More guns equals more killing. Here’s Elisabeth Rosenthal from the New York Times:
Scientific studies have consistently found that places with more guns have more violent deaths, both homicides and suicides. Women and children are more likely to die if there’s a gun in the house. The more guns in an area, the higher the local suicide rates. “Generally, if you live in a civilized society, more guns mean more death,” said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. “There is no evidence that having more guns reduces crime. None at all.”
“If you’re living in a ‘Mad Max’ world, where criminals have free rein and there’s no government to stop them, then I’d want to be armed. But we’re not in that circumstance. Were a developed, stable country.”
Well, sort of … the fact that the NRA is so powerful in the U.S. is evidence that we’re not quite as stable (at least mentally) as we could be. Also, the NRA has gained 100,000 members since the Newtown tragedy.