MYTH: Most gun deaths are caused by accidents or by crazed madmen.
FACT: More than two out of every three gun deaths are either suicides or drug-related murders.
Source:
Centers For Disease Control - Deaths 1998 (625KB document!) and
U.S. Department Of Justice - Bureau of Justice Statistics
MYTH: Twelve children are killed with guns each day.
FACT: Half of the people that politicians count as "children killed with guns" were actually legally adults.
The gun murder rate started falling when crack cocaine started going out of style in 1990.
In 1997, 2284 children aged 0-17 years were killed with guns, most of them teenagers. That is 6 per day.
In 1998, the number dropped to 1971, still mostly teenagers. That is 5 per day.
The age distribution of child gun deaths tracks the age distribution of child drug dealers.
Source: Centers For Disease Control
MYTH: The best way to protect children from guns is to keep children ignorant about them.
FACT: The best way to protect children from guns is to teach them gun safety and lock up guns whenever it is practical to do so.
"Ignorance is best" is the old argument against sex-education,
reworded by the same people who ridiculed it when it was used by sex-education opponents.
With more than 250 million guns in the USA, children will encounter one sooner or later,
especially if they live around police, security guards, hunters, or the military.
MYTH: Trigger locks are the best protection against unauthorized gun use.
FACT: The best protection against unauthorized gun use is to keep guns in a child-proof burglar-proof
safe whenever they are not being used for hunting, self-protection, or target-shooting.
Trigger locks do not protect guns from being stolen,
and an improperly-installed trigger lock can cause a gun to fire accidentally,
especially if the gun is dropped.
MYTH: The politicians who talk loudest about "gun-control" work hard to prevent gun violence.
FACT: After demanding passage of the Brady Law, the Clinton-Gore administration prosecuted
fewer than 5 out of every 100 convicted felons who violated the law.
In 1998 only 102 out of 90,000 were federally prosecuted.
Source:
U.S. Department Of Justice - Bureau of Justice Statistics, courtesy of US Congressman John Dingell
MYTH: If guns were illegal, criminals would not have guns.
FACT: Guns are readily available in China, Eastern Europe, and illegal-drug-producing
countries such as Mexico and Columbia.
Criminals smuggled 690,000 pounds of cocaine into the USA in the first 6 months of 2000.
Thousands of guns can be hidden in 690,000 pounds of cocaine.
Source: USA Today newspaper, 28 September 2000, page 3A
MYTH: Mandatory gun registration means all guns must be registered.
FACT: Because it is already illegal for convicted felons to own guns, the Fifth Amendment
protects felons from being forced to incriminate themselves by registering their guns.
Any criminal can easily avoid gun registration by committing a felony and getting probation,
or by storing his guns at the home of a convicted felon.
If his existing guns are confiscated, he can buy more from any drug dealer.
Source:
Fifth Amendment To The Constitution Of The United States
and the US Supreme Court ruling Haynes Versus United States
MYTH: "Gun-control" organizations are run by dedicated volunteers.
FACT: The president of Handgun Control Incorporated (HCI) makes more than $150,000 per
year from gun violence.
Source: HCI financial filings
MYTH: The National Rifle Association (NRA) is evil.
FACT: For several decades the NRA has been working to reduce gun deaths.
Their "Eddie Eagle" videos teach young children that when they encounter a gun they
should: "Stop! Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult."
The NRA's magazines are full of advertisements for child-proof burglar-proof gun safes.
The NRA-supported Project Exile has reduced gun deaths in Richmond, Virginia by
strongly punishing criminals who use guns in crimes.
The NRA has selfish reasons to fight gun violence: More gun deaths means more votes
for anti-gun politicians and more money for multi-million-dollar "gun-control"
businesses such as Handgun Control Incorporated.
Source:
NRA "Eddie Eagle" videotape and American Rifleman magazine
MYTH: "Gun-control" laws worked in England.
FACT: After more than fifty years of "sensible gun-control laws,"
English criminals have more than three million illegal guns, twice as many as ten years ago.
Source:
The Sunday Times newspaper,
16 January 2000, Killings rise as 3m illegal guns flood Britain
and
The Guardian newspaper,
23 October 2000, US-style gun law comes to Britain
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