Crime stats contradict gun control issues


iconThe gun fearing wussies never give up. The re-authorization of the Clinton Gun Ban is still floating around out there, the gun grabbers are hoping to ban .50 caliber rifles, and there is always talk about the "gun show loophole". But what is the real scoop?

Well if you look at national crime statistics, they show that none of these proposals would do any good. Here are some tidbits from the U.S. Department of Justice web site.

  • Firearm-related crime has plummeted since 1993.

  • Nonfatal firearm crime rates have declined since 1994, reaching the lowest level ever recorded in 2002.

  • Incidents involving a firearm represented 7% of the 4.9 million violent crime of rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault.

  • The number of gunshot wounds from assaults treated in hospital emergency departments fell from 64,100 in 1993 to 39,400 in 1997, a 39% decline.
  • So not only has crime fallen, but "gun crime" has also fallen. And we haven't even gotten to the most telling statistics. Keep in mind that the gun grabber crowd is constantly shrieking about sales from "unlicensed dealers" at gun shows, and the use of "assault weapons" on our streets. Both issues are a top priority among the gun ban crowd, and both were used as gun control amendments to torpedo the gunmaker liability bill.
  • According to the 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun was from -
  • a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%
  • a retail store or pawnshop for about 12%
  • family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80%
  • During the offense that brought them to prison, 15% of State inmates and 13% of Federal inmates carried a handgun, and about 2%, a military-style semiautomatic gun.
  • The gun banners claim that most crime guns are gotten from gun shows using the so called "gun show loophole", but the Department of Justice says that figure is actually only 2%. The gun banners would also have you believe that so-called "assault weapons" are the "weapon of choice" for criminals. But once again the Department of Justice says the figure is actually only 2%.

    Groups like the Violence Policy Center and the Brady Campaign will not stop until all guns are banned. Remember the words of Dianne Feinstein, "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them -- Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in -- I would have done it."


    Category:  Cold Dead Hands
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    Comments

    Gun fear? Or money?
    =====
    via http://www.iraqnow.blogspot.com/:
    http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId=Cqi8SqeicvvnjuKfrlunptLrsqunut1jt Pentagon rule would bar contractors from carrying guns in Iraq _ Knight Ridder - Wednesday, April 28, 2004 ORLANDO, Fla.
    _ As the insurgency and violence in Iraq intensify, the Department of Defense has proposed a new rule for most of the estimated 70,000 civilian contractors working in the war-torn region: They can't carry guns.
    Deidre Lee, the Pentagon's director of procurement and acquisition policy, whose office proposed the weapons restriction, said it's designed to settle one of the biggest questions facing contractors: "to arm or not to arm."
    Lee said this is a life-or-death issue because "we don't have the military providing security for our contractors."
    ---
    Query: so disarming them will make them safer? Like the ones who WERE armed [lightly] and were nonetheless killed and dismembered? Or the kidnapped Japanese?
    ---
    Supporters of the new rule _ including the biggest contractor in the area, Halliburton's Kellogg Brown and Root _ said there are three big drawbacks in allowing contractors to carry weapons. Armed contractors would be more likely to be shot at or kidnapped. Also, as civilians, they don't follow the same strict rules of force as the military. And by picking up weapons, contractors could lose any death and accident insurance coverage they may have.
    ---
    So get new insurance. Sheesh. "Act of War" coverage does exist.
    ---------------------------------

    Posted by: John Anderson at May 1, 2004 1:10 AM

    I guess they really want to fail in Iraq. There's no WAY I'd be willing to work there unarmed.

    Even the IRAQIS are allowed to keep handguns and AK-47's.

    The FULLY-AUTO ones.

    Posted by: Kevin Baker at May 1, 2004 12:36 PM

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