Opportunism in Action

Salt Lake Tribune
January 1, 2002

http://www.sltrib.com/01082002/opinion/opinion.htm

A few members of Congress have been using last year’s
terrorist attacks to justify another push for tough gun
laws. Fear makes fertile ground for any law that promises
greater security, but this effort is a stretch. Everyone
knows that the only weapons used in the Sept. 11 hijackings
were box cutters.
A more legitimate link between firearms, 9/11 and
citizens’ safety can be found today in London, where armed
robberies are up more than 100 percent. Cops have been
pulled from the streets to guard sites that might be
vulnerable to terrorists, and gun-wielding thugs have
filled the void. Britain’s rash of robberies — more than
19,000 between September and November — is an acceleration
of a violent four-year trend. Firearms assaults were up 53
percent last year, and every category of violent crime,
from simple mugging to rape, has been rising in steady
leaps. Brazen British burglars now strike when residents
are home about half the time.
Those in favor of more gun restrictions might be
interested in Jamaica, where firearms have turned Britain’s
former colony into one of the most violent places on Earth.
About one of every 2,000 Jamaicans was a victim of homicide
last year, an increase of 28 percent. Last week, about 30
armed thugs opened fire on a Kingston neighborhood and
killed seven people, including two young sisters.
The troubles in Britain and Jamaica might make a strong
argument for tougher gun laws except for one inconvenient
detail: The existing laws can’t get much tougher. Britain
outlawed handguns four years ago, the start of its current
explosion in violent crime, while Jamaica’s firearms
restrictions fall just short of a total ban. The
law-abiding citizens of both nations are disarmed and armed
criminals are out of control.
Is there a connection? That question is worth debating,
but it seems far more plausible than the link some
lawmakers are attempting to forge between America’s gun
rights and the terrorism of Sept. 11.