Brady Campaign: Sensible Gun Laws? (Good Stats & Cites)
Date: Jul 10, 2008 12:23 PM
FYI (copy below):
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=33138

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by Howard Nemerov
Brady Campaign: Sensible Gun Laws?
July 09, 2008 10:00 AM EST

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that a resident of
Washington D.C. has a Constitutional right to own a firearm
for self-defense in the home. Paul Helmke, President of the
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, declared: ‘Our
fight to enact sensible gun laws will be undiminished by the
Supreme Court’s decision in the Heller case.’

But what exactly qualifies as ‘sensible,’ according to
Helmke? We must travel back to the year 2001 to answer this
question.

For many years, the Brady Campaign released an annual
‘report card,’ grading each state on its level of ‘sensible’
gun laws. States with higher grades (e.g. ‘A’) were
obviously more ‘sensible,’ according to Brady; states rated
‘F’ were apparently considered ‘non-sensible.’

The first interesting detail in the 2001 version of this
report card is that Washington, D.C. is missing. This is
also true for Brady’s 2002-2004 reports.

This is a curious omission because the Brady Campaign is on
record as supporting the D.C. ban on functioning firearms
Helmke said ‘we [Brady Campaign] disagree with the Supreme
Court’s ruling’ and it seems reasonable that their report card
would be an excellent opportunity to highlight D.C.’s
success, since surely a total firearms ban rates an ‘A.’

Also in 2001, the North Carolina State Center for Health
Statistics, as part of their Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance System (BRFSS), asked respondents from all over
the country the following question: ‘Are any firearms now
kept in or around your home? Include those kept in a
garage, outdoor storage area, car, truck, or other motor
vehicle.’

Results from this survey were collated with Brady’s 2001
grades. After sorting by gun ownership levels, states were
divided roughly into quartiles: under 30% gun ownership
rates (12 states); 30-40% (14 states); 40-50% (15 states);
and over 50% ownership rates (10 states). There is a clear
correlation between low levels of gun ownership and higher
Brady grades: Only the first quartile of states,
incidentally with the lowest levels of gun ownership
(average 16.5%), were rated well by Brady, averaging a grade
of B+. Quartiles 2-4 had average grades of D+, D+, and D-,
respectively. This indicates that Brady’s definition of
‘sensible’ gun laws equates with laws which restrict or
prohibit gun ownership.

Unfortunately for Brady, there is another correlation which
demands attention. Each year, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation releases their annual Uniform Crime Report,
reporting on major violent and property crimes committed
around the country. Included in their crime tabulations is
a Table 4, which compares the current year’s crime rates to
the previous year’s. This enables the FBI to report on
updated data for the previous year’s, reflecting corrections
and late entries from participating law enforcement agencies
from across the country. As a result, Table 4 in the 2002
Uniform Crime Report has more accurate crime data for the
year 2001.

Brady’s favored group with the B+ average grade had a
average violent crime rate of 610.0 in 2001. Violent crime
levels dropped sharply in quartiles 2-4: 424.5, 410.7, and
319.6, respectively. (All rate values equal incidents per
100,000 population.)

Brady makes much of the relationship between guns and crime,
particularly firearms deaths. Helmke states:

Our weak or non-existent gun laws contribute to the
thousands of senseless gun deaths and injuries in
this country that occur each year.

However, Brady’s B+ group had an average homicide rate of
7.6. As gun ownership levels increased, murder rates
decreased: 4.9 for quartiles 2 and 3, and 4.2 for quartile
4 (the states with over 50% gun ownership rates).

Not only do Brady’s ‘best’ states have low levels of gun
ownership, but they averaged relatively high levels of
violent crime and murder. More interesting is that in 2001,
10 of 12 states in the B+ quartile were not Right-to-Carry
(RTC), while all 10 states in quartile 4 were RTC.

In practical terms, Brady’s criteria for ‘sensible gun laws’
translates into less civilian gun ownership and an inability
for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves against
violent criminals, flying in the face of the Supreme Court
ruling that concluded:

The Second Amendment protects an individual right
to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a
militia, and to use that arm for traditionally
lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the
home.

What’s sensible about higher violent crime rates?

Howard Nemerov is a columnist for Texas State Rifle
Association’s TSRA Sportsman and ‘unofficial’ investigative
analyst for NRA News. His new book, Four Hundred Years of
Gun Control: Why Isn’t It Working?, deconstructs the gun
control agenda and empowers readers to be better emissaries
for gun rights. He can be reached at HNemerov [at sign]
Netvista.net.

Endnotes

[1] See District of Columbia et al. v. Heller, No 07-290,
Supreme Court of the United States, Syllabus.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf

2 Statement Of Brady President Paul Helmke On Supreme Court
Second Amendment Ruling, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence, June 26, 2008.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/media/release.php?release=992

3 See The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence 2001 Report
Card, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, January 22,
2002.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/reportcards/2001/details.pdf

4 See The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence 2002 Report
Card, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, January 2,
2003.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/reportcards/2002/details.pdf

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence 2003 Report Card,
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, January 9, 2004.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/reportcards/2003/details.pdf

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence 2003 Report Card,
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, January 12, 2005.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/reportcards/2004/details.pdf

5 Statement Of Brady President Paul Helmke On Supreme Court
Second Amendment Ruling.

6 North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics,
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, BRFSS Survey
Results 2001 for Nationwide: Firearms.
http://www.schs.state.nc.us/SCHS/brfss/2001/us/firearm3.html
For further discussion of this survey, see Is Philadelphia’s
Violence Due to Firearms Availability?
http://www.newswithviews.com/Nemerov/howard1.htm

7 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United
States, 2002, Table 4 – Index of Crime by Region, Geographic
Division, and State, 2001-2002, pages 68-77.
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_02/pdf/02crime2.pdf

8 Discussion of correlations between Brady grades and crime
rates based upon Excel workbook compiled from Brady Report
Card, BRFSS Survey Results 2001, and FBI Uniform Crime
Report. Email request for workbook.

9 Statement Of Brady President Paul Helmke On Supreme Court
Second Amendment Ruling.

10 District of Columbia et al. v. Heller, page 1.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !