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From: shallit@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Jeff Shallit)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: handgun "control"
Message-ID: <289@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 18:10:04 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.289
Posted: Wed Jan  9 18:10:04 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Jan-85 23:06:11 EST
References: <> <265@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <2223@randvax.UUCP> <2228@randvax.UUCP> <636@whuxlm.UUCP> <>
Reply-To: shallit@gargoyle.UUCP (Jeff )
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
Lines: 21
Summary: 

In article <> josh@topaz.ARPA (J Storrs Hall) writes:
>
>In 1976 the District of Columbia banned all civilian handgun sales,
>and required licensing for all other guns.  In the two years prior
>to the law, murder rates in DC went *down* 30%; in the two years
>*after* it, they went *up* 18%.  This rise was not merely part of
>a general one, by the way; in nearby Baltimore rates were going down.

     This is false--you can look it up in the official DC report.
Sounds to me like you're getting your stuff from Don Kates.  
Too bad--since Kates is notorious for altering statistics.

     Hall also mentions Illinois.  That's interesting--since handgun
murders DROPPED in Chicago dramatically after the April 9, 1982
handgun law went into effect.

     For other examples of the positive effects of handgun laws,
you might try reading "Handgun Control...Issues and Alternatives".

Jeff Shallit
University of Chicago