Study: Guns Don’t Deter Crime
States with the highest rate of gun ownership have the highest rate of firearm assaults according to a new study.
The study was done by researchers at the Harvard Medical School.
A new study found a higher rate of firearm ownership led to more crimes related to guns.
The study, done by researchers at Harvard Medical School and set to be released in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in states with the most guns compared to states with the least guns. The researchers also found that firearm robbery increased consistently as state gun ownership increased.
Still, researchers erred on the side of caution when discussing the takeaway of their results. “It’s really hard to find evidence that where there are more guns, there are less crimes,” says David Hemenway of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. “But you can easily find evidence that where there are a lot more guns, there are a lot more gun crimes.”
Researchers combined FBI data on firearm robberies and assault with surveys from the Center for Disease Control on gun ownership to compile their data. They controlled for factors such as household income, population density, age, race and more, according to news.yahoo.com.
Multiple pro-gun citizens, including numerous politicians, have argued many recent mass shootings could have been avoided if victims had guns to protect themselves.
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