In the wake of the horrific mass shooting in an Aurora, Colo., many are urging a new conversation on gun control while others acknowledge with bitter resignation that no meaningful action to restrict guns will be taken because the will for it just isn’t there.
Support for tighter gun laws has dropped sharply over the past 20 years, and gun rights groups have far more political clout than gun control advocates.
Liberal and left-leaning websites are full of comments lamenting America’s barbaric gun culture and Americans’ irrational attachment to firearms.
Yet a closer look at the facts shows that it’s even more irrational to think that gun laws will keep us safe.
Gun control supporters point out that the United States has far higher gun homicide rates than other developed countries as well as far more guns in the hands of the population (89 for every 100 people) and far fewer restrictions.
But that does not necessarily prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
Writing on CNN.com, Fareed Zakaria cites Switzerland as an exemplary country with low gun homicide rates.
Indeed, the total homicide rate in Switzerland in 2010 was 0.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 4.2 in the United States.
But Switzerland actually has widespread gun ownership (with an estimated 2 million to 3 million guns in a population of fewer than 8 million) and a thriving gun culture rooted in a tradition of a citizen militia.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, gun laws are considerably more restrictive than in the United States and civilian gun ownership is a paltry five per 100 people yet the homicide rate is more than double ours.
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