-Caveat Lector-
<<This echoes an email post by the Libertarians I sent along a couple of months
ago. Hamblin references the Libs so I guess it's about the same thing. Bottom
line: Parental Involvement. A<>E<>R >>
>>>Begin article <<<
Via NEWSMAX.COM
The Unpopular Truth About Kids and Guns
Ken Hamblin
September 30, 1999 Years of experience have taught me that no one is better at
pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people than the ``ethical,
objective'' journalists of the mainstream media.
Challenge your typical city editor, television assignment editor or newspaper
publisher with that contention, however, and I can assure you that he or she
will passionately deny it.
I realize it's no light accusation to charge that the fourth estate and the
electronic-media clique manage our news on behalf of their own political
agendas. I also am quite aware that in doing so I am assailing a group that
holds itself in august esteem and very much wants others to share that view.
But day after day I see examples of bias in the direction of the media corps'
admittedly generally liberal leanings _ bias sometimes expressed in deliberate
distortions but, just as often and potentially just as dangerously, in errors
of omission.
Take, for instance, the matter of a recent study by the United States
Department of Justice, which not long ago was brought to my attention by a
listener to my syndicated talk-radio show.
Conducted from 1993 to 1995 by the department's Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, this study was undertaken in an attempt to determine
the relationship between ``problem behaviors'' such as drug abuse, teenage
pregnancy, crime and the expanding occurrence of violent criminal behavior
among our youth.
Child psychologists conversed with and tracked the lives of 4,000 boys and
girls between the ages of 6 and 15 in Pittsburgh, Denver and Rochester, N.Y.
What they learned apparently wasn't what the media's town criers against
firearms wanted to hear _ or, at any rate, that seems the most likely reason
that, to the best of my knowledge, the study never was reported on the nightly
television news or in most big-city newspapers.
Nevertheless, the government's conclusions are striking. Children who get guns
from their parents are no more likely to commit any kind of street crime than
are those children who have no gun in the house, the study revealed. And
children who acquire an illegal gun are about five times more likely to commit
street crimes than are kids who get guns from their parents.
In short, children who get guns from their parents are not the ones who commit
gun crimes, according to this study. It's children who get guns illegally who
are most likely to commit such crimes.
Moreover, children who obtain illegal guns are almost four times more likely to
use drugs than are children whose parents have given them guns.
``Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and drug
use,'' the study added, ``and are even slightly less delinquent than non-owners
of guns.''
Why haven't we all heard this hard data? Why isn't the whole country talking
about this clear evidence that guns and children are not in and of themselves
at the root of society's problem with kids using guns to commit crimes?
Clearly the politicians _ with the aid of their like-minded friends in the
media _ don't want to hear about evidence that counters their campaign to
undermine, compromise and ultimately abolish our Second Amendment right to keep
and bear arms. And, needless to say, they don't want you to hear about it,
either.
>From time to time I've spoken with Steve Desbach, the national director of the
Libertarian Party, on my radio show. He agrees that this survey and others like
it speak for themselves.
``The evidence is in,'' he says. ``The simplest way to reduce firearm-related
violence among children is to buy them a gun and teach them how to use it
responsibly. When it comes to preventing youthful violence, the Second
Amendment apparently works better than the so-called solutions being proposed
by politicians.''
For myself, I find this study fascinating, and convincing. If the media wanted
to try to interpret its results differently, I'd be prepared to listen _ but to
simply ignore it strikes me as the worst kind of irresponsibility.
To my brethren in the media, I can say only this: It's your right as free men
and women to oppose the ownership of firearms and, yes, even to campaign
against the ownership of guns.
But to deliberately stick your head in the sand concerning the statistics about
violence among children with guns undercuts any evidence you can raise to
support your arguments. When you ignore contrary evidence, what you do ceases
to be reporting _ it becomes propaganda, pure and simple.
And I'm sure that bright, intelligent men and women such as yourselves realize
that, in resorting to propaganda, you're following in the well-worn footsteps
of despots and bigots who, like yourselves, felt that what they personally
believed counted for more than the facts.
c.1999 Ken Hamblin
Ken Hamblin is the author of “Pick a Better Country.” He writes a column for
the Denver Post and has been a radio talk-show host for 15 years. His program
is syndicated by American View Inc., and currently is carried by 120
stationsacross the country.
>>>End article <<<
A<>E<>R
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