Back in 1976, Washington D.C. city council passed a Firearms Control Regulations Act that made it illegal for any city resident to own a firearm. From an administrative point of view this doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to dry up the supply of guns in the city.

The act banned ownership of any type of firearm and grandfathered in prior ownership with restrictions for storage that rendered the weapon useless, and imposed strict registration rules. As a result, Washington D.C. became the nations’ “murder capital” with 482 homicides in 1991—the highest murder rate in the country. D.C. also saw its crime rate soar up to a massive 200% above the national average.

Several other major cities followed the same path of either banning or imposing greater restrictions on gun ownership with comparable success to Washington, achieving higher murder and crime numbers. The facts seems to show that taking responsible access to guns away really only effects the law-abiding citizens and gives the law-breakers more freedom to get away with their criminal acts.