Seattle PI Gun Show Editorial
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 09:56:33
-0800 (PST)
From: robert n lyman <rlyman@u.washington.edu>
To: editpage@seattlep-i.com
Subject: Gun show editorial
The best thing I can say about your
editorial in favor of gun-show background checks is that it wasn't quite as
misinformed and sensational as that published in the Seattle Times last week.
But it was close. Some points you ignored:
1) According to the DOJ, guns from gun shows
make up fewer than 2% of all guns used in crimes. Since nobody knows if those
guns were purchased at licensed dealers or not, nobody knows if the law your
editorial pushes will have any effect. It IS known that between 98% and 100%
of crime guns will NOT be affected by this law.
2) The Brady bill has had no measurable impact
on crime. The highly biased antigun researchers Jens Ludwig and Philip Cook
were unable to cook the books enough to produce any statistical evidence that
background checks reduce crime. Read all about it at http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n5/abs/joc91749.html.
Or just read this quote: "...[I]mplementation of the Brady Act appears
to have been associated with reductions in the firearm suicide rate for persons
aged 55 years or older but not with reductions in homicide rates or overall
suicide rates." That is hardly a ringing endorsement, especially for
a bill which was so heavily hyped at the time.
3) The elephant in the newsroom isn't just
sitting there; it is crashing about breaking things. Criminals don't shop
at your local gun store or gun show. Criminals steal their guns or buy them
on the black market. Vague promises of "making it more difficult for
criminals" notwithstanding, regulations imposed on the legal market have
NO EFFECT on people who are willing to break the law. As long as drugs and
illegal immigrants find their way to Seattle, so will illegal guns, whether
smuggled, stolen, or illegally manufactured. Cracking down on antique collectors
at gun shows won't prevent crime any more than banning the sale of aspirin
will prevent addiction to cocaine. Rite Aid and gun shows serve different
markets than underworld drug and gun runners. This is so obvious (and so thoroughly
confirmed by criminologists), I have to imagine that your editors and Ceasefire
are intentionally ignoring it in pursuit of your ideology.
Get off the backs of law-abiding gun owners in
Washington. We aren't doing anything wrong and are getting sick of PC persecution.
Robert Lyman
Seattle, 98117
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