Whither Gun Control?
 

Saturday, May 22, 2004
By John R. Lott, Jr.
What is happening to the gun control movement?


This month, the Million Mom March in Washington drew an anemic showing of only 2,000 people, while this year, all of the Democratic presidential candidates” however unenthusiastically” spoke of Americans Second Amendment (search) right to own guns. These are just a few of the signs that the facts finally seem to be catching up to the movement. The future for the movement looks even worse.

Whether the subject is concealed handgun laws or bans on semi-automatic so-called assault weapons, gun control debates have been filled with apocalyptic claims about what will happen if gun control is not adopted. One common prediction is that laws allowing the carrying of a concealed weapon will result in crime waves, or permit holders shooting others. However, with 37 states now having right-to-carry laws, and another nine states letting some citizens carry, permit holders have continually shown themselves to be extremely law-abiding. It is becoming more and more difficult to attack those laws.

Disarray among gun controllers is becoming common, even on one cornerstone of the gun control movement, the semi-automatic gun ban. Take the statements made on National Public Radio by a representative of the Violence Policy Center just one week after the assault weapon extension was defeated in the Senate this March.

NPR described the VPC as "one of the more aggressive gun groups in Washington." Yet the VPC's representative claimed: "If the existing assault-weapons ban expires, I personally do not believe it will make one whit of difference one way or another in terms of our objective, which is reducing death and injury and getting a particularly lethal class of firearms off the streets. So if it doesn't pass, it doesn't pass."

The NPR reporter noted: "[the Violence Policy Center's representative] says that's all the [assault-weapons ban] brought about, minor changes in appearance that didn't alter the function of these weapons.

Yet, before the Senate vote the VPC had long claimed that it was a "myth" that "assault weapons merely look different. The NRA and the gun industry today portray assault weapons as misunderstood ugly ducklings, no different from other semi-automatic guns. But while the actions, or internal mechanisms, of all semi-automatic guns are similar, the actions of assault weapons are part of a broader design package. The 'ugly' looks of the TEC-9, AR-15, AK-47 and similar guns reflect this package of features designed to kill people efficiently."

So why the sudden disarray after the Senate defeat? Simply, gun-control groups' credibility is on the line and they are getting cold feet. With no academic research showing the assault weapons ban reduces crime, gun control groups realize that soon it will be obvious to everyone that their predicted horror stories about "assault weapons" were completely wrong.

Internationally, dramatic gun control victories in countries such as England, Australia, and Canada are also unraveling.

”Crime did not fall in England after handguns were banned in January 1997. Quite the contrary, crime rose sharply. Yet, serious violent crime rates from 1997 to 2002 averaged 29 percent higher than 1996; robbery was 24 percent higher; murders 27 percent higher. Before the law, armed robberies had fallen by 50 percent from 1993 to 1997, but as soon as handguns were banned, the robbery rate shot back up, almost back to their 1993 levels.

”Australia has also seen its violent crime rates soar after its Port Arthur gun control measures in late 1996. Violent crime rates averaged 32 per cent higher in the six years after the law was passed (from 1997 to 2002) than they did the year before the law in 1996. The same comparisons for armed robbery rates showed increases of 45 percent.

”The 2000 International Crime Victimization Survey, the most recent survey done, shows that the violent crime rate in England and Australia was twice the rate in the US.

”Canada has not gone anywhere near as far as the United Kingdom or Australia. Nevertheless, their gun registration system is costing roughly a thousand times more than promised and has grown to be extremely unpopular, with only 17 percent of Canadians in a poll release this week supporting the system. Nor does the system seem to be providing any protection. The Canadian government recently admitted that they could not identify even a single violent crime that had been solved by registration.

Everyone wants to take guns away from criminals. The problem is that if the law-abiding citizens obey the laws and the criminals don't, the rules create sitting ducks who cannot defend themselves. While the debate is hardly over, gun control is just another example of government planning that hasn't lived up to its billing. And like other types of government planning, eventually its failures become too overwhelming to ignore.

John Lott, Jr., is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and is the author of The Bias Against Guns (Regnery 2004).

Thanks. Time for the pendulum to swing back.

An armed society is a polite society. Robert A. Heinlein

I subscribe to that theory.

Terry

and one in which there are fewer stray dogs running around in parks terrorizing children. :D

and in which you can plate as much bling-bling onto your firearm as you damn well please!

I believe it was CCR who said,"There's a calm before the Storm" Just because these policies are showing their ineffectiveness and losing popular support does not mean that they are gone forever.

Just My .02

What is happening to the gun control movement?
 

The Reaper
What is happening to our Gun Control Movement? Don't ask This Guy!!! :D
I currently travel up and down 'ol Route 66 to get to where I live, and my family. I now travel this road regularly, and today, there was a very mean looking Harley with a man on it, next to my car.

Attached to the back of His bike was a very large American Flag, and upon closer inspection, a VFW insignia, and other "War" patches, on a very worn looking black leather jacket.
When we came to a stoplight on the highway, He was in the next lane. I rolled down my window, and gave a huge thumbs up! The man was ponytailed, with goggles, and a little grey hair.
But, He smiled back. I yelled, "thank You for Your service"...and He shrugged, and said, "thanks for appreciating it!"

I told Him He looked Great, and the light turned green. He did not "rev the engine"... instead just carried on, at the speed limit.

Point is, I am sure He might have been armed, He had all the luggage of a long journey, but God Bless 'em, I was glad to know that He might have been "packin"!

Holly

It looked something like this:

New Gun Control Technique?
 

Fredricksburg and Roanoke VA local papers have been publishing the list of concealed carry permit holders on the internet. Evidently, the posted listing included names of CC permit holders from the entire state of VA before it was taken down due to complaints.

Has anyone else seen this kind of tactic in their state? I do not see how the public interest is served by this.

Karl

The Free-Lance Star
Date published: 3/20/2007

Should concealed-gun information be public?

State to consider access to concealed weapon permits
BY CHELYEN DAVIS

RICHMOND--A state committee will study whether concealed weapon permit information should remain public record after a Roanoke newspaper ignited controversy by posting on the Internet a list of permit holders.

The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Committee yesterday decided to appoint a subcommittee to investigate the issue over the next few months.

The controversy started just last week when the Roanoke Times published, on its Web site, a list of all concealed-weapon permit holders in the state.

The list came from the state police, which is required by law to maintain that list, but the information is also subject to the Freedom of Information Act and is public record.

After numerous furious e-mails and phone calls from the public, the Roanoke Times took the list off its Web site. But Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania County, said he was already getting calls and e-mails, particularly from other state legislators, who want to consider changing the law.


"There's a clash here between personal, private information and the public's right to know," Houck said after the FOIA council meeting yesterday. "It's a hot topic right now and a lot of people are very anxious about it. It's opened up all types of other issues."

Few people came to speak at the council's meeting yesterday, although Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, spoke and said he has requested an opinion from the attorney general on the issue.

Jim Kadison of the Virginia Citizens Defense League--a gun-rights organization--said his group is concerned about "possible abuse" of the list. He suggested creating a list of permit-holders for police and then a separate, public one that permit holders could opt off of.

Houck, who chairs the council, said he will also chair the subcommittee that will study this issue. He is worried that the issue may open the door to those who would like to see Virginia eliminate its permit requirement for a concealed weapon altogether, and said he wants to keep the focus on the public information issue.

However, Houck said, he also thinks consistency is important, and he pointed out that the rules governing the openness of concealed carry permits is no different than the rules governing other state permits--like doctor's licenses.


The Free Lance-Star periodically publishes the names of Fredericksburg area permit holders when the permits are issued.

The entire FOIA council will meet again in June.

Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com

Gun Control
 

As if any of this comes as any surprise to those of us that have alway's upheld the notion that the crime is not about guns, it's about crime and deeper social ills that cause crime and the violence that ensues with that crime.

When Florida adopted the "Castle Doctrine" the Brady's staged one of most pathetic campaigns to date in the gun control lobby. They planted gun control supporters at the airports handing our flyers that warned tourists about the new law calling it the "Shoot first law" "Ask questions later" Florida quickly campaigned against the Brady bunch with a clear and precise definition of the law arguing that "Residents of florida now have the ability to defend themselves with deadly force without the need to retreat first" And, that civil law suits were no longer judicial practice for those injured while in the act of committing a felony and or with the use of deadly force described very clearly and plainly to the ordinary citizen.

The democrats do not want to touch the 2nd Amendment, but rather cut a thousand cuts to infringe the right to keep and bear arms like a chinese torture. A thousand cuts is the same as one big chop to the neck in the end.

They'll learn the hard way, and when SCOTUS upholds the 2nd Amendment as as an individual right across the board, the democrats will have little other than health care and the war to continue their ratty rediculous gun control measures.

Agreed. Wasn't that from RAH's Friday? :)

In Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer prints a monthly list which details the Full Name and age of all individuals who obtained permits that month. This has been going on for the past three years. Hopefully this practice will taper off due to a new state law making it much harder for the media to get these records. More on this subject can be viewed on the Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website www.ohioccw.org.

rogue8261,

Thanks for that link-specifically mentions the issues of harassment of law abiding citizens, the "shopping list" of where to steal weapons factor, and abuse of privacy rights by the media. All of great concern. In VA, the state police maintain the list and they can do all the demographic analysis they want. It's the release of individual information to the media and the privacy issue around publication of this information that bothers me.

Karl

Not sure where he wrote it but yes, it was RAH.

Well then, I guess those papers should also print the names and addresses of everyone with HIV and AIDS in the area, as they can be just as deadly to the unknowing in the end (no pun intended). Privacy issues? P'shaw, its for the 'public good'.