GUNS, KIDS, & SCHOOLS:THE FACTS ...what the media WON'T tell you!! With each new gun law billed as just a "reasonable" compromise, it's time to ask: What if those "reasonable" gun laws compromise the safety of our children? Laws which bar responsible, law-abiding people from the ready access of firearms do not make our children safer - they only place our children in jeopardy! Here's why: * FACT: When ordinary citizens carry concealed handguns, violent crime drops. The reduction corresponds very closely to the number of concealed handgun licenses issued. Murder rates in states banning concealed-carry average 127% higher than states having the most liberal carry laws. A 1% increase in firearm ownership reduces violent crime by 4.1%. Urban areas benefit the most from concealed-carry laws. (1) * FACT: The benefits of concealed handguns are not limited just to those who carry them for purposes of self-defense. "Citizens who have no intention of ever carrying concealed handguns get...a 'free ride' from the crime-fighting efforts of their fellow citizens." This is illustrated by the drop in murders of children which follows the adoption of "right-to-carry" concealed-handgun laws. ("Right-to-carry" laws require the issuance of a concealed-carry license to all qualified applicants.) "Arming older people not only may provide direct protection to these children, but also causes criminals to leave the area." (1) "ARM THE TEACHERS? HOW STUPID!" That from the mainstream media and many of our politicians. But this purely emotional response is wholly unsupported by the facts. The point is NOT that ALL adults should carry guns in school, but rather that all responsible adults in our schools who wish to do so, be allowed to do just that! "...the recent rash of public school shootings ...raise[s] questions about the unintentional consequences of laws...The possibility exists that attempts to outlaw guns from schools, no matter how well meaning, may have produced perverse effects." (2) * FACT: Between 1977 and 1995, 15 shootings took place in schools in states without right-to-carry concealed-handgun laws, and only one took place in a state which had such a law. There were 19 deaths and 97 injuries in states without right-to-carry laws, but only 1 death and 2 injuries in states with such laws. (2) * FACT: The 5 school shootings which occurred during the '97-98 school year took place after the 1995 Gun-Free School Zones law was enacted, banning guns (including lawfully possessed concealed handguns) within 1000 feet of a school.(2) * FACT: Deaths and injuries from mass public shootings (like Jonesboro AR, and Littleton CO) fall dramatically after right-to-carry concealed handgun laws are enacted. Between 1977 and 1995, the average death rate from mass shootings plummeted by up to 91% after such laws went into effect! (2) "People who engage in mass public shootings are deterred by the possibility that law-abiding citizens may be carrying guns. Such people may be deranged, but they still appear to care whether they will themselves be shot as they attempt to kill others." (1) Armed adults save lives!! That's how it worked before "gun-free" school zones disarmed adults and marked schools as easy targets for criminals. Example: Armed with a hunting rifle, 16 year old Luke Woodham killed his ex-girlfriend and her friend, then wounded 7 other students, in 1997 at a high school in Pearl, Mississippi. Assistant Principal Joel Myrick retrieved a handgun from his car which he had forgotten to remove after the weekend, and interrupted Woodham's shooting spree, holding him at bay until police arrived. Earlier that morning, Woodham had stabbed his mother to death. (3) Example: A similar script played out in 1998 in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, when local merchant James Strand used his shotgun to "coax" 14-year old Andrew Wurst into dropping his gun, and surrendering to police. Wurst had just killed one teacher, wounded another and two classmates. (3) The anti-self-defense lobby repeatedly dredges up the emotionally charged picture of a child killed with a gun. What they will never dare show are the pictures of children saved by the presence of a gun when needed the most! And they'd need LOTS more room to do that because "thousands of children are protected each year by parents or other adults using guns to defend themselves and their families". (4) GUNS AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Today's "easy availability" of guns is a myth. There are more gun laws now than ever before, yet the prevalence of firearms in America (guns are present in about 1 out of 2 households) has remained constant since 1959. (5) * FACT: Children given guns, and provided the education to handle them responsibly, are the most non-violent of all groups studied, and are even less violent than teenagers who do not own guns. In an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice study on juvenile delinquency in Rochester, New York, 7th- and 8th-grade adolescents who obtained a gun from a parent were tracked for 4-1/2 years. By the time they reached 11th-and 12th-grade respectively, not one had committed a firearm-related crime.(6) Among the study's other findings: * "Boys who own legal firearms ...have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use [than those who obtained them illegally] and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns." * "For legal gunowners, socialization appears to take place in the family; for illegal gunowners, it appears to take place 'on the street' ". * Children who get guns from their parents don't commit gun crimes (0%);children who get illegal guns are likely to do so (24%). * Children who get guns from parents are less likely to commit any kind of street crime (14%) than children who have no gun in the house (24%), and are dramatically less likely to do so than children who acquire an illegal gun (74%). * Children who get guns from parents are less likely to use drugs (13%) than children who get illegal guns (41%), or have no gun in the house (15%). ACCIDENTS & SUICIDES "Every day, 15 American children are killed with guns" is the claim made by Cease Fire and other anti-self-defense groups and politicians. But it's true ONLY if one counts 20-year-old armed robbers shot by the police and 19-year-old drug dealers shot by rivals as "children"! (7) *FACT: In 1994, fatal firearm accidents dropped to the lowest level since record-keeping began in1903, and were lower each year since: 900 in 1998. For children under the age of 5, there were just 20 fatal firearm accidents that year. Contrast that with about 600 drowning deaths for that same age group. In fact, more children drowned in 5-gallon buckets of water than because of a firearm accident. Motor vehicle accidents, falls, fires, drownings, poisonings, suffocation, and other accidents all accounted for more deaths than did firearm accidents.(7,8,9) *FACT: Teaching our children how to safely handle firearms is what's been proven to save lives, NOT "trigger-lock" and "safe-storage" laws. (10) America's gun-owning parents have been doing just fine without them! CRIME & (NO) PUNISHMENT The "politically-correct" assumption that crime is a function of the "easy availability" of guns is not borne out by the facts. Unbiased researchers tell us that just the opposite is true - more guns in the hands of ordinary law-abiding citizens equals less crime.(1) Criminologists also tell us that rapid and certain punishment drives the crime rate down. * FACT: As of May 1999, Federal prosecution of felons who used guns in the commission of crimes was down 47% since Bill Clinton took office. Of 6,000 students caught at school with guns in the 2 years prior to May 1999, the Clinton administration had prosecuted only 13. And it had prosecuted only 11 juveniles for illegal possession of handguns, 11 people for illegally transferring handguns to juveniles, and 37 people for illegally providing firearms to felons. (11) * FACT: It is a crime for a felon to buy a gun. Yet, despite Bill Clinton's inflated claims about how many prohibited buyers have been turned away by the Brady Act, 3 years after its 1994 enactment, only 4 people had gone to jail for Brady violations. ZERO Brady rejects were prosecuted by the Clinton administration in 1996, ZERO in 1997, and ZERO in 1998.(11) If wrongdoers are not held responsible for their actions, and if those who have committed no crime are scapegoated and punished instead, we can only expect society's problems to worsen. The choice is ours. ======================= REFERENCES=========================== 1. Lott J; More Guns, Less Crime; University of Chicago; 2000 2. Lott J, Landes W; "Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement"; Univ. of Chicago,Working Paper #73, 1999 3."How to Stop Mass Public Shootings"; Lott J; L.A. Times 3/25/98 4. Lott J; "Gun Laws Can Be Dangerous, Too"' Wall Street J, 5/12/99 5. Kleck G; Targeting Guns; Aldine deGruyter Press; New York 1997 6. "Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse"; U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; July 1993 7. National Center for Health Statistics 8. Lott J, Whitley J; "Safe Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime; Yale Law School, Working Paper #237; 3/29/00 9. National Safety Council 10 Kopel D; "Children & Guns: Sensible Solutions"; Independence Institute, 1993 11. U.S. Department of Justice statistics ============================================================= 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