By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
October 02, 2003
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Gun control activists seized on the first anniversary of the Washington, D.C., sniper shootings a day early Wednesday to press their call for expanding restrictions on the Second Amendment right of American citizens to keep and bear arms. Gun rights advocates said Thursday that no one should be surprised by the exploitation of a tragedy.
Speaking about the sniper shootings Wednesday, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) became so angry over the prospect that Congress might not extend a ban on military-looking semi-automatic rifles, commonly referred to by the misnomer "assault weapons," that she was almost yelling."Now we've been to memorials, we've been to candlelight ceremonies, we've prayed, we sang hymns, we said we would never forget these victims," Mikulski said, "and I'll tell you how we'll never forget them: We've got to pass this assault weapons ban."
Erich Pratt, communications director for Gun Owners of America, has a question for Mikulski:
"What gun control law would have stopped the sniper shootings from occurring?" Pratt asked. "The snipers have admitted that they stole the firearm they used from a gun store, so what gun control would have stopped them from getting that firearm?"
Pratt suggested that Mikulski also remember those who have used the weapons now banned by the 1994 law to defend themselves in the past.
"Many of the merchants in the riots in Los Angeles were photographed atop their buildings with these semi-automatic firearms, which eventually were banned at the federal level," Pratt recalled. "It's interesting that it was their stores, the Korean merchants who were using these firearms to defend their stores, theirs are the stores that did not burn during the riots even while many stores around them, that were left unprotected, were burned."
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports for 2001, the most recent year with complete data available online, criminals used firearms in the commission of a murder, robbery or aggravated assault in about 376,000 of the 1.4 million violent crimes committed. Conversely, research by an American Enterprise Institute resident scholar, Dr. John Lott, shows that firearms are used to stop or prevent crimes in the United States more than two million times a year.
McCarthy admits laws don't stop criminals from getting guns
The husband of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) was murdered and her son was seriously wounded in 1993 by a criminal armed with a gun. She, too, believes those in Congress who support full Second Amendment rights are misguided.
"Here we are, 10 years later - 10 years later - still trying to, at least, keep the assault weapons ban, but to improve on it," McCarthy said. "What are these people thinking? What are they thinking? You know, if you want an assault weapons [sic], go join the Army. I mean, why do we need these on the street?"
Pratt told CNSNews.com that McCarthy's remarks reveal the subtle but, he believes, intentional attempt to mislead the public.
"Here's the big misnomer: She calls these 'assault weapons' and equates these guns with the kind that the military are using, but the guns that Congress banned in 1994 are owned by no military upon the earth. These are not military assault weapons," Pratt explained. "These are semi-automatic firearms. You pull the trigger once, and one bullet comes out of the barrel.
"That is such a farce for the congresswoman to refer to these guns as military assault weapons; they're not," Pratt continued. "In fact, most of the guns that were banned have far less firepower than your average shotgun."
McCarthy admitted that the government cannot stop all criminals from getting guns. "No, we can't, and I'm sorry to say that we can't."
Based on that admission, Pratt wondered, why McCarthy supports the ban.
"Obviously, the only people it will affect, then, are good folks," Pratt argued. "That's the only type of person that gets affected by legislation like this. The bad guys, they don't go through the background checks, and they still manage to get firearms."
But McCarthy dismissed the concerns of law-abiding gun owners who believe their freedoms are curtailed by such bans.
"I will say to people that want to own guns: You're still going to be able to go duck shooting, you're still going to be able to go turkey shooting in November," McCarthy said. "Let's be reasonable about this. These guns don't belong on the streets of America and, if you're going to have these guns on the streets of America, not only for the criminals to get them, but you're going to allow terrorists to get them, too."
Pratt scoffed at McCarthy's implication.
"Banning these firearms is not going to stop criminals or terrorists from getting them. No gun ban stops bad guys from getting guns," Pratt argued. "That's the experience that England has had. With a virtually complete ban on an island, they have still not been able to stop criminals from getting guns. In fact, they have a worse problem now than they did before the ban."
Pratt also objected to McCarthy's implication that the rights recognized in the Second Amendment apply only to hunting.
"It's not about duck hunting. It's about freedom. It's about the ability to defend yourself," Pratt added. "These guys just don't know what they're talking about."
Anti-gun lawmakers, groups accused of 'playing games with statistics'
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) - quoting from Officer Down, a report by the anti-gun Violence Policy Center (VPC) - alleged that a significant number of law enforcement officers are murdered each year with so-called assault weapons.
"According to analysis of FBI data, one in five law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty from 1998 to 2001 was killed with an assault weapon," Lautenberg claimed. "It's a dangerous job by itself, but when the criminals possess assault weapons, it places our police at further risk."Kevin Watson, spokesman for the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, was holding a copy of the report when he talked with CNSNews.com.
"The Violence Policy Center report is 100 percent deceptive, if not factually incorrect," Watson argued. "It's very obvious they're playing games with statistics."
Watson pointed out that the VPC report has headings to list the manufacturer, model and caliber of weapon used in the murder of 41 law enforcement officers, as well as the state in which they were killed, from 1998 through 2001. But in almost a third of those cases, the FBI was unable to determine even the weapon's manufacturer, much less whether or not the specific model used was banned by the 1994 law.
"What [the VPC is] using is, any gun in that caliber," Watson charged. "So this notion that these Officer Down statistics are in any way related to renewing the Clinton gun and magazine ban is absolutely false."
The VPC report, Watson believes, also misses the broader implications of criminals using firearms against law enforcement officers.
"They can make whatever distorted claims they want," Watson added, "but 100 percent of officers killed in the line of duty with firearms are killed by criminals," Watson added. "And it's policy that goes after criminals and puts these people behind bars that saves lives, not locking up the guns, which only has an impact on law-abiding gun owners."
Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) was a 16-year-old law enforcement cadet when a police officer accidentally shot him in the neck, paralyzing him. He believes FBI statistics show the 1994 ban reduced the frequency with which criminals used the banned weapons.
"In 1995, the FBI reported that trace requests for assault weapons declined 20 percent only one year after enactment of the ban," Langevin noted. "Since enactment, criminals are using these guns less frequently, and that means lives are saved."
But Pratt pointed out that inquiries by local, state or federal law enforcement agencies to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to determine the identity of the dealer who sold a particular firearm, called "trace requests," are not necessarily related to violent crimes.
"Trace requests have nothing to do with how often a gun is used in a crime," Pratt said. "In fact, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) did a study to actually determine how many so-called assault weapons were being used in crimes, and the figure was less than 2 percent. That is the real figure. This whole issue of trace requests appears to be smoke and mirrors."
The lawmakers all support the Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003 (H.R. 2038), which would expand the list of firearms covered by the ban to include hundreds more semi-automatics, including many of those owned for sport shooting, hunting and self-defense by millions of Americans.
Pratt reiterated an earlier point.
"These bad guys don't abide by the laws. They're criminals, they're murderers, and so, they steal their guns, they use fake IDs to buy their guns," Pratt explained.
That BJS report supports Pratt's claim. According to the federal agency's research, only 2 percent of criminals obtained their guns through gun shows or flea markets, while an additional 12 percent purchased their guns at retail outlets or pawnshops. But an overwhelming 80 percent obtained their guns from friends, family members, a "street buy" or through an illegal transaction.
"It's a ridiculous notion to think that by passing more laws, a criminal who has already broken 15 or 20 laws in illegally acquiring a firearm and illegally using a firearm to commit a crime that, all of a sudden, he's going to obey the 21st or 22nd law," Pratt concluded. "It's just ridiculous."
