Quote:
Originally Posted by Ithekro
The question to ask is: would the reduction of legal gun sales reduce or increase the number of victims? And do those killed from defensive fire still count as victims if they were the ones threatening harm of person or property in the first place (before self-defense kicked in and ended the situation)?
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This is the right question to ask. While each country is different, we can predict what might happen if we look at data from other countries. England is a fair example, as they recently (late 1990's) enacted tougher legislation around firearms, so we have some "before and after" data to work with. According to Wikipedia, immediately following the legislation there was not an appreciable impact on firearm-related deaths (neither increased nor decreased), but it seems that about a decade or so later the numbers began to fall. That makes sense. I'd still like to look at the actual data for myself, but the summary will do for now. It would be interesting to see data from other countries as well.