Disarming the good guys will not prevent massacres

Never acknowledged by those who endorse gun control is the fact that the states and cities with the strictest gun laws are those with the highest violent crime rates. Chief among these are Washington and Chicago.

Washington DC has one of the worst murder rates in the country. But the murder rate was declining up to 1976 when a blanket ban on handguns and ready to use long arms was introduced. Between 1976 and 1991 the murder rate rose 200% while the overall US rate rose only 9%.

The State of New Hampshire, on the other hand, is one of 41 with a permit system for concealed carry of pistols for self-defence. Its Bill of Rights says, "All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defences of themselves, their families, their property and the state".

New Hampshire has some of the lowest crime rates in the US and is nationally regarded as one of the safest places in which to live.

Since the early 1990s gun laws have been considerably relaxed in the US, particularly regarding self-defence, yet there has been no resulting increase in crime. The US national murder rate in 1991 was 9.8 per 100,000 but fell to 5.6 in 2006 and has continued to fall since.

The main change has been a big increase in states that allow concealed carry. Over five million Americans have concealed carry permits, just over two percent of the adult population.

In the states in which permits are issued, multiple victim public killings of the kind seen at Sandy Hook and Port Arthur have declined substantially. On hundreds of occasions, rarely mentioned in the media, armed citizens have either prevented massacres or reduced their impact by shooting back. Indeed, the only significant massacres in those states have occurred where guns were not permitted, such as schools and shopping malls.

Israel has had similar success in stopping mass public shootings. When it was realised that the police and military simply couldn't be there to protect people all the time when terrorists attack, a change of policy led to Israelis encouraged to carry concealed handguns. Since then terrorist gun attacks have been rare.

Today about 15 percent of Jewish adults in Israel have permits to carry concealed handguns. Thus in large public gatherings many citizens – unknown beforehand to the terrorists – are able to shoot back at them. During waves of terror attacks, Israel's national police chief will call on concealed handgun permit holders to make sure they carry firearms at all times.

The assumption that stricter gun laws can prevent the misuse of guns is just as misguided as the notion that strict drug laws prevent the misuse of drugs. Prohibition merely sends the business underground and increases the profits available to criminals. It cannot make something disappear.

If America had not declared its schools to be Gun Free Zones, one of the school's teachers at Sandy Hook may have been legally carrying a gun and thus able to save many lives.

This tragedy should be a wakeup call to those who want to prevent them from occurring again. Arming the good guys is how you prevent the bad guys from causing harm.