-Caveat Lector-
I can't vouch for all these numbers, but it makes a good read anyway.
-- nessie
****************************************************
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tue 1/30/2001 10:32 AM
Subject: [prj] Firearms - Fantasy and Fact
Rare Book Searches - Ruling Class/Conspiracy Experts:
http://a-albionic.com/search.html ***** Conspiracy Shopping Cart:
http://a-albionic.com/shopping.html ***** Misc Shopping On-Line
http://a-albionic.com/ads/srch.html ******
Firearms - Fantasy and Fact
The governor's signing of Michigan's concealed weapons reform bill, HB
4530, on Jan. 2, 2001 has spawned a most incredible collection of media
lies, fantasies, and distortions regarding firearms and crime. In order
to provide thinking and rational people with facts to be used as
rebuttal, this piece lists some of the more flagrant fantasies, followed
by the relevant facts. Please feel free to use any or all of these data
without attribution as to source. It is more important to present these
facts to people who are able to comprehend them.
Fantasy: Michigan's new concealed weapons licensing law liberalizes the
carrying of concealed pistols.
Fact: Instead of liberalizing existing law, the new law provides much
tighter requirements on applicants than does the current law. The new
law "de-elitizes" current law and provides very strong restrictions on
recipients of concealed weapons licenses, and is the most stringent law
of any of the 32 "shall-issue" states.
Current (pre-2001) law contains virtually no restrictions on who can
receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Detailed studies of
licensees in Kent County and Washtenaw County, as well as numerous
reported experiences of applicants throughout the state, have shown that
the most important criterion for receiving a license is to have friends
on the concealed weapon licensing board. Permits are issued
preferentially to ex-police, judges, politicians, rock stars, and the
very wealthy, and few are granted to competent law-abiding citizens.
The new law mandates state-wide uniformity in issuing concealed weapons
licenses, and requires the following, where in each instance the old law
required nothing:
� Anyone who has been convicted of a misdemeanor in the past 3 years is
ineligible.
� Anyone under the age of 21 is ineligible.
� Anyone with a diagnosed mental health illness is ineligible.
� Every applicant must complete an 8-hour training course.
� Licensees cannot carry in any of the following locations: schools and
school property, public and private; day care centers, public and
private; college dormitories and classrooms; bars and restaurants that
serve alcohol; property of churches, synagogues, and mosques; sports
arenas and stadiums; casinos; hospitals; auditoriums seating more than
2500.
� Licensees with blood alcohol greater than 0.02 percent are forbidden
to carry.
Current law allows some 3.5 million non-Michigan concealed weapon
licensees and some 25,000 Michigan licensees to carry in *all* of the
above locations. If the new law is repealed by initiative, this
situation will continue.
Fantasy: There will be "blood in the streets" from crimes committed by
concealed weapons licensees if shall-issue becomes law. (Senator Alma
Wheeler Smith, 18th District [Washtenaw County], personal
correspondence.)
Fact: It hasn't happened, anywhere. Concealed weapons licensees are
incredibly law-abiding citizens.
It hasn't happened in Florida, which was the first state with
shall-issue laws:
Since adopting CCW (1987), Florida's homicide rate has fallen 21%
while the U.S. rate has risen 12%. From start-up 10/1/87 - 2/28/94
(over 6 years) Florida issued 204,108 permits; only 17 (0.008%) were
revoked because permittees later committed crimes (not necessarily
violent) in which guns were present (not necessarily used).
It hasn't happened in Kentucky:
"None of our concerns have been borne out," said Hazard police Chief Rod
Maggard, president of the Kentucky Chiefs of Police Association, which
opposed the concealed-carry bill for fear it would invite citizens to
take
the law into their own hands. A [Louisville, KY] Courier-Journal
comparison of state police figures on the crime rate of permit holders
with the crime rate of the state population at large shows that murder
charges were placed against permit holders at a rate of 3.8 per 100,000
compared with 6.1 per 100,000 for the population at large during the
three most recent years available.
It hasn't happened in Texas:
"I'm detecting that I'm eating a lot of crow on this issue...I think
that says something that we've gotten to this point in the year and in
the third largest city in America there has not been a single charge
against anyone that had anything to do with a concealed handgun." John
Holmes (Harris County [Houston, TX] District Attorney) December 9, 1996
"...It has impressed me how remarkably responsible the permit holders
have been." Colonel James Wilson (Director Texas Department of Public
Safety) June 11,
1996
According to a report by the National Center for Policy Analysis, the
slightly more than 200,000 Texans who have become licensed to carry a
concealed firearm are much more law-abiding than the average person.
Comparing arrest rates for example:
� Texans who exercise their right to carry firearms are 5.7 times less
likely to be arrested for a violent offense.
� They are 14 times less likely to be arrested for a non-violent
offense.
� They are 1.4 times less likely to be arrested for murder.
Texas had a serious crime rate in the early 1990s that was 38 percent
higher than the national average.
� Since then, serious crime in Texas has dropped 50 percent faster than
for the nation as a whole.
� Murder rates have dropped 52 percent, compared to 33 percent
nationally.
� Rapes have fallen by 22 percent compared to 16 percent nationally.
It hasn't even happened in Macomb County, Michigan:
In testimony given on May 11, 1998, before the Michigan House Committee
on Oversight and Ethics, Carl Marlinga, Macomb County prosecutor, said:
"A review of the revocations of concealed weapons permits in calendar
year 1997 is also instructive. A total of 4,174 permits were issued. In
the same year, 10 permits were revoked. None of the revocations were
based on the use of a weapon in the commission of a crime. The
reasons for the revocations were inaccurate information on the
application in four cases: drunk driving while a weapon was in the
vehicle in three cases, and arrests for domestic violence (not
connected to the use of a gun) in three cases."
Carl Marlinga testified again before the Michigan House Conservation and
Outdoor Recreation Committee on April 22, 1999. He reported the
following (not verbatim):
The latest data for Macomb county: in the 5 years since they started a
sort of "shall-issue" procedure, overall crime has dropped 42 percent
while it dropped 14 percent state-wide. In Macomb, index crimes
(assaultive) dropped 31 percent, violent crimes 26 percent. In the past
2 years, 71 permits have been revoked, 3 for assault with a deadly
weapon.
It hasn't happened in Arizona, Oklahoma, Virginia, Nevada, North
Carolina or South Carolina:
In testimony on April 22, 1999 before the House Conservation and Outdoor
Recreation Committee, Dr. John Lott (More Guns Less Crime) testified to
the following facts (not verbatim):
In the 29 states (excluding Vermont and Idaho, which have no
restrictions), the rate of loss of permits because of crimes committed
ranges from 0.001 to 0.01 percent. In Florida, 551,000 permits issued,
109 revoked for firearms related matters, and more than 80 percent of
these were for carrying in restricted areas. In Texas, 3 years since
"shall-issue" in 1996, 192,000 permits, 100 felony convictions of
permittees, the majority of these for carrying in restricted areas; of
the 100, 15 were for deadly conduct arrests involving a firearm but
there have been no convictions yet of these 15. In Arizona, from the
fall of 1994 to end of 1998, 53,000 permits, 50 revoked for
non-administrative reasons. In Oklahoma, for 3 years, 25,000 permits, 20
revoked and of these 4 were because the permittee died. In Virginia, no
violent crimes by any CCW licensee. In Nevada, no irresponsible gun use
by permittees. In Kentucky, no crimes with a firearm by any licensee. In
Tennessee, no accidental shootings by licensees. In North Carolina, no
permits have been revoked. In South Carolina, 1 person has had a license
revoked since 1989, on a felony charge which was later dropped.
Fantasy: Crime will surely increase when there are so many more guns on
the street.
Fact: Crime decreases after passage of concealed weapons laws. Right to
carry states have lower violent crime rates. On average, they have 26%
less total violent crime, 20% less homicide, 2% less rape, 39% less
robbery, and 22% less aggravated assault, compared to the rest of the
U.S. Eight of the 10 states with the lowest violent crime rates are
right to carry states. (Data: FBI)
Terrorist-type shootings, such as in schools, also drop dramatically
when shall-issue laws are passed. In a letter to the Los Angeles Times
in April 1999, John Lott (author of More Guns Less Crime) said, "When
states passed them [shall-issue CCW laws] during the 19 years we
studied, the number of multiple-victim public shootings declined by 84%.
Deaths from these shootings plummeted on average by 90%, injuries by
82%.
"I recently analyzed the FBI�s crime data for all 3,054 counties in the
United States from 1977 to 1994. After concealed handgun laws have been
in effect for 5 years, murders declined by at least 15%, rapes by 9% and
robberies by 11%. Permit
holders were found to be extremely law-abiding, and data on accidental
deaths
and suicides indicate there were no increases."
Fantasy: "Road rage" will result in shootouts between people with
concealed weapons licenses, and innocent bystanders will be hurt.
Fact: John Lott, quoted above, said that of 3.5 million people with
active CCWs, only one case of "road rage" has occurred, in Jan. 1996,
and it was ruled self-defense.
Fantasy: People with pistols will put police officers at risk.
Fact: John Lott, quoted above, said that no permittee has *ever* killed
a law enforcement officer, and many have saved lives of LEOs by coming
to their assistance.
Fantasy: "14 children die per day from firearms." (Ann Arbor News)
Fact: The number of firearms deaths of children under 15 in the United
States in 1998 was 612; this leads to a death rate of 1.68 per day, not
14 per day. If we exclude the 154 suicides in this age group during
1998, the actual number of firearm-related deaths of children in 1998 is
458, or 1.25 per day. (National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No.
11, July 24, 2000, p. 67 and 72.)
Fantasy: Firearms deaths of children are soaring as the number of
firearms in the United States continues to increase.
Fact: The total number of firearms deaths in 1998 was 5.3 percent lower
than in 1997, and the number of firearms deaths among those aged 19 and
under experienced an overall decline of 35 percent between 1994 and
1998. (National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11, July 24,
2000, p. 67 and 72.)
Fantasy: The "gun show loophole" allows criminals to purchase firearms.
Fact: The laws at gun shows are exactly the same as they are everywhere
else. If a person is �engaged in the business� (as the law puts it) of
selling firearms, then he must fill out a government registration form
on every buyer, and get FBI permission
(through the National Instant Check System) for every sale-regardless of
whether the sale takes place at his gun store, at an office in his home,
or at a gun show.
Fantasy: A gun in the home is 43 times more likely to kill a family
member than to kill a criminal. (Arthur Kellermann and Donald Reay, June
12, 1986 issue of New England Journal of Medicine [v. 314, n. 24, p.
1557-60]) (Parroted 13 years later by Representative Liz Brater during
House Committee hearings in Lansing in April 1999)
Fact: Of the alleged 43 times, 37 are suicides, so the "43 times" is
immediately reduced to 6.. Further, the authors count only those cases
where the intruder was killed but exclude other defensive uses of
firearms. An analysis by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz (Journal of Criminal
Law and Criminology, v. 86 n.1 [Fall 1995]) of successful defensive uses
of firearms against criminal attack concluded that the criminal is
killed in only one case in approximately every one thousand attacks.
Thus Kellermann et al are ignoring 999 successful defensive uses of
firearms where the assailant is not killed. If we use Kellermann's data
adjusted for reality, a firearm kept in a home is at least 167 times
more likely to deter criminal attack than to harm a person in the home.
Fantasy: Firearms are among the leading causes of accidental death in
children.
Fact: Accidental firearms death rank way down on the list of causes of
accidental deaths of children, some two percent of the total deaths. In
1998, 110 children under 15 died from firearms accidents, an all-time
low. During the same period, 2600 children died in motor vehicle
accidents, 850 by drowning, 570 from burns, 200 from suffocation, and
160 from falls.(National Safety Council)
David K. Felbeck
January 29, 2001
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
