Source: The Daily Oklahoman
http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=605899&pic=none&TP=getarticle
Published: 12/17/00 Author: The Daily Oklahoman Staff
Posted on 12/17/2000 13:10:01 PST by Osage Orange
Oklahoman Editorial
The Big Lie: Numbers Don't Back Gun Control Claims
12/17/2000
BOTH sides in the gun control debate will find talking points
in a new
Justice Department study on gun violence. But the pro-Second Amendment
side will find far more than will the gun grabbers.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics says gun-related deaths and
injuries
fell 33 percent from 1993 to 1997. At the same time, the number
of
firearms in this country was up by nearly 10 percent.
As the Wall Street Journal notes, these numbers "appear
to raise
questions about a core argument for people who want more gun control."
Their argument is that the more guns in circulation, the more
gun deaths
will be recorded. But that's not the case.
U.S. gun deaths and woundings fell to 96,636 in 1997 from 143,795
in
1993, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates. The
Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says that the number of guns reached
236.5
million in 1997, up from 216.3 million in 1993.
These numbers correlate well with research done by the University
of
Chicago's John Lott. Studying statistics from all U.S. counties
covering
1977 to 1994, Lott found that areas with concealed carry laws
had less
crime than areas where guns are more severely restricted.
Naturally, the gun grabbers view the latest set of numbers
with
suspicion. Gun violence is higher in the U.S. than it is in most
nations, a spokeswoman for the Violence Policy Center told the
Wall
Street Journal. "Mount Ranier is not really very tall if
you compare it
to Mount Everest," she said, "but it's still a mountain."
This is empty rhetoric. The core issue of gun control is whether
restrictions on gun purchases reduce gun violence to an extent
that
might justify Second Amendment restrictions. The Bureau of Justice
Statistics figures indicate that an increase in gun sales has
not led to
an increase in gun violence. In fact, the opposite is true.
Like concealed carry laws in particular, gun ownership in general
communicates to criminals that they aren't the only ones out there
capable of firing a gun. A rise in gun ownership along with concealed
carry laws are prime weapons in the war against crime. Another
is
mandatory-sentencing laws, which remove criminals from the street
for a
longer period of time. A booming economy and low unemployment
are due
for a share of the credit in the decline in gun violence, but
they
cannot account for the entire decline.
A separate report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
concludes that gun control laws have failed to curb illegal gun
buying.
Criminals are getting guns despite the laws, while law abiding
citizens
face more hurdles than ever in exercising their Second Amendment
rights.
We have long believed that gun control measures were ineffective
in
reducing gun deaths. More effective are programs such as Project
Exile,
which subjects criminals who use guns to stiffer sentences.
Like "hate crimes" statutes, gun control measures
are liberal feel-good
measures that accomplish little to affect crime and much to punish
the
average citizen. In the case of the former, crime victims are
divided
into classes, elevating the status of one set of victims and diminishing
the status of another. In the case of gun control measures, ordinary
citizens are made to feel second-rate if not criminal by their
ownership
of firearms while criminals continue to get weapons unabated by
the
restrictive laws.
Every high-profile crime involving guns fuels another round
of pleadings
for more severe gun control laws. Emotion, though, is a sorry
way to
bring order into society. The number of guns in America does not
correlate with the number of gun deaths. If anything, the number
of guns
in America makes our society safer than it would otherwise be.
1 Posted on 12/17/2000 13:10:01 PST by Osage Orange
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To: Osage Orange
In 1979, out of more than 32,000 attempted rapes, 32% were actually
committed. But when a woman was armed with a gun or knife, only
3% of
the attempted rapes were actually successful.
U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration,
Rape Victimization in 26 American Cities, 1979, p. 31.
In 1982, Kennesaw, Atlanta passed a law requiring heads of
households to
keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary
rate
subsequently dropped 89%.
Gary Kleck, 'Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force,'
Social Problems 35 (February 1988):15.
3/5 of felons polled agreed that 'a criminal is not going to
mess around
with a victim he knows is armed with a gun.'
U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 'The
Armed
Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons,' Research
Report,
(July 1985): 27.
74% of felons polled agreed that 'one reason burglars avoid
houses when
people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime.'
U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 'The
Armed
Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons,' Research
Report,
(July 1985): 27.
57% of felons polled agreed that 'criminals are more worried
about
meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.'
U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 'The
Armed
Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons,' Research
Report,
(July 1985): 27.
The Department of Justice found that in 1989, there were 168,881
crimes
of violence which were not responded to by police within 1 hour.
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
-- 1990, (1991):257
"Since police started keeping statistics, we now know
that assault
weapons are/were used in an under whelming 0.026 of 1% of crimes
in New
Jersey. This means that my officers are more likely to confront
an
escaped tiger from the local zoo than to confront an assault rifle
in
the hands of a drug-crazed killer on the streets."
Joseph Constance (deputy chief of Trenton NJ police dept) in testimony
before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Aug 1993
The data from the 1990 Harvard Medical Practice Study suggest
that
150,000 Americans die every year from doctors' negligence -- compared
with 38,000 gun deaths annually. Why are doctors not declared
a public
health menace? Because they save more lives than they take. And
so it is
with guns. Every year, good Americans use guns about 2.5 million
times
to protect themselves and their families, which means 65 lives
are
protected by guns for every life lost to a gun.
Dr. Edgar Suter, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/12/94, Opinion (p.
A17)
* 34% of felons said they personally had been "scared
off, shot at,
wounded, or captured by an armed victim."
* 69% said that they knew at least one other criminal who had
also.
* 34% said that when thinking about committing a crime they either
"often" or "regularly" worried that they might
get shot at by the
victim."
James D. Wright & Peter H. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous:
A
Survey of Felons and Their Firearms (1986).