April 25, 2000

Mayor Alex Penelas
Miami-Dade
E-mail: [email protected]

Dear Mayor Penelas:

I am a Cuban-American who escaped from Cuba at age 13 and made it to the land of the free and home of the brave. I grew up to become a neurosurgeon who has contributed numerous papers in the scientific literature and who brought modest advances in technical innovations in my specialty of neurosurgery. I am now the Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Sentinel, the official peer-reviewed journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). If you remember this was the organization that successfully stood against the federal government on the issue of the Health Care Task Force. We have been cited by many authorities as being responsible to a significant extent for derailing the Clinton plan for socialized medicine in 1993-1994.

With this introduction, you will understand why as an American I was proud of your valiant and gallant stand against the federal government when you correctly stated that you would not have local law enforcement supporting federal INS officials in what we now know turned out to be a Gestapo raid carried out by storm troopers.

So, it was with some disappointment that in doing research on one of my specialty topics—namely, public health and gun control—that you, a leader in the Cuban exile community in Miami, had obviously been mislead to join the bandwagon of gun lawsuit litigation. In other words, Miami was one of those municipalities launching an assault on the Second Amendment of our Constitution. That amendment along with the nine others constitutes the Bill of Rights that offers protection to our individual citizens from the monopolistic tendency of government to usurp power at the expense of individual liberties.

I called your office as a member of the media and the young man with whom I spoke cited statistics that had been propounded by the mass media and which are incorrect. The young man told me that guns in the home are more likely to be used against a family member than an intruder. That erroneous conclusion was drawn from an article by Dr. Arthur Kellermann, which has shown to be incorrect and refuted by a number of investigators. For example, in the Medical Sentinel (Spring and Summer 1997 issues), we demonstrated that the methodology used by Dr. Kellermann was incorrect and instead responded with more recent statistics. We cited Prof. Gary Kleck’s data that shows that the defensive uses of firearms by citizens amount to 2.5 million uses per year and dwarf the offensive gun uses by criminals. Between 25-75 lives are saved by a gun for every life lost to a gun. Dr. Edgar Suter, Chair of Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, has shown that medical costs saved by guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are 15 times greater than costs incurred by criminal uses of firearms. Guns also prevent injuries to good people and protect billions of dollars of property every year. Prof. John Lott at Yale University has more recently substantiated these findings but added the fact that expansion of “shall issue”concealed carry firearm permits reduce crime, and that is particularly true in your own state of Florida.

The young assistant in your communications office also brought the issue of gun safety with trigger locks and other “smart-gun” technology. In the Medical Sentinel, we have also discussed these issues. In a letter to the editor published in The Macon Telegraph (March 30, 2000), I responded to a near tragic incident: “The March 23 Associated Press story, ‘Boy held classmates at gunpoint,’ exemplifies the false sense of security conveyed by trigger locks and other ‘smart gun’ technology.

“Recall that the 12-year-old Ohio boy’s father told police that ‘the weapon (a loaded 9mm semi-automatic) had been stored on a dresser top with a fully engaged trigger lock.’ According to police, ‘The boy apparently found the key and removed the lock.’

” ‘Smart-gun’ technology may in some instances cause more harm than good and can be dangerous. Trigger locks can not only disengage but can cause the gun to misfire. When Beretta tested its own trigger lock (Saf T Lok), it not only malfunctioned but caused 18 of 27 rounds to misfire. And, as the case above demonstrated, it can also give parents a false sense of safety that may not be there and of security rather than a sense of responsibility.

“Loaded chamber indicators are hazardous because they skip the basic safety rule of looking directly in the chamber. That is how people learn firsthand the old lament, ‘I didn’t know the gun was loaded.’

“Last, ‘smart-gun’ technology, including digital fingerprint recognition as well as separate storage of gun and ammunition requirements, is dangerous because it can impair one’s ability, when needed most (and quickly), for self and family protection.”

When I tried to further enlighten the young man in your office, he was unable to stay on the phone because of the influx of calls on the day of the general strike because of the Eli?n Gonzalez raid. That brings me to the last issue, namely, how can you push for gun control wittingly or unwittingly (because that will be the end result of your lawsuit against the gun industry), after what happened in Cuba?

I know you are a young man who was probably born here, but your father and uncles would have known by personal experience that, as I wrote in The New American, November 22, 1999: “Before 1958, dictator Fulgencio Batista had all citizens register their firearms. After the sweep of the revolution, Ra?l and Fidel Castro had their Communist thugs, aided by the newly formed Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), go door to door and, using the registration lists of the old regime, confiscate all firearms. In the end, my Cuban brethren lost not only their guns but their freedom.” And yes, as the Eli?n Gonzalez raid demonstrated graphically, it can happen here!

I look forward to your response. Please don’t hesitate to call me about this matter. Perhaps, after now being presented with the other side of the story, you will wisely withdraw from that misguided litigation. If you need any back issues of the Medical Sentinel, let me know. I am hereby extending to you a one-year, courtesy subscription to the Medical Sentinel.

With great respect and admiration, I remain,
Sincerely,
Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)
P.O. Box 13648
Macon, GA 31208
(912) 757-9873
Fax (912) 757-9725
E-mail: [email protected]
Websites: http://www.haciendapub.com and http://www.aapsonline.org