William L. Habeeb: Easy access to guns won’t make France safer
Re “Without guns, the French were left defenseless” (Letters, Jan. 14): A recent letter to the editor expressed the opinion that anti-gun laws in France make residents “sitting ducks.” Therefore, the French people are in more danger than the United States where the Second Amendment to the Constitution allows us to use guns to protect ourselves from harm. Interesting, but is it true?
According to statistics from www.gunpolicy.org, we are not safer than France. Gun deaths in France were 2.67 per 100,000 population in 2010; in the United States there were 10.26 gun deaths per 100,000 population. In states with liberal gun laws the death rate is significantly greater than in states with tougher laws. Florida had 12.06 deaths per 100,000 population in 2010 whereas California’s rate of deaths was 7.88 deaths per 100,000 population.
When you are comparing the facts of the rate of gun deaths, strict gun laws protect more people than lax ones.
William L. Habeeb, Modesto
This story was originally published January 21, 2015 at 12:43 PM with the headline "William L. Habeeb: Easy access to guns won’t make France safer."