GUNS IN AMERICA:THE FACTS...what the media WON'T tell you!! Preventing law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms for self-defense does NOT lower violent crime - it just makes victims more vulnerable! Society benefits from ordinary people who accept the responsibilities of firearm ownership - NOT from gun-control laws. Here's why: SELF-DEFENSE & CRIME * In 1856, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local law-enforcement had no duty to protect individuals. (1) In 1982, the U.S. Court of Appeals held that "there is no Constitutional right to be protected by the state against criminals or madmen. The Constitution does not require Federal or State government to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order."(2) * In Great Britain, handguns are outlawed, and possession of long guns is severely restricted. Yet, despite strict gun-control, as of 1995, rates for robbery, assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft in England and Wales had surpassed those here in the States. On average, for all 4 crimes, English rates were twice U.S. rates. Homicide rates are difficult to compare, but the British rate probably also now exceeds our own.(3) * Passage of the Brady Law in 1994 has been associated with significant increases in rape and aggravated assaults, presumably from the increased difficulty encountered by law-abiding citizens in obtaining firearms for self-defense. (4) 6 years after its enactment, anti-gun researchers Jens Ludwig and Philip Cook concluded that: "Our analyses provide no evidence that the implementation of the Brady Act was associated with a reduction in homicide rates". Nor did they find a reduction in overall suicide rates. (5) * In 1987, Florida's concealed-carry law went from "may-issue" to "shall-issue" (also known as "Right-To-Carry", or RTC). This means that issuing authorities must provide a concealed carry handgun license to all qualified applicants. Other states followed suit, and modeled their own RTC laws after Florida. On 4/7/98 (the latest date such figures were available), Florida's Dept of Law Enforcement announced that the state's murder rate had dropped, again, in 1997, just as it had in each of the 5 previous years, marking the lowest murder rate experienced by "Dodge City East" since 1933. (6) * In 1982 Kennesaw GA (pop. 17,000) passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in their home, exempting those with criminal records or religious objections. 7 months after it took effect, the residential burglary rate dropped 89%, vs. 10.4% statewide. Since 1982, only 2 murders occurred ('84, '89) - both committed with knives.(7) * Allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns reduces violent crime. The reduction corresponds very closely to the number of concealed-handgun licenses issued. On average, murder rates in states banning concealed-carry are 127% higher than in states having the most liberal carry laws. A 1% increase in firearm ownership reduces violent crime by 4.1%. Densely populated urban areas benefit most from concealed-carry laws. (4) * Ordinary, law-abiding Americans use guns defensively 2.5 million times, or more, each year, about 75% of the time with a handgun.(8) The net value of private firearm ownership - the dollar savings from defensive gun use, minus the costs of "gun-violence" - has been estimated at up to $38.9 billion, annually. (9) That translates to lives saved, rapes prevented, injuries avoided, medical costs saved, property protected. * Firearms provide the safest and most effective means of resisting violent criminal attack. For robbery and assault, resistance by defenders armed with a gun leads to termination of the incident with the smallest chance of injury to the victim. In U.S. gov't studies, victims resisting robbery with a gun were injured 17.4% of the time. Those who did nothing at all were injured 24.7% of the time. Those who used non-violent resistance, like trying to run away, were injured 35.9% of the time. Those who resisted with a knife were injured 40.3% of the time. For assault, injury rates were 12.1%, 27.3%, 25.5%, and 29.5%, respectively. While 17.4% of those who resisted robbery with a gun were injured overall, this includes victims who were first injured before they used their guns; less than 6% of robbery victims were injured after using a gun to resist. (8) * Women who carry concealed handguns provide a greater margin of safety for other women. While murder rates decline when either more men or more women carry concealed handguns, the drop is even greater among women than among men. Rapists are particularly susceptible to the deterrence of a potentially armed woman. (4) * Increased incidents of "road rage" from allowing more citizens to carry guns have not materialized. In the 31 states where citizens can legally carry a concealed handgun, there have been no documented instances of such acts by armed law-abiding citizens. (4) * Armed defenders lose their guns to an attacker less than 1% of the time. (8) * Deaths and injuries from mass public shootings fall dramatically after Right-to-Carry concealed handgun laws are enacted. Where data was available both before and after passage of such laws, the average death rate from mass shootings dropped by up to 91% after such laws took effect, injuries dropped by over 80%! (4) ACCIDENTS & SUICIDES * In 1994, fatal firearm accidents dropped to the lowest level since record-keeping began in1903, and were lower each year since: 900 in 1998.(10) * "Trigger-lock" and "safe-storage" laws only turn the family's home into a safe zone for criminals. They do NOT save lives - they COST LIVES by removing firearms from the realm of self-defense. In a recent study, the effects of "safe storage" laws from nearly 20 years of data were examined. During the first 5 years after passage of "safe storage" laws, the group of 15 states which had adopted them saw an average annual increase of over 300 murders, 3,860 rapes, 24,650 robberies, and over 25,000 aggravated assaults.(11) * Accident and suicide rates are unaffected by the passage of Right-To-Carry concealed handgun laws.(4) Suicide rates fluctuate independently of gun control laws and gun ownership. Banning guns will not affect the suicide rate - other equally deadly implements would only be substituted. (12) "ASSAULT-WEAPONS" * So-called "assault-weapons" are military look-alike semi-automatic firearms - exactly the same as guns which have been around for over 100 years. Only their looks have changed. Semi-automatic firearms 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 - and are used in 3% or less of all firearm related crimes. They are the most modern tools the law-abiding citizen can use for self-defense and protection of home and family. They are especially valuable for physically handicapped victims. (13) * "The great irony of the claim that the rifles labeled semi-automatic 'assault weapons' are uniquely destructive is that they are the only rifles that have ever been designed not to kill" - they are designed only to wound.(14) THE U.S. CONSTITUTION * The scholarship on the 2nd Amendment overwhelmingly agrees that it protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, and not simply the right to arm the "militia". (15) In 1982, the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution evaluated the historical record, and unanimously concluded the same. (16) * The Supreme Court has mentioned the Second Amendment in a host of cases which have yielded twenty-six Supreme Court opinions - including 19 majority opinions - which treat the Second Amendment as a right of individual American citizens. Five of these come from the present Rehnquist Court where there has been no disagreement that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right. (17) * On March 30, 1999, Texas Federal Judge Sam Cummings ruled that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is a protected individual right - not just a right belonging to an organized militia: "A historical examination of the right to bear arms, from English antecedents to the drafting of the Second Amendment, bears proof that the right to bear arms has consistently been, and should still be, construed as an individual right". Cummings further noted that the Supreme Court stated in 1990 (in U.S. vs. Verdugo-Urquidez) that the "people" protected in the Second Amendment is the same "people" as cited in the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments. (18) ======================= REFERENCES=========================== 1. South v. Maryland, 59 US (HOW) 396, 15 L.Ed.433(1856) 2. Bowers v. DeVito, US Court of Appeals, 7th Cir 686F.2d 616 (1982) 3."Crime and Justice in the United States and England and Wales, 1981-1996"; U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics; October 1998 4. Lott J; "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws"; University of Chicago; 2000 5. Ludwig J, Cook P; "Homicide & Suicide Rates Assoc with Implementation of the BradyHandgunViolence Prev Act; JAMA 8/2/00 6. Florida Department of State documents 7. "Kennesaw Update"; The New American, 6/10/96 8. Kleck G; Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control; Aldine de Gruyter; NY 1997 9. National Center for Policy Analysis, March 1999 10. National Center for Health Statistics 11. Lott J, Whitley J; "Safe Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime"; University of Chicago Working Paper 237; 3/29/00 12. Suter E; "Guns in the Medical Literature: A Failure of Peer Review"; J. Med Assoc Georgia, Mar 1994 13 . Suter E; "Assault-Weapons" Revisited - An Analysis of the AMA Report;J. Med Assoc Georgia; May 1994 14. Kopel D; Guns-Who Should HaveThem; Prometheus Books, NY1995 15. Reynolds H, Kates D; "The Second Amendment and States' Rights: A Thought Experiment"; William & Mary Law Review; Vol 36 #5,8/955 16. Senate Subcommittee of the Commission of the Judiciary on The Constitution, 97th Congress, 1992 17. Kopel D; "The Supreme Court's Thirty-Five Other Gun Cases: What the Supreme Court has Said About the Second Amendment"; St. Louis Univ Public Law Rev; Vol XVIII,Number One 1999 18. U.S. v Emerson; USDC 6:98-CR-103-C ============================================================= FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Gun-Owners for a Safe Society (GOSS) Paul Gallant, O.D., Chairman PO Box 354, Thiells, NY 10984-0354 (845) 354-9091 Fax E-Mail: PaulGallant2A@cs.com Oct 2000