-Caveat Lector-

MEDIA REPORT SELECTIVELY ON GUN USE INCIDENTS

Access to guns has been a prominent part of media coverage of the
Littleton, Colo., tragedy -- as it should be.  But some acute
observers are noting that press reports on similar horrendous
school shootings have made scant mention of the role of guns in
subduing youthful killers.

   o   In the October 1997 shooting spree at a Pearl, Miss., high
       school, which left two students dead, an assistant
       principal retrieved a gun from his car and physically
       immobilized the shooter for about five minutes before
       police arrived.

   o   Out of some 687 articles which appeared in the first month
       after the attack, only 16 stories mentioned the assistant
       principal -- and only a little more than half of those
       reported that he used a gun to stop the attack.

   o   A school-related shooting in Edinboro, Penn., which left
       one teacher dead, was stopped only after the owner of a
       nearby restaurant pointed a shotgun at the shooter and
       held him at bay until the police arrived 11 minutes later.

   o   While at least 596 new stories discussed this crime in the
       following month, only 35 mentioned the restaurant owner --
       but few of those described how he used a gun to stop the
       violence.

The New York Daily News reported that the restaurateur
"persuaded" the killer to surrender, while the Atlanta Journal
wrote that he "chased (the gunman) down and held him until police
came."

Defenders of legal ownership of firearms conclude that the media
ignores stories which involve the defensive use of guns -- and
which studies estimate are five times more common than criminal
gun uses.  Observers note that there are many cases in which
citizens with permitted concealed handguns have stopped both
shootings and bombings in public places.

But the role of these heroes and their guns are overlooked in a
politically correct press.

Source: John R. Lott Jr., "Does News Coverage Endanger Lives?"
Investor's Business Daily, April 29, 1999.

For more on Self Defense
http://www.ncpa.org/pi/crime/crime51.html

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