LETTERS TO EDITOR


Februray 1, 2013

Guns, Guns, Guns

[Phil] Jacobs wrote a powerful emotional appeal for the support of gun control laws (“Stop The Free Fall,” Jan. 11). He claims that “the humanity lobby” must overcome the uncaring people of the “gun lobby.”  I’m not sure what a “humanity lobby” is, nor are most of us part of the “gun lobby,” which consists of paid lobbyists employed by gun companies.  I am an American who is loath to part with any of my rights.  This is not because I am uncaring.  It is because there is no logical reason to do so if one considers any of the facts. Let us review:
1: Gun rights are constitutionally protected. This means that I don’t need to explain how or why I intend to exercise them and that there is an extraordinarily high bar for any restrictions.
2: Gun control laws do not prevent gun crimes. Violent crime rates drop when people’s gun rights are respected. Have you ever wondered how many lives are saved each year due to gun ownership? Or how many crimes are prevented? Why is this not part of the debate?  By the way, the number of guns owned and issued has gone up while gun crimes have gone down.
3: Mass shootings are not an epidemic.  The number of mass shootings per year is dropping. … The high was in 1929.
4: Assault-weapon bans do not work.  Experts have found no measurable effect of these laws that attempt to ban semiautomatic weapons from looking like fully automatic weapons.  Actual assault rifles were banned for civilian sale in 1986. A 2004 Department of Justice study reported the ban’s effect “… likely to be small at best. …  [Assault weapons] were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban.”
5: Gun-free zones do not work.  Most mass shootings in recent years occur in a gun-free zone such as a school or mall.  There were three mass shootings attempted the week of Sandy Hook; the media has ignored the other two, which had minimal casualties due to a gun owner confronting the shooter.Facts are important.  The average number of people shot in a mass shooting with police response is 14.  The average number of people shot in a mass shooting with civilian gun owner response is 2.5.  I am as horrified by the actions at Sandy Hook as everyone else.  But what matters here are results.  The facts consistently show that gun ownership helps stop gun crimes. …
David Kahn
Baltimore



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