Gun Control Linked to Milwaukee Crime Spike, Group Says

Since 12-06-06

By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer\

December 06, 2006

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200612/NAT20061206b.html

(CNSNews.com) - A recent crime spike in the city of Milwaukee is an example of how gun-control laws can lead to more crime, according to a group that advocates for gun ownership.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a member of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle - both Democrats - have opposed legislation that would allow Wisconsinites to carry concealed firearms.

Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said Tuesday that "instead of supporting legislation that would have allowed law-abiding citizens to fight crime by fighting back," Barrett was "rubbing elbows with New York's Michael Bloomberg, who won't be happy until he has disarmed every average citizen in the country."

Waldron said the anti-gun measures were disarming "the wrong people."

"Instead of enabling citizens to defend themselves, he [Doyle] has perpetuated a low-risk working environment for predatory violent criminals and the Milwaukee murder rate proves it."

Waldron was responding to a recent newsmagazine report showing that Milwaukee saw the largest jump in homicides from 2004 to 2005. The city reported 121 murders in 2005, up from 88 in 2004.

According to police statistics, as of Nov. 28 the city had seen 94 murders in 2006.

Waldron called it "ironic" that "anti-gun rights elitists beat the drums of hysteria about how there would be an increase in violence if law-abiding citizens were allowed to carry concealed handguns ... and yet violent crime is rising."

Eileen Force, a spokeswoman for Barrett, scoffed at the assertion that gun control laws keep guns in the hands of criminals and out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, calling Waldron's group "kooky."

"It's Mayor Barrett's position that we don't need more guns on the streets," she said. "We need less."

Force told Cybercast News Service that Milwaukee's increased crime in recent years "can be attributed to a lot of factors: unemployment, teen pregnancy, weakened families. Those are the issues that Mayor Barrett seeks to address, not putting more guns on the streets."

Waldron said it was "difficult to measure" how much of an impact concealed carry laws would have in Wisconsin, but called the idea that fewer guns lead to fewer crimes "ludicrous."

"Historically we can show that ... where gun ownership is higher, crime is lower, and that's true across the board everywhere in this country," Waldron told Cybercast News Service.

"I'm sure that there are a number of factors that play [into Milwaukee crime statistics]," Waldron said. "The point ... is that one method that we know works to reduce violent crime - adoption of a concealed carry law - in fact has been vetoed twice by Gov. Doyle."

Waldron pointed to economist John Lott's book "More Guns, Less Crime," in which the author argues that cities adopting concealed carry rights see a reduction in violent crime within two years.

Other analysts, including the National Research Council, have questioned Lott's findings. In its 2004 book "Firearms and Violence," the NRC found "no credible evidence that the passage of right-to-carry laws decreases or increases violent crime."