"When I began my research on guns in 1976, like most academics, I was a believer
in the 'anti-gun' thesis. ... It seemed then like self-evident common sense
which hardly needed to be empirically tested. ... [But] the best currently
available evidence, imperfect though it is (and must always be), indicates
that general gun availability has no measurable net positive effect on rates
of homicide, suicide, robbery, assault, rape, or burglary in the U.S. ...
Further, when victims have guns, it is less likely aggressors will attack
or injure them and less likely they will lose property in a robbery. ...
The positive associations often found between aggregate levels of violence
and gun ownership appear to be primarily due to violence increasing gun
ownership, rather than the reverse." -- Prof. Gary Kleck, Florida State Univ,
Sch of Criminology from a speech given to the Nat'l Academy of Sciences,
1991, as reported by Don B. Kates, Jr. in "Shot Down", National Review, March
6, 1995, pages 49-54.
"No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of
the Firearms Owners' Protection Act may require that records required to
be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records,
be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled
by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor
that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms
transactions or dispositions be established." Firearms Owners' Protection
Act, signed into law in 1986, 18 U.S.C. 926
"The [Mollen commission] report was a dismaying catalogue of renegade [NYC]
cops who peddled guns and drugs in public view; of senior officers who practiced
a deliberate "blindness" to corruption; of an Internal Affairs Division that
minimized corruption instead of stomping it out." "Without question, the
comission concluded, the best and perhaps the only remedy is a strong, outside
agency with the power to keep the Police Department on course." -- New
York Times Editorial Excerpt 8/25/94 p. A20
"The problem of violent crime in America is largely the problem of the repeat,
violent offender. A small segment of our population is responsible for a
large share of the violent crime. Study after study has identified a small
group of hardened, chronic offenders who commit a staggering number of crimes
-- well over one hundred a year for many of these violent predators." - From
'Combating Violent Crime: 24 Recommendations to Strengthen Criminal Justice',
US Dept of Justice, office of the Attorney General 7/28/92.
Top Ten Lessons Learned by the BATF in the Waco Raid, lesson number 3: "Don't
bring along the media unless you're really, really, really sure you are not
going to get your ass kicked."
"...weapons ban cost 20 members their seats in Congress." --President Clinton,
Cleveland Plain-Dealer 1/14/94
"Liberalizing concealed carry laws won't lead to a return to the Wild West
- though it wouldn't be bad if it did. ... in 19th Century cattle towns,
homicide was confined to transient males who shot each other in saloon
disturbances. The per capital robbery rate was 7% of modern New York City's.
The burglary rate was 1%. Rape was unknown." David Kopel - quoted in the
WSJ 28 Feb 1994 in "Have Gun, Will Eat Out"
"Francesco Sforza became Duke of Milan from being a private citizen because
he was armed; his successors, since they avoided the inconveniences of arms,
became private citizens after having been dukes." -- Nicolo Machiavelli
"An astonishing 25% of all voters voted primarily on the gun issue." --Connie
Chung, CBS News, November 10, 1994.
"Exit poll show data showed that more than a third of all voters who cast
ballots Tuesday said they supported the National Rifle Association -- and
two-thirds of those voters cast their ballots for Republican candidates."
--Washington Post, November 10, 1994, p. A33.
"35% of the voters had a positive impression of the NRA and went overwhelmingly
Republican." --MacNeil-Lehrer Report, November 10, 1994.
"An astonishing 25% of all voters voted primarily on the gun issue." --Connie
Chung, CBS News, November 10, 1994.
"Exit poll show data showed that more than a third of all voters who cast
ballots Tuesday said they supported the National Rifle Association -- and
two-thirds of those voters cast their ballots for Republican candidates."
-- Washington Post, November 10, 1994, p. A33.
"35% of the voters had a positive impression of the NRA and went overwhelmingly
Republican." --MacNeil-Lehrer Report, November 10, 1994.
"No, of course you don't need a permit! This is ALASKA for cryin' out loud!"
--Alaska resident, in response to a friend from Taxachusetts
Brady Act -- 1 Year Later
2,356,376 Handgun applications
40,309 False denials
551 Arrests
4 Actual prosecutions
0 Convictions
Brady Law Waste, after one year:
2 Million handgun purchase checks
4 prosecutions
0 convictions
Sentient beings who give up the intrinsic (not government given) right to
carry weapons for self defense don't last very long. They quickly get overrun
by the predators who, while short on morality, are rather longer on common
sense. - Helen Rhine - 1995
Anecdotal analogy about compromise on gun control passed on by firearms owner
John Williams:
"It's like some footpad comes up to you with a knife and says, "Gimme all
your money!", but you say, "No." He then says, "Okay, then gimme half your
money!", but you refuse. Then he demands,"Give me fifty bucks!", but you
start to walk away. "You know what your problem is, pal?", he shouts after
you, "You're unwilling to compromise!"
"The American Civil Liberties Union said today that the freedom to bear arms
must be sacrificed to the more important freedom of 'free and fearless debate
on which our free society rests.'" -- Associated Press, June 14, 1968
"A nationwide study by Don Kates, the constitutional lawyer and criminologist,
found that only 2 % of civilian shootings involved an innocent person mistakenly
identified as a criminal. The 'error rate' for the police, however, was 11
%, more than five times as high." -- George Will, Newsweek, Nov 15, 1993,
pg 94
**** 1989 Federal Lobbying Reports ****
(1st Half Gross Receipts)
Handgun Control, Inc. $3,827,020
National Coalition to Ban Handguns 265,719
ANTI-GUN TOTAL $4,092,739
Citizens Committee for the Right to
Keep and Bear Arms $1,158,572
NRA/Institute for Legislative Action 915,603
Gun Owners of America 361,715
PRO-GUN TOTAL $2,435,890
ANTI-GUN ADVANTAGE $1,656,849
"...the Second Amendment is not for killing little ducks and leaving Huey
and Dewey and Louie without an aunt and uncle. It is for hunting politicians,
like [in] Grozny, [or back in] 1776, when they take your independence away!"
-- California Rep. Bob Dornan, Congressional Record, 25 January, 1995
November 17, 1994: The New York Times will list Guns, Crime & Freedom
on its bestseller list Nov. 20th -- the book will be ranked 13th on the paper's
list for hard-cover non-fiction, according to a report in the Washington
Times today.
"The National Rifle Association...rebounded
with a vengeance Tuesday (Nov. 8th) when at least a dozen of the gun-control
supporters in Congress it had targeted were defeated by candidates who oppose
weapons restrictions," reported Hearst News Service in the Portland Oregonian
(11/10/94).
"Though only one of the many forces in Tuesday's (Nov. 8th) political watershed
election, the 3.5 million member NRA made an impression in political circles
that could again drive home the value of its goodwill -- or the power of
its ire," reported the Los Angeles Times (11/10/94).
"They [NRA members and gun owners] alone may have well made the difference
in this election," said Sen. Harris Wofford reflecting on his loss to Rick
Santorum in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race (AP, 11/12/94).
"NRA opposition hurts" declared US News & World Report while describing
one lesson for incumbents to learn following the upset defeat of 8-term incumbent
anti-gun Rep. Mike Synar (formerly D-OK) (10/3/94).
"Their [NRA's] grassroots effort is the best. They are alive and well," said
retiring Rep. Bill Hughes (D-NJ) (Richmond Times Dispatch, 8/15/94).
"As candidates who backed gun control legislation fell one by one across
the nation Tuesday night, the National Rifle Association re-emerged as a
high caliber political force that politicians cross at their own peril,"
reported The Hill on Nov. 10,
"After suffering big defeats in Congress this year on handgun control and
a ban on certain assault rifles, the National Rifle Association made good
on its promise not to get mad but to get even," reported the Washington Post.
"If indeed crime is one of the deciding electoral issues of our era, the
adherents of gun control won't be deciding much of anything until they figure
out a way to also talk in public, credibly, about controlling the criminals."
-- "Criminal Control Beats Gun Control" Wall Street Journal, November 4,
1993
"If I were to select a jack-booted group of fascists who were perhaps as
large a danger to American society as I could pick today, I would pick the
BATF. They are a shame and a disgrace to our country." -- US Congressman
John D. Dingell (D-Mich), 1980
In response to a question about what he thinks about militias, etc., "Well,
they have a right to believe whatever they want. They have a right to say
whatever they want. They have a right to keep and bear arms. They have a
right to put on uniforms and go out on the weekends. They do not have the
right to kill innocent Americans. They do not have the right to violate the
law. And they do not have the right to take the position that if somebody
comes to arrest them for violating the law, they're perfectly justified in
killing them. They are wrong in that." - President William Clinton, "60 Minutes"
interview 4/23/95
"Good morning Mrs. Weaver. We had pancakes for breakfast. What did you have?"
-- Words of FBI while taunting Weaver children as their mother's body lay
decomposing on the floor of their cabin. (As reported by Washington
Times)
"The right of bearing arms for a lawful purpose is not a right granted by
the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument
for its existence." -- U.S. vs Cruikshan (US Supreme Court)
-What effect did the CS gas pumped into the compound for six hours have on
the women and children? While Reno recently characterized the gas as a mere
"irritant," TECHNOLOGY REVIEW noted in October 1988 that CS gas is far more
potent than another widely used tear gas. CS Gas can kill: United Nation
officials estimated that the use of CS gas resulted in 44 fatalities in the
Gaza Strip in 1988, as well as more than 1,200 injuries and numerous
miscarriages. - WSJ Editorial, 15 May 1995
What did the FBI hope to accomplish by gassing the Davidians?
FBI Deputy Director Floyd Clarke told Congress nine days after the fire that
the FBI's plan was to "immediately and totally immerse the place in gas,
and throw in flash-bangs which would disorient them and cause people to...think,
if not rationally, at least instinctively, and perhaps give them a way to
come out." Flash-bang grenades temporarily blind people and, according to
a U.S. Army Field Manual, "Generally, persons reacting to CS are incapable
of executing organized and concerted actions and excessive exposure to CS
may make them incapable of vacating the area." - WSJ Editorial, 15 May 1995
"[D]espite media concern over Uzis and AK-47s, no law enforcement officers
had been killed by those weapons in the previous ten years." -- James Bovard
in "Lost Rights"
"[T]he most effective means of fighting crime in the United States is to
outlaw the possession of any type of firearm by the civilian populace." former US
AG Janet Reno (then chief state prosecutor in Dade County) at a B'nai B'rith
meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1991 Source: Weekend Warriors by Alan
W. Bock in National Review, May 29, 1995, page 40.
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)
"...The right of the people peacefully to assemble for lawful purposes existed
long before the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. In fact,
it is and always has been one of the attributes of a free government. It
`derives its source,' to use the language of Chief Justice Marshall, in Gibbons
v Ogden, 9 Wheat., 211, `from those laws whose authority is acknowledged
by civilized man throughout the world.' It is found wherever civilization
exists. It was not, therefore, a right granted to the people by the
Constitution... The second and tenth counts are equally defective. The right
there specified is that of `bearing arms for a lawful purpose.' This is not
a right granted by the constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent
upon that instrument for its existence." -- U.S. v. Cruickshank; 92 US 542;
(1875)
"In a letter to the Senate on June 23, 1994, President Clinton said the treaty's
prohibition on using chemical weapons as a 'method of warfare' should be
interpreted to mean that it 'applies only to the use of RCAs (riot control
agents) in international or internal armed conflict.'
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look
upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." -- Mahatma
Gandhi "Gandhi, An Autobiography", M. K. Gandhi, page 446
"[T]he Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because
those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was
founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped
ashore on Plymouth Rock? Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas
were attacked because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the issue,
why didn't Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen? -- P.J. O'Rourke, speech at the
Cato Institute, May 6, 1993
"banging holes into this compound...is quite a frightening activity."
"It seems to me it is not the kind of activity that is designed to get people
to come out," Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) 7-28-95 at the Waco hearings. (source
congressional record)
Spare the CS and spoil the child...
HCI = Hurting
Children Intentionally
On the last day of the
Waco
hearings, Rep. Henry Hyde (R- 6thIL) delivered a knock-out blow to Rep.
John Conyers (D-14th/MI). Mr. Conyers to Ms. Reno: "I have been questioning
and arguing with attorney generals (sic) since 1965, starting with Nick
Katzenbach during the civil rights days. You are the first lady attorney
general and I want to tell you that you are as competent and thorough and
as well-prepared as anybody." Mr. Hyde: "On April 28, 1993, in the one-day
hearing, the distinguished member from Michigan said this to the distinguished
attorney general (Ms. Reno): "Madam, I am extremely disappointed in the decision
of the Department of Justice, the FBI and the ATF. In Philadelphia, we had
a mayor who bombed people out of an eviction. In Jonestown, we lost the life
of a colleague because of a miscalculation about cult people. We had Patty
Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army. We had Wounded Knee with
the Indians. Now, when in God's name is the law enforcement at the federal
level going to understand these are sensitive events; that you cannot put
barbed wire, guns, FBI and Secret Service around them and wonder why they
do not do something unstable. The root cause of this problem was that it
was considered a military operation and it was not. This is a disgrace to
law enforcement in the US. You did the right thing by offering to resign."
"There is no reason for anyone in this country, for anyone except a police
officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use, a handgun.
The only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns.
And the only way to do that is to CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION." (emphasis
added)
- NBC News president, Michael Gartner, USA Today, 1/16/1992
K'ang-hsi, Emperor of China from 1661 to 1722 wrote:
"When the Governor-General requested that the Miao be prevented from having
weapons, and that Chinese merchants be forbidden to trade with them in such
items as lead, saltpeter, and sulpher, I did not grant his request. It was
not only that the Miao depend for their livelihood on the game they could
kill by hunting with crossbow and fouling piece -- it was also that effective
control of them had to depend on the sensitivity of the local officials.
Besides which, of course, there was the question of how you can get the common
people to hand over their weapons to the government officials at all -- as
I pointed out to the Board of Works vice-president Muhelun when he presented
his crazy scheme of disarming the people of Shantung province."
-- Quoted from page 35 of "Emperor of China: Self-portrait of K'ang-hsi",
compiled by Johnathan D. Spence in 1974.
" Federal law prohibits Federal firearms licensees from selling or delivering
any firearm or ammunition to any individual any firearm or ammunition who
[is] less than 18 years of age, and if the firearm is other than a shotgun
or rifle or ammunition for a rifle or shotgun, to any individual the licensee
knows or has reasonable cause to believe is less than twenty-one years of
age."
[18 U.S.C. 922(b)(1); 27 CFR 178.99(b)(1)]
"And, I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge
to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I'd
walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon.
I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out,
I was going to take them with me."
- U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) during U.S. Senate hearings on terrorism
held in Washington, D.C. on April 27, 1995
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols
or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and
not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." -- Arkansas
Supreme Court, 1878
"My own view on gun control is simple: I hate guns and I cannot imagine why
anybody would want to own one. If I had my way, guns for sport would be
registered, and all other guns would be banned." -- Deborah Prothrow-Stith
of the Office of Government and Community Programs and the Community Violence
Prevention Project at the Harvard School
of Public Health
"[NRA] claimed that they vigorously fought
[the Brady bill] at every turn and every step...because it was the nose of
the camel [under the tent]....Today we would like to tell you what the rest
of the camel looks like." -- HCI President
Richard Aborn, Dec. 8, 1993
"You can't get around the image of people shooting at people to protect their
stores and it working. This is damaging to the [gun control] movement." --
Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a "gun
control" lobbying group in Washington, D.C., in The Washington Post,
May 18, 1993 Sugarmann is referring to the Korean shopkeepers who guarded
their property with "assault weapons" during the L.A. riots.
"Handgun Control Inc., the lobbying group that helped push through the federal
ban on semiautomatic weapons and the Brady law on gun purchases, is said
to be worried that it is losing the public relations war to the
National Rifle Association. . . . It is
also considering a name change because, among other reasons, polls and focus
groups show that many Americans are uncomfortable with the word
control." US News and World Report, August 19, 1996
"...this [Supreme] Court has rigorously insisted that such a denial [to hear
a case] carries with it no implication whatever regarding the Court's views
on the merits of a case which it has declined to review. The Court has said
this again and again; again and again the admonition has to be repeated."
-- (Justice Frankfurter, Maryland v. Broadcast Radio Sho, Inc. 338 US 912,
1950)
"If those states which did not have right-to-carry concealed gun provisions
had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders; 4,177 rapes; and over
60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided yearly."
- Lott, John R. Jr. and Mustard, David B.,
Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns,
University of Chicago, July 26, 1996,
(Revised version forthcoming in Journal of Legal Studies, Jan '97) http://law.lib.uchicago.edu/faculty/lott/guns.html
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in
the country." -- Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C.
"Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no
rule-making or legislation which would abrogate them." - U.S. Supreme Court
in Miranda v. Arizona 380 U.S. 436 (1966)
"Constitutional rights may not be infringed simply because the majority of
the people choose that they be." - U.S. Supreme Court in Westbrook v. Mihaly
2 C3d 756
"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void." - U.S.
Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch) 137, 174, 176, (1803)
"This is not all we will have in future Congresses, but this is a crack in
the door. There are too many handguns in the hands of citizens. The right
to keep and bear arms has nothing to do with the Brady Bill." -- U.S.
Representative Craig Washington, at the mark-up hearing on the Brady Bill,
April 10, 1991.
"Handguns should be outlawed. Our organization will probably take this stand
in time but we are not anxious to rouse the opposition before we get the
other legislation passed." -- Elliot Corbett, Secretary, National Council
For A Responsible Firearms Policy (interview appeared in the Washington
Evening Star on September 19, 1969).
"It is our aim to ban the manufacture and sale of handguns to private
individuals. . .the coalition's emphasis is to keep handguns out of private
possession -- where they do the most harm." Recruiting flyer currently
distributed by The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, formerly called The National
Coalition to Ban Handguns.
"Yes, I'm for an outright ban (on handguns)." -- Pete Shields, Chairman emeritus,
Handgun Control, Inc., during a 60 Minutes interview.
"In fact, only police, soldiers -- and, maybe, licensed target ranges --
should have handguns. No one else needs one." --Michael Gartner, president
of NBC News, in The Wall Street Journal, 1/10/91
"There may be other things that will happen later... It may not be the end...
the bottom line is what we are seeking now is the Brady Bill." -- U.S.
Representative
Charles
Schumer, interviewed on CNNCrossfire.
"The Brady Bill
is the minimum step Congress should take...we need much stricter gun control,
and eventually should bar the ownership of handguns, except in a few cases."
-- U.S. Representative William Clay, quoted in the St. Louis Post
Dispatch on May 6, 1991.
"...if we really care about making our streets safer, we won't stop here.
AK-47's are now outlaws; handguns are next." --Bill Press. May 24, 1989.
KABC-TV (Channel 7), Los Angeles, CA.
"I think you have to do it a step at a time and I think that is what the
NRA is most concerned about. Is that it
will happen one very small step at a time so that by the time, um, people
have woken up, quote, to what's happened, it's gone farther than what they
feel the consensus of American citizens would be. But it does have to go
one step at a time and the banning of semi-assault military weapons that
are military weapons, not household weapons, is the first step." -- Mayor
Barbara Fass, Stockton CA.
"You know I don't believe in
people owning
guns, only the police and military. And I'm going to do everything I can
to disarm this state." -- Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts,
in conversation with Mike Yacino, MA Gun Owner's
Action League, and Roy Innis, CORE. 6/16/86.
"I don't believe anybody has a right to own any kind of a firearm. I believe
in order to obtain a permit to own a firearm, that person should undergo
an exhaustive criminal background check. In addition, an applicant should
give up his right to privacy and submit his medical records for review to
see if the person has ever had a problem with alcohol, drugs or mental illness
. . . The Constitution doesn't count!" -- John Silber, former chancellor
of Boston University and candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. Speech
before the Quequechan Club of Fall River, MA. August 16, 1990.
"The Brady law is not a cure for the bloody scourge of gun violence. It's
a good beginning, it's a good first step, but it's not enough. And we are
going to move forward. The Brady Bill was the first step. We are not taking
in one proposal many, many more steps." --U.S. Representative Charles Schumer,
at the press conference introducing " Brady II," February 28, 1994
"We have a long way to go before we see a truly effective gun-control law
in this country (the U.S.A.). But more and more, the lawmakers are understanding
that the American people want change. The only people who still don't get
it are the people over at the Evil Empire... the gun lobby." -- Jim Brady,
of Handgun Control,
Inc., in The Ottawa Citizen, April 23, 1994
"Mr. Speaker, I still believe that the best way to control handguns is to
ban them outright." -- Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-IL)
"Ban the damn things (guns). Ban them all. You want protection? Get a dog."
-- Molly Ivins, columnist, 7/19/94
"Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic - purely symbolic
- move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime
but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation
for their ultimate confiscation." -- Charles Krauthammer, columnist, 4/5/96
Washington Post
"It would...be strange to find in the midst of a catalog of the rights of
individuals a provision securing to the states the right to maintain a designated
'Militia' -- and to find that purely institutional guarantee accorded a position
of great prominence immediately following freedom of religion and freedom
of speech." -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on the Second Amendment:
(A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law, Princeton University
Press, 1997, 159 pages.)
DON'T FIGHT GUN CONTROL! THINK OF IT AS A NECESSARY BITTER MEDICINE TO HEAL
YOUR COUNTRY FROM A DISEASE CALLED FREEDOM. -- Thomas More Foundation
"I will not deny that the surgical use of violence cannot be used as a means
to an end. It is my personal choice that I will never exercise
it as my option, but I do not deny it as an option to those legally
enabled to use it, and use it legally; or to those in dire distress, who
use it only defensively to save an innocent life or their own." -- Glenn
Hoppe
starcity@sk.sympatico.ca
"A gun is a tool, Marion, no better or no worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." -- Alan Ladd to Jean Arthur in the movie Shane, 1953
Although gun-control laws on Long Island rank among the toughest in the nation, legal handgun ownership increased steadily and sometimes dramatically from the mid-1980s through 1993. Applications for handgun licenses jumped fivefold in Nassau in the 10 days following the Dec. 7, 1993, shooting aboard a Long Island Rail Road train that left six people dead and 19 injured. -- Newsday
Statistically speaking, you're more likely to be run down than gunned down by a stranger in New York City -- LA Times, Feb 23, 1998
"The most important factor affecting how children deal with guns is how they are taught about them. A study of 675 Rochester, New York ninth and tenth graders contrasted children who had been socialized into gun use by their family with children who had been socialized into gun use by peers. For the children whose families had taught them about lawful gun use, the children were at no greater risk of becoming involved in crime, gangs, or drugs than children with no exposure to guns. But the children who were taught about guns by their peers were at high risk of all types of crime and improper behavior, including gun crime."
-- Alan J. Lizotte & James M. Tesoriero, "Patterns of Adolescent Firearms Ownership and Use," (Albany: Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, State University of New York, 1991), Rochester Youth Development Study, Working Paper no. 11.
ABC News aired a study in which students who had received Eddie Eagle training, or whose parents took them to shoot, acted correctly when exposed to a gun on a playground, while children whose parents tried to shelter them from the "gun culture" immediately picked up the gun and pulled the trigger.
"A government that intended to protect the liberty of the people would not disarm them. A government planning the opposite most certainly and logically would disarm them. And so it has been in this century. Check out the history of Germany, the Soviet Union, Cuba, China and Cambodia." --Charlie Reese, syndicated columnist
"Another useful step would be to require the entertainment industry to comply with the same gun laws that law-abiding citizens must obey. The Hollywood moguls who promote pro-death movies such as Terminator and Lethal Weapon are a much greater threat to public safety than gun collectors who keep a few war- time souvenirs locked in a case on the wall. At the least, the entertainment industry ought to live by the same laws that it advocates for the rest of the country. Applying California's "assault weapon" ban to Hollywood, just as it applies to everyone else in California, would not violate the First Amendment." -- David Kopel, "Massaging the Medium: Analyzing and Responding to Media Violence Without
Harming the First Amendment
An article in the Boston Globe (April 1998) stated that there has been 57 stabbings in Japanese High Schools since the beginning of the year. Three of the stabbings resulted in deaths. The article stated that the juvenile crime rate in Japan is three times greater than that in the U.S. Do guns deter juvenile crime?
"He who goes unarmed in paradise had better be sure that that is where he is." -- James Thurber
"Those who cling to the untrue doctrine that 'violence never settles anything' would be advised to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury
might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Nations and peoples who forget
this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms." -- Robert A. Heinlein
"I sympathize with people who want to ban guns, but I can't agree with them. We have to be careful in our zeal to abolish guns that we don't wind up with counter-productive legislation that will leave armed only the people most likely to do harm with them." -- Hugh Downs, veteran ABC newsman
"The incidents piled up but the police never arrested Davidson. Instead, they expressed annoyance at Cathy Ford's frequent calls, telling her there was nothing they could do, that they were not a ''baby-sitting'' service, that she should buy a gun if she wanted real protection." -- Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe, 5/13/98
"Without wanting to get into other areas, let's acknowledge that the most people who believee that a 3- or 5-day national waiting period for firearms purchases is perferctly reasonable also oppose a 24-hour waiting period for abortions as a blatently unconstitutional infrigement of a constitutional right. The same people who support the absolute discretion of unelected fficials to prevent an individual from purchasing, owning or carrying a firearm, knowing that the poor, women, members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and those holding unpopular political opinions are much more likely to denied than are others, also tend to support judicial intervention to assure that the free market doesn't produce inferior educational or economic outcomes for these same people. The same people who proudly quote Martin Luther King, Jr in asserting that "a right delayed is a right denied" claim that waiting periods, one a month limits and other such laws are not an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms (even though they may deny such a right exists), but merely "reasonable" regulation." -- Ken Maurer
"We must get rid of all the guns." -- Sarah Brady, speaking on behalf of Handgun Control Inc., Phil Donahue Show, September 1994
"Gun control has not worked in D.C. The only people who have guns are criminals. We have the strictest gun laws in the nation and one of the highest murder rates. It's quicker to pull your Smith & Wesson than to dial 911 if you're being robbed." -- Lt. Lowell Duckett: Special Assistant to DC Police Chief; President, Black Police Caucus, The Washington Post, March 22, 1996.
"As a former law enforcement officer, it is a disgrace that the Brady law is so weak that almost no prosecutions have taken place, even though a felon who attempts to purchase a gun can receive a five-year minimum sentence. It is a law with no teeth." -- James J. Fotis: Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, Law and Order, October 1996.
When asked about stricter gun control laws, answered "Personally, I don't think that would have any effect, because what it does is make it harder for law-abiding citizens who want to get weapons to protect their homes and families to get weapons; because criminals are gonna get them if they want 'em." -- Tina Dillard: DeKalb County, Georgia police officer; NBC-TV Today show, Sept. 17, 1993
"I'm sick of the guns being put out on the street in the wrong hands. It's not that we don't have gun laws, we just need to enforce them. I'm not for more gun laws, I'm for enforcing the laws we have. We're going to enforce all the gun laws on the books." -- Lt. Philip Dacey: Pittsburgh Police Department, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 21, 1993
"It's wrong for a few police chiefs to endorse the Brady Bill, or any legislation, and say they speak for everyone in law enforcement." -- Trooper Bill Krulac: Pennsylvania State Police, U.S. Capitol Rally, September 7, 1988
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. -- William Burroughs
Pretty darned obvious by now that the Brady Act wasn't that solution.
This will, as usual, be used as a rationale for Brady II. "Brady I
didn't do the job. We need Brady II."
This is the legislative equivalent of an 18th-century doctor saying,
"One leech didn't cure your evil humors. Let's try fifty leeches."
-- Dave Jungeman
"It is also interesting to note that the top officials of Handgun Control Institute are gun owners themselves. They also intend on keeping them. It's other people's guns that bother them..." -- Mark Urbin
The Spring 1995 issue of Time magazine, "Welcome To Cyberspace", sponsored by AT&T, had the following about how Web and Internet users respond to online publications like magazines and newspapers...
"Editors are also discovering that the information highway is a two-way street: no matter what they print about gun control, for example, a flood of angry E-mail is almost sure to follow. While few editors will admit to being influenced by such online pressure... most journalists are likely to take the complaints into account in future stories -- and there's nothing wrong with
that."
Fact: 15,000 people are murdered every year in this country by firearms.
Fact: The Chicago Police Department reports that 75% of murderers have criminal records.
Fact: That same Chicago PD report indicates that 66% of murder victims have criminal records.
The Math: 1,250 non-criminals are shot and killed by other non-criminals.
Israel, with one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world, has a murder rate 40% below Canada's.
"All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all guns, that way no guns can ever be used to command the party." -- Mao Tse Tung "Selected Works of Mao Zedong," 1965
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