Thanks for info and links. Certainly more study is needed to understand fully the link between a gun ban and an increase in crime. There could be other factors causing the increased crime rate. Sometimes these situations aren't as black and white as you suggest (, although sometimes they are!).

As for your statistics, does the 12,000 figure include suicides and accidental shootings? I would assume the number of individuals injured, often severely, by shootings is several fold higher in number (25,000? 50,000??). I would rather look at the annual victim rate (injury/death, criminal usage or otherwise) of gun usage in America to be on the same order as the number of American soldiers that were killed in Vietnam during the 10 year war.

So as you can see, one can interpret statistics in various ways to defend one's position. We can probably agree that America's overall population isn't being decimated by gun usage and that the media over-dramatizes the random gun-related carnage that happens, tragically, once in a while. But I personally believe that with the number of folks killed and injured by gun violence each year, compounded by those relatives who have lost a loved one or who have to care for one maimed by gunfire, the situation in America is very troubling and should not be taken lightly. And honestly, I don't consider taking away one's constitutionally defended civil liberties lightly.

_Lazza