Do tighter gun-control laws reduce the murder rate? This is not an esoteric question, writes Thomas Sowell. Nor is it a question for which no empirical evidence is available.
We have 50 states, each with its own gun-control laws, and many of those laws have gotten either tighter or looser over the years. There must be tons of data that could indicate whether murder rates went up or down when either of these things happened.
But have you ever heard any gun-control advocate cite any such data? Tragically, gun control has become one of those fact-free issues that spawn outbursts of emotional rhetoric and mutual recriminations about the National Rifle Association or the Second Amendment.
Virtually all empirical studies in the United States show that tightening gun-control laws has not reduced crime rates in general or murder rates in particular.
Like President Obama, Hillary Clinton has used the Orlando massacre to renew the liberal offensive on the “gun lobby.” As William McGurn points out in the WSJ, Mrs. Cinton will “do everything” to take “weapons of war off our streets.” Law-abiding citizens, writes Mr. Sowell, “become more vulnerable when they are disarmed and criminals disobey gun-control laws, as they disobey other laws.” Read more here.
