12-11-2005, 12:55 PM
sherpahigh Wrote:If you don't want to take an article that uses facts from the FBI, Juristat, UK Home Office and Statistics Canada to argue it's position seriously, then that's your choice.
I wouldn't take any article by Gary Mauser seriously, because he threw away his credibility long ago. Mauser is not so much a researcher as an activist. It is difficult to take him seriously when you consider that he is a leading figure in the BC Wildlife Federation, a pro-hunting lobby group. He is not a disinterested researcher reaching independent conclusions, but an activist committed to a cause.
His papers continually rely on false reasoning. In this particular case, he observes crime statistics and gun laws and essentially argues, post hoc ergo propter hoc, that banning guns leads to increased crime.
The comparisons are not valid, however. The mistake is to compare one society to another without considering how the societies differ, and how each society is changing. Immigration in the UK is not immigration in the US; crime in the US is not crime in Canada; poverty in Canada is not poverty in Sweden.
It is almost impossible to find really good information on gun control, and hacks like Mauser (and Wendy Cukier on the other side) are a big part of the problem.