A new study by Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius suggests concealed carry laws save lives and assault weapons bans are ineffective, according to Breitbart News.
(We have to take Breitbart’s word for it because the study is only available after paying $39 by clicking here.)
Breitbart says they obtained the whole study not just the abstract–and the more they read the more support was found for Gius’ claims. The study is published in the Applied Economic Letters and it reveals that states with less restrictive concealed carry laws save lives while states with more gun control actually endanger lives. The study also purports to show that states with gun control measures such as assault weapons bans are not responsible for reducing state-level murder rates.
The study uses data from 1980 to 2009 and controlling data for state and year fixed effects. The results of the study seems to suggest that, “states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level.” Gius’ study says that “restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level.”
According to the Breitbart report Gius explains what he means by “restricted” and “unrestricted” concealed carry. Each state has one of four laws which are, “unrestricted, shall issue, may issue and no issue.”
Out of the four laws the most restrictive ones are “may issue” and “no issue.” States with these laws show “gun-related murder rates are 10 percent higher” than those states who have less restrictive laws, according to the study.
Gius also examined the impact of the federal ban on assault weapons and found it has “little to no effect on homicide rates that are associated with firearms and on gunshot wounds per victim.” Gius cited a 2001 study by Koper and Roth which shows, “the Federal ban had little to no effect on homicide rates associated with firearms and on gunshot wounds per victim.”
The evidence is clear on this matter as reports on the internet show that law-abiding citizens who carry firearms have thwarted countless murders. The key to reducing carnage in the future is to continue allowing concealed carry ownership. Police cannot always arrive on the scene of someone murdering another person quick enough, so if a citizen who carries a weapon is around it’s always possible they can limit the bad guy’s intentions to murder numerous people.
Detroit police chief, James Craig used to be against concealed carry but he recently said in a press conference: “If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them.” It wasn’t until recently that James started believing in concealed carry. He also said, “I changed my orientation real quick. Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”
Those in favor of gun control try to convince Americans that guns in the hands of private citizens would lead to more crime is nothing but scare tactics. We can see the ineffectiveness of cities that have gun bans in place.
Large municipalities such as Chicago, L.A., D.C. and Detroit have some of the highest gun crimes and all these cities have gun bans in place. It’s fairly obvious that gun bans only cause an increase of gun crime by criminals intent on murdering someone.
