Should Guns Be Completely Banned In The U.S (U.S Residents Only Please)

== Guns and overall crime == I actually demonstrated that firearms do have an effect on total homicide rates. And even assuming they primarily effect the firearm homicide rate, it must be noted my opponent admitted how guns are the most efficient weapons. Thus, as efficiency would be removed, homicide would still be higher when guns are legal. The source has many studies and their summary, so even if one of them claims lesser of an effect it does not refute the simple point that firearms are positively correlated with homicide rates--both firearm homicide and overall homicide. To cite a few of them (1): "We found that states with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide." -- 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. "Using a validated proxy for firearm ownership, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and homicide across 50 states over a ten year period (1988-1997). After controlling for poverty and urbanization, for every age group, people in states with many guns have elevated rates of homicide, particularly firearm homicide." -- Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership levels and homicide rates across U.S. regions and states, 1988-1997. American Journal of Public Health. 2002: 92:1988-1993. "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." -- Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Firearm availability and homicide rates across 26 high income countries. Journal of Trauma. 2000; 49:985-88. "Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. 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." -- Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David. Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 2004; 9:417-40. Evidence on suicide rates is about the same. Multiple studies, meta-analysis, etc. all using different methodology suggest firearm availability increases the risk of suicide (2), and firearm accidents (3). As a ban would reduce availability, suicide and firearm accidents would decrease significantly. A firearms ban would save lives. (1) http://www.hsph.harvard.edu... (2) http://www.hsph.harvard.edu... (3) http://www.hsph.harvard.edu... == Australia == My opponent cites a link but does not summarize it's contents. Note it does not refute my contention that mass-shootings decreased when Australia banned firearms. Now, the link does suggest crime increased after the gun laws were passed. However, the same source also suggest victims of violent crime has been decreasing since 2001, when stronger gun controls were passed (4). Homicide rates have also decreased since 2001 (5). Gun control in Australia works. (4) http://www.aic.gov.au... (5) http://www.aic.gov.au... == DGU == My opponent seems to argue that a ban on guns would reduce the amount of firearms used in defense--this is true. Indeed, it is possible that guns have some reducing crime effect through deterrence or defensive use, but on balance they increase death rates. So a ban would save lives. I will note that the positive effects of firearm ownership--defensive use--is not very common. Although many suggest guns are used in defense over 2 million times per year, this is highly unlikely and most scholars disagree with that result. "We find that the claim of many millions of annual self-defense gun uses by American citizens is invalid."(6) (6) http://www.hsph.harvard.edu... Banning guns would save lives.