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Shot In The Dark
Investor's Business Daily ^ | January 12, 2005 | Editorial

Posted on 01/12/2005 7:28:43 AM PST by neverdem

Crime: The most pre-eminent scientific group in America has produced a definitive analysis of our decades-long experience with gun control and shattered what has become an article of faith among proponents.

The 328-page report by the National Academy of Sciences is based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, a survey of 80 gun-control laws and some of its own independent study.

It could find no evidence to support the conclusion that government restrictions on firearms reduces gun crime, gun violence and gun accidents.

As noted by John Lott Jr., resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and frequent contributor to this page, this stunning indictment of the ineffectiveness of gun-control laws was produced by a panel set up during the Clinton administration. All but one of its members were known before their appointments to favor gun control. No NRA shills here.

Lott credits the report for pointing out the obvious: Criminals who use guns to break laws will break laws to use guns. He also notes that the report failed to include in its analysis how gun-ownership restrictions may restrict defensive uses of firearms and endanger potential victims.

Hale DeMar of Wilmette, Ill., recently faced criminal charges for the successful defense of his family from a felon who invaded his home not once, but twice. Seems he violated Wilmette's handgun ban.

Suppose DeMar obeyed the ban and the outcome was different. Suppose the family was slain by the intruder. Instead of DeMar facing up to a year in jail, a $2,500 fine for not having an Illinois Firearms Owners Identification Card and a $750 fine for violating Wilmette's handgun ban, the morning headlines would have read something like, "Family Slain — Police Have Few Clues."

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Illinois; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: banglist
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One thing is for sure: No criminal will ever break into Hale DeMar's home again.

How can they state the last sentence with certainty?


1 posted on 01/12/2005 7:28:43 AM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem
Lott credits the report for pointing out the obvious: Criminals who use guns to break laws will break laws to use guns

Is that such a difficult concept!!!!!

2 posted on 01/12/2005 7:34:18 AM PST by logic ("All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing......")
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To: neverdem

The anti-gun people are not going to surrender their moral high ground just because of a few facts. No matter how much their position is undermined by these pernicious findings, they are right and they know they are.

But the real agenda was never the control or reduction of crime. The disarming of the civilian population is the singular goal they are pursuing, and with the civilians disarmed, the resistance factor is decidedly much lower.


3 posted on 01/12/2005 7:37:26 AM PST by alloysteel ("Master of the painfully obvious.....")
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To: bang_list

Bang


4 posted on 01/12/2005 7:51:41 AM PST by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
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To: alloysteel

Of course, that's the reason for gun control.

This report is important because it will be useful (dare I say possibly instrumental) in allowing us to show those naive misguided souls (like the people with the MMM bumper stickers) that the politicians who support gun control are not do-gooders trying to prevent crime, but evil facists/elitists.


5 posted on 01/12/2005 7:53:07 AM PST by logic ("All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing......")
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To: neverdem
>The 328-page report by the National Academy of Sciences is based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, a survey of 80 gun-control laws and some of its own independent study. It could find no evidence to support the conclusion that government restrictions on firearms reduces gun crime, gun violence and gun accidents

Oh. Wonderful. Now
we have the global warming
people on our side . . .

6 posted on 01/12/2005 7:56:02 AM PST by theFIRMbss
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To: theFIRMbss
Oh. Wonderful. Now we have the global warming people on our side . . .

IIRC, I don't think so. I believe they recommended further study.

7 posted on 01/12/2005 8:00:20 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem; alloysteel
This is good to have out in the public view, as it discredits one of the major points of the gun control/ban crowd. However, the RKBA is an inalienable right - it doesn't matter if there is some benefit in terms of lowering street crime from having guns or not, just as it doesn't matter whether a gun has a "sporting use" or not. The 2nd Amendment could be repealed and the RKBA would still exist - inalienable means just that.

But the real agenda was never the control or reduction of crime. The disarming of the civilian population is the singular goal they are pursuing, and with the civilians disarmed, the resistance factor is decidedly much lower.

Anyone who doesn't understand this shouldn't be trusted to operate heavy machinery, raise children, vote, etc. The use of the crime issue and the emphasis on "sporting use" (echoes of Nazi Germany's 1938 weapons law) are just convenient and persuasive (for the useful idiots) means for the string-pullers to accomplish their goal.

8 posted on 01/12/2005 9:04:05 AM PST by Ancesthntr
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To: kt56

ping


9 posted on 01/12/2005 9:06:15 AM PST by misharu (I've been here a while . . .you just haven't noticed me.)
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To: logic
I like the t shirt that says "mass murderers agree that gun control works" and pictured is Mou, Hitler, Stalin, but there are allot of others who mugs could be added........
10 posted on 01/12/2005 9:20:01 AM PST by clearsight
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To: AAABEST; wku man; SLB; Travis McGee; Squantos; Shooter 2.5; The Old Hoosier; xrp; freedomlover; ...
I am continuing to compile a list of FreeRepublic folks who are interested in RKBA topics. FReepmail me if you want to be added.

Conversely, if you want off my ping-list, let me know.

And my apologies for any redundant pings.

Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!

11 posted on 01/12/2005 9:53:30 AM PST by Joe Brower (The Constitution defines Conservatism.)
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To: Joe Brower
Good read ~ Bump!

The Second Amendment...
America's Original Homeland Security!

12 posted on 01/12/2005 10:00:25 AM PST by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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To: neverdem

Damn. I thought this was a Peter Sellers thread.


13 posted on 01/12/2005 10:02:45 AM PST by Lizavetta (Modern liberalism: Where everyone must look different but think the same.)
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To: Joe Brower

Thanks for the ping Joe. Good article.


14 posted on 01/12/2005 10:06:52 AM PST by Double Tap
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To: neverdem
The most pre-eminent scientific group in America has produced a definitive analysis of our decades-long experience with gun control and shattered what has become an article of faith among proponents.

That's the problem. Gun control is a religion, not logic. It's one of the several subsects of liberalism. Logic plays no part in their beliefs. The rest of us aren't people who have facts on our side. We're heretics who question their worship of the total state contol.

There are even a number of @$$holes even on this forum who believe in gun control. I won't name any, but most people know who they are.

15 posted on 01/12/2005 10:08:40 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy, and Bush is no conservative)
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To: Ancesthntr

Ironic, isn't it, that the supreme court case that supposedly allows gun control (miller) claimed that the second amendment didn't apply because a shotgun with a barrel length of less than 18 inches has no military purpouse........(never mind that it was the favorite weapon in the trenches of WWI which was the last war that the U.S. was involved in at the time)


16 posted on 01/12/2005 10:12:36 AM PST by logic ("All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing......")
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To: neverdem

Interesting chart, but co-relation is not causality. Many factors influence criminal behavior, and the prospect of getting killed by a home-owner certainly will make criminals more unwilling to break into homes. Personally I expect that incarcerating more career criminals (e.g. 3 strikes legislation) has more to do with the drop in crime, given that a relatively small number of offenders commit the majority of crimes. Take them out of circulation for long periods of time and the crime rate will certainly fall. That said, it is my opinion that the 2nd Amendment does protect an individual right, and since the 14th Amendment, the states are limited as well. The legal question (imho) is what standard - rational, intermediate, or strict scrutiny should be applied to measure the governmental interests opposing the individual interests. I think the framers spell it out clearly. By definition the militia referred to in the 2nd Amendment has the missions defined in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution ("To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;") then arms which are useful in carrying out these missions are clearly protected as an individual right. A useful shorthand for this (as per the Miller decision) is "whatever arm is used by the army."


17 posted on 01/12/2005 10:16:49 AM PST by RKV ( He who has the guns, makes the rules.)
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To: neverdem

It won't be long for "Skeptic" magazine to do a hatchet job on this story and this study.


18 posted on 01/12/2005 10:17:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv (the US population in the year 2100 will exceed a billion, perhaps even three billion.)
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To: alloysteel
"But the real agenda was never the control or reduction of crime. The disarming of the civilian population is the singular goal they are pursuing, and with the civilians disarmed, the resistance factor is decidedly much lower." Bingo.
19 posted on 01/12/2005 10:18:29 AM PST by RKV ( He who has the guns, makes the rules.)
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To: logic

And isn't it even more ironic that the justification for the federal and various state AWB's is that the banned weapons are "weapons of war?" If anything, Miller protects them (even if semi-auto) far more than so-called "sporting guns"). Further irony occurs when the same people cite Miller as being a justification for gun control, and specifically an AWB. This last bit shows that they either haven't read the case, that their reading comprehension is at about the level of my non-reading 3-year-old or that they're just a bunch of lying sacks of $hit.


20 posted on 01/12/2005 10:22:38 AM PST by Ancesthntr
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