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Special Report
Guns and Freedom
Evidence from 59 countries that gun control is a threat to human liberty.
For four years the Obama administration ignored the issue of gun control, seeing it as a political loser. However, the tragic school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut created an opening for those who long sought to restrict gun ownership. Yet Congress should look before it legislates, since gun rights generally correspond to the liberties fundamental in a free society.
Four years ago Dave Kopel of the Independence Institute, William & Mary economist Carlisle Moody, and author Howard Nemerov published an article assessing the relationship between guns and freedom (“Is There a Relationship Between Guns and Freedom? Comparative Results From 59 Nations”). Coming to a simple conclusion is impossible: guns are widely accessible in Israel, Switzerland, and U.S., as well as Lebanon, Ivory Coast, and Somalia.
Naturally, the United Nations was on the case before President Barack Obama. In 1999 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan contended that widespread firearm ownership has “damaged development prospects and imperiled human society.” More recently the global organization has been pushing an international convention — so many trees have given up their lives on behalf of UN negotiators! — to regulate the international trade in small arms.
The three researchers found that data on gun ownership wasn’t easy to collect. For instance, Great Britain banned handguns, using registration lists to confiscate outstanding weapons. No surprise, Britons have resisted these efforts by lying to their government. Noted Kopel, Moody, and Nemerov: “The English tradition of hiding guns from the government dates back to at least 1642.”
Americans also lie, even to pollsters seeking to survey gun ownership. The authors suspect that some Americans may be protecting their privacy. In other cases “the owner may fear that the survey data might be given to the government, and would be used against her if she did not comply with a gun confiscation law enacted sometime in the future.”
There almost certainly are more guns in circulation in America than there are Americans. If the number is seriously undercounted, the practical obstacles facing any serious gun control would grow dramatically.
In any case, Kopel, Moody, and Nemerov do their best utilizing indexes on political liberty, corruption, and economic freedom. They find that countries with significantly higher gun ownership have greater political and civil liberties. The political freedom index (from “Freedom in the World”) is compressed, making analysis difficult. Nevertheless, noted the researchers, “the average of the countries in the first quartile is ‘free,’ while the average for all other quartiles is ‘partly free.’”
Gun-owning societies also are notably less corrupt. The top quartile, reported the three authors, is “mostly clean.” The next three quartiles suffer from “moderate corruption.”
Finally, nations where people own more firearms also tend to have greater economic liberty. The differences are limited — after all, it’s hard to find a nation today where government doesn’t intervene promiscuously in the economy. Leftist cant about “laissez faire” notwithstanding, even the U.S. went far down the statist path long before Barack Obama was elected president. Still, the difference matters.
When it came to political liberty, Kopel, Moody, and Nemerov found that the countries in every quartile averaged a rating of “moderately free.” There was a certain self-selection bias to the data: Only 59 countries had gun registration figures, and they were most likely to be relatively freer than nations without comparable numbers.
Still, the authors reported: “the first quartile had the highest average, but not quite 70, which is the threshold for ‘mostly free.’ For all three indices of liberty, the top firearms quartile rates higher than every other quartile.”
Similar results were found when the three researchers ran the numbers per quintile. The authors found: “When we looked at the countries with the most guns, we saw that they had the most freedom as measured by the liberty indices, but the relationship was only pronounced for high-gun countries. There was no difference between medium-gun and low-gun countries.”
The article then flipped the analysis around to look at gun ownership in the nations which enjoyed the greatest liberty. Kopel, Moody, and Nemerov found that “the freest countries… had the highest density of civilian firearms, and averaged the best” corruption scores. Moreover, “’Partly free’ countries had much lower ratings in all indices than all ‘free’ countries. ‘Not free’ countries had the poorest scores.” Finally, among the freest nations, “higher levels of corruption and lower levels of wealth may have a significant inhibiting effect on gun ownership.”
There’s quite a mix of countries, of course, and some relatively free societies allow little gun ownership. Correlations are imperfect while causations are difficult to demonstrate. Nevertheless, the three researchers found that the relationship between more guns and both economic liberty and corruption to be statistically significant.
The authors run through several possibilities. Freedom obviously can yield greater gun ownership. For instance, “Political systems that are more open may allow people who own guns, who want to own guns, or who want other people to have the choice, to participate more effectively in the political system, and to have their concerns addressed.”
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author and editor of several books, including The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington (Transaction).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (62) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 1.24.13 @ 6:59AM
Handguns have been illegal in Canada since the 1930s, and Canadians look bewildered when anyone suggests that since people are killed by gunfire every day in the big cities (Montreal has a very high number of mass killings at schools, and recently 3 toddlers -- 15 and 16 years old -- were arrested for planing to shoot up their school) it might be a good idea to be able to shoot back. Self defence is illegal here. Many people have been arrested for fighting back, and that includes tackling a serial shoplifter in his store and holding him for police -- the police made a deal with the shoplifter to try to convict the shop owner. (Google "Lucky Moose" for further details). But the way they deal with this cognitive dissonance is to say proudly "We're Not Americans."
John Navratil| 1.24.13 @ 8:09AM
I guess Jack London will be busy today.
Pecos Pete| 1.24.13 @ 8:42AM
Yes indeedy.
Jack London| 1.24.13 @ 8:46AM
A bit busy with work John. But of course this article is nonsense.
Pecos Pete| 1.24.13 @ 8:58AM
Facts don't matter. Only what Jack thinks, and can't prove, matters.
Frank Drackman| 1.24.13 @ 9:00AM
"Work"(Dobie Gillis voice)
I'm guessing hair "Stylist".
Frank "Ask me about my guns!" Drackman
Frank Drackman| 1.24.13 @ 9:01AM
meant to say "Work!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"
Drunken Sailor| 1.24.13 @ 10:06AM
Actually thanks to the new goverment definitions of work he is most likely a unemployed hairstylist who's "work" is looking for employment on a sporadic basis.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.24.13 @ 7:32PM
Wasn't it Dobie's pal Maynard Krebs (ably portrayed by Bob "Gilligan" Denver) who have the trouble with Work?
Rhoetus| 1.24.13 @ 8:38PM
That was Maynard G Krebs (Bob Denver), guess you are too young to remember.
TLP| 1.24.13 @ 4:53PM
I'm thinkin he's a Gerbil Retriever for the LGBT.
Tom Kyba| 1.24.13 @ 12:10PM
Thank you Pavlov's dog.
gray man| 1.24.13 @ 7:05PM
If you are busy with work, you must have a job reading blogs. Unless you are cheating your boss.
Louis Jenkins| 1.24.13 @ 8:25AM
An armed society is a polite society. That pretty much sums it up.
Pecos Pete| 1.24.13 @ 8:43AM
And, fences make good neighbors.
Frank Drackman| 1.24.13 @ 9:03AM
A classmate of mine was Jimmy Earl Ray's doc in the 90's, said he was a really nice guy once you got over the whole "Shot Martin Luther King" thang, which he did in about ummm 5 seconds.
My classmate wasn't the most open-minded dude about racial thangs.
Frank
Pecos Pete| 1.24.13 @ 8:49AM
"A free people ought to be armed."
- George Washington
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
- George Washington
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
- Thomas Jefferson
"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
- Thomas Jefferson (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria)
Pecos Pete| 1.24.13 @ 8:52AM
"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense."
- John Adams
"To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them."
- George Mason
"I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few politicians."
- George Mason (father of the Bill of Rights and The Virginia Declaration of Rights)
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe."
- Noah Webster
"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops."
- Noah Webster
"A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace."
- James Madison
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms."
- James Madison
Pecos Pete| 1.24.13 @ 8:54AM
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
- William Pitt
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
- Richard Henry Lee
"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves ... and include all men capable of bearing arms."
- Richard Henry Lee
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun."
- Patrick Henry
"This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty.... The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."
- St. George Tucker
Pecos Pete| 1.24.13 @ 8:56AM
"... arms ... discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.... Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived the use of them."
- Thomas Paine
"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
- Joseph Story
"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty .... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins."
- Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts
" ... for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion."
- Alexander Hamilton
Frank Drackman| 1.24.13 @ 9:36AM
"When You have to shoot, shoot, don't talk"
Juan Benedicto Pacifico Tuco Ramirez( "The Ugly" in "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly")
Frank
mike 3/505| 1.24.13 @ 1:56PM
Hijo a la gran putaaaaaaaaah!
Riff Raff| 1.24.13 @ 11:06AM
"All guns should be banned."
- Jack London (not THE Jack London, BTW)
Hmmm... I think I'll put my money on Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, et.al. Not the dolt Mr. London who litters these pages with witless nonsense.
TLP| 1.24.13 @ 4:54PM
I don't get it.
Jack in Wi| 1.24.13 @ 6:18PM
Pecos Pete: What an outstanding job! ! !
OregonBuzz| 1.24.13 @ 8:56AM
There is only one goal in the collective mind of our government lackeys; to conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens. Any claim to the contrary is a lie.
Maxwell| 1.24.13 @ 9:35AM
Last night I had welding class & of course I had on a gun shirt. The instructor almost had a hernia when he saw it. He said he was in DC to see 'HIS' president take the oath of office. He was so proud.
He then started on guns. They should all be banned as well as the normal capacity (he said high capacity but mags are all normal to me). Of course he also added 'p*** on the Constitution, MY PRESIDENT should just do away with it!' The rest of the conversation did not go well for him, I truly got into his face. Can I say I'm not a fan of black liberals?
Drunken Sailor| 1.24.13 @ 10:31AM
I hope you reported him to the school (not that they would probably do anything about it). I would have a sticker get or by two stickers saying,
Gun control means using two hands,
Don't tread on me
and plaster then on my welding hood.
Doctor Right| 1.24.13 @ 11:59AM
I'm always amused that those who propose "p******" on the Constitution (or banning it, or ignoring it) NEVER think that such actions could EVER come back around to bite them on their fat, liberal asses...
Bran03| 1.24.13 @ 11:03AM
Thanks Doug for this insight. Just another fact that gun contol advacates will choose to ingnore.
Von Mises Jr| 1.24.13 @ 11:35AM
Our sleezy Preezy is quoted as saying that he "takes a gun to a knife fight."
Do you need any other argument why you should only be allowed to own knives?
Doctor Right| 1.24.13 @ 11:57AM
Ever seen Obama try to throw a baseball?
If the answer is "yes," then just try and imagine him in a knife fight.
He'd probably grab the end with the blade...
Von Mises Jr| 1.24.13 @ 12:33PM
Unless he had a gang of SEIU or ACORN thugs, he would probably run away.
Frank Drackman| 1.24.13 @ 2:26PM
Doctor Right, thats like the 47th Obama/Baseball reference you've made, I shudder to think what that reveals about your Id, Ego, and Super Ego.
Oh and calling yourself "Doctor" every single post, and don't give me that "PhD's are Doctors" line, we all know the kind of Doctors Moms still want their daughters to marry..
Seriously, name a movie/TV show with a Dashing Handsom Counselor, or Therapist, whatever you put down on your 1040EZ.....
Frank
Stan Redmond| 1.24.13 @ 11:47AM
The only threats an armed citizenry pose is a threat to government.
Doctor Right| 1.24.13 @ 11:54AM
When it comes to gun control, there are two (2) types of Liberals:
1. The ones who think only with their emotions. You'll never reach them with facts and figures, so "evidence" is irrelevant.
2. The ones who know and completely understand the evidence...which is exactly why they want to ban guns as soon as possible. They realize that your guns are an impediment to their utopian schemes.
I don't know which is worse, Liberal #1, or Liberal #2..?
fmm| 1.24.13 @ 1:15PM
#2 by far as they (or preferably their standins) are the ones who will bring a machine gun or F16 to a knife fight while you will never have to worry about a confrontation from the wussies in category #1.
Stan Redmond| 1.24.13 @ 12:00PM
I wonder....
What deos Jane Fonda think of gun control for the Viet Cong? What does Michael Moore think of gun control for those poor Iraqi insurgents? What does Danny Glover think of gun control for Bolivarian revolutionaries?
What do they all think of gun bans in Cuba?
I think we all know the answer that when gun confiscation advances left wing marxist goals it's a good thing. Puny paeon citizenry defending themselves? Fuhgetaboutit
Rhoetus| 1.24.13 @ 10:51PM
They don't think , it's a religion to them, God is The State.
Petronius| 1.24.13 @ 1:12PM
Nobody is talking about Obama's Real objective: disarming the white middle class so that We can be robbed and murdered for his pleasure.
atilla| 1.24.13 @ 1:23PM
there is no doubt about it....
THAT IS WHY WE MUST DEDICATE OUR EFFORTS TO PROTECTING THE 2ND AMENDMENT AND STOP TRYING TO CONVINCE THE LEFT THAT IT ITS ONLY ABOUT OUR KIDS SAFETY OF WHICH THE LEFT CARES NOT A HOOT
JP Jones| 1.24.13 @ 1:26PM
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new.....apons?lite
JP Jones| 1.24.13 @ 1:31PM
The only thing that stands between Americans with Rights and Liberty or being forced into hiding is the second amendment.End of Story
Drunken Sailor| 1.24.13 @ 2:33PM
Interesting how quiet it is here today on the Liberal front. Isn't this just the evidence most of them have been asking us to prove? Maybe they are all out getting their nails done.
Jack London| 1.24.13 @ 4:24PM
Some of us have bills to pay, DS. I'll say this though:
- the freedom to flood a country with weapons has a big price in curtailing for good the freedoms of many to live. That's a fact given our horrific gun death figures.
- does anyone actually support the right of people like Adam Lanza's mother to stockpile semi-auto weapons at home?
John Navratil| 1.24.13 @ 5:35PM
Jack London,
You really are a one-note-Johnny, aren't you! You pull the correlation out of your @ss, ignore any and all refutation, certainly don't refute a counter argument and refuse to even touch the question...
Is it the law, or is it the culture?
Answer that! Wait, no don't. It will just end in another complete waste of time while you ignore counter-examples and sing that same tired song.
But to answer your question, Yes! I support the right of people like Adam Lanza's mother to "stockpile" (a freighted word so typical of your ilk) semi-automatic weapons at home. Just as I support your right to do so. I do so because I accept the imperfectibility of man and know that you are powerless to stop things like this. I do so because I have demonstrated the poor, in some cases negative, causation between gun ownership and gun violence. I do so because, in spite of your protestations to the contrary, you CANNOT demonstrate the causation you so passionately believe in.
I've answered your question. Something you seem particularly loathe to do. Go back and play with your gun and leave the weapons to other people.
John Navratil| 1.24.13 @ 5:35PM
Jack London,
You really are a one-note-Johnny, aren't you! You pull the correlation out of your @ss, ignore any and all refutation, certainly don't refute a counter argument and refuse to even touch the question...
Is it the law, or is it the culture?
Answer that! Wait, no don't. It will just end in another complete waste of time while you ignore counter-examples and sing that same tired song.
But to answer your question, Yes! I support the right of people like Adam Lanza's mother to "stockpile" (a freighted word so typical of your ilk) semi-automatic weapons at home. Just as I support your right to do so. I do so because I accept the imperfectibility of man and know that you are powerless to stop things like this. I do so because I have demonstrated the poor, in some cases negative, causation between gun ownership and gun violence. I do so because, in spite of your protestations to the contrary, you CANNOT demonstrate the causation you so passionately believe in.
I've answered your question. Something you seem particularly loathe to do. Go back and play with your gun and leave the weapons to other people.
Jack London| 1.24.13 @ 5:47PM
Well you're a two note John as you've posted this twice.
I take it that you're happy to accept the trade-off with our high gun misuse rate so that people can keep weapons of their choice at home with no registration or security. That must be true because there's no mention by you that anything should or could be done to reduce the toll.
As for Lanza surely you jest - there's a direct link between the guns in her home and the bullets in the kids' heads. Adam Lanza was refused weapons in a store and there's little chance such a person could have got hold of an AR-15 in Conn otherwise.
John Navratil| 1.24.13 @ 10:01PM
Jack London,
I must have pressed 'Submit' twice in my enthusiasm to engage you - NOT!
You love a non sequitor, don't you! Did you ever study statistics? Do you know what statistical correlation is? Did Ms. Lanza's gun ownership directly lead to the murders?
Reduce the toll below being struck by lightning? Of course you think gun control will fix this.
Did your mother's third grade teacher lead directly to your impotence? If masturbation were outlawed, would you object?
gray man| 1.24.13 @ 7:02PM
Jack, you must be kidding, no thinking human being can ask such a stupid question.
James Baker| 1.25.13 @ 12:00AM
Yeap, I sure do. She was law abiding. Molon Labe. You going to grow balls and come try to take mine? The ultimate answer to this whole mess they are trying to hoist on us. REFUSE TO OBEY, passive and active resistance. The government is OUR servant, not we theirs.
Petronius| 1.24.13 @ 4:23PM
It's also a good thing most liberals don't know what happened in England at Edge Hill in September, 1642.
Jack London| 1.24.13 @ 4:33PM
According to Wiki it was in October and it was an indecisive battle in the English civil war. What's your point? Apart from maybe that their republicans couldn't hold on after winning the war although their parliament continued.
Jack London| 1.24.13 @ 5:27PM
This is why it's so important to keep guns in the home:
A 4-year-old Kansas City girl shot in the head earlier this month by another child who found a gun on a chair has died, police said Tuesday.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013.....rylink=cpy
Baton Rouge Police are investigating the accidental shooting of a 2-year-old victim that occurred yesterday evening around 6:33pm at 5108 Jean St.
http://www.batonrougetoday.com.....-shooting/
John Navratil| 1.24.13 @ 5:38PM
Jack London,
Children drown in paint buckets left unattended by adults. Ban paint buckets. At least it wouldn't conflict with the second amendment.
Jack London| 1.24.13 @ 5:50PM
Oh dear - the subject is guns and guess what John - you've changed the subject to .... paint pots. Well I'll give you a bonus point for originality - usually it's cars or swimming pools.
gray man| 1.24.13 @ 7:03PM
Jees, you are too stupid to understand his comment?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.24.13 @ 7:41PM
Actually, Jack, I think the subject was the Second Amendment, which states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms will not be infringed, and you told a tale of apparently unsupervised children involved in a fatal mishap and other accidents. Mr. Navratil just continued your thought about accidents in the home involving children after you departed from the Constitutional theme.
John Navratil| 1.24.13 @ 9:49PM
Jack London,
I didn't change the subject, fool! Your entire argument is about safety. Never liberty or freedom.
Let me ask another question - which you will not answer:
Is it about safety or control?
Tumbleweed| 1.24.13 @ 8:55PM
Kofi Annon and the U.N. lied about guns standing in the way of development of countries. Remember that the U.N. has lied about many things about many countries during it's existence! Not to be trusted!
Rhoetus| 1.24.13 @ 10:54PM
The gun nuts I work with are most likely better shots than most police officers. I'm perfectly safe at work.
James Baker| 1.25.13 @ 12:04AM
And I am a gun nut and a Soldier.