Would banning firearms reduce murder and suicide?

[Flak]

An interesting study on the subject by the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy here:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf

Flavio

 

[tripplej]

One can easily replace firearms with any other tool or even your own fingers! Since the times of Cane and Able, murder has been seen and there were no firearms at that time!

 

[Flak]

One can easily replace firearms with any other tool or even your own fingers! Since the times of Cane and Able, murder has been seen and there were no firearms at that time!

Well... fingers are not as effective but I appreciate the fact that a firearm may put the aggressor and the victim (i.e. a woman) on level ground

 

[tripplej]

I guess the main thing is that one doesn't need to use a particular tool or particular weapon if they are planning to do great harm to another individual. A baseball bat can do just as much damage. lol.

 

[Tonto]

I've heard countless statistics on countries with the toughest gun laws having the highest gun violence. It really is the person, not the gun that has to be dealt with.

 

[tripplej]

Criminals never follow the law.. Period.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I don't have the mind of a suicidal person, so I am not sure how I would be thinking about it, but hypothetically, I don't think I would shoot myself... overdose on sleeping pills seems much less painful. Just sayin'... I'd rather go the easy way... I'm a chicken.

It might actually reduce the murder rate slightly, in some areas. I think Chicago has some of the strictest gun law's, but one of the highest murder rates.

 

[phillihp23]

Guns don’t kill, people do. The people are the problem not the tools used to commit the crime. Herion’s illegal and it’s killing more people in WA than Automobiles. It’s the first time that Automobiles was not not the #1 cause of death. Oh ya, that brings me back to, I guess we should ban automobiles as they kill way more people than guns. But then again I might just be silly.