Why We Need Guns

From the June, 2002 issue of Resource Roundup...

Why Have a Gun?
Armed and Dangerous, by Jim Wright and Peter Rossi, reports the results of a 1981 National Institute of Justice study of felony prisoners in ten state prison systems. The study provides overwhelming evidence of how guns in the right hands enhance public safety: 56% of the prisoners said that a criminal would not attack a potential victim who was known to be armed. 39% of the felons had personally decided not to commit a crime because they thought the victim might have a gun, and 8% said the experience had occurred “many times.” Criminals in states with higher civilian gun ownership rates worried most about armed victims. At the same time, the criminals reported that gun control laws had little or no effect on their ability to obtain crime guns. (Source: Things You Can Do to Defend Your Gun Rights, by Alan M. Gottlieb and David B. Kopel)

For Personal Protection
“A suicide bomber at a supermarket in the West Bank Jewish town of Efrat was foiled when a gun-toting Jewish woman shot him, the Jerusalem Post reports. The terrorist managed to set off one explosion, but ‘further tragedy was averted when a woman shopping in the packed supermarket apparently saw the terrorist trying to set off a second explosion and shot him twice in the head from close range.’ ...(T)hanks to the gal with the gun, he didn’t take anyone with him.” (Source: www.OpinionJournal.com, 2/23/02)

“The main thing is that every man be armed -- everyone who is able must have a gun.” Patrick Henry, 1788

We Are The People!
“A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves... All regulations tending to render this militia useless and defenseless, by establishing select corps of militia or distinct bodies of military men not having permanent interests and attachments in the community (are) to be avoided... To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” Richard Henry Lee, who helped to draft the Bill of Rights, 1788

Gun Control Lies
For 1997, (the number of American children under 15 who were killed in handgun accidents) was 21 -- down from a high of 55 in 1990. No, that’s not a typo... Now, those are sad incidents. But compare them to the number of Jewish and Gypsy children who died in Europe -- not as collateral casualties of war but at the hands of “legitimate” governments -- in each of the years 1939 through 1945, because their parents allowed themselves to be disarmed under “gun control” laws which never disarm government police or other criminals. ...Lightning and amusement park accidents and drowning in mop buckets beat out handguns in causing accidental deaths of children under 15. So why the national hysteria -- and more importantly, where do Mr. Gore and the “gun control” gang come up with that “12-a-day” statistic? They get to “12 a day” by adding in all deaths of “children” up through the age of 19 which are firearm related, including suicides, 18- and 19-year-old drug gangsters shooting each other in disputes over drug distribution turf, and even 19-year-old “children” righteously shot dead by cops or law-abiding citizens while in the act of committing rapes, murders, and armed robberies. (Excerpted from “The two most threadbare ‘gun control’ lies”, by Vin Suprynowicz, The Asheville Tribune)

More Guns = Less Crime
The authors of a study recently reported in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association conclude that “our analyses provide no evidence that implementation of the Brady Bill was associated with a reduction in homicide rates.” The American Medical Association traditionally takes a pro-gun control position and in fact endorsed the original Brady Bill. John Lott (perhaps America’s foremost authority on gun laws and their relation to crime) of Yale University had long predicted these results. Lott shows that gun control laws at best have no impact, and at worst, restrictive gun laws actually increase violent crime. “States now experiencing the largest reduction in crime are also the ones with the fastest-growing rates of gun ownership,” he wrote. Lott found a 3.6% increase in rapes and a 3% increase in aggravated assaults against females over what would have been the case without the Brady Bill. (Conversely, while states that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons always see subsequent drops in crime rates, the drop in murder rates in particular is even more precipitous for women than for men.) Further, he notes that while in 1997 440,000 gun-related crimes were committed, guns were used to defend against crime some two million times. He says that in 98% of cases, just brandishing a gun stopped the attack. But as Lott asks, when do you ever see that on the evening news? (Source: Union Leader article by Betsy Hart)

What Do Gun Bans Accomplish?
Gun Bans Encourage Crime
In Japan, only the police and the military are allowed to have guns, a fact that does not seem to deter gun-toting criminals. England and Australia have recently enacted draconian restrictions on gun ownership. Now violent crime is increasing in all three countries, and Japan’s murder rate has now surpassed that of England and Australia. (Source: NRA-ILA FAX ALERT, 8-11- 00)
Bobbies in Armor
Recent reports indicate that Scotland Yard has ordered police in north London to wear bullet-proof vests at all times because of soaring gun crime -- the first time such an order has been made in Britain. “We have pretty strong gun laws in this country but they do not seem to be having any effect,” a police spokesman recently told a British newspaper. On the contrary, it would seem that these “strong gun laws” have had an effect. Before the ban, police didn’t need to wear bulletproof vests at all times for protection against armed criminals. (Excerpted from America’s 1st Freedom, April 2002)
Fewer Guns = More Crime
Twelve months after gun owners in Australia were forced to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed (a program costing the government more than $500 million dollars), the following results were seen: Australia-wide, homicides were up 3.2%, assaults were up 8.6%, and armed robberies were up 44%. In the state of Victoria, homicides with firearms were up 300%. Australian politicians were at a loss to explain how no improvement in “safety” was observed after such monumental effort and expense was successfully expended in “ridding society of guns.” Could it be that guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property, and gun-control laws only affect the law-abiding citizens?
Helpless Victims
“It’s 1978. Oum, a young woman seven months pregnant, is herded along a dirt road with dozens of other people, among them her two younger sisters and elderly father. Armed guards, most of them no older than 20 years old, push and prod the hapless crowd into a clearing. “As she pleads for her life and the life of her unborn baby, a soldier splits her skull open with the butt of his rifle and kicks her aside. The same fate awaits her sisters and father. Children crying for their mothers are beaten until the ground is covered with blood and brain matter. Within an hour the entire clearing is covered with lifeless bodies or bodies quivering in the last throes of death. “Oum, like 2.2 million other innocent citizens of Cambodia, was a victim of her own government, ruled at the time by the Khmer Rouge. This genocide occurred because the bulk of the populace had no way to defend itself. Cambodia and much of Indochina after World War II struggled under French domination, which included strict gun control for the average citizen. When the Khmer Rouge came into power in the 1970s, all arms were taken from non-party members, finishing the job the French had started. “Cambodia in the late 1970s was not an aberration. In the history of the world, what happened in that country has been repeated over and over. It usually takes three phases. First you disarm the people. Second, you apply a nationwide blanket of propaganda. And third, you destroy any and all who disagree or pose a threat to the government in power.” (Excerpted from “Aussies Face Law Authorizing Army to Shoot to Kill Citizens,” by Bob Lesmeister; source: www.gunweek.com, September 20, 2000.)

(Posted By: Angie Many | 13th July 2002 | 01:05:00 AM. )