From: Philip Van Cleave <[email protected]>
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Guns rule the US – misinformation galore
>
>Dear Mr. Daumeyer,
>
>You clearly did not do your homework when you wrote your “Guns rule the
>US” article. You state that violence is not new and violent games are
>not new. I agree. However, when you state that the proliferation of
>guns is new – that is hooey as you like to call it. Until 1968 you
>could buy guns through the mail with no background checks. Hardware
>stores carried them. You could walk-in and buy one, no questions
>asked. So much for proliferation being new.
>
>Your mention that a gun in the home is 40 times more likely to be used
>to shoot someone the owner knows than a criminal. That statistic, from
>a study done by Dr. Kellerman in conjuntion with Handgun Control Inc,
>has been debunked years ago. Dr. Kellerman admitted that he had used
>horribly flawed logic to come up with that figure. Some myths never
>seem to die. And people not checking their facts keep proliferating
>them.
>
>Guns are used or brandished defensively from 2.5 million times a year
>according to a famous study by John Lott of the University of Chicago.
>That’s a lot of innocent lives you would remove from the face of the
>Earth if we had it your way.
>
>If you are looking for the liberal media to hail guns for anything good,
>you are going to have a long wait. Local media, however, often
>documents such life saving uses. In fact, the NRA collects these
>stories from local papers and published 15 of them a month in it’s
>magazines. The paper’s name and date are documented with the story.
>It’s real, check it out.
>
>Have you ever thought about living in DC? Guns are not legal there, you
>will be perfectly safe. How about Australia – they banned most guns two
>year ago and the home invasion rate has skyrocketed. People are being
>raped, robbed and murdered in the homes. Ain’t gun control great?
>
>Sincerely,
>Philip Van Cleave
>Vice President
>Virginia Citizens Defense League