Janalee Tobias, in her April 20 commentary, makes the claim that stricter gun control laws do not control crime and “study after study from unbiased research companies showed that increasing gun laws did not decrease crime.”
As she didn't cite any sources, I wonder where she got that information. Perhaps from the NRA?
A Google search implies that strict gun control laws do decrease gun homicides. Consider the following:
In the United Kingdom, gun ownership is 2.8 per 100 citizens and the gun homicide rate is 0.06 per 100,000.
In New Zealand, gun ownership is 30 per 100 citizens and the gun homicide rate is 0.11 per 100,000.
In the United States, gun ownership is 120 per 100 citizens and the gun homicide rate is 4.46 per 100,000.
So the U.S. has a gun homicide rate 75 times that of New Zealand, where the mosque shooting in March was the first since 1997 and the government then, instead of "offering thoughts and prayers" as our officials do, took six days to enact new gun laws.
Kermit Heid, Salt Lake City