| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Ms Voice of freedom" |
| Date: |
28 Jun 2005 06:19:56 PM |
| Object: |
The Big Lie of the Assault Weapons Ban |
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-
lott28jun28,0,6311008.story?track=tottext
COMMENTARY
The Big Lie of the Assault Weapons Ban
The death of the law hasn't brought a rise in crime -- just the
opposite.
By John R. Lott Jr.
This wasn't supposed to happen. When the federal assault weapons
ban ended on Sept. 13, 2004, gun crimes and police killings were
predicted to surge. Instead, they have declined.
For a decade, the ban was a cornerstone of the gun control
movement. Sarah Brady, one of the nation's leading gun control
advocates, warned that "our streets are going to be filled with
AK-47s and Uzis." Life without the ban would mean rampant murder
and bloodshed.
Well, more than nine months have passed and the first crime
numbers are in. Last week, the FBI announced that the number of
murders nationwide fell by 3.6% last year, the first drop since
1999. The trend was consistent; murders kept on declining after
the assault weapons ban ended.
Even more interesting, the seven states that have their own
assault weapons bans saw a smaller drop in murders than the 43
states without such laws, suggesting that doing away with the ban
actually reduced crime. (States with bans averaged a 2.4% decline
in murders; in three states with bans, the number of murders
rose. States without bans saw murders fall by more than 4%.)
And the drop was not just limited to murder. Overall, violent
crime also declined last year, according to the FBI, and the
complete statistics carry another surprise for gun control
advocates. Guns are used in murder and robbery more frequently
then in rapes and aggravated assaults, but after the assault
weapons ban ended, the number of murders and robberies fell more
than the number of rapes and aggravated assaults.
It's instructive to remember just how passionately the media
hyped the dangers of "sunsetting" the ban. Associated Press
headlines warned "Gun shops and police officers brace for end of
assault weapons ban." It was even part of the presidential
campaign: "Kerry blasts lapse of assault weapons ban." An
Internet search turned up more than 560 news stories in the first
two weeks of September that expressed fear about ending the ban.
Yet the news that murder and other violent crime declined last
year produced just one very brief paragraph in an insider
political newsletter, the Hotline.
The fact that the end of the assault weapons ban didn't create a
crime wave should not have surprised anyone. After all, there is
not a single published academic study showing that these bans
have reduced any type of violent crime.
Research funded by the Justice Department under the Clinton
administration concluded only that the effect of the assault
weapons ban on gun violence "has been uncertain." The authors of
that report released their updated findings last August, looking
at crime data from 1982 through 2000 (which covered the first six
years of the federal law). The latest version stated: "We cannot
clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's recent drop in
gun violence."
Such a finding was only logical. Though the words "assault
weapons" conjure up rapid-fire military machine guns, in fact the
weapons outlawed by the ban function the same as any
semiautomatic — and legal — hunting rifle. They fire the same
bullets at the same speed and produce the same damage. They are
simply regular deer rifles that look on the outside like AK-47s.
For gun control advocates, even a meaningless ban counts. These
are the same folks who have never been bashful about scare
tactics, predicting doom and gloom when they don't get what they
want. They hysterically claimed that blood would flow in the
streets after states passed right-to-carry laws letting citizens
carry concealed handguns, but that never occurred. Thirty-seven
states now have right-to-carry laws and no one is seriously
talking about rescinding them or citing statistics about the laws
causing crime.
Gun controllers' fears that the end of the assault weapons ban
would mean the sky would fall were simply not true. How much
longer can the media take such hysteria seriously when it is so
at odds with the facts?
--
Ms Liberty - Colorado, USA
DOESN'T EVERYONE DESERVE A BILL OF RIGHTS?
The last best hope for a liberty.
A subscriber Bill of Individual Rights with the goal of enlisting
the support of hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
http://upalliance.blogspot.com/
http://upalliance.org/
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Please pass the word.
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