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More Guns, Less Violence
By Gary Mauser
The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) hangs over Canadian and
American gun owners like the sword of Damocles. At the
time I’m writing, what the UN decided this summer about
the ATT is unknown.
Supporters claim the goal of the ATT is to suppress terrorists
and criminals, but in attempting this, the UN does not
discriminate between upstanding citizens or criminals, or
even between democracies and dictatorships. All civilians
are distrusted and must be disarmed. Everywhere. Only
governments can legitimately have guns. Remember, the
UN is a league of governments, not citizens. Thus, the UN
treats all countries as equally legitimate. UN treaties are antidemocratic
as there is no formal recognition that government
legitimacy relies upon civilian support.
The ATT is particularly menacing this year because
Canadians do not have former US president George Bush
to protect them. The Obama Administration has reversed the
previous Administration’s position by deciding to support the
negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty. Harper’s Conservative
government stands virtually alone. Few countries are willing
to stand in the way of the UN steamroller because supporting
the ATT is currently fashionable with UN delegates. Luckily,
the UN prefers procrastinating to making decisions. It is
possible that determined criticism from a few courageous
countries like Canada will derail or at least postpone the ATT.
At its heart, the ATT assumes armed civilians pose a threat to
peace and political stability. This may be true in dictatorships
or fragile third-world countries, but it is not the case in stable
western democracies, like Canada or the United States,
where there is a culture of political responsibility. In these
countries, the vast majority of citizens, including lawabiding
firearms owners, supports the national institutions
and tolerates a relatively wide range of social and political
differences. At the same time, the government and police
serve the basic needs of the populace and are reasonably
responsive to public opinion.
Civilian firearm owners are not violent and make a positive
contribution to a country. Consider the preliminary crime
statistics in the US recently released by the FBI showing that
violent crime rates, particularly the murder rate, have fallen
yet again. For the past 20 years, criminal violence in the US
has dropped almost every year. This shocks gun grabbers
because it flies in the face of increasing gun availability. More
and more states allow responsible citizens to carry concealed
handguns in public. Violent crime rates tumble when more
Americans own and carry firearms. Unfortunately, the UN
popinjays are unwilling to recognize these facts.
The FBI recently estimated that the annual number of murders
dropped 1.9 percent from 2010 to 2011 in the US. Put another
way, the per capita rate of murders fell approximately 2.5
percent. This means that the nation’s murder rate has been
cut by about 53 percent and the total violent crime rate has
been cut by about 49 percent since 1991, when violent crime
hit an all-time high. Note that this is just the preliminary
report. The final figures will be announced in September.
This drop in violent crime rates corresponds with the growth
in the number of armed Americans. Since 1991, the number
of states that allow responsible citizens to carry concealed
handguns in public has increased from 17 to 41 and the
number of Americans living is such states has increased
from 25% to 64%. Wisconsin was the latest state in 2010
to liberalize its gun laws. (There are 39 shall-issue states,
and two others that have fairly-administered carry permit
systems. Only Illinois has no provision for citizen carry
permits.) John Lott explains this in an easy-to-read manner
in More guns, Less crime.
See “Firearm Ownership” Chart
In Canada, gun control supporters like to claim that the
drop in homicide rate since the early 1990s was primarily
due to the increasingly stringent gun restrictions that were
introduced by the Liberals in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
But how to explain that homicide fell faster in the US than in
Canada over the same time period? The Canadian homicide
rate has decreased only 40% since 1991. The US has taken
the exact opposite approach by permitting, even encouraging,
law-abiding citizens to own and carry firearms.
Armed civilians contribute to social and political stability
outside the United States as well. Internationally, the
36 September - October www.nfa.ca