A few actual statistics to toss into the mix:
Firearm possession, by law abiding citizens, helps to deter criminals:
1) Based on survey data from a 2000 study published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, U.S. civilians use guns to defend themselves and others from crime at least 989,883 times per year.
2) A 1994 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year.
3) A 1982 survey of male felons in 11 state prisons dispersed across the U.S. found:
A) 34% had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim"
B) 69% personally knew other criminals who had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim"
C) 40% had decided not to commit a crime because they "knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun"
4) In 1992, the National Guard and police refused to engage hoodlums during the Los Angeles riots. Nevertheless many Korean merchants successfully used firearms with high-capacity magazines, which Congress has since banned, to fend off rioters. Their stores still stood after the riots.
Right to carry vs gun bans:
1) During the years in which the D.C. handgun ban and trigger lock law was in effect (1976 - 2008), the Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower.
2) Since the outset of the Chicago handgun ban (1982), the Chicago murder rate has averaged 17% lower than it was before the law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 25% lower.
3) Since the outset of the Florida right-to-carry law (1987), the Florida murder rate has averaged 36% lower than it was before the law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 15% lower.
4) Since the outset of the Texas right-to-carry law (1996), the Texas murder rate has averaged 30% lower than it was before the law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 28% lower.
5) Since the outset of the Michigan right-to-carry law (2001), the Michigan murder rate has averaged 4% lower than it was before the law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 2% lower.
6) The British homicide rate has averaged 52% higher since the outset of the 1968 gun control law and 15% higher since the outset of the 1997 handgun ban. In fact, home invasion, burglary, & robbery rates in England now exceed that of the U.S.
7) A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the 1994 Brady Law has not had a discernable impact on homicide or suicide rates.
Criminals do not obey the law & violent offenders shouldn't be paroled:
1) Several years before the Columbine shootings, Congress imposed a school-zone gun ban which prohibited firearms within 1,000 feet of any school, under the mistaken belief that potential killers obey gun-control laws. That law didn’t deter the two perpetrators of the Columbine massacre, but it almost got Joel Myrick in trouble.
2) October 1, 1997 when Luke Woodham entered the school, he fatally shot Lydia Kaye Dew and Christina Menefee, his former girlfriend. He went on to wound seven others before leaving through school and intending to drive off the campus. But assistant pripcipal Joel Myrick, foiled that plan. He saw the killer fleeing the campus and positioned himself to point a gun at the windshield. Woodham, seeing the gun pointed at his head, crashed the car. Myrick approached the killer and ordered him out of the car and onto the ground. But according to Federal law, Joel Myrick is a criminal.
3) Of 1,662 murders committed in New York City during 2003-2005, more than 90% were committed by people with criminal records.
4) Currently, for every 12 violent crimes (aggravated assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, rapes, and murders) committed in the United States, approximately one person is sentenced to prison for committing such a crime.
A 2002 U.S. Justice Department study of 272,111 felons released from state prisons in 1994 found that within three years of their release:
1) at least 67.5% had been arrested for committing a new offense
2) at least 21.6% had been arrested for committing a new violent offense