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Arrogant ideology trumping reality in Washington, D.C. and United States, notes American gun law expert
Washington, DC
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Arrogant ideological fantasy trumping truth and reality in Washington, D.C. and United States
By John M. Snyder
Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is upset with a federal appellate court's 2-1 decision declaring his city's handgun ban unconstitutional as a violation of the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.
In announcing the District of Columbia's request this week that the full appellate court rehear the case, Fenty dismissed Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman's reasoned 58-page decision with the flip comment that "more guns simply lead to more violence"
This self-righteous "don't confuse me with the facts" arrogance on the part of a public official is most troubling. It ignores the facts, including some historic District of Columbia facts.
As U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas noted late last month when she along with over 40 original cosponsors introduced legislation to overturn the District's horrendous denial of the civil right to bear arms, "The District of Columbia enacted the Firearms and Control Regulations Act in 1976 that banned handguns and required rifles and shotguns to be registered and stored unloaded and either locked or dissembled, giving it the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. Prior to the gun ban's implementation, the murder rate in the District was on the decline. Following the ban, the murder rate began to rise while violent crime was decreasing nationally. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the District of Columbia led the nation in violent crime"
According to Criminologist Gary Kleck of Florida State University, writing in Armed, published by Prometheus Books in 2001, there are nearly two million defensive uses of handguns by citizens each year in the United States.
Scholar John R. Lott, Jr. has demonstrated repeatedly, most notably in his book More Guns Less Crime, that when jurisdictions adopt policies making it mandatory for qualified law-abiding citizens to obtain permits to carry concealed firearms when they apply for them, rates of violent crime undergo significant decreases.
So, contrary to Fenty's mindless assertion that "more guns simply lead to more violence," the truth is that more guns really lead to less violence. Guns save lives.
It is Fenty's arrogant thoughtlessness that is so troubling, but he is not alone. It is a phenomenon that one sees repeated around the country.
In Florida recently, when the State Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 7-1 to approve a bill that would prohibit business owners in the Sunshine State from barring guns in their parking lots so that law-abiding workers may keep their arms locked in their automobiles while they're at work, Mark Wilson, Executive Vice President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce said: "Some of our members are dumbfounded that you can be smart enough to be in the Legislature and still consider this bill seriously"
What arrogance! What self-righteousness! What stupidity!
The Wilson statement alone could give Florida legislators reason enough to vote overwhelmingly for the bill, the proposed Individual Personal Private Property Protection Act of 2007, SB2356/HB1417.
In Illinois, in an obvious attempt to further undercut the right to self-defense of Prairie State citizens, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's state legislative cronies are sponsoring bills to provide for gun rationing, restrictive handgun dealer licensing and a ban on sport-utility rifles.
In the United States Congress itself, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York is proposing a ban on the importation and manufacture of scores of models of semiautomatic firearms which hundreds of thousands of not tens of millions of law-abiding American citizens own for self-defense and other legitimate purposes. Under H.R. 1022, the U.S. Justice Department under either a friendly or unfriendly Administration would be empowered to ban still more firearm models.
Whether it's Fenty, Wilson, Daley, McCarthy or anyone else, this arrogant disregard for the right and ability of law-abiding citizens to protect their lives, their right to life itself, is a most troubling development. It casts a pall over our country. Citizens must confront it and give these people what's coming to them.
A former Associate Editor of The American Rifleman, official monthly journal of the National Rifle Association, Snyder is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation and author of the book Gun Saint.
By John M. Snyder
Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is upset with a federal appellate court's 2-1 decision declaring his city's handgun ban unconstitutional as a violation of the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.
In announcing the District of Columbia's request this week that the full appellate court rehear the case, Fenty dismissed Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman's reasoned 58-page decision with the flip comment that "more guns simply lead to more violence"
This self-righteous "don't confuse me with the facts" arrogance on the part of a public official is most troubling. It ignores the facts, including some historic District of Columbia facts.
As U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas noted late last month when she along with over 40 original cosponsors introduced legislation to overturn the District's horrendous denial of the civil right to bear arms, "The District of Columbia enacted the Firearms and Control Regulations Act in 1976 that banned handguns and required rifles and shotguns to be registered and stored unloaded and either locked or dissembled, giving it the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. Prior to the gun ban's implementation, the murder rate in the District was on the decline. Following the ban, the murder rate began to rise while violent crime was decreasing nationally. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the District of Columbia led the nation in violent crime"
According to Criminologist Gary Kleck of Florida State University, writing in Armed, published by Prometheus Books in 2001, there are nearly two million defensive uses of handguns by citizens each year in the United States.
Scholar John R. Lott, Jr. has demonstrated repeatedly, most notably in his book More Guns Less Crime, that when jurisdictions adopt policies making it mandatory for qualified law-abiding citizens to obtain permits to carry concealed firearms when they apply for them, rates of violent crime undergo significant decreases.
So, contrary to Fenty's mindless assertion that "more guns simply lead to more violence," the truth is that more guns really lead to less violence. Guns save lives.
It is Fenty's arrogant thoughtlessness that is so troubling, but he is not alone. It is a phenomenon that one sees repeated around the country.
In Florida recently, when the State Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 7-1 to approve a bill that would prohibit business owners in the Sunshine State from barring guns in their parking lots so that law-abiding workers may keep their arms locked in their automobiles while they're at work, Mark Wilson, Executive Vice President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce said: "Some of our members are dumbfounded that you can be smart enough to be in the Legislature and still consider this bill seriously"
What arrogance! What self-righteousness! What stupidity!
The Wilson statement alone could give Florida legislators reason enough to vote overwhelmingly for the bill, the proposed Individual Personal Private Property Protection Act of 2007, SB2356/HB1417.
In Illinois, in an obvious attempt to further undercut the right to self-defense of Prairie State citizens, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's state legislative cronies are sponsoring bills to provide for gun rationing, restrictive handgun dealer licensing and a ban on sport-utility rifles.
In the United States Congress itself, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York is proposing a ban on the importation and manufacture of scores of models of semiautomatic firearms which hundreds of thousands of not tens of millions of law-abiding American citizens own for self-defense and other legitimate purposes. Under H.R. 1022, the U.S. Justice Department under either a friendly or unfriendly Administration would be empowered to ban still more firearm models.
Whether it's Fenty, Wilson, Daley, McCarthy or anyone else, this arrogant disregard for the right and ability of law-abiding citizens to protect their lives, their right to life itself, is a most troubling development. It casts a pall over our country. Citizens must confront it and give these people what's coming to them.
A former Associate Editor of The American Rifleman, official monthly journal of the National Rifle Association, Snyder is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation and author of the book Gun Saint.
John M. Snyder
Manager
Telum Associates, LLC
Arlington, VA
202-326-5259
