>>> PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY REPORT — June 2000 (Part 1)
>>>
>>> The Media Campaign Against Gun Ownership
>>>
>>> The Million Moms March was not a grassroots uprising of mothers
>>> but a slick media event orchestrated by Bill Clinton’s public relations
>>> experts and led by Donna Dees-Thomases, who worked for
>>> Democrats in Congress, contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign
>>> and is the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases, a top Clinton adviser.
>>> The contrived nature of the campaign was evident in the cozy
>>> meeting with the President, extravagant television coverage,
>>> multi-page color “ads” disguised as “news” in national magazines,
>>> and the distribution of color brochures in airports.
>>>
>>> The anti-gun moms pretended to model themselves on Mothers
>>> Against Drunk Driving, but those mothers are smart enough to go
>>> after criminally reckless drivers, not against automobiles. The
>>> anti-gun moms either aren’t smart enough to see that kids are killed
>>> by criminals not by guns, or they are just trying to elect Al Gore. The
>>> march was such phony political theater. The Associated Press
>>> reported that Bill Clinton had “tears in his eyes” when he talked to
>>> the Marching Moms (who, of course, didn’t number anywhere near a
>>> million).
>>>
>>> The march was advertised as growing out of mothers’ outrage at the
>>> large number of children who are killed by guns. But Professor John
>>> Lott Jr., senior research scholar at the Yale University Law School
>>> and author of More Guns, Less Crime, has exposed the blatant lies
>>> in the statistics bandied about by the President and the press, such
>>> as the oft-repeated lie that 12 children a day die from guns. Most of
>>> the “children” in the statistics on kids killed by gunfire are 17-, 18-
>>> and 19-year-olds killed in gang or drug wars in high-crime urban
>>> areas. It is unrealistic to think that trigger locks or waiting periods
>>> would have any effect in stopping those homicides.
>>>
>>> The Centers for Disease Control could identify only 21 children under
>>> age 15 dying from accidental handgun deaths in 1996. But 40
>>> children under the age of five drown in water buckets every year and
>>> another 80 drown in bathtubs. Are we going to demand that water
>>> buckets and bathtubs be locked up and fitted with safety catches?
>>> Many more children are killed or injured every year from cars,
>>> drowning, fires, and even toys than from guns. The risk of a child
>>> drowning in a swimming pool is 100 times greater than the risk of
>>> dying from a firearm-related accident.
>>>
>>> The Columbine killers violated at least 17 state and federal
>>> gun-control laws among the 20,000 gun-control laws on the books
>>> today. Does anyone think that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold would
>>> not have known how to unlock their guns, or that a waiting period
>>> would have made a difference in the murders they planned months in
>>> advance? None of the proposals for trigger locks, waiting periods or
>>> gun-show restrictions would have stopped Harris and Klebold.
>>>
>>> The only policy that effectively reduces public shootings is
>>> right-to-carry laws. Allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns
>>> reduces violent crime. In the 31 states that have passed right-to-carry
>>> laws since the mid-1980s, the number of multiple-victim public
>>> shootings and other violent crimes has dropped dramatically.
>>> Murders fell by 7.65%, rapes by 5.2%, aggravated assaults by 7%,
>>> and robberies by 3%. On the average, murder rates in states without
>>> concealed-carry laws are 127% higher than in states having the
>>> broadest carry laws.
>>>
>>> The United States has a population of 270,000,000, and 600,000 to
>>> 750,000 people are in law enforcement. It is not believable that each
>>> law enforcement officer can protect 360 to 450 people from violent
>>> criminals or answer every 911 call before the criminal fires a gun.
>>>
>>> The sheer number of guns and gun owners in America makes gun
>>> control far more unrealistic than Prohibition. At least 80 million
>>> Americans own about 250 million guns, and about 99% of
>>> gun-owners obviously handle their guns responsibly or we would have
>>> many more accidents.
>>>
>>> The marching moms say they want handguns registered and
>>> handgun owners licensed similarly to what is required for
>>> automobiles. But registering cars doesn’t make kids any safer, and
>>> many other methods are obviously better at improving safety, such
>>> as safety instruction itself.
>>>
>>> Using automobiles as an analogy doesn’t help the marching moms’
>>> argument, anyway, because it invites us to put gun safety courses in
>>> schools like driver’s ed.
>>>
>>> It’s time for Americans to separate truth from propaganda in news
>>> coverage about guns. Under the principle that “if it bleeds it leads,”
>>> television redundantly reports on guns used to kill, but censors out
>>> the many incidents of successful defensive use of guns to disarm
>>> criminals and protect law-abiding citizens from becoming victims.
>>>
>>> Guns are used to save lives almost five times as often as to commit
>>> crimes. Guns are used 430,000 times a year to commit crimes, but
>>> 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 times a year in self-defense to prevent
>>> deaths, rapes, assaults and other serious injuries. In 98% of the
>>> situations, the victim just brandished a gun, and in only 2% of the
>>> cases was the gun actually fired, usually just as a warning. But when
>>> was the last time you saw a news story about someone successfully
>>> using a gun in self-defense?
>>>
>>> Gun control advocates refuse to make a risk-benefit analysis,
>>> balancing the good guns do against the harm. Instead, they use
>>> emotion and lies to plead their cause.
>>>
>>> All scientific studies show that restrictive gun laws are more
>>> dangerous than guns. Crime is reduced by putting guns in the hands
>>> of law-abiding citizens. Guns are the safest and most effective means
>>> of resisting violent criminal attack. Areas that increase gun ownership
>>> have lower crime rates than other areas. Even those who do not own
>>> a gun are safer because the criminal fears that his next victim might
>>> have the power to defend himself.
>>>
>>> By definition, laws will be obeyed only by the law abiding. If we
>>> disarm those likely to obey the law, gun restrictions will encourage
>>> crime rather than prevent it. As Professor Lott warns: “Despite good
>>> intentions, gun-control advocates are going to end up risking more
>>> lives than they’re going to save.”
>>>
>>>
>>> The Lies Behind Gun Control
>>>
>>> “We need more gun regulations.” False. There is no academic
>>> evidence that gun regulations prevent crime and plenty of evidence
>>> that they encourage crime. It stands to reason that, if we disarm
>>> those likely to obey the gun laws, we make crime more attractive,
>>> profitable and likely for those who do not obey the law. Washington,
>>> D.C. has the strictest gun control laws in the country and the highest
>>> murder rate, 69 per 100,000, while other major cities with more gun
>>> freedom have only a fraction of that rate. 200 scholars from major
>>> universities (Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, UCLA) released an
>>> open letter to Congress on June 16, 1999 stating that proposed new
>>> gun laws are ill-advised: “With the 20,000 gun laws already on the
>>> books, we advise Congress, before enacting yet more new laws, to
>>> investigate whether many of the existing laws may have contributed
>>> to the problems we currently face.”
>>>
>>> “The United States has a higher murder rate than other countries
>>> because Americans own so many guns.” False. Switzerland and
>>> Israel have more gun ownership than the United States and their
>>> murder rate is far less. Switzerland has more guns per person than
>>> any country in the world, yet is one of the safest places to be. All
>>> males age 20 to 42 are required to keep fully automatic rifles or
>>> pistols at home. It’s a common sight to see Israelis carrying
>>> sidearms. On the other hand, Brazil and Russia have complete gun
>>> control, and their murder rate is five times that of the United States.
>>>
>>> “Guns in the home are so dangerous because most murders are
>>> acquaintance murders, that is, someone you know gets angry and
>>> picks up an available gun.” False. The vast majority of
>>> “acquaintances” who kill involve drug dealers, gangs, prostitutes, cab
>>> drivers, barroom brawlers, etc., and 90% of murderers have criminal
>>> records.
>>>
>>> “The easy availability of guns in the home contributes to crimes of
>>> passion and domestic violence.” False. Denying guns denies a
>>> woman the ability to defend herself against an abusive man. Guns
>>> equalize the means of physical terror between men and women.
>>>
>>> “Passive resistance is the safest response to an attacker.” False. It
>>> depends on the means you have to resist. If a woman has only her
>>> fists to defend against a rapist, she’s not likely to be successful with
>>> active resistance. But if the woman has a gun, active resistance can
>>> mean the difference between rape and safety.
>>>
>>> The “increase in rampage killings” shows we need gun control. False
>>> again. Professor Lott, who did a couple of thousand hours of research
>>> on this issue, found that there has been no upward national trend in
>>> such killings since the mid-1970s.
>>>
>>> “We need safe storage laws.” False. States that passed “safe
>>> storage” laws have high crime rates, especially higher rates of rape
>>> and aggravated assault against women.
>>>
>>> “We need waiting periods and background checks to reduce crime
>>> and youth violence.” False. No academic study has shown that crime
>>> is reduced by waiting periods or background checks.
>>>
>>> Clinton brags that we are safer because “the Brady law has kept
>>> 500,000 criminals from buying handguns.” False. The only academic
>>> research done on the Brady law showed that the Brady waiting period
>>> has had no significant impact on murder or robbery rates and is
>>> associated with a small increase in rape and aggravated-assault
>>> rates, perhaps due to removing victims’ ability to defend themselves.
>>>
>>> “Guns create a terrible danger of accidental deaths.” False. Rep.
>>> James Traficant (D-OH) told the House: “Something does not add up,
>>> the number of accidental deaths involving guns average 1,500 per
>>> year; and the number of accidental deaths caused by doctors,
>>> surgeons, and hospitals average 120,000 a year. That means … [it
>>> is] 80 times more possible of being killed accidentally by a doctor
>>> than a gun.” (April 4, 2000)
>>>
>>> “We should register guns and license gun owners just like
>>> automobiles, and that won’t lead to confiscation because we haven’t
>>> confiscated cars.” That’s a false analogy. There are 130 million
>>> automobiles in the United States weighing about a ton each and
>>> confiscation would be impossible. We’ve seen gun confiscation and
>>> its results in many other countries. The analogy to automobiles also
>>> fails because cars are not used in self-defense to protect lives.
>>>
>>> “The gun show loophole most be closed.” False. There is no gun
>>> show loophole. Anyone who is engaged in the business of selling
>>> firearms, whether at a gun show or a fixed retail store, must fill out a
>>> government registration form on every buyer and get FBI permission
>>> through the National Instant Check System for every sale. There is
>>> no evidence that gun shows are an important source of criminals’
>>> guns. A 1997 National Institute of Justice study in December 1997
>>> reported that only 2% of felons acquired their guns at gun shows and
>>> those included purchases from licensed dealers who conducted
>>> background checks.
>>>
>>> “Assault weapons should be banned.” False. Civilian assault
>>> weapons are not machine guns. They are just ordinary guns that
>>> have a pseudo-military appearance. They do not fire faster, the
>>> bullets are not especially powerful, and they are slower than bullets
>>> from hunting rifles. Semi-automatic guns do not “spray” bullets and
>>> are not machine guns, they require a separate pull of the trigger for
>>> each shot to be fired just like a revolver. (Fully-automatic military
>>> assault rifles are not part of the current gun debate.)
>>>
>>> “Handguns must be banned.” False. The law abiding, by definition,
>>> will abide by the law; law violators will not. Handguns will always be
>>> available at some price; demand will create its own supply.
>>>
>>> “We must get rid of the Saturday Night Special.” False. This is a
>>> small, low-caliber, short-barreled, not-too-expensive gun. Not only
>>> does this type of gun have a legitimate sports and recreational use, it
>>> is the best defensive weapon for poor, inner-city residents who are
>>> the most likely potential victims of crime. Why deny them protection?
>>>
>>> “The American Society of Pediatrics says that handguns should be
>>> banned.” But the pediatricians’ statement is based on the usual
>>> bogus statistics, not on any scientific study. If the pediatricians did a
>>> scientific study, they might reach the same conclusion that
>>> Professor Lott did, namely, that more guns in the hands of
>>> law-abiding people result in less crime.
>>>
>>> We are told that “we need zero tolerance in the schools about guns.”
>>> But schools were a lot safer prior to the 1970s, when guns in schools
>>> were very common. Professor Lott has pointed out that, “until 1969,
>>> virtually every public high school in New York City had a shooting
>>> club. High school students carried their guns to school on the
>>> subways in the morning . . . and regularly competed in city-wide
>>> shooting contests.” When guns were so easily accessible, even
>>> inside schools, why didn’t we have the problems that we have today?
>>> The reason can’t be that kids take guns to school.
>>>
>>> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
>>>
>>> Read this report online:
>>> http://eagleforum.org/psr/2000/june00/psrjune2000.html
>>>
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