On balance, a ban on civilian firearm ownership would be beneficial to the United States

Thanks, Mr. Keller.FRAMEWORK: This debate revolves around net utility. If I can show that, on balance, a ban on civilian firearm ownership results in a positive net gain for American society as a whole, then the resolution is affirmed. Note that for the purposes of this debate, we are assuming that such a policy was successfully passed and enforced, so arguments from constitutionality and public opposition hold no weight. Also note that since it is specifically a ban on *civilian* firearm ownership, police units and the military would still be allowed to own firearms.The most obvious positive impact that a gun ban would have is a decrease in homicide rates. This is rather intuitive-- if we take away weapons which make committing homicide easier, then homicide rates will inevitably decrease. Gun rights activists claim that even if guns were removed from society, violent crime would still continue at rates which are close to current rates (i.e. "guns don't kill people, people kill people"), but this is patently false-- if it were true, then cities with lower rates of gun availability would have very similar homicide rates to cities with higher rates of gun availability, yet no such trend exists. Instead, there is a clear upwards correlation between gun availability and homicide rates, as demonstrated by a large number of studies conducted by reputable research institutions:"We analyzed the relationship between homicide and gun availability using data from 26 developed countries from the early 1990s. We found that across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides. These results often hold even when the United States is excluded." [1]"Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the US, where there are more guns, both men and women are at higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide." [2]"Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and homicide across states, 2001-2003. We found that states with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups, after accounting for rates of aggravated assault, robbery, unemployment, urbanization, alcohol consumption, and resource deprivation (e.g., poverty). There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm homicide." [3]"Access to firearms yields a more than five-fold increase in risk of intimate partner homicide when considering other factors of abuse, according to a recent study, suggesting that abusers who possess guns tend to inflict the most severe abuse on their partners." [4]There is no denying it-- the prevalence of guns has a direct relationship with higher homicide rates. Guns simply facilitate killings that wouldn't typically happen without their presence. Such weapons were specifically designed to efficiently inflict fatal injuries-- due to their ease of use, versatility, long range, and other deadly features, guns by their very nature make murder *much* easier to commit; their mere presence in a tense setting can allow for what normally would have been a heated argument or fist fight to turn into a homicide. This combination of reliable statistics, observations, and reasoning leaves almost no doubt that a ban on civilian firearm ownership would lower homicide rates. CONCLUSION: Since such a significant decrease in homicide rates would be considered a substantial 'net benefit to society' under any reasonable standard, we arrive at the obvious conclusion that a ban on civilian firearm ownership would almost certainly result in a net benefit to society. There are quite a few possible objections to my case that I would have liked to pre-empt, but since I anticipate that many of those same arguments will be appearing in Con's own case, I will abstain from doing so in the interest of avoiding redundancy. As of now, the resolution is affirmed._________________________________________________________________________________[1] Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Firearm availability and homicide rates across 26 high income countries. Journal of Trauma. 2000; 49:985-88. [2] Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David. Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 2004; 9:417-40. [3] Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. State-level homicide victimization rates in the U.S. in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001-2003. Social Science and Medicine. 2007; 64:656-64. [4] Jacquelyn C. Campbell et al., Risk Factors For Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results From A Multi-Site Case Control Study, 93 Am. J. of Public Health 1089, 1092 (2003), [1-3] http://www.hsph.harvard.edu...[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...