Old News Making Another Round?

[sparx]

I ran across the link to this story on another site, and some say that it's old news and has been debunked back in 2002, but I thought I would post it here since I was ignorant of so many things back then, and the article was just release by the Lexington Herald-Leader this past Sunday.

I know it's bunk, at least when held up against all the other stats I've been reading, but I just thought I would toss it on here as it shows we still have a long way to go in putting bull to rest.

Story link here: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/ne ... 015737.htm

Help shoot down crime-abetting gun bill
By Henry Riekert
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

You have to admire LaPierre's Pistoliers for persistence.

I'm talking about Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's executive vice president, the man who assigns agendas for NRA lobbyists, and state Reps. Robert Damron, D-Nicholasville, and J.R. Gray, D-Benton, the NRA's water boys in Kentucky.

This is the same group who a few years ago passed legislation to arm preachers in their pulpits, just in case Osama bin Laden ever interrupted service to wage jihad. Same guys who forced police to auction confiscated handguns, putting guns back on the streets and in the hands of criminals.

This year, LaPierre's Pistoliers are sponsoring House Bill 290, which would prevent anyone other than law-enforcement officers from obtaining the names of concealed handgun permit holders.

Why? To prevent an enterprising journalist from cross-referencing the names of permit holders with criminal convictions records. It would also prevent a woman who's being stalked from learning whether her stalker packs a pistol.

Lapierre's Pistoliers don't want you to know what the Violence Policy Center -- a well-respected, non-profit, gun-control advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. -- discovered when they researched Texas' concealed handgun permit holders and arrest records.

The study, "License to Kill," showed that between Jan. 1, 1996 and Aug. 31, 2001, concealed handgun permit holders were arrested 5,314 times. And the arrests weren't for jaywalking. Forty-one offenses were murder and attempted murder; 79 rape and sexual assault; 279 involved assault with a deadly weapon; and 404 were drug-related.

In fact, Texas concealed-handgun permit holders committed weapons-related offenses at a rate 81 percent higher during the period than that of the general Texas population age 21 and older. In other words, instead of preventing crime, as LaPierre's Pistoliers argue, handgun permit holders actually commit more crime.

Good or bad, there isn't much difference between Texans and Kentuckians, especially when it comes to their fondness for firearms. We would eventually discover just how similar, or dissimilar, are the crime rates of Texas concealed handgun permit holders and their Kentucky brethren.

But that's the kind of information LaPierre's Pistoliers don't want you -- or the woman being stalked -- to know.

If you think HB 290 stinks, tell your state legislators that it's time to disarm Lapierre's Pistoliers. Do it soon; HB 290 has already passed the House. It's now in the Senate's judiciary committee for consideration.

And from the Department of Why Politicians Should Listen to the Public: Jessamine officials were ready for the state to begin property acquisition for Nicholasville's proposed eastern bypass.

Officials had hoped the new bypass would alleviate traffic congestion downtown and spur economic development. The eastern bypass was a high priority item on the city's and county's agendas, and had generated virtually no opposition.

In contrast, the proposed Interstate 75 connector road, which would link U.S. 27 with I-75, has repeatedly been halted by intense public opposition. Funding for an I-75 connector feasibility study was only recently obtained when a contingent of city and county officials bypassed the public and lobbied federal officials.

With funding in hand, local leaders thought that both highway projects were done deals -- until state highway officials said put on the brakes.

Because both projects are to be built in the eastern end of Jessamine County, the state said it couldn't do work on the bypass until after the I-75 connector feasibility study is completed and engineers have some idea of where the I-75 connector may go.

State highway officials then delayed the bypass project until 2011.

Local officials said that would be too long and that they couldn't hold back the developers. The bypass area would be subdivisions by 2011.

City and county officials are miffed, but they have only themselves to blame.

Five years is too long to wait only because developers control development.

And if officials had listened to the public and not pursued the controversial I-75 connector, the eastern bypass would already be on the fast track to construction.

Now, the eastern bypass is delayed, maybe even dead. If expected opposition to the I-75 connector arises, it's possible that that project will hit a red light, too. And all residents will have gained from their leaders' bungling is more sprawl.

Henry Riekert of Jessamine County is a community activist, shepherd and farmer. E-mail him at hriekert@aol.com.

[Kalrog]

In fact, Texas concealed-handgun permit holders committed weapons-related offenses at a rate 81 percent higher during the period than that of the general Texas population age 21 and older. In other words, instead of preventing crime, as LaPierre's Pistoliers argue, handgun permit holders actually commit more crime.

Gotta call bull right there.

[dws1117]

Me thinks this guy is smoking some good stuff. I'd like to see where he has gotten his "information".

[Paladin]

That Violence Policy Center report is so old and so full of holes, I'm surprised anyone would want to bring it up.

[Paladin]

This is the TSRA's reply to the VPC's "study" [And I use the word study lightly]

http://www.tsrapac.org/News_1.htm

[jimlongley]

Well, I just wrote an email suggesting, gently even, that he get his facts straight before making contentious remarks like that, but I doubt it will do much good.

People like that tend to ignore the facts and just say what they want, especially since they have access to the bully pulpit of the "free press."

I wrote a halfway humorous treatise, some years back, on why such flagrant bull should be made a "Violation of the First Amendment" crime, and of course lost the archive copy in one move or another. It never got published, but it did stir up quite a bit of discussion on message boards back then.

Basically it would have been patterned similarly to the instant replay rule used in football today, which did not exist 15 years ago I know, allowing someone to call the bull on such a writer, but only if they were willing to risk a sanction similar to that which the writer would suffer if they were proven wrong.

Whoever was able to prove their side would suffer some sort of sanction, with various levels of "punishment" depending on repeat offenses and such.

The thrust of the thing was to point out that people like that author have access to a greater cross section of the population, through their use of the media, than the average joe does, and that they should be held accountable for their words if those words could be shown to be unsupported by "facts" that were stated. Of course something that was merely opinion, and not factual, rather than statements of fact, would be fully protected speech.

I see the statements made by the author above as being equivalent to yelling "FIRE" in a theater when in fact there was no fire nor should there have been a reasonable belief that there was a fire - criminal.

[sparx]

Thanks for the TSRA link to the rebutal, Paladin. I posted that link on the site's forum where I first read about the article, so perhaps someone in KY reading the thread in that forum will use it to enlighten Mr. Riekert (though I doubt it will do any good... some had mentioned they've already emailed him, but he replied with curt and pointless dribble), or even other KY residents that have read the newspaper's article and walked away with belief in the fictional facts.

Also, jimlongley, thank you for your effort in emailing him as well. Although as mentioned it probably won't phaze him any, let alone entice him to even remotely reconsider his position, I applaud you for doing something that I guess I coulda-shoulda done as well.