LETTER by Bill Ruger Sr.
This Letter to the editor appeared
in Guns & Ammo Nov. 99 edition
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CARNAGE AND VIOLENCE
When was the last time the media
portrayed the responsible use of
recreational firearms! You wouldn’t
know it from reading the newspaper or
watching television, but according to the
National Safety Council, the firearms
accident rate has declined 20 percent
during the past decade, plummeting to a
90-year low. In 1998, only one percent
of accidental deaths were attributable to
firearms accidents.
There is a subconscious anti-gun bias
on the part of major media.
Certainly, our society has changed
since I founded Sturm, Ruger & Co., but
I can assure you that my reaction to a
“gang-banger” on the news is precisely
the same as that of every law-abiding
American–profound outrage.
The antisocial elements of our society
seem to hold the rest of us hostage. The
media constantly portray carnage and
gore, often in agonizingly slow motion,
for no discernible reason. The same goes
for incredibly violent video games that
some young people play for hours on
end. Such portrayals have their staunch
defenders, but as a firearms
manufacturer, I would implore them to
stop using violence to make a killing.
Let’s not pretend it’s anything else. The
incessant desensitizing of our young
people to mindless violence is beyond
measure and beyond comprehension.
Graphic, vicious and sadistic films,
television shows, video games and
music lyrics that trumpet wanton
killing–often directed against the
police–are outrageous.
Drug and alcohol abuse, the
breakdown of the family, inadequate
child supervision and the lack of “a
decent respect for the opinions of others”
(to paraphrase Jefferson) are far more
pernicious and harder to address than
simply passing another “gun law.” But
we won’t accomplish much until we stop
deluding ourselves into thinking that
society’s violence is because of firearms
and that the media bear no responsibility
for this witches’ brew.
More law enforcement agents were
mowed down by machine guns in Die
Hard II than have been killed on duty in
the history of the nation. The impression
left is that “something must be done” to
get machine guns off the streets. But they
have been essentially illegal since 1936.
We have so-called “assault weapon”
bans, which do nothing but ban guns
that look like machine guns but operate
just like the shotgun President Clinton
takes duck hunting–one shot at a time.

When anyone protests gratuitous
violence or counsels restraint in
portraying violence, the media take
umbrage behind their right to do so. In
1955, we placed a. full-page ad, “A
Symbol of Responsibility,” stating “with
the right and enjoyment of owning a
firearm goes that constant responsibility
of handling it safely and using it wisely.”
Would not a little self-restraint similarly
apply to the right to produce a movie,
print a newspaper or record a song!
Isn’t it ironic that those who scorn the
Second Amendment are cavalier in
treating the First Amendment as their
right but not a responsibility!
Let anyone ask for any restraint of
those who would abuse their First Amendment rights to incite antisocial behavior, and the purveyors hide
behind that amendment, loudly
decrying “censorship.”
While there are legitimate adult uses for
firearms, nothing justifies this excessively
violent “free speech” aimed at our youth in
the guise of”entertainment.”

–William B. Rage Sr,
Chairman of the Board,
Sturm, Ruger & Co.