The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution has always been a highly controversial amendment. It’s sure caused some heated discussion. Is the amendment outdated? Do only police officers and military need guns? Does taking away guns mean a safer society? No. No. No. And no.  

More guns don’t equal more murders. According to gun control advocates, more guns in America equals more murders and a more lawless society. 

Every time a tragic mass shooting happens, people and politicians immediately cry out for more gun restrictions. They claim fewer guns will mean less crime. But is that claim based on facts? It turns out there’s no correlation between increases in gun ownership and homicides, but the relationship is actually negative. According to the National Institute for Justice, the number of guns in the US as increased by 62 percent since 1994 while the gun homicide rate is down 49 percent since 1993. The gun numbers went from 192 million to 310 million and gun deaths per 100,000 people went from seven to 3.6. The US is No. 1 in gun ownership but 28th in gun murders per 100,000 people. 

Recently, Australia’s gun control efforts have become a popular model for the United States to potentially follow. Let’s dive into what Australia did. 

In 1996, there was a horrific mass shooting with a semiautomatic rifle that murdered 34 people in Tasmania. The Australian government banned all semi-automatic rifles and repeating shotguns. Owners of roughly 700,000 registered firearms — which is about a quarter of the country’s 3 million total guns — were required to turn them in. The government called this a “buyback”, but actually it was mandatory. 

This model would fail in the United States for the simple reason that the U.S. has 325 million guns. Even if the Australian model were implemented here and it worked, there’d still be 200 million guns remaining, including handguns, which are used in roughly 80 percent of US gun crime. 

But gun confiscation has never worked. Actually it may threaten to make the problem worse.

An International Small Arms Survey in 2007 took a look at 72 countries that attempted to enforce gun confiscation or registration on their people. There was a huge defiance of these laws, and only about a third of gun owners were complying. 

If Americans ignore gun bans at just the average rate that has occurred all over the world, then we should expect tens of millions of guns to flood into the back market. 

Next, we should compare the gun-restricting United Kingdom to the gun-owning United States. In the US.., only roughly 13 percent of home burglaries take place when the owners of the house are home. In the UK, that’s almost 60 percent. 

The gun debate will continue to rage on. But one thing is for sure: Fewer guns doesn’t mean safer society and owning a gun can do you far more good than harm.