Alphecca

SF Gate Op-Ed on SF Gun Ban

I missed this last week until Yahoo put it up on their gun control page. I had mentioned a couple weeks ago that even local California newspapers were rather "quiet" about the proposed handgun ban in San Francisco. Here's a skeptical quote from an op-ed by Joan Ryan from the SF Cronicle:

The same appears true in Chicago, which banned the sale and acquisition of handguns in 1982. No one has evaluated the data extensively, but Cook looked at the percentage of gun-related suicides before and after the ban. (The percentage of suicides with guns, he said, offers a reasonable proxy for the prevalence of gun ownership.) He found a slight decline in the first three years, then a steady rise. Also, the number of black males killed by guns in Cook County - of which Chicago is part - rose sharply between 1984 and 1998.

Some research suggests that we are looking at a limited picture when we focus primarily on the availability of guns as the underlying cause of violence. The Department of Justice found that homicide rates are as likely to be tied to poverty and unemployment rates as to the prevalence of guns.

Studies also show that significantly enhancing the penalties for using guns in a crime is effective in reducing gun violence. In 1996 in Boston, for instance, the police informed gang members that the entire gang would be charged with a crime if any member was known to have used a gun illegally. Deadly gang violence dropped.

Still, Daly is confident that the gun ban will pass overwhelmingly in San Francisco.

It probably would. But Daly and the other supervisors are doing the city a disservice by putting it on the ballot at all. Most citizens don't have the time or manpower to research and evaluate public-policy ideas. Supervisors do. They are supposed to do the homework and craft measures that provide smart solutions to public problems.

Too bad they didn't look more closely at gun-control policies that, while not as flamboyant and righteous as a ban, have the advantage of practicality and demonstrated results.

I'm sure that the leftist loonies of San Francisco will approve this misguided measure. I'm also sure that it will have virtually no effect on gun-related crime in the city.