Culture is a key variable here. Given the culture, the freedom to defend
oneself may well be correlated with lower crime rates. Vermont in the US
has the most liberty in self-defense and low crime rates relative to other
states.
Indeed, global, country-wide statistics don't tell a reliable story (especially, of course, if Switzerland and Israel are excluded).
One interesting piece of evidence is Brandon S. Centerwall, Homicide and the Prevalence of Handguns: Canada and the United States, 1976 to 1980, American Journal of Epidemiology, 134 (1991): 1245-1260. Centerwall shows that, if we compare ADJACENT American States and Canadian provinces (to control for the cultural factor), it is generally the case that there is more guns and less crime on the American side of the border. Another piece of evidence is indeed Canada, where the same gun legislation (which is federal) applies to all provinces, while violent crime rates range from the low European or Vermont type, to quite high rates. Finally, consider indeed Canada where there were relatively few controls before 1977 -- except on handguns, which had to be registered, but for which a carry permit was not difficult to obtain. Fully automatic weapons and sawed-off shotguns were legal. For some reason, guns did not kill then.
What one has to remember is that gun control increases the total price of guns, and carrying guns, more for the honest citizen than for the criminal.
P.L.
Visiting Professor , Universit� du Qu�bec � Hull
Director of the Groupe de Recherche �conomie et Libert� (GREL)
Research Fellow, Independent Institute
http://www.pierrelemieux.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Backup: [EMAIL PROTECTED])
Montr�al address:
C.P. 725, Tour de la Bourse, Montr�al, Canada H4Z 1J9
Fax: 1(819)585-4423
PGP Key: 0xBDFFCD16
Fingerprint: CF3E 4A3F 57AB 8AB2 88FB A1D8 C83D 2E15 BDFF CD16
**********************************************************
"L'homme vivant sous la servitude des lois prend
sans s'en douter une �me d'esclave."
The man who lives under the servitude of laws takes,
without suspecting it, the soul of a slave.
(Georges Ripert, Le D�clin du Droit, Paris, Librairie
G�n�rale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1949, p. 94)
**********************************************************
