fe, their hands or even with the kitchen frying pan.Kates goes on to show even more inaccuracies in the research of gun control advocates who use the "tired old line about gun controls working in Europe and Japan."(52). Many age old gun control laws in England and Germany were imposed to "prevent the assassinations and political terrorism"(52-53) that once riddled their respective countries, not as deterrent to every day violence. The propensity for violence in England is far lower that in America, proved by the fact that murders committed by knives and those committed with no weapon at all are significantly less than those committed in America. Kates illustrates the fact that many European nations, such as Switzerland and the State of Israel, require gun ownership, yet their violence rates are very low in comparison to that of America. He also briefly touches on the difference in the violence rates of America and that of Japan. Kates, however, considers this to be an obtuse comparison, due to the fact of "...our vastly different culture and heritage and our substantial ethnic heterogeneity."(53) Kates substantiates his theory of cultural differences here by citing the fact that "Japanese-Americans, with full access to handguns, have a slightly lower homicide rate than their gunless counterparts in Japan."(53) Basically Kates reaches the conclusion that stringent gun control policies in foreign states do not affect the amount of violence that occurs, but that "the strong correlation Ellison 12with racial and linked socio-economic variables suggests that the underlying deterrents of the homicide rate relate to particular cultural factors"(British government publication qtd. in Kates 53).Further on in the body of Kates' article on gun control, he refuteates the belief that gun owners are lulled into a false sense of security when they believe that they can defend their family and home. Surprising statistics and interviews with prisoners...
