INTERNATIONAL GUN CONTROLS BACKFIRE 

 

As the United States takes international heat for allowing its citizens the right to keep and bear arms, data has begun stacking up to show how useless gun control is in the rest of the world.

Japan has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world, but a rash of knife murders in the nation shows that if violent people can’t get guns, they’ll find something else to kill with.

December 2000: A family of four was found stabbed to death at their home in a Tokyo suburb. No arrests have been made.

August 2000: A 15-year-old newspaper delivery boy was arrested for stabbing to death three members of a neighbor’s family in their beds in Notsu, in southwestern Japan.

May 2000: A 17-year-old boy wielding a 16-inch knife hijacked a bus in southwestern Japan and fatally stabbed one passenger.

February 2000: A teen-ager was fatally stabbed by a fellow student during a squabble at a junior high school in Fukuoka, in southwestern Japan.

December 1999: A 7-year-old boy playing in a school yard in Kyoto, in western Japan, was fatally stabbed. The 21-year-old suspect later committed suicide by jumping out of a building as he was about to be questioned by police.

The real shocker came recently in Japan’s worst mass-killing since a deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subway six years ago, when a man brandishing a knife burst into an elementary school and slashed nearly two dozen people, killing eight children.

Two weeks later a woman with a kitchen knife forced her way into a Tokyo kindergarten and slashed a teacher’s hands and leg.

At the same time, a Russian man was killed and two women were severely wounded in a shooting in northern Japan.

In Britain, which enacted strict gun laws five years ago after an especially tragic school shooting, the results of gun control are negative. Things got worse. The number of firearm offenses increased almost 40 percent from 4,903 in 1997 to 6,843 in 2000, according to a recent London Sunday Times.

British police officers, traditionally unarmed, have had more guns issued to them in recognition of potential danger: up about 6,000 in 1994-95 to over 12,000 in 1997-98. Gun control made Britain an armed camp.

France now has more crime than the United States, according to a new report by Paris security consultant ALAIN BAUER. Examining figures for a range of offenses since 1995, the study found that France overtook the U.S. for the first time last year, with the steady growth in crime in French cities and suburbs.

Per 100,000 inhabitants, there were 4,244 crimes in France compared to 4,135 in the U.S. Physical violence has increased most in France, but the U.S. still has higher numbers of murders and rapes.

Internationally, gun control fails as it has in the United States.

 

 

DANGER: UNITED NATIONS ANTI-GUN TREATY

The United Nations General Assembly has approved a gun control treaty that calls on all nations “to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components, and ammunition.”

Under terms of the UN treaty:

l All new firearms would have to be marked with a serial number and the place of manufacture.

l Nations would have to set up import-export licensing procedures.

l Countries would also be required to keep records on all guns, parts and ammunition made within their borders for 10 years.

l Nations are urged to pass laws making the illicit manufacture and sale of firearms a criminal offense.

The treaty, named the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, must be signed and ratified by at least 40 countries before it becomes international law. The signing period runs from July 1, 2001 through December 12, 2002.

The gun registration requirement of this treaty is most dangerous, as registration has historically been a first step to confiscation of firearms.

 

U.S. GUN DEAN RAISES FUROR OVER U.N. ANTI-GUN TREATY

JOHN MICHAEL SNYDER of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms condemned the U.N. anti-gun treaty vote, saying, “The treaty action is a direct and insulting attack on the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms.”

“It’s about time we knocked the living daylights out of the United Nations,” SNYDER added. “Apparently, it wasn’t enough for these globalists to insult our country by throwing us off the UN’s so-called Human Rights Commission in favor of dictatorships such as Sudan, Libya, China, and Cuba. Now these characters are trying to add insult to injury, knifing our sovereignty in the process.

SNYDER, named “dean of gun lobbyists” by national media outlets, said, “Congress should cut off the U.S. money spigot unless the UN mends its way. Why should U.S. taxpayers’ dollars go to support these anti-American shenanigans? No way!”

 

SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION URGES GUN OWNER ACTION

The United Nations’ “Conference of Small Arms and Light Weapons” in New York City this month is the target of a Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) campaign to flood Congress and the White House with calls and letters demanding that our leaders defend the Constitution and United States sovereignty.

In conjunction with the opening of the UN conference, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), a global organization dedicated to eliminating private ownership of guns worldwide, is promoting what it calls “Small Arms Destruction Day.”

A SAF alert noted that this July 4th marks the 225th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence. The alert said, “Small wonder the United Kingdom is one of the key backers of ‘Small Arms Destruction Day’ along with Bali, Brazil and the Netherlands. Evidently there are some in today’s UK that remember their history well, and know what free people with guns can do in defense of liberty.”

SAF Pubic Affairs Director Dave LaCourse urged gun owners to insist that our sovereign rights be protected.

 

 

McCAIN BACKLASH BUILDING

What happens when a politician turns against his political base? Study the last few months in the life of Sen. JOHN McCAIN, Republican of Arizona to see.

His political future is the subject of wild speculation: Will he switch parties? Will he try another run for president? Will he be kicked out of office?

Arizona is a hotbed of pro-gun support. In past elections, Arizona gun owners have delivered thousands of reliable votes for McCAIN. But he has recently decided to slap them in the face - three times.

First he joined with Americans for Gun Safety, an anti-gun organization funded by billionaire ANDREW McKELVEY, to appear in their television ads that pushed through anti-gun initiatives in Oregon and Colorado.

Second, he led the charge for a campaign finance reform bill that would make it illegal for gun groups to communicate political information to their members before an election, with federal prison time for those exercising their First Amendment free speech rights.

Third, he teamed with Democrat Sen. JOE LIEBERMAN to sponsor a gun show bill that would bury gun owners under a mountain of red tape and give the Treasury Department total regulatory control of gun shows. Even accidental violations would be punished with federal prison time.

Now McCAIN has no gun-owner friends left. It’s gotten so bad that even when Arizona’s other Senator, JOHN KYL, merely mentioned McCAIN at a Memorial Day speech, a chorus of boos and cat-calls drowned him out. McCAIN has worse troubles, as the next story shows.

 

RECALL PETITION FILED AGAINST McCAIN

Two Republican Party officials have filed petitions to force a recall election against wayward Sen. JOHN McCAIN. McCAIN opponents quickly mobilized to gather the 349,269 signatures of registered voters required to force a recall election, which is not binding on Arizona’s U.S. lawmakers. However, McCAIN has promised to resign if he is defeated in a recall election.

The recall petitions accuse McCAIN of refusing to support the Republican president of the United States. McCAIN voted against President Bush’s tax cut and has been cooperating with Senate Democrats on campaign finance and health maintenance organization reform and gun control.

After control of the Senate shifted from Republican to Democrat, McCAIN entertained the new majority leader, Sen. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD) at his Page Springs ranch.

 

YALE’S JOHN LOTT SAYS McCAIN AD “DANGEROUS”

Dr. JOHN LOTT, Ph.D., an academic researcher at Yale Law School, says Sen. JOHN McCAIN’s ad urging gun owners to keep their firearms locked up is “very misleading and dangerous.”

LOTT, author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” fears that advice is going to result in more deaths.

The ad, being shown at movie theaters all over America, warns that locking up the firearms to keep them out of the hands of children will prevent violent shootings. What it ignores is the possibility of a gun owner being awakened at night by an intruder. What does one do then? The armed burglar is not likely to be sympathetic if the victim says, “Hold your fire there for a minute while I unlock my gun cabinet, just to make this fair.”

LOTT doesn’t go with the argument that locks will keep juveniles away from guns. Many if not most of the school shootings that have scandalized the public in recent years “occurred with guns that had been locked up.” High school students and younger were able to break into the locks.

“We have to be careful to look not only at the benefits that can happen from locking up guns, but also the costs there,” says LOTT. His research shows that states with gun lock laws “actually cause more harm than benefits.”

 

 

GUN SHOW ORGANIZERS SUE COUNTY OVER RESTRICTIONS

A gun show promoter and two gun exhibitors have filed suit in federal court, challenging the legality of an anti-gun ordinance narrowly passed by the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council.

Promoter FRANK KRASNER, along with frequent exhibitors Valley Gun of Baltimore and ROBERT D. CULVER, sued to strike down the ordinance, which cuts off county funding for any group that allows the display and sale of guns on its property, restricts where gun shows can be held and imposes tough new regulations on gun show promoters.

Members of the Montgomery County Council designed the ordinance to put an end to gun shows held for more than a decade at the Montgomery County fairgrounds in Gaithersburg.

The fairground, which is privately owned but has received county government grants, notified KRASNER that it would no longer rent its facilities to his company, Silverado Promotions.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, alleges that the ordinance unconstitutionally infringes on commercial and noncommercial free speech rights. It also alleges that the ordinance violates a state law that preempts counties from enacting certain kinds of gun control measures. In addition, the suit argues that the council’s action infringes of the municipal power of gaithersburg to enact its own laws by effectively banning gun shows within the city’s borders.

 

NRA LOSES COURT FIGHT OVER BRADY LAW FILE

The United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the National Rifle Association challenging the government’s power to retain information about gun buyers under the Brady gun control law.

The NRA claimed the FBI’s practice of keeping identities of legal gun buyers on file for several months is illegal under the 1993 Brady Act itself, and amounts to compiling a national registry of gun owners.

The Supreme Court turned away the appeal without comment.

 

VIOLENCE POLICY CENTER sues justice department

A notorious gun control group has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT, arguing that he is illegally delaying regulations on background checks for firearms purchases.

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) alleges that ASHCROFT intends to eventually toss the regulations out.

The regulation came from the Clinton administration and would require that records from background checks be kept for 90 days after a handgun purchase is attempted.

The VPC claims that ASHCROFT violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which gives all interested parties the right to comment on the regulatory process. ASHCROFT stopped the final rule from going into effect without allowing the public its right to notice and comment by summarily delaying the rule twice for 60 days.

Justice Department spokeswoman SUSAN DRYDEN said the delays are allowing a thorough review of the regulation.

Gun rights advocates concerned about the privacy issues raised by the regulation have congratulated Attorney General ASHCROFT for his thorough review of CLINTON-era regulations.

 

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER ASKS ATTORNEY GENERAL ABOUT “CARNIVORE”

Rep. DICK ARMEY (R-TX), House Majority Leader has written the U.S. Attorney General asking whether a specific court warrant must be issued before the government uses the Internet surveillance system formerly known as “Carnivore.” The system could intercept emails and examine the contents of personal computers without the owner being aware of the intrusion. Rep. ARMEY asked for a speedy reply.

 

AMA LAUNCHES ATTACK ON GUNS

The newly elected president of the American Medical Association has dedicated his organization to fighting guns in the United States as a “public health scourge.”

“I believe that this is a battle that we cannot not take on,” said Dr. RICHARD CORLIN, a gastroenterologist from Santa Monica, California.

Many AMA members were disgusted with the group straying into politics, and will not renew their memberships, but do agree with CORLIN’s inaugural speech, in which he said, “People have told me that this is a dangerous path to follow. That I am crazy to do it. They say that we’ll lose members.”

That’s a pretty good guess. AMA membership has fallen for years. It lost more than 3,000 members last year and more than $4 million in membership dues.

Dr. ROBERT WOOLLEY, a Minnesota physician who belongs to AMA and gun rights groups, said he probably would not renew his AMA membership next year because of CORLIN’s anti-gun campaign.

“Nobody disputes that people dying and being injured from gunshot wounds is a terrible problem,” WOOLLEY said. “The dilemma is that groups such as the AMA are making very simplistic assumptions that the solution is more gun control.”

Guns have divided the AMA, which deems itself a leader on public health issues such as tobacco, and is pro-abortion but has been less willing to take a stand on other controversies, such as the death penalty and medical use of marijuana.

Many doctors are concerned that the AMA will be seen as opposing the Second Amendment right to bear arms, according to the Associated Press.

CORLIN, however, is intent on pushing the AMA straight into the gun control arena. “What we don’t know about violence and guns is literally killing us,” he told the Associated Press.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) sharply criticized CORWIN’s leadership of the AMA into gun control, pointing out in a news release, “What we do know about physician negligence is that is it actually killing us, and at a rate of nearly three-to-one compared to gunshot wounds.”

Dr. EDGAR SUTER, a recognized authority on the debate over guns as a “health hazard,” has repeatedly cautioned his colleagues that medical misadventures claim two to three times the number of lives annually that are lost to gunshot wounds.

The Harvard Medical School estimated that over 90,000 people die each year from physician negligence. Dr. SUTER placed that estimate as high as 150,000. About 30,000 gun-related deaths are reported every year.

By this calculation, negligent doctors are more of a public health scourge than armed criminals.

Gun rights supporter and sometime humorist, JAMESON CAMPAIGNE, came up with a tongue-in-cheek alert using real statistics:

 

HORRIFYING PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT REVEALED

 

Number of physicians in the U.S.:	700,000
Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year:	120,000
Accidental deaths per physician:	0.171
Number of gun owners in the U.S.:	80,000,000
Accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups):	1,500
Accidental deaths per gun owner:	0.0000188

 

Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Not everyone has a gun, but everyone has at least one doctor.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.

We must ban doctors before this gets out of hand.

Guns don’t kill people. Doctors kill people.

 

COLUMNIST HITS THE MARK ON ANTI-GUN HYPOCRISY

Syndicated columnist MICHELLE MALKIN recently took aim at the hypocrisy of today’s leftist mentality in an opinion piece comparing attitudes about gun education with attitudes about - are you ready for this? - sex education!

MALKIN first told about a new report on sex-ed in the classroom that concluded: If you teach a child how to use a condom, you’re promoting safety - not usage.

She quoted from a report titled, “Emerging Answers,” by DOUGLAS KIRBY, a senior researcher at ETR Associates in Scotts Valley, CA: “The overwhelming weight of evidence shows that sex education that discusses contraception does not increase sexual activity.”

Then MALKIN examined the breathless report on the study by The New York Times, which eagerly noted that abstinence-only programs have “shown no impact on young people’s behavior.” What KIRBY’s study actually says, noted MALKIN, is that the evidence is “not conclusive” and that “one should be very careful about drawing conclusions about abstinence-only programs in general.”

The study was published by an advocacy group and not in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but MALKIN said, “Let’s take the sex-education pushers at their word: If you teach a child how to use a condom, you’re promoting safety - not usage.”

Why, then, she asks, doesn’t the same logic apply to guns?

Maryland Gov. PARRIS GLENDENING had just vetoed bipartisan gun safety education legislation that would have made his state the first in the nation to establish public-school guidelines for gun-safety instruction from kindergarten to grade 12.

MALKIN quoted GLENDENING spouting off about the bill he vetoed: “For many impressionable children, handling weapons in this setting may lead to a heightened interest and contribute to the glorification of guns in our society.”

To see how stupid that is, imagine GLENDENING expressing the same sentiment about condoms and sex: “For many impressionable children, handling condoms in this setting may lead to a heightened interest and contribute to the glorification of sex in our society.”

When would The Gov say that? The Twelfth of Never, that’s when.

MICHELLE MALKIN’s column is distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc.

 

2 BOYS, A PAPER GUN AND ZERO TOLERANCE

When 8-year-old HAMADI ALSTON pointed a paper gun at his classmates in March and announced, “I’m going to kill you all,” he said he was only playing cops and robbers.

But the anti-gun zero tolerance policy of his Irvington, New Jersey school district launched him and a classmate on a nightmare trip though the juvenile justice system.

Police charged the boy with making “terroristic threats.” A judge threw the case out of court, but the incident may remain in court records until the boys are 18. Similar incidents are increasingly being referred to the courts.

Critics say the treatment of ALSTON and his classmate, 8-year-old JAQUILL SHELTON, who was accused of giving HAMADI the paper toy, is a nationwide trend that tags children with undeserved criminal records. They say the policy is a misguided reaction to a wave of school shootings across the nation.

The most recent FBI statistics show a 33 percent jump in court referrals for children under the age of 13 between 1988 and 1997, according to HOWARD SNYDER, systems research director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice. The problem is real and getting worse.

Treating playful acts as crimes and kids as criminals is bad public policy. Even the usually liberal American Bar Association passed a resolution opposing zero-tolerance policies that put kids in juvenile criminal court.

 

GUN NEWS TICKER: SHORT TAKES ON GUNS

 

l  Fairfax County, Virginia: Anti-gun activist TOM MAUSER was arrested outside National Rifle Association headquarters for misdemeanor trespassing while staging a one-man march against the organization. MAUSER, whose son was killed in the Columbine High School shootings, demanded a personal response about NRA polices from president CHARLTON HESTON, who was away on family business. MAUSER was jailed for about an hour and released on $250 bail.

l  Atlanta: A report from Emory University School of Medicine found that boys who come across a handgun are highly likely to pick it up, and a sizable number will pull the trigger. The study involved 64 boys aged 8 to 12 who were brought to a room in groups of 2 or 3 and observed through a one-way mirror. They were told they could play with toys on a table, but not explore the room. A cabinet held two water pistols and a real .380-caliber unloaded handgun. Of the 64 boys, 48 found the handgun, 30 picked it up and 16 pulled the trigger. Children from gun owning families were no more or less likely to pull the trigger that ones from non-gun owning families.

l  United Kingdom: A 77-year-old pensioner who used a toy gun to frighten off a gang of teen agers that was tormenting him was arrested and charged with possessing an imitation handgun, which is a crime in the United Kingdom. BILL CLIFFORD, a World War II veteran who lived in the town of Aldershot, committed suicide rather than face the shame of a court appearance. CLIFFORD, a retired taxi driver, hanged himself. The coroner said CLIFFORD should have turned to police rather than take the law in his own hands. CLIFFORD had filed one complaint with the police about a broken window, but police did nothing.

l  Macedonia: As rebel ethnic Albanian forces close to within mortar range of Skopje, the capital city, panicked citizens seeking the means to protect themselves are running up against their own government’s refusal to supply them with weapons for night watches. Those wishing to protect themselves we told they could join to local police or enlist in the army. Severe firearms restrictions are traditional in Europe, where the right to bear arms is the monopoly of the ruling class or the central government, both fearful of uprisings among the general population. Macedonian government statements to its citizens were the usual baloney about “the security forces having control over the situation,” and “citizens should take into consideration the complexity of the situation and be very careful.” In other words, we don’t trust you with guns any more than we trust the rebels, so duck if you hear gunfire.

l  Philippines: Roman Catholic priest CIRILO NACORDA carries a Bible and a pistol as he travels around his remote southern Philippine province. NARCODA has organized a 3,000-member armed group to defend Christians in the predominantly Muslim island province of Basilan, birthplace of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf rebels. The rebels kidnapped 20 people, including 3 Americans, from a luxury resort. The 44-year-old NACORDA said, “We cannot protect our lives by just prayers or dialogue. We have to be practical.” Muslim rebel have insisted that Catholic priests stop preaching there and crosses be removed from buildings on the island.

l  Springfield, Massachusetts: The former owner of a Washington state aerospace company provided the $5 million down payment for the purchase of Smith & Wesson by a tiny startup company that makes trigger locks. COLTON MELBY of Kent, WA, loaned Saf-T-Hammer the money to finance the purchase of the nation’s oldest handgun maker.

l  Boulder, Colorado: A federal agency is developing a radar-like device that peers through clothing and detects concealed weapons from up to 50 feet away. However, the National Institute of Standards and Technology may run into trouble deploying the device: constitutional questions have arisen about whether its use amounts to a search for which a warrant is necessary.

 

SELF DEFENSE TO THE FORE

 

Headlines lately have featured an increasing number of stories about people who used guns in self defense. The media are catching on.

A resident of Cockrell Hill, Texas, shot and killed a man on parole who burst into his home after being chased by officers. The man was trying to elude police who had stopped him on a traffic violation.

Darrell Ray Canup, 30, ran from his car, jumped over a fence and disappeared into a residential neighborhood. He was shot dead after he kicked in the back door of a home and awoke its owner, who police did not identify. The resident was awakened out of a deep sleep with a stranger in his house and no idea what the man was doing there, and no idea that anything else had been going on. The resident picked up a handgun from his nightstand and fired once at Canup, hitting him in the back. Why Canup was fleeing from police is unknown.

In Flint, Michigan, Clinton Burns awoke with a start at 3:30 a.m. with a 17-year-old youth pilfering his bedroom cabinets. Burns is a decorated war veteran who has been confined to a wheelchair since he was shot by a drunken stranger in 1963. He had been sleeping clothed on top of his bed with his wheelchair to one side and the television remote control on the other, ready for a doctor’s appointment early the next morning. When Burns saw the burglar, he grabbed the remote control hoping the youth would think it was a gun, and told him to get out. The young man turned and said, “Whatcha got? Whatcha got?” and came around that side of the bed.

Then Burns turned to his wheelchair and grabbed the .38-caliber revolver he keeps under the seat pillow. The youth came around the other side of the bed and grabbed Burns by the wrist to wrestle the gun away from him. Burns fired point blank. The young man died instantly and slumped over the wheelchair with some of Burns’ jewelry and his car keys in his pockets. Burns couldn’t get out of bed because he couldn’t get into his wheelchair. He had to wait until police came.

In Mobile, Alabama, Lori Lewis eluded a gunshot fired around midnight by her ex-husband and killed him with a return shot from her own pistol. The gun battle was the result of escalating conflict between the woman and her husband William F. Lewis, 46, who was out of jail on a $5,000 bond. She had filed three harassment complaints against him in the past two months and had him charged with stalking. Police did not charge the woman in the shooting.