Re: Guns! - I promised (yes it\'s rural related..)
Henro. . . I really do apologize for jumping, and I did throw out a blanket apology to everyone because I did go off into a rant.
So to be a bit more specific with the statistics. . . .
** Americans own 60-65 million handguns -- 1 of every 3 privately owned guns. (BATF firearm production, import, and export data; Gary Kleck, Targeting Guns, 1997; American Firearms Industry,
www.amfire.com.)
** More than one million new handguns are manufactured (and not exported) and imported each year. (American Firearms Industry)
** One of every four households has one or more handguns. (Gary Kleck, analysis of General Social Surveys, Targeting Guns, 1997)
** Handguns, like rifles and shotguns, are widely used for target shooting, self-protection and hunting, and many are of interest to collectors and reenactors.
Target Shooting, Hunting, and Training
** Each year, millions of American handgun owners engage in informal target shooting; hundreds of thousands participate in thousands of handgun matches. Handgun sports have grown dramatically in the last 30 years. Handguns are used for hunting in 45 states. Of NRA`s 38,000 Certified Instructors, 29,000 are certified in handgun disciplines.
Defense Against Criminals
** Handguns are used for protection against criminals nearly two million times per year, up to five times more often than to commit crimes. (Kleck, "The Frequency of Defensive Gun Use," in Kates and Kleck, The Great American Gun Debate, S.F.: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1997.)
** People who use guns to defend themselves are less likely to be attacked or injured than people who use other methods of protection or do not defend themselves. (Kleck, analysis of Nat`l Crime Victimization Surveys, Targeting Guns, 1997)
** The laws of all 50 states recognize the right to use armed force for defense. The U.S. Constitution and 44 state constitutions protect the right to use arms for defense.
Handgun Bans and Racism
** In America, efforts to ban handguns -- especially those to ban so-called "Saturday Night Specials" -- have historically been aimed at minorities. (E.g., Black Codes, Tenn. Army/Navy Law, N.Y. Sullivan Law.)
** Blacks and persons in the lowest income bracket are the most likely violent crime victims. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Michael Rand, "Criminal Victimization 1997, Changes 1996-97 with Trends 1993-97," 12/98)
Handguns, Self-Defense and Public Opinion
** By an 8:1 margin, Americans believe you have the right to use a handgun to defend yourself in your own home. By a 3:1 margin, people believe that to fight crime, getting tough with criminals is more effective than banning guns. (Survey of voters, Lawrence Research, 1998.)
Handgun Ban Failures
** Washington, D.C.`s homicide rate more than tripled after the city banned handguns. D.C. consistently has the highest homicide rate among major U.S. cities. (FBI)
** Chicago banned handguns in 1982 and in a decade homicides with handguns more than doubled. (Chicago Homicide Dataset) Chicago has the fourth highest homicide rate among major U.S. cities. (FBI)
Target Shooting -- Each year, millions of handgunners enjoy the most common target shooting sport, recreational "plinking." They practice for or compete in marksmanship competitions, "sight in" their guns in advance of hunting season, test handloaded ammunition, or perfect personal protection skills. Hundreds of thousands participate in thousands of local, state, regional and national handgun matches annually, using a wide variety of pistols and revolvers in a broad range of formal competitive disciplines, at 10,000 NRA-affiliated state and local shooting clubs and associations or at commercial indoor and outdoor ranges and military ranges.
NRA Bullseye and UIT (International Shooting Union) disciplines have been established for generations, while a variety of other target shooting disciplines have evolved during the last several decades. Ten types of NRA Action Shooting matches, and action-oriented events held under International Practical Shooting Confederation rules, test the ability of handgunners to fire at a variety of stationary and moving targets, at a variety of distances, from a variety of shooting positions, usually "against the clock." Center-fire and rimfire metallic silhouette matches conducted under NRA or International Metallic Silhouette Association rules add a hunting-oriented dimension to handgun target shooting. Cowboy Action Pistol matches challenge shooters` proficiency with single-action revolvers first introduced during the 19th Century. Muzzleloading pistol matches call for handguns whose design predates the invention of fixed, metallic cartridges. The NRA Competitive Shooting Division sanctions more than 12,000 shooting tournaments and sponsors over 50 national Bullseye, Action, and Silhouette pistol championships each year.
Recognizing the growth of handgun sports and advent of related equipment, Tom Griffin, Manager of the Lyman Products Ballistics Laboratory writes, "Over the last 30+ years handgun sports have grown faster than any other segment of the shooting world. . . . All of this activity has led to major advancements in the design of handguns themselves. It is hard to believe that something we take for granted today, stainless steel handguns, have only been available since the mid-sixties. Other items such as fully adjustable, precision sights, recoil absorbing rubber grips, handgun scopes, red-dot sights, laser sights, etc., have all been developed to meet the needs of the increasingly difficult handgun disciplines. Many of today`s handgunners can make shots that were unheard of years ago because of their advanced equipment and participation in today`s demanding sports." (Lyman Pistol and Revolver Reloading Handbook, Second Edition, 1994, p. 8.)
Acknowledging the growth of handgun shooting sports in a 1998 report to Congress, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) noted, "The handgun has developed as a sporting firearm used in both target shooting and hunting." Among contributing factors, BATF cited renewed interest in the single- action revolver, the development of new cartridges for field use, and the popularity of silhouette pistol shooting giving rise to specially designed handguns. Indicating the widespread use of handguns for target shooting and hunting, BATF noted that approximately 460.4 million rounds of center-fire handgun ammunition are manufactured in the U.S. each year, more than three billion rounds of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition (used in handguns and rifles) are manufactured in the U.S. or imported each year, and another 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition above .22 caliber (for handgun and/or rifle) were imported in 1996. (Dept. of the Treasury, BATF, "A Study Concerning the Threat to Law Enforcement Officers From the Criminal Use of Firearms and Ammunition," pp. 23-24.) Annually, about 425 million rounds of center-fire ammunition are handloaded by individual gun owners. (Lyman, p. 12.) For more information on target shooting and match schedules, contact the NRA Competitive Shooting Div. at 703-267-1450 or
www.nrahq.org, or refer to the NRA`s monthly "Shooting Sports, USA" publication. See also Lyman, pp. 8-9, 86-96 and
www.lymanproducts.com .
Hunting -- In NRA`s 1998 Whitetail Hunting Survey, 17% of respondents said they had hunted with a handgun during the current season. The May 1993 MRI Customized Readership survey found that for each type of game in question, between 8-10% of hunters had hunted with a handgun during the past year. Forty-five states allow hunting with handguns. BATF`s report (see above) stated (pp. 23-24), "While any handgun could be used for hunting small game at short distances, hunting handguns tend to vary in caliber from .22 to .45, depending on the size of the game being hunted," though "some single-shot handguns. . . are chambered for rifle-type ammunition" commonly used for hunting. BATF also noted that the increased popularity of hunting with handguns led to the introduction of new calibers of handgun ammunition.
Self-Defense -- In a landmark survey, criminologist Gary Kleck found that handguns are used in about 2/3 of 2.5 million annual defensive firearm uses. (Kates and Kleck, p. 180.) Analyzing Nat`l Crime Victimization Surveys, Kleck found that people who use firearms to defend themselves are less likely to be attacked or injured than people who use other or no protective methods. Protection method and percents of individuals injured included: gun, 17.4%; knife, 40.3%; other weapon, 22.0%; physical force, 50.8%; tried to get help, frighten offender, 48.9%; threatened/reasoned with offender, 30.7%; nonviolent resistance, including evasion, 34.9%; other, 26.5%; any self-protection, 38.2%; no self-protection, 24.7%. Kleck also found that "at most, 1% of defensive gun uses resulted in the offender taking a gun away from the victim," including instances in which burglars stealing guns from homes are confronted by homeowners armed with other guns. (Kleck, pp. 168, 171.)
BATF`s report (p. 24) recognized the utility of handguns for self-defense, noting, "Self-defense handguns are generally small, lightweight revolvers and semiautomatic pistols, varying from .22 to .38 caliber" and "Many of these firearms are available in .25, .32, .380, and 9 mm caliber. Some of the better quality self-defense handguns are also used for target shooting."
Anti-gun activists take the position that private citizens do not have the right to acquire, possess or use guns to protect themselves against criminals. Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI) Chair Sarah Brady has said, "the only reason for guns in civilian hands is for sporting purposes." (Tom Jackson, "Keeping the battle alive," Tampa Tribune, 10/21/93.) HCI`s first Chairman, Pete Shields, said crime victims should "put up no defense - give them (the criminals) what they want . . ." (Shields, Guns Don`t Die - People Do, N.Y.: Arbor House, 1981, p. 125.) According to Dennis Henigan, of HCI`s Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, self-defense is "not a federally guaranteed constitutional right." (USA Today, 11/20/91.)
Weighing positive uses of handguns against criminal misuses -- Handgun ban advocates argue that handguns are the type of firearm more likely to be used in crimes, for example, 51% of homicides in 1999. (FBI, Crime in the United States 1997, pp. 68, 207.) However, guns are used for defense against criminals three to four times more often than they are used to commit crimes. Studies by researchers with a record of anti-gun biases have alleged that handguns (and other firearms) kept for protection against criminals are more likely to be used against family members, but experts have faulted those researchers` methodology. Gary Kleck explains the most serious of the studies` flaws: "(T)he benefit of defensive gun ownership that would be parallel to innocent lives lost to guns would be innocent lives saved by defensive use of guns. As previously noted, less than one in a thousand defensive gun uses involves a criminal being killed." (Kleck, p. 178.) Addressing handgun prohibitionist literature produced by public health activists, civil rights attorney Don B. Kates writes, "(A)nti-gun health advocacy literature is a `sagecraft` literature in which partisan academic `sages` prostitute scholarship, systematically inventing, misinterpreting, selecting, or otherwise manipulating data to validate preordained political conclusions."("Guns and Public Health: Epidemic of Violence or Pandemic of Propaganda,?" Tennessee Law Review, Spring 1995, p. 522.)
I can post about 50 times more data than this, but I suspect that people will get really bored with that.
