fallacies
This sort of fallacy assumes we have to choose between two mutually exclusive options. For example:
“More people die from (insert cause of death here) than guns.”
or
“The REAL problems is (insert sociological/psychological/societal problem (violent TV/video games, medication, lack of morals, etc) here)”
While there are certainly other, more prominent causes of death as well as a number of factors that lead people to commit a violent crime, the idea that we shouldn’t pass stronger gun laws because of these other factors is simply wrong. Perhaps violence is too glorified and there are too many people suffering from anxiety or depression–but stronger background checks can help lawmakers lessen the likeliness of mentally unstable people or ex-felons from obtaining a firearm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
