- The gun show was described by former President Bill Clinton
as a bazaar for criminals where they could buy guns of any description
and in any quantity in total anonymity. According to the gun-control mythology,
at a gun show there are no background checks, no one asks for a name or
address and your reason for wanting a fully automatic assault rifle with
flash suppresser and attached grenade launcher is strictly your own business.
-
- It was this vision that perhaps led the Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence (BCPGV) to declare that, "the gun show becomes
a place where those planning to use guns in crime are able to meet unlicensed
sellers and avoid the very laws meant to cut down on gun violence,"
it adds.
-
- But once again, the gun controllers have been kicked
in the pants by the facts. The U.S. Justice Department interviewed 18,000
state and federal prison inmates in 1991 and again in 1997.
-
- It should be noted, in both those years the department
was part of an administration that was amenable to gun control. In 1991,
the President was George Bush was did not resist gun control and in 1997
the department was under the direction of Bill Clinton and Attorney-General,
Janet Reno both of whom were rabid on the subject.
-
- The responses of these prisoners simply knocked the "gun-show
loophole" theory into a cocked hat. In 1997 less than one percent
of violent offenders -- 0.7 percent to be exact -- acquired their guns
at a gun show. That's fewer than one in a hundred.
-
- Slightly more, one in a hundred, acquired their guns
at flea markets. Purchases at pawn shops accounted for 3.8 percent of guns
used by these convicts. And, despite the Brady law, sales at retail stores
exceeded these other outlets at 8.3 percent, although this was still a
minor source of guns for violent criminals.
-
- Almost 80 percent of the guns used by these violent offenders
were obtained from friends or family members, or purchased on the street
or from other illegal sources. These transactions are obviously beyond
the reach of any legislation and demonstrate the fact that so-called gun
control laws only control the acquisition of guns by non-criminals, that
is, the potential victims of those who are unhindered by such laws.
-
- The Brady people also claim that an upsurge in gun violence
due to gang and drug activity began in the late 1980s and that this created
"an enormous demand" for military style "assault weapons"
including the UZI, AK-47, AR-15 rifles, the TEN-9 and MAC10 handguns, and
a shotgun with the sinister moniker, "Streetsweeper." Again,
the Brady people lose to the facts. According to the Justice Dept. survey,
about only eight percent of state and federal prisoners used military style
semi-automatic weapons. In case the Brady people are still confused, that
means 92 percent used something else -- something non-military and not
semi-auto.
-
- The DOJ report raises serious doubts about the effectiveness
of gun laws in reducing gun-related crime. The Brady law indeed seems to
have reduced the volume of criminals obtaining their guns from an ordinary
retail store. In the 1997 survey, 14 percent of inmates had acquired their
gun from a store, down from the 21 percent in 1991. But that doesn't mean
the criminals did not obtain guns and use them. In fact, from 1991 to
1997 there was a slight increase in the number of inmates who reported
using a gun. It was only a two to three percent increase but we were promised
a reduction in criminal gun use with passage of Brady.
-
- For that matter the 1993 crime bill with its ban on so-called
assault weapons didn't pose much of a problem for criminals either. About
half of he inmates with assault weapons got them by stealing them or by
purchasing them from a drug dealer, a fence or elsewhere on the black market.
-
- But gun control zealots, typically unmoved by experience
or logic, are busy devising new ways to take guns away from law abiding
citizens. The current enthusiasm is S-1438 National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2002. Section 1062 of the bill makes it illegal to
possess "significant military equipment formerly owned by the Department
of Defense."
-
- This applies to everything on the U. S. Munitions List
plus whatever the Secretary of Defense decides to include. The Munitions
List includes "non-automatic, semiautomatic and fully automatic firearms
(in other words all, small arms) to caliber .50 inclusive. You'll be allowed
to own such weapons provided they are "de-militarized" which
means rendered useless.
-
- Some of the familiar weapons covered by this measure
would be the venerable of Garand M-1 of WW II fame, the military .45 pistol,
the AR-15 rifle and even the creaky old 1903 bolt-action rifle.
-
- There's a reason the anti-gun forces are not persuaded
by studies showing that gun laws don't reduce crime or the use of guns
in crime. It's because crime is not their concern.
-
- They are elitists who object to an armed population in
principle. An armed citizenry is a characteristic of a system of government
in which the people are sovereign and government is limited. That's what
bothers them -- the riff-raff being in charge -- not crime. ___
-
- Bob Ward is... Host of the Texas Journal Radio Show KIXL
970 AM Austin Editor of The Texas Journal Print Publication http://www.allsouthwest.com/columnists/bward.html
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