Guns and mothers — the link

[Lodge2004]

How special...a Mother's Day editorial in the Chronicle from the Brady Campaign.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/edi ... 69227.html

Moms can help reduce child deaths by working to close gun show loophole

By MARSHA MCCARTNEY

On this Mother's Day, millions of American moms are receiving flowers, gifts and the special attention of loved ones.

But approximately eight moms will receive something else today — the news that one of their children has been killed by a gun. Another 48 moms will learn that a child has been shot, but has survived.

On an average day in America, 56 children and teens are the victims of gun violence — and eight of those die of their injuries.

That's every day of the year, Mother's Day included.

And those figures don't include the 76 adults who will be killed by a gun, or the 148 other adults who will be shot and wounded on Mother's Day. Each of these victims is someone's child, too.

Why does this happen? Because right now, it is far too easy to obtain a gun in America. In most states, even convicted felons and the dangerously mentally ill — like the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre — can walk into any gun show and buy any weapon from an unlicensed seller without anyone checking their background. Or even asking them any questions.

It doesn't have to be that way.

Effective gun control legislation works. The Brady Bill, which was passed in 1994 by large majorities of both houses of Congress, has kept at least 1.5 million dangerous people from purchasing firearms.

Think of how many moms have been unknowingly spared the pain of losing a child simply because the law prevented the purchase of a gun by someone who has no good reason to have one.

Unfortunately, however, the Brady Bill contained a loophole. The sensible and effective background checks imposed by Brady cover only sales by licensed gun dealers, but are not applied to the significant share of guns sold every day by unlicensed sellers at gun shows.

It doesn't take an advanced degree to figure out that if you want a weapon but can't pass the background check, you go to a gun show.

What can we moms do?

One common-sense step we can take is to help close the gun-show loophole. Legislation has been introduced in Congress to do just that, and all three of the leading presidential candidates have previously voiced their support of the idea.

But our elected representatives need to hear from every mom, loudly and clearly, that we support this bill and that we will keep pressuring them until it is passed and signed into law.

Getting gifts on Mother's Day is wonderful. But imagine if every mother in America joined together and persuaded Congress to close the loophole that makes gun violence against our children so prevalent.

That means eight more moms would get to kiss their child good night on Mother's Day. That means another 48 moms would get to tuck their kids into their own beds instead of spending Mother's Day at a hospital bedside.

Now that gift would be priceless.

McCartney, of Dallas, is state president of the Texas Chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a grass-roots organization devoted to gun violence prevention.

[seamusTX]

For anyone interested in writing a letter to the editor, this line --

On an average day in America, 56 children and teens are the victims of gun violence

is a standard piece of Brady propaganda. The figure includes gang members up to age 19.

The actual number of children under 13 who are killed or shot while not participating in gang activity is small. I don't know the number off the top of my head.

The other fact that they conveniently overlook is that almost no criminal or lunatic buys a weapon at a gun show. Most obtain their weapons illegally. Cho bought his from FFLs.

- Jim

[boomerang]

If they really loved their mothers they would advocate nationwide concealed carry (like in the Second Amendment) so their mothers would be able to protect themselves against rapists and other scum.

[Skiprr]

If I have time today or tomorrow, methinks I might pen a counterpoint editorial: "A Mother's Day Wish for Marsha McCartney: A Modest Proposal." The gist would be a safety option far more effective than worrying about the non-existent gun show "loophole" would be for more mothers to learn about firearms and their correct use and safekeeping, and to obtain a CHL and start carrying a handgun.

We have over a decade of data that show trending toward a decrease in violent crime in states where concealed carry has been institutionalized. Reported last January in the Washington Post and carried by the AP, the U.S. Department of Justice said violent crime nationwide is at an "historic low." From 1991 through 2006, the most current year for which data has been aggregated, cumulative violent crime is down 38%: robbery is down 45%, murder down 42%, aggravated assault down 34%, and rape down 27%. Preliminary FBI data for the first half of 2007 shows an additional 1.8% overall decrease in violent crime over the same period in 2006.

Four months ago, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence released its annual rating of the states on gun control, under its flawed assumption that more gun control equals less crime. The NRA ILA summarizes for us how the Brady Campaign's rating match the truth (scores are 1-100, 100 being best):

• California, the state that Brady gave its highest score (79), has total violent crime and murder rates 14% and 23% higher than the rest of the country, respectively. Brady didn't score D.C., which has even more gun control and higher crime rates than California.
• Of the 38 states Brady gave 20 or fewer points, most have total violent crime, murder and robbery rates that are below the national rates.
• States that have total violent crime, murder and robbery rates that are below the national rates got an average of 19, 19 and 14 Brady points, respectively.
• The 10 states with the lowest total violent crime, murder and robbery rates got an average of 12, 12 and 9 Brady points, respectively.

How can we ever reconcile what, from the Brady Campaign's perspective, seem contradictory data? Most of the provisions of the Brady Bill have expired, and Brady has never been able to "close" that pesky--yet pointless--gun show "loophole." Further, and even more confounding to the Brady Campaign, more and more states have adopted "shall-issue" concealed handgun licensing policies.

As of February, 48 states have formalized some form of civilian concealed carry of handguns. Of those, 2 require no permit at all, 34 have Florida-style "shall-issue" laws, and 8 have restrictively-administered, discretionary-issue licensing. Only two states, Illinois and Wisconsin, have no concealed-carry option for civilians. Consider:

• No state adopting a civilian concealed-carry system has ever rescinded it.
• Since 1991, 23 states have adopted shall-issue, right-to-carry laws (since 1987, 29 have done so).
• Since 1991, the number of privately-owned guns has risen by nearly 70 million (BATF, "Firearms Commerce in the United States 2001/2002").
• Since 1991, violent crime is down 38% overall in the U.S. (Bureau of Justice Statistics; http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/; and Federal Bureau of Investigation; http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/ ... index.html).
• In 2006, states which have shall-issue, right-to-carry laws had lower violent crime rates, on average, compared to the rest of the country: total violent crime, 26% lower; murder, 31% lower; robbery, 50% lower; and aggravated assault, 15% lower (Federal Bureau of Investigation; ibid.).

I know I'm typin' to the choir here; just laying out some preliminary thoughts about Ms. McCartney's editorial that, thanks to Lodge2004 for posting it , has left me pretty steamed.

I believe what troubles me most is not the standard Brady rhetoric, but the associative appeal to women on Mother's Day. I'm personally pleased with the march forward that right-to-carry has made over the past decade-and-a-half, but where I see the greatest failing is in the education and participation of women. While the age demographic of concealed handgun licensees in all states is generally proportionate to the state's overall adult population, the gender demographic remains overwhelmingly male. There may well be a reason that rape, of all the violent crimes as categorized by the FBI, has decreased the at the slowest pace, though decreased it has.

In Texas, during the period 9/1/2006 through 8/31/2007, only 18.31% of CHLs were issued to women. The previous year, the rate was even lower, with only 17.67% of the licenses going to women. This is the statistic I would most like to see improved, and why efforts of folks like our own CompVest and llwatson are so important.

Don Kates, a retired professor of constitutional and criminal law, provides a famous, and I think meaningful and pertinent quotation that I'd have to work into any reply:

[quote="Don Kates, in the Tennessee Law Review, "Guns and Public Health: Epidemic of Violence or Pandemic of Propaganda?"; 1994"]"Unfortunately, an almost perfect inverse correlation exists between those who are affected by gun laws, particularly bans, and those whom enforcement should affect. Those easiest to disarm are the responsible and law abiding citizens whose guns represent no meaningful social problem. Irresponsible and criminal owners, whose gun possession creates or exacerbates so many social ills, are the ones most difficult to disarm."[/quote]
And to think I had other plans for the day when I woke up this morning...

[seamusTX]

This is a very good effort.

I have a comment about the slower decline in the occurrence of rape: Certainly the fact that women are less likely to be armed or otherwise able to defend themselves emboldens rapists. However, most rapes are not committed by strangers. 64% are committed by acquaintances or relatives, including so-called date rape (I hate that term). 60% occur in the victim's home or the home of an acquaintance. These rapists are not afraid of the consequences either before or after the crime. They may think that the woman will not report it.

The UCR statistics are sliced and diced here: http://www.aardvarc.org/rape/about/statistics.shtml

None of this is to say that women should not bother arming themselves. Of course they should. But they need further training on threat assessment and self-protection.

- Jim

[agbullet2k1]

This is a very good effort.

I have a comment about the slower decline in the occurrence of rape: Certainly the fact that women are less likely to be armed or otherwise able to defend themselves emboldens rapists. However, most rapes are not committed by strangers. 64% are committed by acquaintances or relatives, including so-called date rape (I hate that term). 60% occur in the victim's home or the home of an acquaintance. These rapists are not afraid of the consequences either before or after the crime. They may think that the woman will not report it.

The UCR statistics are sliced and diced here: http://www.aardvarc.org/rape/about/statistics.shtml

None of this is to say that women should not bother arming themselves. Of course they should. But they need further training on threat assessment and self-protection.

- Jim

Even while we were dating, I made my future wife carry pepper spray everywhere, including to her friend's houses, just because you never know about that "friend of a friend." She resented the idea at first, but warmed up to it after an incident where one of her friends ended up having 3 guys over, 2 of which where friends of the 3rd friend, and were giving her bad vibes the whole time. Nothing happened, but not having a plan to protect herself in case something went wrong rattled her. Now she has a can of OC in her purse, in her car, in my car, in the nightstand, and in the piano bench next to the front door. If only she let me keep that many guns around....

[lawrnk]

If they really loved their mothers they would advocate nationwide concealed carry (like in the Second Amendment) so their mothers would be able to protect themselves against rapists and other scum.

I'm pretty confident that liberals do not love their mothers. They love welfare, open borders, gun free zones, the ACLU, partial birth abortion, and gay marriages. Nuff said.