Secret HCI Papers Reveal Interesting Facts

Startling facts have recently emerged from a confidential research paper
prepared for Handgun Control, Inc., by Peter D. Hart Research Associates,
Inc., back in the early 1990s.

According to the paper, the typical HCI member is a white male of late
middle age or older. Half are over 60, more than 25 over 70, and about a
third retired. Only 1 percent of HCI members are college age or younger.
These older male members are likely to be wealthy and to have completed
higher education. About 96 percent have white collar jobs, and 92
percent think the nation has other priorities more important than “gun
control.”

Also surprising is the fact that one in five HCI members actually owns a
firearm. This is attributed to the extremely high level of paranoia
among HCI members — Hart reports that 42 percent think it is “very or
quite possible” that they or an immediate relative will be injured or
killed by gunfire. Thus the primary membership of HCI seems to believe
that only they can be trusted with owning the means to defend themselves.

Not surprisingly, the polling group found that HCI members view the NRA
as the chief obstacle to their selective gun control agenda. Most
members accept HCI’s negative portrayal of the NRA as (1) standing in the
way of stopping drug war violence (drugs are actually the number one
concern among HCI supporters); (2) working to counter the needs of law
enforcement; and (3) standing in the way of “protecting our children.”

These three outlandish propaganda positions are clearly contrary to
objective facts. But HCI has other more pressing problems. Gun control
ranked dead last when HCI members were asked to prioritize the importance
of a host of political issues. In fact, gun control was of less concern
to these people than drugs, the budget deficit, the environment,
education, the economy, abortion, crime, honesty in government, foreign
policy, and homelessness.

Its easy to see why the organization is spending time and money trying to
attract a new membership of youth and urban minorities and those
misguided activists who believe they are working to help these two
groups.

–America’s First Freedom, March 2001

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men
of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be
read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
–JAMES MADISON