[CTRL] SNET: Guns (fwd)
visit my web site at http://www.voicenet.com/~wbacon -- Forwarded message -- Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 11:54:33 -0700 From: Lynford Theobald [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Eagles of Ephraim [EMAIL PROTECTED], SNET [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: SNET: Guns - SNETNEWS Mailing List Folks, I just received this from my friend Jim and thought you might be interested. It would seems that those who want to take away our guns have an agenda other than keeping up safe. Lynn Subject: Guns I thought you might be interested in these facts: www.gunowners.org Mar 1999 FIREARMS FACT-SHEET (1999) by Gun Owners Foundation 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 Self-defense A. Guns save more lives than they take; prevent more injuries than they inflict * Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year -- or about 6,850 times a day.1 This means that each year, firearms are used more than 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.2 * Of the 2.5 million self-defense cases, as many as 200,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual abuse.3 * Citizens shoot and kill at least twice as many criminals as police do every year (1,527 to 606).4 And readers of Newsweek learned in 1993 that "only 2 percent of civilian shootings involved an innocent person mistakenly identified as a criminal. The "error rate" for the police, however, was 11 percent, more than five times as high."5 * Of the 2.5 million times citizens use their guns to defend themselves every year, the overwhelming majority merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers. Less than 8% of the time, a citizen will kill or wound his/her attacker.6 * Handguns are the weapon of choice for self-defense. Citizens use handguns to protect themselves over 1.9 million times a year.7 Many of these self-defense handguns could be labeled as "Saturday Night Specials." B. Concealed carry laws help reduce crime * One-half million self-defense uses. Every year, as many as one-half million citizens defend themselves with a firearm away from home.8 * Florida. In the ten years following the passage of Florida's concealed carry law in 1987, there were 478,248 people who received permits to carry firearms.9 FBI reports show that the homicide rate in Florida, which in 1987 was much higher than the national average, fell 39% during that 10-year period. The Florida rate is now far below the national average.10 * Do firearms carry laws result in chaos? No. Consider the case of Florida. A citizen in the Sunshine State is almost twice as likely to be attacked by an alligator than to be assaulted by a concealed carry holder. During the first ten years that the Florida law was in effect, alligator attacks outpaced the number of crimes committed by carry holders by a 146 to 88 margin.11 * Nationwide. A comprehensive national study determined in 1996 that violent crime fell after states made it legal to carry concealed firearms. The results of the study showed: * States which passed concealed carry laws reduced their murder rate by 8.5%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robbery by 3%;12 and * If those states not having concealed carry laws had adopted such laws in 1992, then approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults and over 11,000 robberies would have been avoided yearly.13 * Concealed Carry v. Waiting Period Laws. In 1976, both Georgia and Wisconsin tried two different approaches to fighting crime. Georgia enacted legislation making it easier for citizens to carry guns for self-defense, while Wisconsin passed a law requiring a 48 hour waiting period before the purchase of a handgun. What resulted during the ensuing years? Georgia's law served as a deterrent to criminals and helped drop its homicide rate by 21 percent. Wisconsin's murder rate, however, rose 33 percent during the same period.14 C. Criminals avoid armed citizens * Kennesaw, GA. In 1982, this suburb of Atlanta passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to the modest 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole.15 * Ten years later (1991), the residential burglary rate in Kennesaw was still 72% lower than it had been in 1981, before the law was passed.16 * Nationwide. Statistical comparisons with other countries show that burglars in the United States are far less apt to enter an occupied home than their foreign counterparts who live in countries where fewer civilians own firearms. Consider the following rates showing how often a homeowner is present when a burglar strikes: * Homeowner occupancy rate in the gun control countries of Great
Re: [CTRL] SNET: Guns (fwd)
In a message dated 00-04-19 15:56:19 EDT, you write: * Guns are not the problem. On the contrary, lax criminal penalties and laws that disarm the law-abiding are responsible for giving criminals a safer working environment. We can thank the present administration for not vigorously enforcing existing laws. We can also thank the Courts-Lawyer-System for making deals with criminals and having them plead guilty to a much lesser crime than they committed. Criminals have no respect for laws or anything else and the biggest criminals are not even prosecuted at all - government/corporations. * Los Angeles riots -- USA Today reported that many of the people rushing to gun stores during the 1992 riots were "lifelong gun-control advocates, running to buy an item they thought they'd never need." Ironically, they were outraged to discover they had to wait 15 days to buy a gun for self-defense. I wonder if this changed their minds? How many of these people were killed, wounded, or terrorized because they were not armed? * Press reports show that the few criminals who get their guns from retail outlets can easily get fake IDs or use surrogate buyers, known as "straw purchasers," to buy their guns. On a bright note - guns shows occasionally catch criminals. In a Colorado Springs gun show a few weeks ago a murderer who had escaped from Arizona was buying a handgun from a dealer and filled out the application using his own name. He waited over an hour while the ATF came from Denver and arrested him. Surely a nomination for world's dumbest criminal. * Federal Bureau of Investigation registers gun owners (1998). Despite prohibitions in federal law, the FBI announced that it would begin keeping gun buyer's names for six months. FBI had originally wanted to keep the names for 18 months, but reduced the time period after groups like Gun Owners of America strongly challenged the legality of their actions. GOA submitted a formal protest to the FBI, calling their attempt at registration both "unlawful" and "unconstitutional." Gun registration is a dangerous thing. Gun confiscation is the goal. Anyone who is an anti-gunner should be called pro-criminal. * California. State officials have used the state background check -- required during the waiting period -- to compile an illegal registry of handgun owners. These lists have been compiled without any statutory authority to do so. Get the picture - government is the true enemy. Be smart buy an unregistered gun, it is legal in most States. If they don't know you have a gun they will be less likely to take it away. 1. The Brady Law has failed to result in the incarceration of dangerous criminals. After the first year and a half, there were only seven successful prosecutions for making false statements on Brady handgun purchase forms -- and only three of them were actually incarcerated.50 With only three criminals sent to jail, one can hardly argue that the law is working to keep violent criminals from getting handguns on the street. I wonder how much money was wasted passing this law. If the current administration would enforce this law and jail people who try to illegally purchase guns, then the streets would be safer because more habitual criminals would be behind bars where they belong. Obviously Clinton and his goons want to keep criminals on the streets hoping people will be stupid enough to demand more protection "from guns" rather than "from criminals" how can people be that stupid? Yet people still support Clinton, some people are not too bright. asked the Attorney General whether his SKS Sporter rifle would be legal in the state. The citizen was assured the rifle was legal, and based on that information, he subsequently moved into the state. But in 1998, California officials reversed course and confiscated the firearm. Don't move to Calif. Don't believe what the government tells you, they have an agenda that does not include you. Regards, Bob Stokes A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL
