A Total Eclipse
of the Gun?
by Ellen Sung, Policy.com
Updated: Friday, March 03, 2000, 4:02:29 PM EDT
March 2, 2000 -- Gun-related violence
in America has become almost numbingly routine. This
week alone, a first-grader in Michigan shot a
six-year-old girl, and five white men were shot outside
Pittsburgh by a black man in a furious rampage -- over a
broken door in his apartment building. Each ghastly new
round of gun violence brings back memories of the
killings last April at Columbine High School that left
15 students dead and made the gun-control debate a top
policy concern for many people in America.
As with every shooting, some
policymakers are vowing swift action. President Clinton
took to the airwaves this morning, appearing on NBC's
"Today" show to pledge his support for
legislation stalled in Congress intended to protect
children from guns. ``I'm going to call the leaders of
both parties in both houses and ask them to come down
here and break the logjam,'' Clinton said.
But for all the rhetorical fury, not
even the smallest of policy changes has occurred at the
federal level. And the policy proposals that have been
advanced tend to be of a small scale, gun-control
advocates argue. The proposals include an extension on
background checks, the closing of a "gun-show
loophole" and child-safety locks.
"There's such a disconnect
between the horrors of Columbine and the ... small,
nibbling-at-the-edges type of gun controls ... of such
limited effect that everyone readily acknowledges would
not have stopped Columbine," said Josh Sugarmann,
executive director of the Violence Policy Center.
"We've got to start talking about bigger
issues."
The bigger issue Sugarmann wants to
debate is a total ban on handguns. According to
Sugarmann, a solid one-third of Americans favor a total
ban. That number has even spiked as high as 50 percent
in the last year, in the wake of high-profile shootings
at schools and workplaces.
Several large American cities,
including Washington, D.C., and Chicago, already ban
ownership of handguns, and New York City has a virtual
ban due to its strict licensing requirements. Britain
banned handguns from the entire country in 1997,
following a schoolyard massacre in Scotland in which 16
five- and six-year-old children died. Australia and
Canada have weighed similar bans.
Those who favor an outright ban on
handgun ownership say that only removing guns from homes
and regulating the extensive secondary gun market will
have any effect on gun-related homicide rates. "It
is the self-defense handgun purchased by 'law-abiding'
citizens that ends up being used in most handgun
violence," a new VPC report concludes. "The
United States has not so much a firearms problem as a
handgun problem."
However, gun-control opponents
maintain that such a ban would violate the Second
Amendment right to bear arms. In addition, groups like
the National Rifle Association say that banning handguns
would lead to an increase in crime and make the streets
less safe.
Homicide declined in Washington, D.C.,
before the city's handgun ban in 1976, but by 1991, the
homicide rate had more than tripled, according to FBI
statistics collated by the NRA. The results in England
lend further credence to that claim. The rate of firearm
homicides in that country has doubled since the ban was
enacted, although the country's rate of firearm-related
homicide remains lower than that of the United States.
Former University of Chicago professor
John Lott, the author of More Guns, Less Crime, argues
that rather than banning handguns, state government's
should give law-abiding citizens the right to carry
concealed handguns to defend themselves. "By the
very nature of these guns being concealed, criminals are
unable to tell whether the victim is armed before they
strike, thus raising criminals' expected costs for
committing many types of crimes."
Time to Ban Handguns
Project
on Light Weapons
November 12, 1997
Dr. Natalie J. Goldring's report addresses the
problems of controlling light weapons on the world
scale. First she extols Britain's and Australia's recent
ban on handguns, then looks at the measures that the
United States has tried to enact, which Goldring claims
are not enough, especially when the lax attitude
seriously affects our neighbors. Many of the illegal
guns that flood Mexico and the rest of Latin America can
be traced back to the US. Goldring also gives details on
the potentially good efforts by the United Nations to
halt the international gun ring.
Get
Rid of the Damned Things
August 9, 1999
Roger Rosenblatt makes the prediction that sometime
in the not so distant future, America will follow
Britain's, Australia's and Japan's suit and ban
handguns. Rosenblatt believes that after the outbreak of
killings, Americans will want to create a more
"civilized" society without guns. All guns,
except hunting rifles and shotguns, should be outlawed,
he thinks. The drive to ban guns would not run counter
to what Rosenblatt considers the illusory American love
affair with guns. He claims this "love affair"
is the result of clever marketing and the National Rifle
Association's propaganda.
Why
America Needs to Ban Handguns
March 2, 2000
The Violence Policy Center chides politicians for
not having the political will to ban handguns outright.
Behind this criticism are poll numbers, showing 30
percent of Americans would support such a measure, and
the number of homicides and suicides committed with
guns. From 1990 to 1997, the United States saw 147,000
suicides and 100,000 homicides where a gun was the agent
for the killing. VPC also points to the annual $4
billion dollar price tag on emergency medical care for
gun victims -- money that would make a gun buy back
campaign very worthwhile, according to the Violence
Policy Center.
At
an Impasse
March 26, 1998
Bob Kolasky, writing in IntellectualCapital.com,
describes the debate on handgun bans following a school
shooting in Jonesboro, Ark. Both sides can claim small
victories, but neither gun-control advocates nor
opponents are making signficant progress, Kolasky
writes.
Handguns Deter Crime
Court:
California Gun Ban “Defies Rationality”
March 5, 1998
This National Rifle Association press release
applauds the California's Third Appellate Court of
Appeals decree that California's Roberti-Roos gun ban
"defies rationality.” In a case brought by the
National Rifle Association of America and its state
affiliate, the California Rifle and Pistol Association,
the three-member state appellate panel criticized the
law's premise -- banning guns based on their cosmetic
appearance -- and struck down a key portion of the law.
The court ruled as unconstitutional a provision of the
law allowing the state's Attorney General to add guns to
the list of banned firearms. The court even went so far
as to suggest that the entire law unconstitutionally
"violates equal protection" because the 75
banned firearms are indistinguishable from other guns
not affected by the law.”
Crime,
Deterrence, and the Right to Carry Concealed Handguns
March 1, 1999
John Lott and David Mustard of the University of
Chicago use cross-sectional data to affirm their
argument that allowing citizens to carry concealed
weapons deters violent crimes without increasing the
number of accidental deaths.
Gore
Calls for Banning Handguns
September 17, 1999
During an interview with Larry King, Al Gore called
for a ban on 9mm and .380 caliber handguns -- two
calibers which are very popular among gun owners. The
National Rifle Association's executive director of the
Institute for Legislative Action, James J. Baker, was
quick to fire back at Gore's proposal, stating, "He
wants to ban handgun ownership in America and that is a
message that lawful Americans who value their rights
will reject at the polls."
Handgun
Ban in DC Under Fire
June 17, 1999
Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., a Democrat from Virginia,
caused an uproar in Washington, D.C. when he presented a
simple one sentence measure calling for the repeal of
the capital's 1976 ban on handguns. District political
leaders, including the police chief, fear that such a
repeal would lead to further lawlessness for the
crime-laden city and endanger police officers. Goode
responded to these criticisms stating, "I'd say the
violent people already got the handguns."
Related Links:
Listen to VoxCap.com's VoxCast
interview with Adam Eisgrau, Director of Federal
Relations and Public Policy and Handgun
Control Inc.
Daily Briefing: Gun
Manufacturers Under Fire, December 8, 1999
Daily Briefing: Gun
Control Supporters Up in Arms Over Shootings,
November 4, 1999
Daily Briefing: NAACP
Suit Targets Gun Makers, July 13, 1999
Daily Briefing: Study
Targets Offending Gun Dealers, June 9, 1999
Daily Briefing: Gun
Control Bill Passes Senate, May 24, 1999
Daily Briefing: Senate
Takes Aim at Youth Violence, May 13, 1999
Daily Briefing: School
Shooting Generates Calls for Gun Control, April 29,
1999
Issue of the Week: Gun
Control Under Fire, March 29, 1999
Daily Briefing: Gun
Makers Face Legal Fusillade, February 15, 1999
Daily Briefing: Lawsuits
Dominate Gun-Control Debate, January 13, 1999
Issue of the Week: Gun
Violence and Children, May 25, 1998
IntellectualCapital.com: The
Gun Saga in Congress by Robert Spitzer
IntellectualCapital.com: A
Failure of Democracy by Eric Alterman
IntellectualCapital.com: Gunfight
in the Capital Corral by Daniel Glover
IntellectualCapital.com: Gunfight
in the Capital Corral by Daniel Glover
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