The Price of Gun Control

   In March of 1996, a deranged man walked into a school in Dunblane, Scotland and killed sixteen children and one teacher. In the aftermath of this heinous tragedy, British politicians sought to reduce violent crime by enacting an injudicious ban on all handguns. Handgun owners were given a February 1998 deadline to turn in their firearms -- and they did. The UK was supposed to become a much safer place -- but it didn’t. Not by a long shot.

   As reported in a May 14 article in the Edmonton Journal, England’s recently released gun-crime statistics for the first five years following the gun ban indicate a very different outcome than that which was forecast. According to the article, “the incidence of gun crime in England and Wales nearly doubled from 13,874 in 1998 to 24,070 in 2003. And the incidence of firearms murder, while thankfully still very small, has risen 65 per cent.”

   The article details statistics from another report issued last year by Britain’s Home Office, which reveal that there has also been a dramatic increase in robberies in recent years. They report that robberies, “rose by 28 per cent in 2002 alone and, since 1998, there has been an increase in the annual average of muggings of more than 100,000. England alone has nearly 400,000 robberies each year, a rate nearly one-quarter higher per capita than that of the United States.”

   Do gun bans serve to reduce violent crime? When law-abiding citizens are disarmed, is their society a safer one? England’s plight is just the latest example to show us, yet again, that the answer is “NO.”

(Reprinted from NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert)

Stop the HSUS!

   Wayne Pacelle, known for his virulent anti-hunting views, has been designated CEO of the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS). Here are some of Pacelle’s personal statements and items from HSUS’s website:

Ä       “If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would.”

Ä       “Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting. Our opponents say that hunting is a tradition. We say traditions can change.”

Ä       “Only 7% of Americans are hunters. That means there are more of us than there are of them. It is simply a matter of democracy. The majority rules in a democracy. We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States... We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state.”

Ä       “The vast majority of species that are hunted -- waterfowl, upland birds, mourning doves, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, crows, coyotes, etc. -- provide minimal sustenance and do not require population control.” HSUS Website 2003

   To see how you can help to stop HSUS and similar radicals and elect legislators that support sportsmen, visit http://saova.org.

(Source: Sportsmen’s and Animal Owners’ Voting Alliance)

If Big Guns Are Outlawed,

Only Terrorists Will Have Big Guns

   Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) - the guy who beat up an 8-year black kid in a parking lot a couple years ago - has introduced a new gun control bill, calling for a ban on .50-caliber rifles, saying terrorists are obtaining them. Our response would be, if terrorists have .50-caliber weapons (legally or not) to use against ordinary Americans, shouldn’t ordinary Americans be allowed to have them in self-defense? Duh.

(Chuck Muth, found at www.chuckmuth.com)

Nugent Promotes Freedom

   “Gun-control advocates are ‘against freedom’ and not carrying a weapon is ‘irresponsible,’ rock guitarist Ted Nugent said yesterday at the National Rifle Association’s convention here. ‘Everyone who will be raped, murdered and carjacked in America will have one thing in common -- they were unarmed,’ Mr. Nugent told the Harrisburg Patriot-News... Mr. Nugent described the position of gun-control advocates as ‘weird’ and said: ‘They’re against freedom.’

(“American Scene,” Washington Times, 4/19/04; found at www.chuckmuth.com)

Armed Pilots Update

   Less than 1% of the 40,000 pilots who signed up for the ‘armed pilots’ program have received the training that would allow them to have pistols in their cockpits. The Transportation Safety Administration has continually come under fire for dragging its feet and refusing to properly implement the program. According to a CNSNews.com article, the TSA has made the program cumbersome and discouraging for pilots.

   “We’re not interested in any excuses from here on out,” said Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY). “This is too important to our national security. It’s not up to (the TSA) to like the legislation. It’s up to them to implement the legislation that the Congress passed.”

   To correct the situation, Senator Bunning has introduced S.2268, the Cockpit Security Technical Corrections and Improvements Act of 2004. S.2268 and its companion legislation, H.R.4126, would require that the TSA train airline pilots in a timely, efficient, and consistent manner. Please -- contact your congressional delegation immediately to support this legislation.

(Source: NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert)

Contact Your Legislators

   Call your U.S. Senators at 202/224-3121 or by writing Senator _____, Washington, D.C. 20510. Call your U.S. Representative at 202/225-3121 or write Representative ____, Washington, D.C. 20515.

NRA Launches Live News Web Site

   In April, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre unveiled NRANews.com, an Internet news portal that features daily live broadcasts of Second Amendment-related news and opinion. “NRANews.com is freedom’s last channel, the only place you can get the information you need to preserve freedom in this year’s elections -- news and views now banned on TV and radio,” said LaPierre. “The U.S. Supreme Court let Congress rewrite the First Amendment to muzzle our voice during the elections, but we maintain that no Congress, no Supreme Court, no law, no gag order, no force or fear will ever silence the legitimate political voice of this great association.”

   NRANews.com delivers live, broadcast-quality programming via streaming audio and video, news briefs, regular appearances by NRA-ILA staff, and updates on national political races, Grassroots Election Workshops, and other grassroots-related activities. It is currently available free of charge.

Would You Feel Safer?

“Banning guns addresses a fundamental right

of all Americans to feel safe.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), 1993

 Banning Guns Doesn’t Work

   When you look all over America, it becomes obvious that where there are the most guns owned by the general population, there is the least crime -- where guns are rare, crime is high. When guns were banned in Washington, D.C., homicides exploded by 156% to a total of 482 deaths in 1991. On the other hand, in the entire state of South Dakota there were 12 homicides in 1991 -- the same number it had in 1976. Why? Lack of police in the capital city? According to 2000 statistics, Washington, D.C. had four times as many law enforcement officer as the entire state of South Dakota. The latest statistics show Washington, D.C.’s violent crime rate is still more than nine times higher than South Dakota’s, and its murder rate is 33 times higher. How can this be?

   Most households in South Dakota are armed! Young people are taught that hunting, shooting, and gun ownership are normal, even constitutionally protected. There’s no gun registration. There’s no gun owner licensing. There’s no permit required to purchase a gun. They even allow ordinary citizens to get approved to carry a gun for self-protection!

   Well, here’s some rocket science for these anti-gun brain surgeons: It’s not the guns It’s the criminals, stupid. If anything, guns make the citizens of South Dakota safer. In Washington, D.C., it’s not the guns but the ban on guns that give crooks the upper hand.

(Excerpted from “President’s Column,” by Kayne Robinson, NRA’s Americans 1st Freedom, May, 2004)