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The National Crime Survey estimates that 83 percent of Americans will be victims of violent crime at some time in their lives. (?) Parties with diametrically opposed views on gun control seize on this estimate to support their positions. Those favoring gun control ....

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.... no significant differences in total robbery rates between cities where guns were widely available and cities where they were not; in cities with fewer firearms, armed robbers simply used other weapons.(5)The best available evidence, based on at least eight national surveys of the general adult population, indicates that guns are used about as often for defensive as for criminal purposes.6 The experience of other nations also provides little support for the notion that guns cause crime.(7) Switzerland has one of the lowest murder rates in the world, and it requires all able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 50 to have a military-issued automat ....