-Caveat Lector- > Blank1/22/01 11:10 a.m. > The Hate-Crime Myth > People don’t save people. Guns save people. > By Deroy Murdock, columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service > > If Matthew Shepard had a gun, he would be alive today. > As a new and very sad MTV teledrama reminds us, the 21-year-old > University > of Wyoming student was pistol-whipped, tied to a rural fence and left > to die > on October 7, 1998. Anatomy of a Hate Crime depicts Shepard as an > amiable > scholar and his murderers as local delinquents who killed him in a > robbery > aggravated by scorn for Shepard's homosexuality. > A half-hour talk show that follows the TV movie presents numerous > arguments > for hate-crimes legislation. But neither the film nor the discussion > even > hints at the obvious: If Shepard were armed, he could have warded off > his > assailants. Instead, he nearly froze in an open field and died five > days > later of his injuries and exposure. > Thankfully, there is no MTV telepic mourning a gay man named Tom. As > the > National Journal's Jonathan Rauch reported, Tom (who withheld his > surname) > and a male friend were walking through a dodgy part of San Jose, > California > when a gang of 20 thugs began taunting them. > "Hey, you f***ing faggots!" one of them yelled. "When we're done with > you, > they'll never find your bodies." Tom and his pal ran for their lives, > with > the hoodlums in hot pursuit. Tom dug into his backpack and yanked out > a > semi-automatic handgun. He stood beneath a streetlight brandishing > his > weapon. His tormentors quickly retreated. > "There's no question in my mind," Tom believes, "that my friend and I > would > have been at least very seriously beaten, and maybe killed." > Of course, gays are not the only Americans who would benefit from > being > armed. James Byrd, the black man fatally dragged by three > truck-driving > white supremacists, still might walk the streets of Jasper, Texas, > had he > carried a gun in June 1998. Had Yankel Rosenbaum packed a pistol in > August > 1991, the rabbinical student might have neutralized a mob of black > thugs > that yelled "Kill the Jew" and "Heil Hitler" before Lemrick Nelson > stepped > forward and fatally stabbed him in Brooklyn's Crown Heights district. > Personal firearms likewise might have saved one or more of Hillside > Strangler Angelo Buono's nine female victims or any of the 36 women > who > serial killer Ted Bundy is suspected of having murdered. > "The largest and fastest-growing group of purchasers of small > handguns, > cheap handguns, are single women, most of them minorities," National > Rifle > Association President Charlton Heston told me January 15, shortly > after he > received a lifetime achievement award from Manhattan's Congress of > Racial > Equality. Heston spoke of women who return home to rough > neighborhoods after > working late hours. "Of course they want a gun in their purse when > they get > off the bus at 4:00 o'clock in the morning." > John R. Lott Jr., Yale Law School researcher and author of More Guns, > Less > Crime, argues that if every state had a right-to-carry law, armed > potential > victims could have prevented 1,500 murders and 4,000 rapes between > 1992 and > 1998. Merely displaying guns deters some 1.96 million violent crimes > annually, Lott estimates. > Nonetheless, fashionable politicians and pundits prefer to fight > lethal > bigotry with hate-crimes laws. Although attractive on their surface, > such > measures create their own problems. > First, "hate crime" is a truism. What exactly is a love crime? > Second, suppose a racist spots a mixed couple and yells, "Die, > nigger!" > before severely assaulting a black husband and his white wife. > Imagine > further that the accused is convicted and receives 20 years in jail > for his > attempted murder of a man of color while only getting 15 years for > nearly > slaying his bride. Now pretend you're the trial judge. Try to tell > the > woman's enraged relatives why she nearly was killed at a discount. > Third, and most worrisome, hate-crimes laws are an unreliable > deterrent > against anyone so consumed with venom as to attack another for his > sexuality, race, religion, or sex. If such statutes magically > shielded > at-risk minorities from violence, they would be worthwhile. Alas, > they are > no defense at all. > Far more promising is the adoption of state-level right-to-carry > rules that > would permit sane, law-abiding citizens to keep and bear handguns. > Such a > practical application of the Second Amendment would help racial, > sexual and > religious minorities — and even straight, white, Christian males — to > protect themselves from those who would turn bias into bloodshed. In > this > sense, Matthew Shepard, James Byrd, and Yankel Rosenbaum sadly > demonstrate > something too often true. People don't save people. Guns save people. > http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment012201c.shtml __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices. http://auctions.yahoo.com/ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. 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