Handguns are potentially dangerous commodities, though gun advocates will also insist that they are more protective than dangerous – tools for the protection of home, family and personal property.

Let’s acknowledge first, however, that handguns can be dangerous, like automobiles, knives, axes, and chainsaws.

It’s quite clear that the dangerousness of a commodity does not predetermine its legal status. Put differently, countries around the world do not prohibit commodities on the basis of the danger that they pose. In many circumstances this is an entirely rational decision. Automobiles create, arguably, benefits in excess of the dangers that they pose. So too do knives, chainsaws and axes (let’s not pause here to contemplate the logic of something like cannabis prohibition – it says a little too much about the limited analytical capabilities of human beings).

But what of handguns? Beyond target shooting, where is their utility? A few criminologists argue that gun ownership leads to more safety, not less, once you factor out the risks posed to gangsters – individuals using guns as part of organized – -or more likely — disorganized criminal activity. With intentional gun deaths, however, suicides and gangsters are the biggest slice of the pie.

What we can say with some certainty is that countries with less handgun ownership and less handgun use have strikingly lower rates of intentional gun death and gun crime. If we contrast the United Kingdom (excepting Northern Ireland) with the United States, the point is well illustrated – many fewer guns per capita, and much less gun death. Systematic research across more than one million households also demonstrates that in cases of domestic violence the presence of guns in the home is more likely to precipitate lethal violence.

The banning of handguns could be seen as a symbolic gesture, one that says something about our culture and its view of the role of the gun – and it’s a symbolic gesture that I support, educating the citizenry about the possibilities of a world with less violence, less confrontation, and less lethality. Will the prohibition of handguns make a society more or less safe — in any given nation-state at any given time? The best research does not answer that question with any degree of certainty. What we can say, however, is that if we create a society in which guns are less common, we will be creating a safer society.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 7:56 am and is filed under Criminal Justice, Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.