Sirs:
I read with dismay the article you posted at: http://www.patrolandbeyond.com/crime_prevention/gun_violence.htm from the from the National Crime Prevention Council.

I am unable to find any reference in the CDC at: http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html
that remotely resembles or supports the spurious rate suggested by NCPC. This number has been discredited nationally many times over. Further, the term Gun Violence implies, somehow that guns are responsible for their misuse by human beings. I must point out that this is more Voodoo than social science.

In the face of drastically reduced violent crime rates over the past 32 years, this hysterical hyperbole does nothing to address the roots of violent crime or its demographics which are specifically identifiable and are primarily related to gangs and drugs.

Some of NCPC’s sponsors are: the Lilly Endowment, Packard Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Allstate Foundation, Milstein Family Foundation, Florence V. Burden Foundation, and Chevron. These are well known liberal organizations that would eliminate the 2nd Amendment from the Constitution, had they the power. Since the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no individual citizen has an expectation to individual response from the police, who is responsible for the citizen’s defense until the police do arrive?

I would suggest you verify the content of that which you print, if for no other reason than to retain credibility. As a career peace officer, I have never and do not now fear armed citizens, rather, I view them as a resource for community defense in very bad times, i.e., L.A. Riots.I also know from years as a street cop in a very challenging environment exactly what can happen to unarmed citizens at the hands of violent criminals.

I know that if you bother to do the research, you will find that there are many more things that harm children than firearms. In fact, they are at the bottom of death and injury causes to children. Source: CDC

NCPC arrives at some of their numbers by adding all those miscreants killed in drug gang battles who are between 18 and 15. You know and I know that these street creatures are anything but children.

I swore an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution three times, in Military service to our country and as a Deputy Sheriff serving the community, not to engage in voodoo and blaming inanimate objects because the disturbed youth in this country have not been taught restraint, self discipline, responsibility and personal accountability. Self esteem does not come with warm fuzzys, it comes with hard work and competition. Only when they learn all the aforegoing, disturbed and sociopathic youth will continue their activity whether firearms are exist or not.

Sincerely,

Joe Horn, Detective, Retired
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Member, Advisory Board,
2nd Amendment Police Department
(In Cyberspace) www.2ampd.net