Thoughts and Stats on Guns

First here are some stats on gun laws from a Wikipedia article:

• New Jersey adopted what sponsors described as "the most stringent gun law" in the nation in 1966; two years later, the murder rate was up 46% and the reported robbery rate had nearly doubled.
• In 1968, Hawaii imposed a series of increasingly harsh measures, and its murder rate tripled from a low of 2.4 per 100,000 in 1968 to 7.2 by 1977.
• In 1976, Washington, D.C., enacted one of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. Since then, the city's murder rate has risen 134% while the national murder rate has dropped 2%.
• Among the 15 states with the highest homicide rates, 10 have restrictive or very restrictive gun laws.

And here are some gun stats around the world:

• Violent crime accelerated in Jamaica after handguns were heavily restricted and a special Gun Court established.
• While having a large amount of civilian owned guns, Norway has a low gun crime rate.

And here are some things to think about:

• OJ Simpson, Lizzy Borden (the OJ Simpson of her time--she wasn't convicted either) and the killer of the Moore family in Villisca, Iowa in 1912 never used guns in the commission of their crime. Simpson used a knife, Borden used an axe, and the killer of the Moore family who never was caught also used an axe.
• Most serial killers (like Jack the Ripper) don't use guns when they kill. If memory serves me right the only serial killer to use a gun was Son of Sam.
• Schools that put up signs that read "no guns allowed" will not stop a crazy nut with a gun. It's like sending a signal to all the unbalanced killers--come on inside we are unarmed.

I respect anyone who owns a gun. Our founding fathers put the right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights because they were afraid of an oppressive gov't. Remember for a dictator to keep the population oppressed all he needs to do is control the press & keep everyone illiterate, make everyone poor, and ban all firearms. If the Jews during Hitler's time had guns maybe there wouldn't have been a holocaust.