Both sides actively debate the relevance of self-defense in modern society. Some scholars, notably John Lott, claim to have discovered a positive correlation between gun control legislation and crimes in which criminals confront citizens.
Some criminals have asserted that they do not obey gun control laws. The numbers of lives saved by gun ownership are disputed.
See gun politics
Is this worth wordsmithing in?
- The 1993 US Brady Bill is an example of a gun control law that has been generally correlated with a decrease, not an increase, in overall crime levels. Critics argue that the reduction was more driven by improving economic and other factors than by the gun control regulations. Because the Brady Bill was a national law, the measurement of its results must be treated as a single sample. That is, it has no more nor less weight than the findings after a change in the laws of a single state or municipality.