Gun Control Fact-Sheet 2004 / From
Gun Owners Foundation
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by Gun
Owners Foundation 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151
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1. Highlights
* Guns are used 2.5 million times a year in
self-defense. Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against
criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year—or about 6,850 times a
day.(1) This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more
often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.(2)
* Even anti-gun Clinton researchers concede
that guns are used 1.5 million times annually for self-defense. According to
the Clinton Justice Department, there are as many as 1.5 million cases of
self-defense with a firearm every year. The National Institute of Justice
published this figure in 1997 as part of "Guns in America"—a study
which was authored by noted anti-gun criminologists Philip Cook and Jens
Ludwig.(3)
* Concealed carry laws have reduced murder
and crime rates in the states that have enacted them. According to a
comprehensive study which reviewed crime statistics in every county in the
United States from 1977 to 1992, states which passed concealed carry laws
reduced their rate of murder by 8.5%, rape by 5%, aggravated assault by 7%
and robbery by 3%.(4)
* Anti-gun journal pronounces the failure of
the Brady law. One of the nation’s leading anti-gun medical publications, the
Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the Brady
registration law has failed to reduce murder rates. In August 2000, JAMA
reported that states implementing waiting periods and background checks did
"not [experience] reductions in homicide rates or overall suicide
rates."(5)
* Twice as many children are killed playing
football in school than are murdered by guns. That’s right. Despite what
media coverage might seem to indicate, there are more deaths related to high
school football than guns. In a recent three year period, twice as many
football players died from hits to the head, heat stroke, etc. (45), as
compared with students who were murdered by firearms (22) during that same
time period.(6)
* More guns, less crime. In the decade of
the 1990s, the number of guns in this country increased by roughly 40
million—even while the murder rate decreased by almost 40% percent.7
Accidental gun deaths in the home decreased by almost 40 percent as well.(8)
* CDC admits there is no evidence that gun
control reduces crime. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has long been
criticized for propagating questionable studies which gun control
organizations have used in defense of their cause. But after analyzing 51
studies in 2003, the CDC concluded that the "evidence was insufficient
to determine the effectiveness of any of these [firearms] laws."(9)
* Gun shows are NOT a primary source of
illegal guns for criminals. According to two government studies, the National
Institute of Justice reported in 1997 that "less than two percent [of
criminals] reported obtaining [firearms] from a gun show."(10) And the
Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed in 2001 that less than one percent of
firearm offenders acquired their weapons at gun shows.(11)
* Several polls show that Americans are very
pro-gun. Several scientific polls indicate that the right to keep and bear
arms is still revered—and gun control disdained—by a majority of Americans
today. To mention just a few recent polls:
* In 2002, an ABC News poll found that
almost three-fourths of the American public believe that the Second Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution protects the rights of "individuals" to
own guns.(12)
* Zogby pollsters found that by a more than
3 to 1 margin, Americans support punishing "criminals who use a gun in
the commission of a crime" over legislation to "ban
handguns."(13)
* A Research 2000 poll found that 85% of
Americans would find it appropriate for a principal or teacher to use "a
gun at school to defend the lives of students" to stop a school
massacre.(14)
* A study claiming "guns are three
times more likely to kill you than help you" is a total fraud. Even
using the low figures from the Clinton Justice Department, firearms are used
almost 50 times more often to save life than to take life.(15) More
importantly, however, the figure claiming one is three times more likely to
be killed by one’s own gun is a total lie:
* Researcher Don Kates reveals that all
available data now indicates that the "home gun homicide victims [in the
flawed study] were killed using guns not kept in the victim's home."(16)
* In other words, the victims were NOT
murdered with their own guns! They were killed "by intruders who brought
their own guns to the victim's household."(17)
* Gun-free England not such a utopia after
all. According to the BBC News, handgun crime in the United Kingdom rose by
40% in the two years after it passed its draconian gun ban in 1997.(18) And
according to a United Nations study, British citizens are more likely to
become a victim of crime than are people in the United States. The 2000
report shows that the crime rate in England is higher than the crime rates of
16 other industrialized nations, including the United States.(19)
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h/t MK
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