Posted on 07/07/2005 8:40:50 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Firing back at the gun lobby
Gosh I hate it when I have to spend an entire morning digging up statistics when I'd much rather be watching soap operas and eating bon-bons. But when people disrespect your haircut, what can you do?
A few weeks ago I wrote that I thought it odd people hunted with handguns, which led me to meander to thoughts about gun control. I didn't call for a ban on weapons, but pointed out that the National Rifle Association in Arizona has successfully defeated efforts limiting the sale of rapid fire ammunition magazines and bills requiring child-safety locks. I suggested a lack of regulations, along with the proliferation of guns in the United States, might lead to more gun accidents and violent crime.
Proving the NRA becomes apoplectic whenever even minor gun regulations are mentioned, the EXPLORER received a number of e-mails from out-of-state gun owners who'd heard of the column from Catalina Foothills readers. The column also was posted on a gun rights site (www.keepandbear-arms.com) and my name, journalistic ability, lack of decent haircut and intelligence were bandied about in an associated chat room.
Their primary beef, aside from my having the audacity to voice an opinion differing from theirs, was that I reported it was legal to use a .22 Smith and Wesson to kill deer. I stand corrected. A .22 can only be used to hunt small game such as squirrel; one needs at least a .357 magnum to ethically hunt deer.
Besides that, nothing in the column was erroneous, but the readers' crankiness was evident anyway:
€ "She is a very ignorant person. ... dribbling this type of idiocy out of her mouth and not knowing enough to shut the f*** up .... She is probably using good air that others more deserving might use ...."
€ "Such simple-minded nonsense is not surprising coming from a woman who has a haircut like a ten-year-old."
€ "There is a common sense law concerning guns (arms) and it is the 2nd amend. ... Even though the tide turns against us, we must remain vigilant. These are inalienable rights granted to all by GOD."
€ "Another disgusting liberal puke with no idea of what freedom really means. ... I challenge these assh**** to give me even one example of what they mean by commonsense gun laws.'"
€ "My disillusioned woman, what century are you living in? A .22 is for squirrels and a machine gun IS FUN to shoot."
Well, there you have it: machine guns are fun, so we definitely shouldn't ban those; my haircut is in serious need of updating; God himself wrote the Second Amendment; I don't deserve the air I breathe; and gun control advocates don't have even one example of decent controls. Point, game, match.
Kent Finnell of Tennessee sent an e-mail saying I exaggerated about children killing playmates. "Overall," Finnell wrote, "accidental firearm related deaths are under 1,000/yr. with children under 14 being about 10% of that number." That means about three people per day are killed in a gun accident; a child under age 14 is killed about every fourth day. I guess those deaths are an acceptable return on the NRA lobby keeping child-safety locks from being required on all guns.
Denham B. Crafton II, the only local reader to write in, used the standard NRA argument that more children die in swimming pools each year than from firearms accidents. "In point of truth (and "truth" is what newspapers should be about) a child is more likely to die drowning in a five-gallon plastic bucket from Home Depot, than to die from a firearms accident (go to Home Depot, find the 5-gallon plastic buckets for sale ... there's a safety sticker on each one about children drowning in those buckets for a very good reason.)"
I'd be happy if there were safety stickers on every gun sold, but the NRA fights that. However, the guns-versus-swimming pools argument doesn't hold water, at least not in Arizona. According to the most recent report on child fatalities by the Arizona Department of Health and Human Services examining deaths in 2003 (www.azdhs.gov/phs/owch), 29 children in Arizona died because of gun shot wounds. Nine of those were suicides. By contrast, 28 children died of drowning; none were suicides. There were no statistics available for the Home Depot buckets.
California's Douglas Harding asked, "Were you aware, Ms. Horton, in those states such as Arizona, where honest, law-abiding citizens can legally carry handguns in public, that violent crime - including crimes against women - are routinely found to be significantly lower than in states such as California?"
No, I wasn't, so I checked www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports by State for 2003 (the latest available), and found the violent crime rate per 100,000 people in Arizona was 513.2 that year; the rate for rapes was 33.3. In California, the violent crime rate was 579.3 per 100,000, with rapes at 28.2 per 100,000. The state had more violent crime, but fewer rapes per thousand. In Massachusetts, which is rated as having the most restrictive gun laws, the violent crime rate in 2003 was 469.4 per 100,000 people, with only 27.9 rapes per 100,000 that year. Those numbers are lower than both Arizona and California, with their less restrictive gun laws. >{? While it still seems odd to me that one would use a handgun to hunt, I am not calling for a ban on the hobby. (It seems odd to me to chase a little white ball around a golf course, but I don't try to stop those folks, either.) My point is simply that there are too many guns available to too many people with almost no way of adequately tracking those guns. If the gun lobby would lighten up on their Second Amendment rhetoric we could have the best of both worlds: Enough weapons for hunters, a personal handgun for those who felt the need to protect themselves and far fewer guns lying around for the emotionally unstable, physically immature or criminally minded to pick up.
We need not fear the slippery slope: Mandating everyone meet the requirements of a concealed weapons permit to own a gun, requiring registration of all guns (hey, just like registering our cars!), and requiring child-safety locks on all guns will not lead to prying weapons from cold, dead hands. Allowing those laws might even result in non-gun owners supporting the NRA more fully on other gun rights, especially if they develop better chat room manners.
The media is full of naive, uninformed, liberal idiots.
Yep...the "under educated" never fail to disappoint IMHO.
Wow. Snarky.
And obviously pretty cheesed off about someone saying that he has a bad haircut.
Good for him.
APf
Hey, c'mon! This writer just enlightened me about "rapid fire magazines". Where can I get some of those?!
...when you pry it from my cold, dead hands...
more children die in swimming pools than are killed by guns. I assume swimming pools are only open part of the year.
Well, the ten year old's haircut hides the pin head pretty well, doncha think?
Arizona and California both have much different populations demographically. Demographics have a much more profound impact on crime statistics that laws do.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I notice she didn't mention Washington DC and its very high crime rate and very restrictive gun laws - or Vermont and its very low crime rate and nearly-unrestrictive concealed-carry laws.
But, then again, she's a liberal idiot. She will cherry-pick factiods to support her point of view, rather than look at the collective facts and attempt to make an informed judgement.
Her email addy is world.peace4@juno.com
Blah blah blah.
HMMMMMM.....not a victim of gun violence, she obviously doesn't hunt, doesn't seem to know enough weapons to own one.... I have an idea, why doesn't see MIND HER OWN BUSINESS!!!!!
What is a rapid fire magazine?
To say nothing of the country of Jamaica, which has effectively banned handguns and other firearms, yet has a crime rate higher than that of DC.
and I don't know how this idiot can say california has 'less restrictive' gun laws.
Less restrictive than where...cuba????
"rapid fire ammunition magazines"
What the...??? Where you get one of these?? Don't you just love the so called experts who want to disarm you have really no clue about the subject matter??
Listen, Ms. StringyHair, the right to bear arms has nothing to do with hunting. Try to pay attention.
Yes, machine guns are fun to shoot!! One day after I get to be filthy rich I hope to own my very own machine gun.
No it's "rapid fire ammunition".
Instead of igniiting the gunpowder in the flashpan by striking a spark (the only method protected by the second amendment), a new invention called a "precussion cap" creates an explosion when struck and fires the powder charge immediately.
Even worse. it allows the charge to be combined with the percussion cap and the bullet in a "cartridge" 
which can be loaded into the gun ready for firing in a matter of seconds. This "rapid fire ammunition"again is not protected by the second amendment.
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