—– Original Message —–
From: Eagle Forum <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 29, 2000 4:42 PM
Subject: Not a Million Moms, Just Multi-Million Dollar Media

> Not a Million Moms, Just Multi-Million Dollar Media
>
> May 24, 2000 by: Phyllis Schlafly
>
> The Million Mom March was not a grassroots uprising of mothers but
> a slick media event orchestrated by Bill Clinton’s public relations
> experts and led by a sister-in-law of a close friend of Hillary Clinton.
> That the campaign was contrived was evident in the cozy meeting
> with the President, the extravagant television coverage and
> multi-page color “ads” disguised as “news” in national magazines,
> and the distribution of color brochures in airports.
>
> The march was advertised as growing out of mothers’ outrage at the
> large number of children who are killed by guns. But Professor John
> Lott Jr., senior research scholar at the Yale University Law School
> and author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” has exposed the blatant lies
> in the statistics bandied about by the President and the press, such
> as the lie that 12 children a day die from guns.
>
> Most of the “children” in the statistics on kids killed by gunfire are
> 17-, 18- and 19-year-olds killed in gang or drug wars in high-crime
> urban areas. It is unrealistic to think that trigger locks or waiting
> periods would have any effect in stopping those homicides.
>
> The Centers for Disease Control could identify only 21 children under
> age 15 dying from accidental handgun deaths in 1996. But 40
> children under the age of five drown in water buckets every year and
> another 80 drown in bathtubs.
>
> Are we going to demand that water buckets and bathtubs be locked
> up and fitted with safety catches? The risk of a child drowning in a
> swimming pool is 100 times greater than the risk of dying from a
> firearm-related accident.
>
> The Columbine killers violated at least 17 state and federal gun-
> control laws among the 20,000 gun-control laws on the books today.
> Does anyone think that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold would not have
> known how to unlock their guns, or that a waiting period would have
> made a difference in the murders they planned months in advance?
>
> Another Clinton argument for more gun control is the alleged increase
> in what are called “rampage killings.” But Professor Lott, who did a
> couple of thousand hours of research on this issue, found that there
> has been no upward national trend in such killings since the
> mid-1970s.
>
> The only policy that effectively reduces public shootings is
> right-to-carry laws. In the 31 states that passed right-to-carry laws,
> the number of multiple-victim public shootings has dropped
> dramatically.
>
> Those who are looking for the cause of murders committed by very
> young boys should listen to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of “Stop
> Teaching Our Kids to Kill,” who believes that some children are
> taught the desire and the skill to kill by violent video games. The
> killers at Columbine High School reenacted the methods of killing
> they had learned from the video game called “Doom.”
>
> How did 14-year-old Michael Carneal of Paducah, Kentucky, who had
> never before shot a real gun, have the skill to walk into a school in
> December 1997, fire eight shots and hit eight kids, all in the head or
> upper torso? Colonel Grossman says the answer is in the violent
> video games kids play.
>
> The sheer number of guns and gun owners in America makes gun
> control far more unrealistic than Prohibition. At least 80 million
> Americans own 250 million guns, and most of them obviously handle
> their guns responsibly or we would have lots more accidents.
>
> The marching moms say they want handguns registered and
> handgun owners licensed similarly to what is required for
> automobiles. But registering cars doesn’t make kids any safer, and
> many other methods are obviously better at improving safety, such
> as safety instruction itself.
>
> Using automobiles as an analogy boxes the marching moms into a
> corner, anyway, because it invites us to demand gun safety courses
> in schools like drivers ed. Schools were a lot safer prior to the 1970s,
> when many public schools had shooting clubs and high school
> students carried their unloaded guns to school and competed in
> shooting contests.
>
> It’s time for Americans to separate truth from propaganda in news
> coverage about guns. Under the principle that “if it bleeds it leads,”
> television redundantly reports on guns used to kill, but censors out
> the four times as many incidents of successful defensive use of guns
> to disarm criminals and protect law-abiding citizens from becoming
> victims.
>
> Research shows that crime is reduced by putting guns in the hands
> of law-abiding citizens. Even those who do not own a gun are safer
> because the criminal fears that his next victim might have the power
> to defend himself.
>
> Phyllis Schlafly column 5-24-00
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Online version of this column:
> http://eagleforum.org/column/2000/may00/00-05-24.html
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Eagle Forum http://www.eagleforum.org
>
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