"I don't think anyone's specifically concerned about gun murders. " That's because they don't exist. They are made impossible because of the restraints.
Consider that Japan has so effectively kept gun violence out, that we consider their 'no gun deaths' an artifact of their culture.
Reference my comment on this thread for data on Japan, France, US, Canada.
If you add in Korea, which is similar to Japan, you see that guns are not completely restricted but very rare - and guess what - homicide by guns, though still rare - does materially exist above the levels of Japan.
So yes, if you allowed 'some guns' in Japan, there would be some gun crime.
The homocide rate in Japan is about 1/2 that of Norway, which seems about right, it's not like they don't murder people there.
My bet if that gun laws in Japan were the same as Norway, you'd see 1) that more of the homicides would be by guns and 2) the homocide rate would creep up a bit because it's just so easy to reach for a gun.
Of course, if guns were as widespread in Japan as they are in the US there would be much more homicide, but still considerably less than in the US.
Put another way: while culture is obviously an important factor - that culture is driven by gun availability.
And other things as well of course: if everyone has healthcare/welfare, well, that's going to start to limit the very negative situations people get into on the margins. I'm not making an ideological point here, rather than trying to illustrate systematic effects.
>Put another way: while culture is obviously an important factor - that culture is driven by gun availability.
I think that's incorrect. You really need to do experiments to get at this sort of causal story, though econometricians think they can sneak their way around said experiments. It's definitely a feedback loop and the availability of guns seems like a very, very small part of what goes into a "culture".
Anyway, what I really came here to say is I think you misinterpreted my comment: I didn't mean japanese people don't really care about gun murders, I meant all of us shouldn't really care about gun murders. From a public policy perspective, the thing we care about is just plain old murders--with what tools people decide to commit them is irrelevant. The relevant counterfactual you need to consider is, "If Japan had more liberal gun laws, would the murder rate go up?" if the claim you're interested in is "Do gun laws influence the murder rate?", NOT "If Japan had more liberal gun laws, would the gun murder rate go up?". It seems likely that the gun murder rate would go up to me, but who cares? What if the overall murder rate went down? What we really care about is the # of people murdered.
Consider that Japan has so effectively kept gun violence out, that we consider their 'no gun deaths' an artifact of their culture.
Reference my comment on this thread for data on Japan, France, US, Canada.
If you add in Korea, which is similar to Japan, you see that guns are not completely restricted but very rare - and guess what - homicide by guns, though still rare - does materially exist above the levels of Japan.
So yes, if you allowed 'some guns' in Japan, there would be some gun crime.
The homocide rate in Japan is about 1/2 that of Norway, which seems about right, it's not like they don't murder people there.
My bet if that gun laws in Japan were the same as Norway, you'd see 1) that more of the homicides would be by guns and 2) the homocide rate would creep up a bit because it's just so easy to reach for a gun.
Of course, if guns were as widespread in Japan as they are in the US there would be much more homicide, but still considerably less than in the US.
Put another way: while culture is obviously an important factor - that culture is driven by gun availability.
And other things as well of course: if everyone has healthcare/welfare, well, that's going to start to limit the very negative situations people get into on the margins. I'm not making an ideological point here, rather than trying to illustrate systematic effects.