Handgun Availability Equals Better Prepared LEOs, Safer Citizenry

Ed Nowicki, a 33-year police veteran, and David B. Kopel, an associate policy analyst with the Cato Institute, write that the legal availability of handguns makes for a better-prepared police force and a safer citizenry.

I couldn't agree more.

"The widespread civilian possession of handguns also helps the police do their job. In countries such as the United Kingdom (where handguns are banned) or the Netherlands (where handguns are rare), the home-invasion burglary rate is 48 percent to 59 percent, and many home-invasion burglaries lead to assaults or rapes."

Nowicki, director of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, and Kopel go on to remind us that in the U.S. only 13 percent of house burglaries take place when someone is home. Studies show this is because about half of U.S. homeowners have a firearm. Not to mention that handguns are by far the best guns for home defense for two simple reasons: because they are easy to maneuver in confined spaces and hard for criminals to grab.

Read the full column, which appeared in the Baltimore Sun.