Gun Control should be administered

I would like to further explain my point on 'Guns lead to a higher crime rate' Part of what you are saying is true. Criminals might find another way to kill a civilian even if they do not have a gun. But, as said earlier, guns are very dangerous weapons, and you cannot deny that. If they did not use a gun but a hammer or knife, which inflict less damage, the victim would have more time to defend himself/herself and the death rate would certainly be lowered. Also, having a gun, which is a powerful and dangerous weapon, encourages people to commit crimes. If a person only had a vegetable knife, he would certainly be discouraged from robbing or killing as the chances of succeeding would be lowered. I understand that you think that guns lead to a lower crime rate. However, I think and can prove otherwise. Mexico is often used as an example in gun debates. I do understand the situation there, but Mexico is an exemption and a minority. I live in Hong Kong, and in ten years there has not been a crime associated with guns, unless you count air guns or BB guns. There has been no news or newspaper report, and there is not even a 'Gun Crime' section on the official page of the Police because such a crime has never occurred since 1997, when the sovereignty was handed back to China. Murders are rare in Hong Kong, although it is a heavily populated city of 7136300 people (refer to http://www.censtatd.gov.hk...), and Hong Kong has the longest life expectancy of any country in the world from 2012, according to both UN and WHO estimates. Let me quote from a government website (http://www.sb.gov.hk...) Crime Situation in 2008 and 2009 In 2009, the overall crime rate (1 107.7 cases per 100 000 population) and violent crime rate(202.5 cases per 100 000 population) decreased by 1.5% and 2.1% respectively as compared with 2008. The overall crime detection rate was 45.6% (same as in 2008). The number of many serious crimes has registered a decline. These include bank robbery (-40.0%), unlawful society offences (-11.7%) and burglaries (-6.0%). So it is obvious that the crime rate in Hong Kong is low despite the ban on guns. Here is another piece of information: Hong Kong has a very low rate of 1.23 homicides per 100,000 population especially compared to large cities in the USA such as New York at 16.1 and Chicago 29.9. However, differences are less dramatic when compared with Singapore 0.83, Sydney 1.9, London 2.2, and Berlin 3.5 but still significantly lower than nearby cities Macau 7.3, and Shenzhen 4.59. Countries that ban guns, such as China (Macau and Shenzhen are part of China) have low crime rates too. (refer to http://www.crime.hku.hk...) There is a list of countries that have the most % of homicides committed with firearms (http://www.nationmaster.com...). Countries that ban guns such as China and North Korea are not even on the list. however, America, which does not ban guns, is ranked the 7th, with 39.5604%. More than two out of three of the one million Americans who died in firearm-related homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings since 1962 were killed with handguns"i.e., 667,000. Of all firearm-related crimes in 1993, 86 percent involved the use of a handgun. 'Guns do not only cause physical damage, but also financial loss. As the debate over gun violence is almost always framed in terms of fatalities, it is easy to overlook that, for every person killed with a firearm, approximately three others require medical treatment for wounds inflicted with a gun. One conservative estimate places the annual cost of immediate medical care for all gunshot wounds at $4 billion. Other researchers take into account lifetime care and long-term economic loss, calculating the overall cost of gun violence in any given year to be in excess of $20 billion.' 'The deleterious impact of this large handgun population on our murder rate becomes evident when making comparisons to countries that strongly regulate private firearms ownership with an emphasis on minimizing access to handguns. For example, in 1995 the U.S. firearms death rate was 13.7 per 100,000; in Canada 3.9 per 100,000; in Australia 2.9 per 100,000; and, in England and Wales it was 0.4 per 100,000. Contrary to a common rationalization, the United States is not especially more violent than other "older" cultures; in fact, as Western Europe grows more violent, the U.S. becomes less so. The main difference between those nations and our own is that we have more than 60 million handguns. The lesson to be learned from this is, as one public health researcher stated: "People without guns injure people; guns kill them." (http://www.vpc.org...) Here are some facts: (www.crimeinfo.org.uk) In the year 2004/05, England & Wales (severe restrictions on owning guns) - 73 firearms homicides. USA (right to bear arms) - about 15 000 firearms homicides. Some people use Switzerland as an example, but may I remind you that every adult male there has to serve in the military for a period of time. They are considered as soldiers, not civilians. They are considered to be part of the group of people which keep the people safe. I agree with you that children should not get firearms. But child firearms fatalities mean that we should toughen gun laws and ban them altogether as they are so accessible! The number of homicides to children in the United States is five times higher than the next twenty-five industrialised countries in the world - combined. To have a child dying every four hours in this country, to have the number of murders, to have the number of suicides, to have the number of accidents, we are not treating our children well, we are not setting an example for the rest of the country. We make it too easy for young people to be the victims, for young people to die, for young people to be injured by guns in this country. Other reasons to ban guns: The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates,which have been declining since 1991. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. Private citizens don"t need a gun for self-protection because the police are there to protect them So, yes, gun control does work, and it lowers the crime rate as well.