Irrational hatred of guns is driven by negative social mood

Magical thinking dominates during periods of negative social mood, which is why people favor policies that do not work. The evidence overwhelmingly shows that guns are not responsible for crime or death, only the proximate cause. In other words, more people are shot in America because Americans own guns. In other nations, they are more likely to be stabbed, poisoned, run over by cars, blown up by homemade bombs, set of fire, etc. Furthermore, adjusted for gun ownership, the rate of gun deaths are extremely low. That is to say, there are nations with far less gun ownership that have higher rates of gun violence. What explains the higher American homicide rate is its diversity. A comparison of Hispanic murder rates with Latin American nations, a comparison of African-American murder rates with Caribbean or African nations, a comparison of Asian-American murder rates with Asian murder rates, and a comparison of white murder rates with European murder rates, shows the United States is generally safer. That is to say, the immigrants to the U.S. are generally less violent, especially when factoring in crimes such as assault, rape and home invasions, than people in their ancestral nation. Despite its much stricter gun control, Europe has been the scene of more mass school killings than the United States.

California gun sales jump; gun injuries, deaths fall