expanding the dataset

About a week back, I demonstrated that there is a negative correlation between firearm ownership rates and the rate of crimes committed with the assistance of firearms, which completely precludes the possibility of there being a causal relationship between the former and the latter – in short, firearms do not cause crime. But that conclusion was based solely off information from here in the United States, where the number of firearms has been steadily increasing on a yearly basis… what about countries wherein firearms have been banned or otherwise nearly legislated out of existence? What is going on there?

Coincidentally, just this morning, I found a few examples.

First, by way of Jigsaw’s Thoughts, we have this crime report from Australia:

Comparisons of 2009 victim counts to data in prior years are based on actual movements, that is, excluding the business process impacts mentioned above and in the Technical Note. Compared to 2008, the number of victims decreased across all offence categories with the exception of murder (1% increase), attempted murder (1% increase) and blackmail/extortion (60% increase). The largest decrease between 2008 and 2009 in the number of victims was the 19% decrease in kidnapping/abduction victims, followed by a 9% decrease in motor vehicle theft.

There is a chart to go along with that text, and it would appear as though sexual assault decreased by about 2%, and robbery decreased by about 5%. In the same time period (2008-2009),the number of American murders decreased by 7.3%, our forcible rapes (The only thing I have to compare to the Australian crime of “sexual assault”, even though they are not equivalent.) decreased by 2.6%, America’s robberies decreased by 8.0%, and our aggravated assaults (Again, not equivalent to Australia’s “attempted murder”, since they do not break out assaults, but all I have.) decreased 4.2%.

In short, America’s violent crime numbers decreased significantly more than Australia’s, and yet the number of firearms in civilian circulation steadily increased in America, and we have significantly “looser” firearm-related laws. Cannot say as though I am surprised.

But, hey, what about rates? I mean, these countries have drastically different populations, right? Well, sure, so here we go:

Murder, 1.2 victims per 100,000 persons, no change from 2008
Attempted murder, 1.1 victims per 100,000 persons, no change from 2008
Sexual assault, 89 victims per 100,000 persons, a decrease from the 93 victims per 100,000 persons in 2008 [4.3% decrease - ed.]
Robbery, 72 victims per 100,000 persons, which was a decrease from the 77 victims per 100,000 persons recorded in 2008. [6.5% decrease - ed.]

On the other hand, here are the numbers for America’s equivalent crimes: murder – 5.0 victims per 100,000 person, 7.3% decrease; 262.8 per 100,000 persons, 4.2% decrease; forcible rape – 56.6 per 100,000 persons, 3.4% decrease; robbery – 133 per 100,000 persons, 8.8% decrease. To be certain, those are worse numbers across the board, but, again, look at the trending – universal decreases, with only one being smaller than its Australian not-really-equivalent crime, and yet we Americans just keep buying more and more guns… Again, I am not surprised.

Finally, as pro-rights activists have been maintaining for quite some time now, if criminals cannot use firearms, they will use other tools, even their bare hands:

A knife was the most common type of weapon used in committing these offences: 37% of attempted murder victims; 36% of murder victims; and 19% of robbery victims were subjected to an offence involving a knife. A firearm was involved in 18% of attempted murders, 12% of murders and 7% of robbery offences. A high proportion of sexual assault offences (98%), kidnapping/abduction offences (83%) and over half of robbery offences (57%) committed did not involve the use of a weapon.

People just keep getting murdered in Australia, despite all of the “gun control” legislation that particular country has – as Jigsaw says, the problem is not the weapons, but the people looking to “control” those weapons do not want you to know that.

Moving on, courtesy of commenter Chris Cook at The Smallest Minority, we have this news report from once-Great Britain, another country with nearly absolute bans on firearm ownership:

According to Home Office figures, there were 59 firearms-related homicides in 2006-07 compared with 49 in the previous year. That is an increase of 18% in just one year. There were 507 serious injuries from firearms – more than one incident a day.

But at the same time, the trend in gun crime overall has been going down.

Sorry, guys, but a one-year decrease does not a trend make.

At any rate, once-Great Britain’s last major firearm-related legislation was the Firearms (Amendment) (No.2) Act of 1997 (banning pretty much all center-fire handguns), and since then, the number of firearm-related crimes has more-than-doubled, with a slight slacking-off in the most-recent year (which may not even exist, given British constabularies lie to make their crime numbers look better). In the same time frame, the number of firearms in American citizens’ hands has been steadily increasing, but our firearm-related crime numbers have actually decreased. Surprised? Me? Not really.

Time and time again, the facts, figures, and realities plainly show that the problems are not inanimate lumps of metal, but, time and time again, anti-rights nuts just keep vainly trying to shove that djinn back in its bottle. “Gun control” advocates are nothing more than streetconer charlatans, hawking content-free nostrums to those who do not know better… thankfully, learning the dangers of modern snake oil really is not all that hard any more.