missing said:
Sorry but thats a compilation of stats, not a State by State comparison. The reason why so many states are going to shall issue is the drop of violent crime.
The number of states in the US which issue "shall issue" permits for handguns has increased.
So has the violent crime rate...not in raw numbers,but in numbers per 100,000 of population.
Australia has had around 85 years to test the effect of strict controls on handguns. The rate of homicide with a firearm has dropped steadily over that period. There are around 50 murders with a firearm per year in Australia. The USA has 15 times the population of Australia.15 X 50 = 750 murders, but the US does not have 750 firearms homicides...it has 13,000 firearms homicides per year.
Tell me that controls don't work.
Either the ready availability of handguns is a contributing factor...or Americans are 15 times more homicidal than Australians.
Despite what jess believes..I do have experience with firearms. My father was a military armourer and firearms instructor and he taught me to shoot on a military range when I was 13. I shot regularly on a range throughout my teen years and I was a cop for 4 1/2 years. When I did initial firearms training in the NSW police we were told by one of our instructors to forget whatever we had seen in 'cops and robbers' or 'cowboy' shows on TV...we were highly unlikely to face an armed robber in a shootout. The greatest risk to police officers was an armed householder with no criminal record, affected by alcohol or drugs and in the midst of a family dispute.
The only fatality suffered by the Australian Army in Iraq to date is Pte. Jake Kovco,a skilled small arms specialist with sniper training ,who accidently shot himself in the head while fooling around with his pistol.
Anyone who thinks they can make cool and rational decisions with a firearm while they are flooded with adrenaline and their heart is beating at 200 bpm is kidding themselves. I know a former Royal Marine,NI police officer and member of the Royal Protection Squad who was extremely skilled in the use of handguns. To get that way he trained 8 hours a day for months and had to undergo frequent refresher training. They had to run for 5 miles before they went on to the pistol range so that their heart rate would more closely simulate operational conditions. It took months of intensive training to learn to control the shaking of his hand, even though he was already skilled in the use of weapons. My father served in the Korean War,Malaya and Vietnam and never carried a handgun. His opinion was that they were virtually useless and like all Australian officers who fought in the jungles, he carried a rifle.
The Australian SAS Counter-Terrorism teams train extensively with live ammo in simulated hostage rescue situations, where they have to differentiate between friend and foe. Despite their high level of skill and all the precautions taken, several troopers have died in training in live firing exercises.
Why do idiot civilians think they can ever approach that level of skill with weapons...with just a few hours a week at best on a static range with no threat?