Actually it has been proven time and time again that guns play no role in crime stats.
When convicts are interviewed about why they leave some targets and pick others, the number one reason cited was that they feared that the potential target may have been armed and they feared getting shot. That is distinct proof that crime was, at the very least, reduced for those potential targets. There is no more direct proof that guns effect crime than this.
Tab, I don't get it. Are you really a liberal plant, or maybe a sheep in sheepdog's clothing? Sometimes it seems that you believe in the right to bare arms and other times it seems like you're on board with the people who believe in "reasonable" restrictions/infringements. I don't mean to attack you. I just wonder where you're coming from. Are you just trying to be the devil's advocate?
A Tale of Two Cities
2/2/2009
Two cities face each other across the U.S.-Mexican border.
In one of them, oppressive gun control restricts legal firearm ownership to an elite few approved by the bureaucrats in power. In the other city, the right to keep and bear arms is respected by the constitutions of the nation and the state.
Which city -Juarez, Mexico or El Paso, Texas -resembles a war zone?
Juarez had over 1,500 murders in 2008. That's a homicide rate of more than 100 per 100,000. Just across the border, El Paso's population of 600,000 had just 16 murders in 2008.
American gun control advocates claim that if only we'd pass "common-sense restrictions" like they have in Juarez, our city streets would be safer. That's nonsense! Mexico's gun control laws haven't stopped the drug cartels from turning Juarez into a killing zone.
Meanwhile, El Paso's law-and-order mentality goes hand in hand with legal gun ownership. Of the tens of thousands of gun owners in El Paso, thousands are Right-to-Carry permit holders. And El Paso is one of the safest cities in the nation.
The difference between Juarez and El Paso is as clear as night and day ... because it's as clear as the difference between gun control and crime control.