Restoration of the Second Amendment (PART ONE)

PART ONE. SEE PART TWO


The number of well-publicized public shootings during the past few years, especially the tragedy at Columbine High School, has re-energized the gun control movement. As a show of strength, a coalition of gun control groups has organized a "Million Mom March" to be held in Washington, D.C. on Mother's Day, an event designed to stir up emotions rather than promote rational thought. And when one looks at the facts about gun control, it's easy to see why the anti-gun lobby relies on emotion rather than logic to make its case.

Think you know the facts about gun control? If your only source of information is the mainstream media, what you think you know may not be correct. Take the quiz below and test your knowledge.

David Lampo is the publications director at the Cato Institute.

1. Thousands of children die annually in gun accidents.

False. Gun accidents involving children are actually at record lows, although you wouldn't know it from listening to the mainstream media. In 1997, the last year for which data are available, only 142 children under 15 years of age died in gun accidents, and the total number of gun-related deaths for this age group was 642. More children die each year in accidents involving bikes, space heaters or drownings. The often repeated claim that 12 children per day die from gun violence includes "children" up to 20 years of age, the great majority of whom are young adult males who die in gang-related violence.

2. Gun shows are responsible for a large number of firearms falling into the hands of criminals.

False. Contrary to President Clinton's claims, there is no "gun show loophole." All commercial arms dealers at gun shows must run background checks, and the only people exempt from them are the small number of non-commercial sellers. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, at most 2 percent of guns used by criminals are purchased at gun shows, and most of those were purchased legally by people who passed background checks.

3. The tragedy at Columbine High School a year ago illustrates the deficiencies of current gun control laws.

False. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold violated close to 20 firearms laws in amassing their cache of weapons (not to mention the law against murder), so it seems rather dubious to argue that additional laws might have prevented this tragedy. The two shotguns and rifle used by Harris and Klebold were purchased by a girlfriend who would have passed a background check, and the TEC-9 handgun used by them was already illegal.

4. States that allow registered citizens to carry concealed weapons have lower crime rates than those that don't.

True. The 31 states that have "shall issue" laws allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons have, on average, a 24 percent lower violent crime rate, a 19 percent lower murder rate and a 39 percent lower robbery rate than states that forbid concealed weapons. In fact, the nine states with the lowest violent crime rates are all right-to-carry states. Remarkably, guns are used for self-defense more than 2 million times a year, three to five times the estimated number of violent crimes committed with guns.

5. Waiting periods lower crime rates.

False. Numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of waiting periods, both before and after the federal Brady bill was passed in 1993. Those studies consistently show that there is no correlation between waiting periods and murder or robbery rates. Florida State University professor Gary Kleck analyzed data from every U.S. city with a population over 100,000 and found that waiting periods had no statistically significant effect. Even University of Maryland anti-gun researcher David McDowell found that "waiting periods have no influence on either gun homicides or gun suicides."

6. Lower murder rates in foreign countries prove that gun control works.

False. This is one of the favorite arguments of gun control proponents, and yet the facts show that there is simply no correlation between gun control laws and murder or suicide rates across a wide spectrum of nations and cultures. In Israel and Switzerland, for example, a license to possess guns is available on demand to every law-abiding adult, and guns are easily obtainable in both nations. Both countries also allow widespread carrying of concealed firearms, and yet, admits Dr. Arthur Kellerman, one of the foremost medical advocates of gun control, Switzerland and Israel "have rates of homicide that are low despite rates of home firearm ownership that are at least as high as those in the United States." A comparison of crime rates within Europe reveals no correlation between access to guns and crime.

The basic premise of the gun control movement, that easy access to guns causes higher crime, is contradicted by the facts, by history and by reason. Let's hope more people are catching on.

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[mosienko1983]

Guns don't kill people - people do. So for God's sakes , DON'T LET THEM HAVE GUNS!!!

[Dominick629]

@mosienko1983 No offense, but only an idiot could have come to that conclusion. "People" as you rightly point out are capable of terrible things. They use cars to run over others, planes to crash into buildings, computers to steal personal information; the list is endless. So going by your logic, all of these things should be prohibited, because of the potential for misuse. I suggest you live underground, because the real world is and forever will be a dangerous place, especially with...........

[Dominick629]

@Dominick629 ...nuts like you who would take away people's right to defend themselves and their family from criminal scum.

[lastopher7]

RIP HESTON

[TAVOR7]

wow, they banned certain guns in Washington and the crime rate went up. I guess Dominick isn't the only one proving you wrong. you can do that fine just by yourself. I seriously doubt you are studying the statistics, because if you did you would be on my side. even history is against you. Guess who were strong supporters of gun control? HITLER AND STALIN plus countless other communists and tyrants. I would advise you get your facts straight, bcarter.

[CVSantoro]

people say that if u have a gun in the house a kid could find it and hurt them selves. I grew up in a house full of guns. and my parents each kept a loaded hand gun in their night stand. When i was very young they told me where it was, explained that it was loaded and showed me what it can do and told me that it was not a toy and i should never point a gun at anything that i did not want to kill. I was 4 years old and knew that guns werent bad and that there were just bad people in the world.

[Darwin06QL]

goose bumps

[island4diver]

@TAVOR7 Why can you buy a Tavor in Canada but not in the US? Seriously want to know but can't find a good answer

[island4diver]

@Dominick629 In Israel those are just the owners. Since anyone can go to a police department and check out a pistol or a SMG like a library book, why buy?

[island4diver]

@TattooedHoodlum Hey it was the lefties that recalled Diane Fienstien when she tried to ban pistols in SF. There are just as many right wingers on the dark side, just look at the heads of the gun control groups (although they do have liberal chumps)

[mosienko1983]

@Dominick629 I love it when people say things like "no offence but you're an idiot" . Do you know what the word "offence" even means?  Of course I'm going to take offence at being called an idiot. If you don't understand that then clearly YOU are an idiot - and, just to be clear, I DO mean offence when i say that. And by the way, that is some serious leap of logic that you're taking when you suggest that it follows from my premise that all things that can be abused should be prohibited.

[droog1967]

Please check-out the N.R.A .video on Gun Control Look At Great Britain, then please look at rate of increase in serious gun crime in the U.K. it has risen sharply. Organsied criminal gangs, controlling drugs, prostitution and other lucritive business, do not adhere to the law, and guns are their way of protecting and taking those businesses from other gangs. See the 9 year old shot (mistakenly) as an initiation-test for a gang member in Liverpool. Do not let this happen in the U.S. of A