>From a letter sent in response to an article in the Baltimore Sun
newspaper yesterday. It has some facts from the VPC 41 cases. Links
to more information about these cases is given in the table:
www.mcrkba.org/VPCTableWeb.html
Phil Lee
Kimberly Wilson's article ("Md. lawmakers hear gun-ban testimony," Sun,
2/11/04) has several misleading statements. The bill in question
(SB288) addresses so called "assault" rifles or shotguns and not
pistols that have been previously banned in Maryland. Officer John
Stem is correctly reported as dying from a wound received in 1977 from
an M-1 Carbine, but that firearm is not on Maryland's current list of
assault weapons nor is it on the Federal list nor on California's list
which is stricter than most. So, it is not correct to say that Officer
Stem was "the last Maryland officer to die of wounds inflicted by an
assault weapon."
This news report illustrates the problem with the Violence Policy
Center (VPC) data and why their 1 in 5 statistic is propaganda and not
true. Officer Stem died in 2000 of wounds received 23 years earlier
from a semi-automatic rifle. Even though that rifle is not classified
under the law as an assault weapon, the VPC spins Officer Stem's death
as from an "assault weapon".
Since the bill in question addresses long guns rather than handguns,
the Sun should know in the 16 years of 1988 through 2003, 19 Maryland
police officers have died in the line of duty from traumas received in
felonious assaults. One was stabbed to death, one was stabbed until
incapacitated then shot with his own handgun, one died from an assault
with a car, and 16 died solely from gunfire. Of the 16, 12 died from
handgun wounds, 3 from shotgun wounds and Officer Stem from a rifle
wound.
Maryland's experience with officers being killed with firearms confirms
the preferences by criminals for firearms that are easy to conceal
rather than rifles to kill police officers and people in general.
The VPC claims 41 of 211 officers dying in 1998-2001 were wounded by
assault weapons. In addition to misleading the public about Officer
Stem's death, the VPC is stretching the truth in many of these cases.
Their list of officer deaths includes 14 cases where they claim assault
weapons were used, but the rifles indicated were not on the Federal
assault weapons list. In two cases, the rifles were the Ruger Mini-14
rifle, a rifle model specifically excluded by name from the assault
weapon list as a sporting firearm (see Appendix A of 18 USC Sec. 922 or
Senator Feinstein's publication
http://feinstein.senate.gov/booklets/assault.pdf). In 4 cases the
rifles were M-1 carbines and in 8 cases the rifles were SKS carbines.
None of these rifles are on lists of assault weapons.
In one case, the primary weapon to down the officer was a shotgun and
an assault weapon was used during the thug's attempt to flee. In four
cases the killers used 9 mm handguns classified as assault weapons and
these guns are already banned in Maryland.
In one case a rifle was stolen from a police department and used to
kill two officers. Bans usually permit police to hold these weapons, so
it is deceptive to include this case as an example where a legislative
remedy is possible. So, in 20 of the 211 killing or roughly one in 10,
killers used assault long guns whose use might have been prevented by a
ban. That is, if killers could not devise an effective substitute for
the same situation. In all of the remaining 211 cases, the killers did
find satisfactory alternative solutions by using 30-30 and other
rifles, shotguns and handguns.
A point not addressed by the VPC is that the killers for at least 26 of
the VPC's 41 officer had prior criminal records sufficiently serious to
disqualify them from owning firearms. Two had convictions for previous
killings. One in five of the killers of the VPC group of officers was
on probation or parole. The idea that a ban would be effective is hard
to accept given these criminals were already disqualified from
possessing any firearms.
Maryland has a problem with revolving door justice as the Sun has noted
in several articles (example: "Tough gun law, timid enforcement,"
Caitlin Francke, Baltimore Sun, Jan 30 2000). While no assault rifle
has been used to kill a Maryland police officer, in the last few years
Cpt. Toatley was killed by a paroled criminal in the drug trade and
Sgt. Prothero was killed by a gang of thugs with records containing
several violent crimes.
The Democrat sponsors of the Assault Long Gun ban bill hope to hide the
fact their public safety policy is broken and they have been putting up
a sham effort against crime. They need to be told to change directions
for all our sakes. If they don't get the message, we'll have to tell
them the hard-way by running them out of office.
Philip F. Lee
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