PAX Gala Raises Half A Million Dollars [Tell Your Teacher that Johnny Has Guns at Home]

PAX ^ | April 11, 2003 | Email from Pax

[LurkedLongEnough]

New York, NY, April 10, 2003 – Last week, VIP's gathered at Cipriani to support PAX: the fastest growing gun violence prevention organization in the country. Through its innovative national campaigns, PAX promotes practical solutions that are saving children’s lives every day.

This year's event was chaired by Steven J. Heyer, President & COO of Coca-Cola and honored Michael D. Drexler, CEO of Optimedia. Actor and comedian Richard Belzer (Law & Order) emceed the evening with help from comedians Mario Cantone (Sex and the City) and Joy Behar (The View). The event featured a special musical performance by Roberta Flack and speeches from parents and students who had been touched by gun violence in their communities including: Carole Price (Honorary Chairperson, ASK), student hero Kelly Vickery (Lincoln High School), and student victim Missy Jenkins (Paducah High School). Also in attendance were Paul Shaffer (Late Show with David Letterman), Eric Nies (MTV), Rosanne Cash and G.E. Smith.

Richard Belzer and Paul Shaffer ran a live auction that raised $70,000. High-ticket items included a Law and Order set visit, audience seats to the Late Show with David Letterman and a private concert with Mandy Patinkin and Patti Lupone which sold for $30,000!!

The money raised will fund PAX's programs: SPEAK UP, a groundbreaking campaign that empowers students to report threats of weapon violence at school via an anonymous hotline 1-866-SPEAK UP; and the ASK (Asking Saves Kids) campaign developed in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics which urges parents to ask neighbors if there are guns in homes where their children play.

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A group of entertainment people wants to whip kids into a frenzy about the dangers of gun ownership. Gun safety instruction should come from gun-owning parents or certified instructors. These pathetic, hypocritical, trembling liberals don't want kids to learn responsible gun ownership.

SPEAK UP will ultimately lead to kids feeling afraid and ashamed of guns, in the same way they are now being misled to feeling ashamed of the liberators of Iraq.

PAX wants kids to ANONYMOUSLY report threats of weapon violence at school. Notice the emphasis on school, which is meant to garner the political support of the NEA.

How many TEACHERS would call the line to say "Johnny has guns in his house" -- the next step being to confiscate those guns based on this anonymous gossip... ???? WTF!

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[from occupied ga]

Steven J. Heyer, President & COO of Coca-Cola

Well crap. Now I'll have to stop drinking Coke products.

[ppaul]

Toy guns are getting harder and harder to find in this day of political correctness and taking safety concerns to a paranoid level. However, one company, Parris Manufacturing, still makes some nice inexpensive toy guns that are hand-made from wood and steel. Years ago, you could find them in toy stores. Nowadays, if you're lucky, you might run accross one in amusement park gift shops. But, now you can get them online.

Parris Manufacturing's line of replica firearms started in World War II, in making dummy rifles for Army and Navy training purposes. After the war, their production line turned to toy rifles and pistols. All are American-made, and model weapons that played important roles in our country's history.

Their toy guns are designed as replicas of guns designed and produced prior to 1898. They are constructed of one-piece wood, and blued die-cast parts with working trigger/hammer mechanisms. They are virtually indestructible for hours of playtime. Little boys (and big boys too!), just love 'em!

Link: HERE

[LurkedLongEnough]

Well crap. Now I'll have to stop drinking Coke products.

If you're from Georgia, I can imagine your dismay at this implication. Did you ever stop to reflect that a Coke can is primarily red--while a Pepsi can is red, white and blue?

[MileHi]

indexing

[leadpencil1]

Why don't we call 1-866-SPEAK UP and report that we saw ChuckieCheese or Hildabeast carring a gun near school property last week. Flood 'em with calls.

[tnlibertarian]

...which urges parents to ask neighbors if there are guns in homes where their children play.

I think this is a very good idea. You should make sure your kids are playing in a safe environment. You should ask if their are guns in the homes.

If there are no guns, it doesn't sound like a safe environment. You can then lend the parent one of yours while your child is there.

[BudgieRamone]

Problem with that is, if they don't have a gun in the house, providing them with one is much more dangerous. ;)

[tnlibertarian]

You're right. Better just make it a rule. No guns in the house, no visit from your kids. You probably don't want your kids hanging out at that house anyway.

[Timesink]

I give it less than a year until someone has their home turned falsely turned upside down as a result of a false report given to these Nazis by some teenager just looking to get his parents in trouble. The resulting lawsuits will destroy PAX.

[Drew68]

Years ago, you could find them in toy stores. Nowadays, if you're lucky, you might run accross one in amusement park gift shops.

I had a few toy guns that looked just like that one when I was young.

Somehow, I think that if kids were playing with those guns out in the neighborhood streets today, the cops would probably show up en masse.

Sad...

[45Auto]

Like I said on another thread, the whole issue of the RKBA is going to come down to who is willing to spend the most money, the enemies of freedom (who now have another half million) or the RKBA advocates, because the pimps in Congress understand only two things: money and force. The way I see it, "we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way."

[visualops]

BTTT

National Ask Day coming up.
http://www.pax.com/ASK.html

http://www.planetkrypton.blogspot.com/
MORE ON "NATIONAL ASS (WHOOPS, I MEAN ASK) DAY"
This thing gets more absurd all the time. For those of you who came in late, National Ask Day (June 21) is an event sponsored by the National Education Assocation and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others. Their goal is to convince parents to ask other parents if they keep guns in the house. Why should parents do this? Because Asking Saves Kids, that's why.

Here are some of the "facts" that PAX (the umbrella organization that runs National Ask Day) puts forth in support of its theory:

Over 3,500 people under the age of 20 are killed by gun violence very year. That means that every 24 hours another 10 children and teens die from guns. Often, gun violence among youth, including accidents, suicides and homicides, occurs because a child had access to a firearm that was brought into the home by an adult. Over 40% of American homes with children have a gun and many are left unlocked and loaded. Unfortunately, many parents think that a gun in the home is protective rather than dangerous. In reality, a gun in the home is 22 times more likely to kill or injure a friend or family member than an intruder.




So PAX admits that it's "10 kids die every day from guns" statistic includes "children" as old as 19? And that those numbers also include victims of homicides and suicides? So how many kids who aren't old enough to drive, vote and join the military actually get killed by the accidental discharge of a firearm? I have no idea. I looked through every link PAX and its sister sites provided and was unable to find an answer. So I turned to More Guns, Less Crime authorJohn Lott.


Statistics Lott gathered from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the causes of accidental deaths in children less than 10 years of age in 1999 (the latest year for which data were available when the book was being written) support his contention:

Motor vehicle crashes - 1260
Accidental residential fires - 484
Pedestrians killed by vehicles - 370
Drowning in bathtubs - 93
Bicycle accidents - 81
Accidental discharge of a firearm - 31
Accidental discharge of a firearm by a child under 10 years of age - 6




So National ASK Day encourages parents to invade the privacy of their fellow citizens for something that kills 1/15 the number of children that die from drowning in bathtubs? It's a tragedy when any child dies from an accidental gun dischage, but PAX's hyperbolic rhetoric and factual distortion turn those deaths into a farce. If PAX really wanted to save lives instead of push a political agenda, they'd advocate bike safety, teach kids not to play with matches or promote regular physical exercise. But those issues aren't going to get out the soccer-mom vote come election day.

And one final observation: Liberals hated the TIPS program because it would turn America into a "police state" with citizens spying on each other for the government. How many of them do you want to bet support ASK, even though it's essentially the same thing - except the targets are law-abiding gun owners instead of potential terrorists. Shows you where their priorities lie.

http://www.rachellucas.com/
Joshua Elder has alerted me to some anti-gun idiocy called "National Ask Day."
Joshua then rightly proceeds to blast beautiful holes in those statistics, because apparently the anti-gun folks have yet to remove the asshats from the tops of their heads.

In case anyone still isn't clear on this: that "10 kids a day" stat is pure horse manure. It includes 19-year-old gang members in South Central. In fact, according to the FBI, 70% of gun deaths for people under 20 are actually deaths of males aged 17-20 involved in gang activity at the time of death. So there goes 7 of those dreaded "child gun deaths every day."

And the figure includes suicides, which, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, account for half of all gun deaths. And as for the claim that suicides often occur because an adult has brought a gun into the home - well, that's patently absurd. Fact: Japan has a higher suicide rate among teens than we do in the U.S. And guess what? Japanese citizens have almost no guns. Furthermore, in places where guns have become less available, such as England and Australia, the suicide rates stayed the same because people simply went back to the tried and true methods of overdose, slashing of wrists, et cetera. These are facts that anyone can easily find if they actually want to.

Oh and by the way, one more factoid for you: According to a 1998 US Bureau of Justice Statistics study, 15 people are murdered every day by convicted felons in government supervised parole/probation programs. I'm just sayin', I think we have much bigger problems than which of our kids' playmates might live in homes with guns.

And of course, PAX just had to include the bogus statistic about how a gun in your house is 22 times more likely to kill a "friend or family member" than an intruder. Sigh. Yawn. At least they're only half as asshatted as the folks who use the "43 times more likely" crap put out by Arthur Kellerman.

There are things you should know about the study from whence that figure arose. First of all, 86% of the deaths were suicides. Secondly, the study population came from a non-random selection of only two cities. Could've been downtown Detroit and South Central L.A. and would've been taken just as seriously by the anti-gun spazoids.

Thirdly, many of the non-suicide deaths involved criminal activity such as drug deals gone bad. Remember, you "know" your crack dealer and he "knows" you. You are, according to the author of this bogus study, "friends."

And finally, the study didn't bother to take into account the fact that many, many, many uses of guns in the home against intruders don't result in death. Which means that any time an intruder was repelled and/or stopped by a gun used in self-defense but didn't actually die, he wasn't counted in this study. Pretty key omission, no?

Anyway, I hadn't really intended to turn this into a gun rant. Can't help myself sometimes, especially when I see those idiotic stats used anew by anti-gun activists.

Thanks to Joshua for the tip about "National Ask Day." Beware, parents! Asshats might be asking you about your guns on June 21. I suggest printing this and throwing it at handing it to them.