The Brady Bunch visits WonderLand

The Brady Campaign is once again asking us to believe the
impossible.

Every January, the gun control group issues a state report
card, giving each state a grade on the basis of their gun
laws. One look at their report card reveals that the grades
have no relation to how safe people are in the state.

Their report card is somewhat reminiscent of Lewis Carroll?s
classic ?Alice in Wonderland.? When Alice doesn?t believe
the White Queen is 101 years old, she is encouraged by the
Queen to spend more time trying to believe the impossible.

?When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a
day,? the Queen smiled. ?Why, sometimes I?ve believed as
many as six impossible things before breakfast.?

Well, the Brady Bunch would have us believe many impossible
things. Here are six for starters.

Vermont gets a grade of D because, supposedly, the ?state?s
weak laws make it too easy for criminals, the mentally ill
and juveniles to get guns.?

But that?s laughable, for crime in Vermont is virtually
non-existent. In 2003 Vermont earned the Safest State in
the nation award from the Morgan Quitno Press ? a group of
statisticians who rank each state according to its safety
record.

The Green Mountain State consistently has one of the lowest
crime rates in the nation: They have earned this ?Safest
State? award three times in the last ten years.

The real reason the Brady Bunch doesn?t like the state of
Vermont is because it has relatively few restrictions on
firearms. In fact, anyone in the state can carry a gun
without first getting a permit or submitting to a government
background check.

For a similar reason, the folks at the Brady Campaign also
gave Alaska a low grade. The Land of the Midnight Sun is
now following in Vermont?s footsteps, having passed a law
last year allowing citizens to freely carry firearms without
first obtaining government permission.

The Brady Bunch doesn?t like this at all. They awarded a D-
to Alaska?the second unbelievable grade?and sentenced the
entire state to the ?time-out chair.?

No, that?s not a joke. Their press release says that Alaska
was ?put in the Time-Out Chair for passing a new law that
allows people to .carry concealed handguns without even
having a permit. Gun violence in the state could increase

A look around the nation shows just the opposite: Crime
dramatically increases in places that give criminals a safer
working environment. Just look at Washington, DC, which has
seen its murder rate increase 51 percent since imposing a
draconian gun ban in 1976. By contrast, the murder rate
decreased 36 percent throughout the entire nation during
that same 25-year period.

FBI statistics showed last year that the states which
enjoyed the lowest murder rates earned grades of D or D-
from the Brady Campaign because of their lenient gun laws.
New Hampshire, North Dakota and Maine have murder rates that
many other states or countries can only dream about. But
the Brady Bunch suggests that these are not states where you
would want to live, because they are not keeping kids ?safe
from gun violence.?

Again, these states have the lowest murder rates in the
country. Doesn?t that count for anything?

Finally, the Brady Bunch awarded Maryland one of the highest
grades in the nation (an A-), even though they had the
second HIGHEST murder rate in the nation.

How can the Brady Campaign give that state an A- with a
straight face? The state is not keeping its citizens safe
from gun violence? or any other violence, for that matter.
But hey, Maryland gets an A-, simply because they have
strict gun control laws, disregarding the question of
whether those laws are keeping people safe.

Do you see the irony here?

The White Queen would probably have no problem believing
this Report Card, but the rest of us should.

It?s a sad thing when people try to claim fiction?such as
the Brady Campaign?s Report Card?is fact.

At least with Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll knew he was
writing about make-believe. And he didn?t expect us to take
it seriously.

? About the author: Erich Pratt is the Director of
Communications for Gun Owners of America, a national gun
lobby with over 350,000 members. 8001 Forbes Place,
Springfield, VA 22151.