Prominent Republican Party defending gun rights at the National Rifle Association convention on Friday with several misleading claims about the effectiveness of gun restrictions, gun ownership trends and school shootings.
This is a reality check.
What did you say?
“Gun bans don’t work. Look at Chicago. If they were effective, Chicago wouldn’t be the murder hell that it has been for so long.” – Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas
This is misleading. Opponents of restrictive gun regulations often cite Chicago as a case study of why tough gun laws do little to prevent homicides. However, this argument is based on false assumptions about the city’s gun laws and gun violence.
There are more gun homicides in Chicago than any other US city in 2020, fueling perceptions that it is the gun-violence capital of the country. But Chicago is also the third largest city in the country. Adjusted for population, the gun homicide rate is 25.2 per 100,000, the 26th highest in the country in 2020, according to data compiled by gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
The three cities with the highest gun homicide rates – Jackson, Miss; Gary, Ind.; and St. Louis – has twice the rate of Chicago or so. All in states with easier gun laws than Illinois.
Chicago’s reputation for having the strictest gun control measures in the country is outdated. Mr. Cruz cited the city’s handgun ban – without noting that The Supreme Court overturned the ban in 2010. The Court of Appeal also abolish the ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois in 2012, and the state began allowing concealed gun possession in 2013 as part of a court decision.
Today, Illinois has stricter restrictions than most states, but it doesn’t lead the way, ranking 6th in Reviews of Everytown the power of state gun control laws and 8 in one report card released by the Giffords Law Center, another gun control group. In contrast, the state ranked 41st in gun rights review from the liberal Cato Institute.
Gun control advocates also argue that the patchwork nature of gun laws in the country makes it difficult for a state like Illinois with tough book restrictions to enforce them in practice. For example, a 2017 study commissioned by the city of Chicago found that 60% of firearms are used in crime and recovered in Chicago. come from statewith neighboring Indiana as the primary source.
What did you say?
“As for the so-called assault rifles, which the left and the media love is the devil, these guns were banned for 10 years from 1994 to 2004. And the Department of Justice checked the validity of them. ban and concluded that it had no statistically significant effect. about violent crime. “- Mr. Cruz
This is exaggerated. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act 1994 ban the possession, transfer, or domestic manufacture of certain semi-automatic assault weapons for 10 years. The Ministry of Justice has authorized a 2004 study on the effect of the 1994 assault weapons ban.
The study found that, if extended, “the effect of the ban on gun violence is likely to be minimal and perhaps too small to reliably measure” because assault weapons are rarely used. in criminal cases.
But Christopher Koper, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Va., and lead author of that study., was many times speak that bans have generally had adverse effects.
“My work is often quoted in misleading ways that don’t give the big picture,” Mr. Koper previously told The New York Times. “These laws could modestly reduce mass shootings in general” and reduce the number and severity of mass shootings.
What did you say?
“We know that there aren’t as many guns per capita in this country today than there were 50 or 100 years ago. That is worth emphasizing. In 1972, the per capita gun ownership rate in the United States was 43 percent. In 2021, the rate is 42 percent. Gun ownership rate has not changed. And acts of evil like we’ve seen this week are on the rise. “- Mr. Cruz
This is misleading. By suggesting that cultural issues, not the ubiquity of guns, were the cause of mass shootings, Cruz fabricated and distorted the gun ownership figures.
The number of guns per capita in the United States nearly doubled between 1968 and 2012, according to the Congressional Research Service, from one gun per two people to one gun per person. And it has continued to increase since then, to about 1.2 guns per person in 2018, according to the Switzerland-based agency. Small arms survey.
Mr. Cruz is most likely referring to a Gallup survey on gun ownership. This is not a measure of per capita but rather asking participants if they have a gun in their home, with 43% saying yes in 1972 and 42% in 2021. However, historical surveys History from the University of Chicago research center shows that percentage of US households gun ownership has fallen from about half in the 1970s to about a third in recent years.
What did you say?
“Inner city schools rarely have mass shootings like this. I didn’t know that until recently. Think about that. They rarely have this problem despite living in very difficult neighborhoods where, in many cases, there are high levels of crime and violence. Outside the school is much more dangerous than inside. The reason is that for decades, inner-city schools have had much stronger security measures in place within the school itself, including metal detectors and, yes, armed guards.” – Former President Donald J. Trump
This is misleading. Mr. Trump is of the opinion that high fatality shootings by one person mainly occur in suburban and rural schools, but the view that city schools are free from gun violence is incorrect. Furthermore, Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the presence of armed bodyguards prevent mass shootings was not presented with evidence.
Report 2020 from the Government Accountability Office examined 318 shootings from the 2009-10 school year through the 2018-19 school year. Nearly half, 47%, of shootings occur in urban areas, and the report notes that “urban, poorer, and secondary schools have more mass shootings overall. “.
There is little evidence that the presence of police or armed security prevents or prevents school shootings. One Review 2019 by the New York State Association of School Boards has found that research on the subject is “inconclusive.” The researchers examined 133 school shootings between 1980 and 2019 in one last year’s paper and found “no link between having an armed officer and preventing violence in these cases.”
What did you say?
“There’s even been information that the Biden administration is considering holding UN officials accountable for your Second Amendment rights.” – Mr. Trump
WRONG. This is a reference to reports that the Biden administration is considering re-signing an international arms treaty. But Mr. Trump is exaggerating what that treaty will do.
The 2014 Arms Trade Treaty regulates the international trade of conventional weapons (such as tanks, combat vehicles, warships, missiles and firearms). It does not place officials at the United Nations responsible for gun laws in the United States.
The United States is a signatory to the treaty but has not ratified it because more than 100 other countries have. Mr. Trump announced that he had withdrawn signature of the United States in its speech to the NRA in 2019.
The treaty aims to establish international standards for regulating arms sales between nations and to tackle illegal arms sales. It prohibits the sale of weapons to countries that are subject to an arms embargo or that will use them to commit genocide, terrorism, war crimes or attacks on civilians.
In the opening, the treaty explicitly reaffirms “the sovereign right of any State to regulate and control conventional weapons exclusively within its territory, in accordance with its constitutional or legal system.” the country itself”. Congressional Research Service Note that the treaty “Does not affect the sale or exchange of firearms between private citizens within a country” and, even if ratified, “will not likely require significant changes to policy, regulation, regulations or laws” because “the United States already has strong export control laws.”
