Stats on Gun Crime vs Gun Laws?

[ViperGTS19801]

I spent the past two hours looking for the studies and statistics I've seen in passing before about how gun laws being imposed or repealed have affected gun crime. I have come up with NOTHING!

Can anyone help me here? I just want to put together the studies and stats, be they good or bad. I also want to see what else there is to learn about these studies and what they may have not covered that could have affected their outcomes.

Thanks!

[tl_3237]

Might want to check out the several books written by John R. Lott Jr and Gary Kleck.

Both have published a plethora of books on the reationship between guns, laws and crime.

An example to preview.

Also google/wikipedia both for a listing of their pubs.

[jokusfocus]

Might be something useful in here:
http://www.gunfacts.info/

[kcr121]

I spent the past two hours looking for the studies and statistics I've seen in passing before about how gun laws being imposed or repealed have affected gun crime. I have come up with NOTHING!

Can anyone help me here? I just want to put together the studies and stats, be they good or bad. I also want to see what else there is to learn about these studies and what they may have not covered that could have affected their outcomes.

Thanks!

You've come up with nothing because statistics can not explain trends in crime, only describe it. This goes for all statistics, no matter what you apply them to. There is a distinct difference between correlation and causation. Correlation means that two occurrences display an observable relationship, whether negative or positive. A lack of correlation means that there is no relationship between two events. Correlation can be directly observed and quantified with a number.

Causation, on the other hand, shows that one event affects or initiates another. Causation is impossible to prove with statistics.

To illustrate the point: the sun rises every day. In fact, it has risen every single day that I have been alive. Additionally, I fart every day. In fact, I cannot recall a day that I have not farted. I'm fairly certain that I have farted every day that I have been alive. These two events display a strong positive correlation - likely very close to 1 (correlation ranges from -1 to +1.)

However, is there causation? Does the rising of the sun cause me to fart? Do my farts cause the sun to rise? There is no way to prove that one of these events causes or does not cause the other to happen.

My point in all of this is that you always need to be skeptical of "statistics" and consider their sources (regardless of whether or not they illustrate our agenda.) Any time a media outlet comes out shouting that guns encourage crime or guns reduce crime, you can likely dismiss the remainder of the text, because what follows will merely be someone's uneducated opinion that has little basis in scientific fact. I see what you're trying to do, and if you spend a few minutes Googling, you could find any "statistics" to "prove" any point you want to make.

[JCWohlschlag]

• Snowflakes in Hell — Correlation on Brady Rankings and Crime (The following two links were graciously lifted from this post, as well.)
• Austin Gun Rights Examiner — Brady Campaign 2008 state scorecard: Higher score, more crime
• The View from North Central Idaho — More Brady Campaign Score correlations

[NikeBauer21]

Some good stuff posted in here Viper. I'm particularly fond of gunfacts.info It's straight and to the point, referencing all of the information instantly.

[PA-Joe]

You also want to get the listing of other sports and their accident rates. Tennis has more accidents and deaths than does firearms.

[jshwak]

You've come up with nothing because statistics can not explain trends in crime, only describe it. This goes for all statistics, no matter what you apply them to. There is a distinct difference between correlation and causation. Correlation means that two occurrences display an observable relationship, whether negative or positive. A lack of correlation means that there is no relationship between two events. Correlation can be directly observed and quantified with a number.

Causation, on the other hand, shows that one event affects or initiates another. Causation is impossible to prove with statistics.

To illustrate the point: the sun rises every day. In fact, it has risen every single day that I have been alive. Additionally, I fart every day. In fact, I cannot recall a day that I have not farted. I'm fairly certain that I have farted every day that I have been alive. These two events display a strong positive correlation - likely very close to 1 (correlation ranges from -1 to +1.)

However, is there causation? Does the rising of the sun cause me to fart? Do my farts cause the sun to rise? There is no way to prove that one of these events causes or does not cause the other to happen.

My point in all of this is that you always need to be skeptical of "statistics" and consider their sources (regardless of whether or not they illustrate our agenda.) Any time a media outlet comes out shouting that guns encourage crime or guns reduce crime, you can likely dismiss the remainder of the text, because what follows will merely be someone's uneducated opinion that has little basis in scientific fact. I see what you're trying to do, and if you spend a few minutes Googling, you could find any "statistics" to "prove" any point you want to make.

tldr: correlation <> causation ..

[ViperGTS19801]

Some good stuff posted in here Viper. I'm particularly fond of gunfacts.info It's straight and to the point, referencing all of the information instantly.

Excellent, I just saved it and will read it in a bit.