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Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns From: <34AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET> Message-ID: <93037.13392334AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET> Subject: NRA 1993 FIREARMS FACT CARD Date: Saturday, 6 Feb 1993 13:39:23 EST Lines: 315

NRA FIREARMS FACT CARD 1993

SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

This guarantee is clearly a fundamental individual rightDnot the 20th century invention of a "collective right" because the Framers understood the concept of a "right" to apply only to individuals and used the word "states" when collective meanings were intended.

In a 1990 ruling, the Supreme Court confirmed that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right held by "people" a "term employed in select parts of the Constitution:' specifically the Preamble, First, Second, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments (U.S. v. Verdugo-Urquidez).

The 20th-century National Guard, wholly controlled by the federal governmentDcould not have been the type of body envisioned by the framers, even if the goal were to protect only an organized state militia. Under federal law, the "unorganized militia"' consists of all able-bodied males of an age to serve, and some females and older men. (10 U.S.C.$31 1(b)) .

Historically, English Common Law recognized this right as making possible both common and personal defense.

All four relevant Supreme Court decisions have recognized that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. No Supreme Court decision has ever held this right to be collective.

FIREARMS FACTS: GENERAL

NUMBER OF GUNS IN USA: Approx. 200 million firearms. 65-70 million handguns

GUN OWNERS IN USA: 60-65 million, 30-35 million own handguns

FIREARMS USED FOR PROTECTION: 11% of firearms owners 13% of handgun owners

CRIMINAL MISUSE OF FIREARMS YEARLY: Less than 0.2% of firearms Less than 0.4% of handguns

Over 98.8% of U.S. firearms and 98.6% of U.S. handguns will not be involved in criminal activity in any given year.

WHY AMERICANS OWN FIREARMS:

Based on 1978 Decision Making information surveys, with handgun data confirmed by 1978 Caddell survey; abuse data from US. Public Health Service and F.B.I. data.

Primary Reasons Own/Use Firearms % of Owners, Projected Number of Americans (Approx. 65 million owners of 200,000,000 guns)

HUNTING: 51%, 33,000,000 Americans PROTECTION: 32%; 21,000,000 Used Gun for Protection: 11% 7,000,000 TARGET SHOOTING: 13%; 8,500,000 COLLECTING: 4%; 2,600,000

Primary Reasons Own/Use Handguns: % of Owners, Projected Number of Americans (30-35 million owners of 65,000,000 handguns)

HUNTING: 10%; 3,500,000 Americans PROTECTION: 58%; 21,000,000 Used Gun For Protection: 13%; 4,600,666 TARGET SHOOTING: 18%; 6,300,000 COLLECTING: 14%; 5,000,000

FIREARMS AND SELF-DEFENSE:

Survey research indicates that about 645,000 Americans use handguns each year for protection against criminals. An addi- tional 300,000 protective uses occur with rifles and shotguns, with still more hundreds of thousands of protective uses from animals. A Department of Justice-sponsored survey of felons found that 80% of "handgun predators" had encountered armed citizens, 53% did not commit at least one specific crime for fear the victim was armed, and 57% admitted being scared off or shot at by armed victims.

U.S. Department of Justice victimization surveys show that the protective use of firearms lessens the chance that rape, robbery, and assault anempts will be successfully completed, while also reducing the likelihood of injury to the intended victim.

CIVILIAN MARKMANSHIP PROGRAM (DCM):

Trains American youth in marksmanship with membership of about 132,000; supports 1751 civilian rifie clubs; trains over 440,000 juniors ammually.

Holds 138 regulation state, local, and national matches yearly.

Early socialization into the gun culture predisposes individ- uals to enlist in the armed forces later in life, which suggests that the gun culture is positively functional for the success of the volunteer army." (James D. Wright, et al., Under The Gun, 1983)

COMPARISON OF ROBBERY AND HOMICIDE RATES BETWEEN SELECTED U.S. CITIES WITH RESTRICTIVE AND NONRESTRICTIVE FIREARMS LAWS/ENFORCEMENT (Based on 1991 F.B.I. Uniform Crime Reports and City Police):

No gun law, in any city, state, or nation, has ever reduced violent crime,orsloweditsrateofgrowth,comparedtosimilar jurisdic- tions without such laws. Indeed, most such laws are defended with citations of the number of persons denied lawful access to handguns, while crime trends are ignored. With a virtual hand- gun ban, enforced with federal aid, from 1976 to 1991, the murder rate in Washington, D.C., has risen 200%, with a 300% rise in handgun- related homicide, as handgun use went from less than 60% of killings to 80%. Since it became a felony to go outside New York to evade New York City's virtual handgun ban, the city's homicide rate has risen three times faster than the rest of the country's. With less than 3% of the nation's population, NYC reports nearly one-seventh of the nation's handgun-related homicides. The two crimes most feared by Americans are m urder i n the course of another cri me (50%) and robbery (43%) (1978 DMI poll); robbery and robber-murder rates are consistently higher in cities with restrictive firearms laws and/or hostile enforcement of such laws. Examples among cities over 250,000 population. Overall, big cities: Homicide: 26.7 per 100,000; Robbery: 905.2

CITIES: RESTRICTIVE GUN LAWS/ENFORCEMENT Rates per 100,000 Homicide Robbery Washington, D.C. 80.6 1215.0 Detroit 59.3 1309.4 Baltimore 40.6 1439.6 Cleveland 34.3 1006.5 Chicago 32.9 1557.3 Newark 31.8 1880.9 New York City 29.3 1340.3 Los Angeles 28.9 1117.9

CITIES: LENIENT GUN LAWS/ENFORCEMENT Homicide Robbery Phoenix 12.9 346.2 Oklahoma City 10 3 187 0 Austin 10.3 327.0 El Paso 9.3 281.9 Colorado Springs 8.7 134.3 Wichita 7.8 458.3 Tucson 5.8 214.3

12 LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN USA Source: National Center for Health Statistics (1991, latest official estimates) ALL CAUSES......................................2,165,000 Heart Disease.....................................718,090 Cancers...........................................514,310 Strokes...........................................144,070 ACCIDENTS......................................... 91,700 Motor Vehicle*.....................................47,575 Falls*.............................................12,151 Poisoning (solid, liquid, gas)*.....................6,524 Fires and Flames* ..................................4,716 Drowning (incl. water transport drownings)'.........4,716 Suffocation (mechanical, ingestion)* ...............4,491 Surgical/Medical misadventures** ...................2,850 Other Transportation (excl. drowings)* .............2,160 Natural/Environmental factors* .....................1,816 Firearms ...........................................1,489 (includes estimated 500 handgun and 200 hunting accidents) Chronic pulmonary diseases ........................89,130 Pneumonia and influenza ...........................74,980 Diabetes ..........................................49,980 Diseases of the arteries ..........................41,970 Suicide*** ........................................30,200 HIV Infections (AIDS) .............................28,850 Homicide and legal intervention **** ..............27,440 Cirrhosis and other liver diseases ................24,740

*1989, latest official figures **A Harvard University study suggests 93,000 deaths related to medical negligenceDexcluding tens of thousands more deaths from non-hospital medial office/lab mistakes and thousands of hospital caused infections. ***Annroximately 60% involve firearms. Approximately 60% involve firearms. Criminologist Gary estimates 1500-2,000 self-defense and justifiable homicides by civilians and 300-600 by police annually.

U.S. COMPARED WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES

All criminologists studying the firearms issue reject simple comparisons of violent crime among foreign countries. (James D. Wright, et. al ., Under the Gun, 1983) "Gun control does not deserve credit for the low crime rates in Britain, Japan, or other nations.... Foreign style gun control is doomed to failure in America; not only does it depend on search and seizure too intrusive for American standards, it postulates an authoritarian philosophy of government fundamentally at odds with the individual, egalitarian . . . American ethos." (David Kopel, "Foriegn Gun Control in American Eyes," 1987)

Gun laws and firearms availability have no relationship with murder or suicide rates. Most states bordering Canada have homicide rates similar to their northern neighbors, despite much higher rates of firearms availability. While the American homicide rate is 4-8 times that of most European nations, and firearms are frequently involved in American murders, America's violent crime rates are even higher for crimes where guns are infrequently (robbery) or rarely (rape) involved. The difference is violence, not firearms; and America's system of revolving door justice.

England has twice as many homicides with firearms as before adopting its repressive laws; yet counters rising crime by increasing strictures on rifles and now on most shotguns. During the past dozen years, handgun-related robbery rose 200% in Britain, five times as fast as the rise in the U.S.

Japan's low homicide rate is accompanied by a suicide rate twice that of the United States, despite Japan's virtual gun ban. And Japan's low crime rate is attributable to police-state type law enforcement which would be anathema to Americans.

Comparisons of Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, homicide ignore the face that non-Hispanic whites have a lower homicide rate in Seanle than in Vancouver, and that Vancouver's homicide rate, and handgun use in homicide, did not go down following Canada's adopting a "tough" gun law.

CAREER CRIMINALS AND JUSTICE SYSTEM FAILURES

(Based on Department of Justice (DOJ) victimization surveys, felon surveys, NACP law enforcement survey, PROMIS studies, research by the Rand Corp., James D. Wright et al., and Gary Kleck.)

75-80% of U.S. violent crimes are committed by career criminals, many on some form of conditional or early release (30-35% of career criminals are rearrested with previous criminal charges still pending. Most career criminals' crime is drug-related.

Laws requiring mandatory, tough sentencing of violent criminals have reduced violent crimo cspecially murder and robberyDwhen enforced, yet two-thirds of the states, and D.C., are under federal court orders to release prisoners due to prison overcrowding.

Out of prison, an active career felon commits between 187-287 crimes per year, costing society about $430,000 vs. Iess than $25,000 per year cost of imprisonment and less than $75,000 for cost of a new prison bed.

Youthful violent criminals explain most recent crime increases. Yet criminologists note, "it matters less, perhaps, where these juveniles get their guns than where they get the idea that it is acceptable to kill ' and "nearly everything that leads to gun-related violence among youths is already against the law. What is needed are not new and more stringent gun laws but rather a concerted effort to rebuild the social structure of inner cities."

More than 90% of police chiefs and sheriffs agree that criminals are not affected by a ban on any type of firearm, while more than 70% oppose "waiting periods" for the same reason.

Only half of violent crimes are reported to the police, and less than half of those (46%) are cleared by arrest of criminals. Unsuccessful investigations and lenient prosecutions and judgements free most criminals from legislated sentences.

SEMI-AUTOMATICS AND SO-CALLED "ASSAULT WEAPONS"

In a deliberate effort to have public policy made by deception, anti-gunners invented the "assault weapon" issue by noting the public could not readily distinguish full-auto from semi- auto firearms. Fully-automatic firearms have been sharply restricted by federal law since 1934. There is no evldence that a registered j'machine gun" has ever been used in crime. Semi-autos which externally resemble fully-automatic firearms are vety difficultto convert to full auto, and such con- version is a federal felony.

There is no evidence that semi-autos are disproportionatey used in crime. Semi-autos and all other rifles are involved In 4% of homicide, and the number is declining. Data from big cities and states suggest military lookalikes constitute 0-3% of guns used in crime while accounting for 2% of the guns owned by Americans. Overall, semi-autos targeted by anti- gun legislation account for 10- 15% of the guns owned. Data from big cities suggest military look-alikes constitute 11/2% of guns seized by police, while accounting for about 2% of the guns owned by Americans. Semi-autos targeted by anti- gun legislation could affect 10-15% of the guns owned by Americans.

Since only 1% of guns used in violent crimes are traced, BATF traces tell nothing about the types of guns used by criminals, making the Cox "study" worthless.

The anti-gunners have spoken: Having said handguns are not protected by the Second Amendment because they have no "militia" purpose, they now want to ban all rifles and shotguns and handguns which do. Clearly their ultimate goal is total gun prohibition.

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