Obviously you have no study to backup your claim that carrying arms is helping in these kind of problems, since there are no studies where the absolute only differing variable is the presence of guns.
I don't believe "a study" is needed to arrive at every conclusion under the sun. Just as I don't need a study to assert that I'm looking at a computer monitor right now, I don't need one to assert that people who are armed are in general better defended against violence than those who are not.
That being said, I was only calling out a simplistic remark about the association between guns and the incidence of violence.
Just because you think this is simple issue and you think that the answer is obvious, doesn't make it so.
>> I don't need one to assert that people who are armed are in general better defended against violence than those who are not
Just raising some simple questions:
1. Who does own the arm? The good guy, or the bad guy?
2. Can you shoot?
3. Can you shoot under pressure?
4. Can you make sure nobody (kids, thieves, ...) is getting hold of the arm?
5. You with your gun in front of another armed guy: are you really more secure?
6. Will you be able to use you gun tomorrow? Next week? In three years? When you break your leg? Will you really be better protected when you are not actively practicing?
And the question that interest society, and thus the government:
7. Even if you are one of those lucky few who will be better defended owning and carrying a gun: will society be more secure allowing people like you to carry a gun? You may think you are the good guy, or that you are an excellent shoot, but I may think you are not.
So, you need a study to prove that guns are indeed increasing security. But you rightly pointed out above that there are no studies which only correct for guns / no guns. Therefore, you can not prove that guns are increasing security.
I can also not prove that they decrease security, but I do not pretend I can (or, even worse, that I know), or that it is obvious they do.
I am not implying that less guns means less violence, since "correlation does not imply causation". I am merely pointing to you that if you wanna cherry-pick your correlations (which mean nothing), I'll cherry-pick mines.