[marktwain]

Interesting leftist project to set up gun dealers.

[marktwain]

Who Is Behind This?
Unfortunately, if one follows the money trail it ends up that two of the nation’s top anti-gun-rights activist foundations are helping to fund the project. The cover letter dated August 16, 2011 that dealers received in their packets states at the bottom that “This project is funded by: Community Health and Healing Fund, NAMI NH; Bureau of Behavioral Health, NH DHHS; Harvard School of Public Health; Injury Prevention Center at Dartmouth; and Riley’s Gun Shop.” (Emphasis added) The letter may be viewed here: http://pgnh.org/nhfsc_letter_0 .

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, they run the “Means Matter” project which looks to reduce the “Means” of suicide (as opposed to the cause), and they state the following on their website (www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/ ):

“The Harvard Injury Control Research Center is dedicated to reducing injury through training, research, intervention, evaluation, and dissemination… The Center is part of the Harvard School of Public Health. The Means Matter Campaign is funded by The Joyce Foundation and the David Bohnett Foundation.”

The funding path goes down from the Harvard School of Public Health to the Harvard Injury Control Research Center to the Bohnett Foundation and the Joyce Foundation. Both the Bohnett and Joyce foundations are infamous for being extremely anti-gun-rights.

The David Bohnett Foundation “supports and encourages groups that promote the goals of reduction and elimination of the manufacture and sale of handguns in the U.S.” (Emphasis added) The Bohnett Foundation has donated $198,000 to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control, Inc.), $30,000 to the Campus Alliance to End Gun Violence, $235,000 to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, $105,000 to States United to Prevent Gun Violence, and $325,000 to the Violence Policy Center.

Since 2003, the Joyce Foundation has paid grants totaling over $12 million to gun control organizations. The largest recipient of grant monies is the notorious Violence Policy Center, which received $4,154,970 between 1996 and 2006. The VPC is a rabid anti-gun-rights group that wants total bans on handguns and semi-automatic firearms, and major controls placed on gun owners. The NRA has described the Joyce Foundation as an activist foundation whose “shadowy web of huge donations” leads “straight to puppet strings that control the agenda of gun ban groups.”

The NRA has warned about the anti-gun-rights movement using the suicide and guns issue to promote their anti-second amendment agenda.

The NRA states on their suicide and firearms fact sheet: “Gun owners should be aware of basic concepts and available data on suicide and firearms in order to be able to counter anti-gun propaganda that appears in the media and elsewhere. Suicide is a serious issue. It deserves serious, scholarly discussion, rather than use as a political football by unscrupulous propagandists grasping at any opportunity to make a case for their preordained agenda.”

The fact sheet, which includes a number of well-researched footnotes, may be viewed here: www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=117&issue=023 .

Treat the Cause Not the Means
The major causes (not means) of suicide, like untreated depression, are the real problem. Frankly, “Means” do NOT really matter. Making guns a scapegoat is wrong, and part of an anti-gun-rights ploy funded by major anti-gun-rights groups. Doing so puts dealers and ranges at greater risk for lawsuits and new anti-gun laws. If people want to kill themselves there are endless ways to do so—as shown by the high suicide rates in countries such as Japan, where guns are essentially unavailable.

Unfortunately, some well intentioned folks have been used to promote a campaign that threatens our gun rights. The anti-gun-rights crowd likes nothing better than when we destroy ourselves by unknowingly supporting their efforts.

About:
Evan Nappen (www.efnappen.com) is a criminal defense attorney who has focused in firearms and weapons law for over 23 years. He is the author of New Hampshire Gun, Knife, and Weapon Law and the New Jersey Gun Law Guide. He is a director and the General Counsel of Pro-Gun New Hampshire, Inc. (http://www.pgnh.org/).

[G Larry]

“...requires the salesperson to know the buyer’s true intent for the purchase of the gun...”

Uh...this is the gun I want.

[absolootezer0]

“I am not buying this firearm with the intent of harming another person or myself

i'm starting to get into high power and larger bore rifles, i'm probably going to hurt my shoulder quite a bit.. does that count?

[dps.inspect]

Would you rather have them jumping off buildings and possibly harming others in the process?... and what about suicide rites, don’t these folks have a right to the method of their choice, and most of them prefer a “quick kill”. Ahh, the beauty of satire...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Gun Facts

Fact: For every accidental death (802), suicide (16,869) or homicide (11,348)118with a firearm (29,019), 13 lives (390,000)119 are preserved through defensive use.

Fact: Though the number of firearms owned by private citizens has been increasing steadily since 1970, the overall rate of homicides and suicides has not risen. As the chart shows, there is no correlation between the availability of firearms and the rates of homicide and suicide in America.

Fact: The rate of suicide is not affected by the presence of a firearm. This is true in either a time-series analysis (like the chart at right showing the change in handgun supply in the U.S. over time), or through cross-national analysis. For example, Japan has no private handgun ownership (aside from an extremely limited number of licensed Olympic sport shooters), and yet had a suicide rate more than twice that of the United States in 2002.

---

Myth: Handguns are 43 times more likely to kill a family member than a criminal

Fact: Of the 43 deaths reported in this flawed study, 37 (86%) were suicides. Other deaths involved criminal activity between the family members (drug deals gone bad).

Fact: Of the remaining deaths, the deceased family members include felons, drug dealers, violent spouses committing assault, and other criminals.

Fact: Only 0.1% (1 in a thousand) of the defensive uses of guns results in the death of the predator. This means you are much more likely to prevent a crime without bloodshed than hurt a family member.

[BO Stinkss]

To paraphrase Archie Bunker:

Would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they were to jump out of windows?

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

We need bridge control.

We must close The Golden Gate Bridge because hundreds of people have junped off the structure since it first opened in the 1930’s.

[iacovatx]

Those at the Harvard School of Public Health and anyone else at all familiar with the causes of individual behaviors such as suicide attempts all know the theories that explain such behavior. It is common and essential knowledge for any expert in the field. If one of them promotes this garbage in public, ask them where, in the Theory of Planned Behavior, the availability of a firearm is an influence on the intent to commit suicide. They all know that it is a negligible influence. The Theory of Planned Behavior has been extensively studied and explains the intent to do something pretty well. It is probably the most widely accepted predictor theory.
When you show that you know this, it will catch them by surprise, and they will have to really scramble for an explanation.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

“Suicides In NH Far Outnumber Homicides. Firearms Are The Leading Method Attempts With A Gun Are More Deadly Than Attempts With Other Methods.”

Years ago some city enacted a three day waiting period to try and prevent suicides by gun.

Several people were turned down when they tried to buy guns. Later these same exact people killed themselves by other means.

The local police chief bragged about how the waiting period had prevented gun suicides.

But these same people were STILL DEAD by their own hand.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Many years ago San Francisco had several murders in one weekend. No guns were involved.

The local police and politicians called for more GUN CONTROL” to prevent such thing from happening in the future.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

One of the responses should be simple. Create a checklist of the eight “Signs that a potential leaflet distributor could be gun-control fanatic or work for a contingency lawyer,” eight “Options for responding to an attempt to trick you into legally exposing yourself to litigation or barratry,” and four “What else can I do” suggestions.