Ken Paul says that there are three reasons why gun control won’t work (“The wrong weapons; there’s more we can do,” March 16, Reporter). I can give at least 10 times that many reasons that they will: Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, France, Sweden, Switzerland .…
In fact, the American Journal of Medicine reported that Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by gun violence than in other developed countries. And CBS News stated that “compared to those in the same age groups in other wealthy countries, Americans aged 15-24 are 49 times more likely to be the victim of a gun-related murder.” And it’s safe to say that it’s no accident that the U.S. has the most firearms per capita of any country.
In fact, even his three examples are wrong. According to the FBI, the three cities that have the highest per capita gun murder rates are not Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., but Baltimore, New Orleans and Detroit.
Meanwhile, while the body of scientific evidence at this point may show some link between violent video and an increase in aggressive behavior, the relationship with mass shootings is, at best, tenuous; any claim of it as the primary cause of mass shootings is entirely unsupported. There has been no correlation over time between rates of video game usage and rates of violent crimes committed by young people. And those violent Hollywood movies are often just as popular overseas as they are here.
– Robert Rosen
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