Letter: Criminals kill other criminals
Date: May 3, 2007 10:24 AM
PUBLICATION: Sault Star (ON)
DATE: 2007.05.03
SECTION: Editorial & Opinion
PAGE: A8
COLUMN: Letters to the Editor
WORD COUNT: 103

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Criminals kill other criminals

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In the last line of his May 1 column, Gwynne Dyer quips “Guns don’t kill
Americans; Americans kill Americans.”

It would be more correct to say that “American criminals kill American
criminals.”

From 70 to 80 per cent of all persons charged with homicide using a gun
already had a violent criminal record – which, under U.S. federal law
should have made them ineligible to legally own one.

The vast majority of the victims of such firearms homicides had a
criminal record too.

Most of these people are rival gang members or drug dealers. For
statistical purposes, they are considered to be “acquaintances” because
they “know each other.”

Law-abiding and honest gun owners are not, and never have been the
problem. Lax enforcement and punishment for breaking the law are.

Bruce N. Mills, Dundas, Ont.