Tim Lambert (deltoidblog AT gmail.com) is a computer scientist at the University of New South Wales.
pim writes:
Are you arguing that the increase in D.C.'s suicide and homicide rates is related to a law passed 12 years earlier ?
Thomas Grant Edwards said:
I don't see why this is difficult to imagine. It might have taken 12 years for most of the legal grandfathered guns in the hands of average citizens to filter into the hands of criminals, seeing as how it is impossible for a D.C. resident to legally sell his gun.
Is it? Why can't they sell it outside DC?
Are you saying that it takes 12 years to illegally sell a gun?? If you are saying that this supposed transfer happened gradually over 12 years then surely your theory predicts a gradual increase over 12 years, rather than a decrease for ten years and then a sharp increase (which is what actually occured).
The sharp increase also occured in the suburbs of Washington outside DC. Did the DC law cause this too?
I will add that I think the Drug War is the main cause of high crime in D.C. But the gun ban removed an important crime deterrent.
Perhaps it did, but there is no evidence to support this claim.
