One of the arguments I frequently hear in favor of gun control is that Europeans enjoy lower crime rates as a result of more stringent gun laws. A recent Italian study [pdf] appears to contradict that.
Contrary to common perceptions, today both property and violent crimes (with the exception of homicides) are more widespread in Europe than in the United States, while the opposite was true thirty years ago. We label this fact as the ‘reversal of misfortunes’.
Indeed.
Notice that merry old England appears to be leading the uptick. It gets worse when violent crime is factored in.
Look at them around 1997, pulling right ahead of the pack. Lest we forget, that was the year they passed the Firearms Act, banning almost all handguns in the country. It was later amended to ban all handguns in the country.
The authors find themselves, unsurprisingly, unable to gauge the causes with any real degree of accuracy. Crime can have any number of contributing factors. They examine immigration rates, demographics, incarceration rates, and others. The only real conclusion they reach is that higher incarceration rates might lower crime.
But you know what doesn’t seem to work? Gun control. I know that’s a really broad statement, but nobody has ever, at any time, proven that stricter gun laws reduce crime.
Can we prove that such laws increase crime? No. Can I explain the disparity in homicides, despite Europe’s generally higher crime rate? No. We have to be careful not to read things we can’t prove into data, but if gun control worked, we’d see some indication in the numbers.
But it’s just not there.