Numbers Show Gun Control Measures Does Not Decrease Gun Violence

More laws do not necessarily mean safer conditions when it comes to guns, Blaze recently reported in an article. California, a state named as having the strongest gun controls in 2011 by Brady Campaign to Prevent Violence, also had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 with 1,220, according to the FBI’s uniform crime reports.
Gun murders in California make up 68 percent of all murders in the state and equates to 3.25 murders per 100,000 people. While California is one of the biggest states in the country with 37 million people, its murder rate is still high considering the high level of gun control in place.
For comparison purposes, Texas with about 25.6 million people had 699 total gun murders in 2011, almost half that of California, and a firearms murder rate of 2.91 per 100,000.
The Brady Campaign determined that Utah had the least amount of gun control in 2011 yet there were only 26 gun murders and a firearms murder rate of 0.97. Utah has a population of 2.8 million. The highest murder rate can be found in Washington D.C. with 12 gun murders per 100,000 people and 242.56 gun robberies per 100,000 people.
The District of Columbia began gun control measures in 1976 requiring all guns to be purchased, banned new handguns, and required guns at home to be stored and dissembled or locked up. More than three decades after those measures were put into place, little effect could be felt.
Journalist and attorney Jeffrey Scott Shapiro stated in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 15, 2013, that “the gun ban had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454…Since the gun ban was struck down, murders in the District have steadily gone down, from 186 in 2008 to 88 in 2012, the lowest number since the law was enacted in 1976.” Washington D.C. still has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation but the gun murder rate remains high.