Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns (27 page)

OKAY, BUT THAT DOESN’T APPLY TO WOMEN. THEY’RE STILL MORE LIKELY TO BE KILLED WHEN THERE’S A GUN IN THE HOME.

“ ‘
no evidence that a gun in the home is protective for the woman
’ ” Ruth Marcus, “The Phony Pro-gun Argument,”
Washington Post
, January 31, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jHuTE
. • “
all three criminals then fled the scene
” “Magnolia Mother Fires Back at Burglary Suspects,”
kbtx.com
, January 26, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jHCma
. • “
she pulled a gun and the attacker ran away
” “Robbery Suspect Pulls Knife, Clerk Pulls Gun,”
fox6now.com
, January 10,2013,
http://bit.ly/11hbePT
. • “
She fired six shots, hitting him five times
” “Woman Hiding with Kids Shoots Intruder,”
wsbtv.com
, January 4, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11hbgY2
. • “
she shot and wounded the man
” “Oklahoma Girl, 12, Shoot Suspected Burglar,”
foxnews.com
, October 19, 2012,
http://fxn.ws/11hba2C
. • “
than when resisting with a gun
” Lawrence Southwick Jr., “Self-Defense with Guns: The Consequences,”
Journal of Criminal Justice
8 (2000), Tables 5 and 6. Note: Problems exist with the National Crime Victimization Survey both because of its non-representative sample (for example, it weights urban and minority populations too heavily) and because it fails to adjust for the fact that many people do not admit to a law enforcement agency that they used a gun, even defensively. These problems make it difficult to rely too heavily on these estimates but, unfortunately, this survey is the only source of evidence on the way the probability of significant injury varies in relation to the level and type of resistance. • “
An additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate
” John R. Lott, Jr., More Guns, Less Crime, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2010). • “
4.6 percent of all murders (603) in 2010 involved wives being murdered by their husbands
” “Crime in the United States, 2010,” U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, accessed March 8, 2013, Table 10,
http://1.usa.gov/10jHMda
. • “
Given the number of married women (about 63,150,000 million)
” U.S. Census Bureau,
http://1.usa.gov/SEDWIG
. • “
90 percent of adult murderers had previous criminal records
” U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
Murder in Large Urban Counties
, 1988 (Washington, D.C., 1993),
http://1.usa.gov/WF59gg
, See also: U.S. Department of Justice,
Murder in Families
(Washington, D.C., 1994), See also: Don B. Kates and Dan Polsby, “The Background of Murders” (working paper, Northwestern University Law School, Evanston, IL, 1997). Note: In these seventy-five largest counties in 1988, 77 percent of murder arrestees and 78 percent of defendants in murder prosecutions had criminal histories, with more than 13 percent of murders being committed by minors, who by definition cannot have criminal records. This implies that 89 percent of those arrested for murders
must be adults with criminal records, with 90 percent of those being prosecuted. • “
a record of previous arrests for ‘a major violent crime or burglary
’ ” Gary Kleck and David J. Bordua, “The Factual Foundation for Certain Key Assumptions of Gun Control,”
Law and Policy Quarterly
,
Issue on Firearms and Firearms Regulation: Old Premises, New Research
5, no. 3 (1983),
http://bit.ly/11hb4s3
. • “ ‘
represent only the tip of the iceberg
’ ” Gary Kleck and David J. Bordua, “The Factual Foundation for Certain Key Assumptions of Gun Control,”
Law and Policy Quarterly
,
Issue on Firearms and Firearms Regulation: Old Premises, New Research
5, no. 3 (1983),
http://bit.ly/11hb4s3
.

FORTY PERCENT OF ALL GUNS ARE SOLD WITHOUT BACKGROUND CHECKS.

“ ‘
It’s not fair to responsible gun buyers or sellers
’ ” President Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President and the Vice President on Gun Violence,” Office of the Press Secretary, the White House, January 16, 2013,
http://1.usa.gov/10jIiI4
. • “ ‘
40 percent of all gun trades, there’s no background check
’ ” Piers Morgan, “NRA: Put Armed Guards in Schools,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 21, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11haWIP
. • “ ‘
40 percent of gun sales now take place privately
’ ” “The Moment for Action on Guns,”
New York Times
, January 14, 2013,
http://nyti.ms/10jImrx
. • “
It’s been printed in the
New York Times, USA Today
and the
Wall Street Journal
” Peter Baker and Michael Shear, “Obama to ‘Put Everything I’ve Got’ Into Gun Control,”
New York Times
, January 16, 2013,
http://nyti.ms/10jIqrl
, See also: “Obama at the Gun Rack,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 16, 2013,
http://on.wsj.com/10jICH4
, See also: “NRA Says Congress Will Not Pass Weapons Ban,”
USA Today
, January 14, 2013,
http://usat.ly/10jIEyz
. • “ ‘
no such screen on the person buying the gun
’ ” Chris Wallace, “Gun debate opponents gear up for fight,”
Fox News Sunday
, Fox News, January 13, 2013,
http://fxn.ws/10jIJCm
. • “ ‘
48 percent of gun sales
’ ” “Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on Jan. 30, 2013 (transcript),”
Washington Post
, January 30, 2013,
http://wapo.st/10jIOG7
. • “
There’s the first red flag: these numbers are nearly twenty years old
” Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice,
Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms
, (Washington, D.C., May 1997),
http://1.usa.gov/QYSkvG
. • “
35.7 percent said they acquired it from someone other than a licensed dealer
” U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice,
The Police Foundation, National Study of Private Ownership of Firearms in the United States
, 1994, (Washington D.C., 1994). • “
researchers in some cases ‘made a judgment call
’ ” “Kirsten Gillibrand Says 40 Percent of Guns Sold Today Escape Background Check,”
politifact.com
, accessed March 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jIXcE
. • “
even President Obama’s background check proposal excludes gun transfers within a family
” Haughey, John, “Fact Check: Joe Biden’s Interview on Gun Control and Universal Background Checks,” March 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jJ0oS
. • “ ‘
plus or minus six percentage points
’ ” Glenn Kessler, “Update: Obama Claim on Background Checks Moved from ‘Verdict Pending’ to 2 Pinocchio’s,”
Fact Checker
blog at
washingtonpost.com
, January 25, 2013,
http://wapo.st/10jJhbv
. • “
there were more than 283,000 federally licensed gun dealers
” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, “Decline in the Number of Federal Firearms Licenses,”
atf.gov
, June 2008,
http://1.usa.gov/11haTN8
. •
 
“
while today there are just 118,000
” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, “Firearms Commerce in the United States,”
atf.gov
, 2011, Exhibit 13,
http://1.usa.gov/100Htl8
. • “ ‘
The loophole is called the gun show loophole
’ ” Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
Meet the Press
, NBC, December 16, 2012,
http://nbcnews.to/10jJkUL
. • “ ‘
We’ve got to end the gun show loophole
’ ” Mayor Cory Booker,
Rachel Maddow Show
, MSNBC, January 11, 2011,
http://nbcnews.to/10jJxav
. • “ ‘
that’s 40 percent of the sales in this country
’ ”
Ed Schultz,
Ed Show
, NBC, February 4, 2013,
http://nbcnews.to/10jJsDG
.

GUN SHOWS ARE WHERE CRIMINALS GET ALL THEIR WEAPONS.

“ ‘
there’s no regulation, there’s no background checks
’ ” Mayor Cory Booker,
Rachel Maddow Show
, MSNBC, December 17, 2012,
http://nbcnews.to/10jJBH8
. • “ ‘
they were not even worth reporting as a separate figure
’ ” Dave Kopel, “Will Gun Shows Become Extinct?”
America’s 1st Freedom
, July 2010,
http://bit.ly/101cJR3
. • “
Fewer than one percent of inmates (0.7 percent) who said they had a gun reported that they’d obtained it from a gun show
” Caroline Wolf Harlow, “Firearm Use by Offenders: Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities,” (report, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C., November 2011),
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/fuo.pdf
. • “
not a single, credible academic study showing that these regulations reduce any type of violent crime
” John R. Lott, Jr.,
The Bias Against Guns
(Washington, D.C., Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2003), 197.

EVEN A MAJORITY OF NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION MEMBERS SUPPORT UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS.

“ ‘
asked NRA members earlier this year whether they support background checks on every gun sale, 74 percent agreed
’ ” Arkadi Gerney, “All-American Carnage: Which Massacres to Remember? We Have Raised the Bloody Bar”
New York Daily News
, December 16, 2012,
http://nydn.us/10jJKdF
. • “ ‘
ending those secondary markets, makes a difference
’ ” Mayor Cory Booker, “Guns in America,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 19, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11haLgM
. • “ ‘
blocked 1.7 million prohibited individuals from buying a gun
’ ” “Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on Jan. 30, 2013 (transcript),”
Washington Post
, January 30, 2013,
http://wapo.st/10jIOG7
. • “
founded by gun-hating Mayors Bloomberg of New York City and Thomas Menino of Boston in 2006
” “Coalition History,”
mayorsagainstallguns.org
, accessed March 9, 2013,
http://maig.us/10jJR97
. • “
The survey itself was conducted by Frank Luntz
” Frontline, “Interview: Frank Luntz,”
pbs.org
, accessed March 9, 2013,
http://to.pbs.org/10jJXh2
. • “ ‘
repeatedly refused to make public essential facts about his research
’ ” “AAPOR Finds Frank Luntz in Violation of Ethics Code,”
aapor.org
, April 23, 1997,
http://bit.ly/11haFG3
. • “ ‘
did not provide requested details about the poll’s question wording
’ ” Scott Clement, “NRA Members Strongly Oppose New Gun Restrictions, Poll Finds,”
Washington Post
, January 25, 2013,
http://wapo.st/10jJZFH
. • “ ‘
Internet panel to contact self-identified NRA members
’ ” Scott Clement, “NRA Members Strongly Oppose New Gun Restrictions, Poll Finds,”
Washington Post
, January 25, 2013,
http://wapo.st/10jJZFH
. • “ ‘
laws covering the sale of guns should be more strict
’ ” The Word Doctors,
Gun Owners: NRA Gun-Owners & Non-NRA Gun-Owners
, (survey for Mayors Against Illegal Guns, The Word Doctors, Alexandria, VA, December 2009),
http://maig.us/10jK8ZJ
. • “ ‘
federal law banning the sale of firearms between private citizens
’ ” Wes Anderson “NRA National Member Survey Final,” (survey, OnMessage Inc., Alexandria, VA, January 13–14, 2013),
http://bit.ly/10jKcbQ
.

THE NRA IS THE POSTER CHILD FOR BAD RESEARCH.

“ ‘
[The NRA] only funds research that will lead to these conclusions
’ ” Alan Dershowitz, “Mayor Bloomberg Speaks on Guns; The Right to Bear Arms; Acts of Heroism,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, July 23, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11haz16
. • “ ‘
commissioning so-called scholars to come up with the kinds of lies
’ ” Alan Dershowitz, “Gun Control in America,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 18, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hag6p
. • “ ‘
RTC laws do in fact help drive down the murder rate
’ ”
James Q. Wilson, “Dissent,” Appendix A, in
Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review
, eds. Charles F. Wellford, John V. Pepper and Carol V. Petrie (Atlanta, GA: National Academies Press, 2005), 271,
http://bit.ly/YsppiD
. • “
Attacks on . . .
‘NRA funding,’ regularly pop up in the gun control debate and are regularly debunked
” I think this shows how desperate gun control advocates can become in trying to destroy their opponents. On September 4, 1996 then Congressman, now Senator, Charles Schumer (D-NY) wrote the following in the
Wall Street Journal
:

“I’d like to point out one other ‘association.’ The Associated Press reports that Prof. Lott’s fellowship at the University of Chicago is funded by the Olin Foundation, which is ‘associated with the Olin Corporation,’ one of the nation’s largest gun manufacturers. Maybe that’s a coincidence, too. But it’s also a fact.”

Congressman Schumer’s letter elicited a powerful response from William Simon, the Olin Foundation’s president and former U.S. Treasury secretary, in the
Wall Street Journal
two days later. Here is an excerpt: