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IT’S NOT JUST GUN CONTROL LAWS
National attention has been given recently to the notion that foreign
countries that harshly restrict gun ownership have crime rates much lower
than that of the United States. Advocates of anti-gun agendas often make
this claim but fail, however, to acknowledge important civil rights
differences between criminal justice systems.

JAPAN
Here are some aspects of Japan’s criminal justice system that those
captivated by gun control fail to acknowledge:
? Japanese police routinely search citizens at will and twice a year pay
“home visits” to citizens’ residences.
? After arrest a suspect may be detained without bail for up to 28 days
before a prosecutor must bring him before a judge. Amnesty International
calls Japan’s police custody system a “flagrant violation of United Nations
human rights principles.”
? Suspects’ confession rate in Japan is 95%.
? Suspects who stand trial have no right to a jury.
? Japanese trial conviction rate is 99.91%.
? The Tokyo Bar Association says Japanese police “engage in torture or
illegal treatment. Even in cases where suspects claimed to have been
tortured and their bodies bore physical traces to back their claims, courts
have still accepted their confessions.”

GREAT BRITAIN
Great Britain has lower handgun homicide rates than the US, but also lower
rates of homicide with knives, feet and fists. As British police
superintendent Colin Greenwood asked, “is it also suggested that knives are
less readily available in England than they are in the USA, or that
American criminals have more hands and feet than their British
counterparts?”
? Britain places strict qualifications on freedom of speech and the right to
assemble, allowing, for example, book bans, censorship of videos and prior
restraint of speech.
? Parliament increasingly gives police more power to stop and search
vehicles as well as pedestrians. Britain has no Bill of Rights and no true
equivalent of the Supreme Court with the power to strike down
unconstitutional laws.
? Police may arrest any person they “reasonably suspect” supports an illegal
organization.
? Civil jury trials in Great Britain have been abolished in all cases except
libel; criminal jury trials are rare.
? Police are allowed to interrogate suspects who have asked that
interrogation stop and are allowed to keep defense lawyers away from
suspects under interrogation for limited periods. There are strong
disincentives for suspects questioned by police to invoke the right to
remain silent.
? Evidence derived from leads developed during a coerced confession is
allowed.
? The grand jury, an ancient common law institution, was abolished in 1933.
Britain’s years of lowest gun crime came in an era when gun controls were
virtually non-existent. Increasingly stringent gun controls have been
followed by increasing gun crime. Despite tight licensing procedures,
handgun-related robbery rose 200% during the past dozen years, five times as
fast as the rise in the US

CANADA
Dr. Brandon Centerwall of the University of Washington found that from 1976
to 1980, ethnically and economically similar areas in the US and Canada
had virtually identical homicide rates despite their differing firearms
laws.
? illegally seized evidence is admissible in Canadian courts, so Canadians
have no protection from warrantless police searches.
? Canadian police, unlike their US counterparts, are not always required
to say what they are searching for.
? Freedom of association is restricted by the government’s keeping tabs on
alleged “subversive” groups. Security services maintain files on one of
every 40 Canadians.
? Canadian prosecutors are far more likely than their American brethren to
bring criminal charges in what we would consider self-defense cases. In
Canada, self-protection is not considered a valid reason for owning
firearms.
Canadian limits on gun ownership for personal protection may have increased
some crimes. From 1978 to 1988, the burglary rate increased 25%, surpassing
the US rate. Half of Canada’s burglaries are of occupied homes, compared
to only 10% in the US