Handgun Control, Inc. – A Total Stranger To The Truth

When the facts disagree with you, the only thing left to do is to lie. Since its founding in 1974, Handgun Control, Inc. has pursued a policy of disseminating lies about handguns and crime in the United States.

HCI originated (1974) as the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH), a group which lobbied for government restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms through support for restrictions on the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer, and civilian possession of handguns. The organization voiced a desire for an eventual handgun ban through gradual steps, but changed its name and espoused goals due to results of a survey. In 1991, HCI amended its Articles of Incorporation to reflect its support of restrictions on rifles and shotguns as well.

Handgun Control, Inc. toddled along as a smallish, fringe organization until the near-fatal wounding of presidential Press Secretary James Brady during the attempted assassination of then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Shortly thereafter Brady?s wife, Sarah, joined HCI and wound up as its chief figure. Let?s look at Handgun Control, Inc.?s philosophy.

HCI?S MAJOR THEMES

GUNS ARE “VOODOO” OBJECTS! An inert assembly of metal parts somehow has the power to turn a law-abiding citizen into a violent criminal.

NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRIMINALS AND LAW-ABIDING GUN OWNERS: Average citizens (especially lower-income and minorities) lack the intelligence or judgment to own any type of gun, much less a handgun.

INDIVIDUALS DON?T COUNT: Only “society” has the right to fight off criminals. Citizens should just give criminals what they want, even at the risk of grave injury or death at the hands of criminals.

DENY THE MAJORITY?S RIGHTS: The rights of the massive majority of law-abiding citizens should be curtailed because of the relatively microscopic number of violent felons.

WHY HCI IS TOO EMBARRASSED TO TALK ABOUT WASHINGTON D.C.

For a group that?s headquartered in our nation?s capital, HCI has little to say about the long-term results of a handgun possession ban in Washington, D.C. And for a very good reason. A ban on handgun ownership hasn?t halted a horrendous rise in the homicide rate. In 1977 a law banning handgun possession took effect in that city. The law was of course championed by NCCH (HCI?s namesake predecessor). According to their theories, handgun homicides would decrease simply because handguns were now legally forbidden to possess.

It didn?t happen. To the dismay and embarrassment of the anti-self defense advocates, D.C.?s homicide rate climbed steadily and so did the numbers of homicides. From 1977 to 1991 Washington?s homicide rate nearly tripled from about 28 per 100,000 to 80 per 100,000 See TABLE 1.

The 1995 murder rate for Washington, D.C. was once again the nation?s highest for an area of over 250,000 people. HCI?s anti-self defense proponents tried to divert attention from the handgun ban failure by saying the city?s problems came “from across the river” in Virginia. How?s that again? Virginia has no laws banning handgun possession yet its homicide rate is far lower than D.C.?s. Virginia is also one of the 31 states which allows law-abiding citizens to carry concealed guns. Maryland, which borders Washington on the north, also has a much lower homicide rate.

HCI?s POLICIES WOULD INCREASE NUMBER OF MURDER VICTIMS

On its web page and in its literature HCI makes the statement: “Only 179 justifiable homicides were committed with a handgun in 1995.” The 1996 FBI Uniform Crime report (UCR) is cited as the source. That particular fact is true, but what HCI doesn?t mention is that that statistic is included as part of a 5-year survey table, which shows the total of justifiable handgun homicides (not murders) by both civilians AND POLICE from 1991-95. See TABLE 2.

From 1991 through 1995 1,200 Americans justifiably used handguns in what amounted to kill-or-be-killed situations. If HCI?s dreams had come true and all handguns had been confiscated from Americans prior to this time, then it?s safe to assume about half of these 1,200 people would now be dead. Six hundred more people would likely be murder victims because HCI doesn?t distinguish criminals from individual law-abiding citizens. HCI?s viewpoint is simple: If you own a gun, you are a criminal.

The anti-self defense lobby keeps whining, “If it saves one life…” Data from the nation?s chief law enforcement body indicates that it?s just the opposite. If HCI?s policies became law, the murder body count would increase.

MANY MORE GUNS, FEWER FATAL ACCIDENTS

There?s a lot more people and a lot more guns around now compared to 25 years ago. It?s one thing we agree on with HCI. Oddly enough, we don?t hear HCI shouting “GUN ACCIDENTS ARE INCREASING.” BECAUSE THEY CAN?T! This is one area which drives HCI nuts and so they make spurious statements like, “16 kids are killed each day by guns.” Here?s the real story on fatal gun accidents:

In 1970 the U.S. population was 203 million. In 1995 it was about 262 million. In 1970 there were 2,400 accidental gun deaths. In 1990 there were about 1,400 accidental gun deaths. These are National Safety Council statistics from the 1995 World Almanac. In 1995, the NSC reported 1,521 fatal firearm accidents. The NSC estimates that in 1995, firearm accidents accounted for 1.5% of fatal accidents.

Larger percentages of fatal accidents were accounted for by motor vehicle accidents (47%), falls (13.5%), poisonings (11.4%), drownings (4.8%), fires (4.4%), and choking on an ingested object (3.0%). The National Safety Council now estimates that the fatal firearm accident per capita rate fell to an all-time low in 1995. The new rate, 0.5 per 100,000 population, represents an 85% decrease from the all-time high recorded in 1904.

DON?T A LOT OF “KIDS” DIE IN GUNSHOT ACCIDENTS?

The National Safety Council estimates that there were 200 fatal firearm accidents among children in 1995, 3% of the 6,600 fatal accidents among children. By comparison, other accident types accounted for a greater share of fatal accidents among children, including motor vehicle (2,900, 44%), fires (1,050, 16%), drowning (950, 14%), and choking on ingested object (300, 4.5%). The number of fatal firearm accidents among children in 1995 represents a 64% decrease from an all-time high of 550 in 1975, and a small decrease from the 205 fatalities in 1993, reported by the National Council for Health Statistics.

The NCHS reports that fatal accidents of all types increased 4% among children between 1992-1993, but fatal firearms accidents decreased 5%, from 216 in 1992 to 205 in 1993.

Firearm accidents accounted for 2.9% of the 6,954 fatal accidents among children in 1993, according to the NCHS. Motor vehicle accidents accounted for 3,044 (44%), drownings 1,023 (15%), fires 1,015 (15%), and chokings on ingested objects 223 (3.2%), in addition to other types of accidents. Firearm accidents accounted for 0.4% of all deaths, for all reasons, among children in 1993.

Anti-gun groups overstate the number of firearm related deaths among children, by defining “children” to include persons through the age of 19. The reason: 83% of firearm related homicides, suicides and accidents among persons 0-19 years old are accounted for by adolescents and young adults ages 15-19. In 1996, the anti-firearm Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) applied this trick to NCHS data, claiming that 5,751 “children” died in firearm-related incidents in 1993; one “child” every 92 minutes. The NCHS reported 5,715 (not 5,751) firearm-related deaths in 1993 among persons ages 0-19, and 83% of these deaths occurred among adolescents and young adults ages 15-19. In the 15-19 age group, there were 4,758 firearm-related deaths, including 3,082 homicides, 1,273 suicides, 321 accidents, and 82 unexplained. There were 957 firearm-related deaths among persons ages 0-14, including 543 homicides, 187 suicides, 205 accidents, and 22 unexplained deaths.

The CDF, like other anti-firearm groups, adds firearm-related homicides, suicides and accidents to produce a total number of firearm-related “deaths due to gunfire,” comparing that total to the number of deaths resulting from certain specific types of diseases or accidents, and declaring that “gunfire” is the (“Xth”) leading cause of death among “children.” Often, anti-firearm activists further skew their computations by excluding deaths among persons less than one year of age, because of the large number of persons in that age group who die from perinatal conditions, congenital anomalies, and sudden infant death syndrome. In 1993, firearm-related deaths (homicides, suicides and accidents) accounted for 1.9% of all deaths among all children, far less than deaths due to perinatal conditions (31%), congenital anomalies (17%), sudden infant death syndrome (10%), motor vehicle accidents (6%), accidental drownings (2%), accidental fires (2%), neoplasms (4%), infectious diseases (3%), and other causes.

AMERICA?S ARMED CITIZENS HELP POLICE

Law-abiding gun owners have occasionally been able to use their guns to save the lives of law enforcement officers. The following policemen would probably be dead if HCI policies had become law.

Things had turned ugly for Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officer Rick Wallace. He had found marijuana on a speeder, but was overpowered by the man before he could cuff him. Passerby Adolph Krejsek witnessed the altercation and came to the rescue, using his own firearm to help the trooper control the suspect. After helping subdue the assailant, Krejsek used the injured trooper’s radio to call for help.
(The Review Courier, Alva, OK, 1/8/95)

“It’s more than fighting fires. If somebody is in trouble, we’re going to show up,” said Sipsey Valley volunteer firefighter James “Buddy” O’Hanlon. O’Hanlon was one of about 30 armed volunteer firefighters who responded within minutes to an emergency call from their chief, L.A. Marlowe, who had just been robbed and shot at outside of his Buhl, Ala., store. One suspect was spotted before he made it 100 yds. and was cornered in the woods by the army of firefighters, who apprehended him. Sheriff’s deputies quickly arrested another robber who had been identified by the firefighters. A third suspect was later apprehended.
(The News, Tuscaloosa, AL, 1/12/95)

In the finest tradition of armed citizens who take on crime in their communities, Texan Travis Neel helped save a wounded Harris County deputy sheriff’s life. Witnessing the shooting by one of a trio of Houston gang members after a traffic stop just west of Houston, Neel–who was on his way to his pistol range–pulled his gun and fired, driving the officer’s assailants away. An off-duty sheriff’s deputy also came on the scene and joined Neel in covering the deputy, whose life was saved by his body armor. The trio was captured after a manhunt.
(The Post, Houston, TX, 1/22/94)

Do you think Sarah Brady would be of any help to these officers?

HCI WANTS TO KEEP PEOPLE OF COLOR FROM OWNING GUNS

HCI is very subtle about its racist objectives regarding gun control. HCI leaders are well aware that blacks and Latinos suffer gun deaths far in excess of the same rate for whites, due to gang and drug related killings which plague some minority neighborhoods. For instance, in California in 1995 whites had a homicide rate of 4 per 100,000. Blacks had a rate of 40 (10 times that of whites) and Latinos were murdered at a rate of 16 per 100,000. Meanwhile, gang and drug killings climbed from 15% to 35% of the yearly California homicides in the years 1986-1995. These figures are from “Homicide In California 1995,” published by the California Dept. of Justice. HCI looks to prey on the fears of affluent whites who are scared of potential confrontations with armed black and brown criminals. Thus they invent issues with thinly-disguised racial codes, such as the one familiar to most of you: “Saturday night special.”

Saturday night specials are what HCI calls inexpensive small handguns – which are most likely to be bought by lower-income law-abiding people. HCI actually would prefer that only wealthy people would be able to legally acquire guns of any type. Despite HCI?s claims that these small-caliber handguns are “involved in 8 of 10 police investigations of gun crimes” there have been no reports issued by any police or government agency to support this claim. Example: January 18, 1996 – the Los Angeles Times in a gun control article noted that in 1995 the Los Angeles Police Department reported that these small-caliber handguns comprised ONE IN EIGHT (13%) of the total guns seized in criminal investigations that year. On June 8, 1997 a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial asserted that San Diego police reported small-caliber handguns constituted about ONE IN SEVEN (14%) of crime scene guns seized in that city in 1996. The San Diego PD also reported that not a single homicide was committed with one of these guns in that year.

One truth that?s of no concern to HCI is that buyers of these inexpensive small-caliber handguns go through the same waiting period and background check as buyers of the largest and most powerful guns of any type. Let?s face it, do you see guns for sale – no questions asked – at Thrifty?s or Sav-On? So when HCI says these handguns are “most usually involved in crime.” what are they really trying to say? How does this reflect on the overwhelming number of law-abiding blacks and Latinos?

WHAT?S THEIR PROGRAM FOR THE COUNTERFEIT GUNS?

Just recently California Governor Pete Wilson vetoed a bill that would essentially outlaw most inexpensive small-caliber handguns. HCI of course was the major lobbying entity that pushed the bill all through the legislature. There?s one fatal flaw in their thinking, though. These guns can be easily made by any small machine shop – especially south of the border. If HCI gets its wish and a law is enacted to ban the manufacture and sale of these guns in this state, we?ll surely see counterfeit versions of them turning up in police reports in the future. These counterfeits will of course be sold to anyone on the black market. We?re all aware how well the government has stopped contraband from entering this country during the past 15 years. Undoubtedly it will enjoy the same success in stopping illegal guns as it has with drugs. You have to wonder if metal-sniffing dogs will be the answer to this new smuggling problem.

For MORE FACTS:
http://www.handguncontrol.net/total%20stranger.htm