The NRA is Right

...In no state did the number of self-defense homicides approach the murder toll...

...In 1982, 19 states reported to the FBI that not once did a private citizen use a handgun to kill a criminal...

...Even if handgun production stopped tomorrow, millions would remain in the dresser drawers of America's bedrooms—and many of them would probably stay there...

...Faced with facts like these, anti-control advocates often turn to the argument of last resort: the Second Amendment...

...Like those in the NRA, HCI chairman Nelson T. "Pete" Shields "firmly believe(s) in the right of law-abiding citizens to possess handguns . . . for legitimate purposes...

...Public health campaigns have changed the way Americans look at cigarette smoking and drunk driving and can do the same for handguns...

...That's why the NRA is ultimately wrong...

...This is an ugly truth for a country that thinks of handgun violence as a "crime" issue and believes that it's somehow possible to separate "good" handguns (those in our hands for selfdefense) from "bad" handguns (those in the hands of criminals...

...A "controlled" handgun kills just as effectively as an "uncontrolled" one...

...In 1985, 59 percent of all murders were committed by people known to the victim...

...Between 1961 and 1981, according to the American Association of Suicidology, the suicide rate for 15- to 24-yearolds increased 150 percent...

...HCI) has helped the handgun lobby by setting up the perfect strawman for the NRA to shoot down...

...Founded in 1974 as the National Council to Control Handguns, HCI originally called a ban on private handgun possession the "most effective" solution to reducing violent crime rapidly and was at one time a member of NCBH...

...This balance is shifting, however, as more women own or have access to handguns...

...The enemy is us For most who attempt suicide, the will to die lasts only briefly...

...Contrary to popular perception, the most prevalent form of handgun death in America isn't murder but suicide...

...THE NRA IS RIGHT But we still need to ban handguns by Josh Sugarmann One tenet of the National Rifle Association's faith has always been that handgun controls do little to stop criminals from obtaining handguns...

...Of the handgun deaths that occur each year, approximately 12,000 are suicides...

...Between 1970 and 1978 the suicide rate for young women rose 50 percent, primarily due to increased use of handguns...

...Handgun Control Inc...

...And of the 9,000 handgun deaths classi Josh Sugarmann is• a New York writer and is working on a book on the handgun control movement...

...Pills, razor blades, and gas aren't guaranteed killers, and they take time...

...Moreover, the absolute last segment of society to be affected by any measure would be criminals...

...Criminals don't buy handguns in gun stores...

...By making it more difficult for criminals, drug addicts, etc., to get handguns, and by ensuring that law-abiding citizens know how to maintain their handguns, we can reduce handgun violence," it promises...

...But after more than a decade, the other foot hasn't followed...

...A handgun ban would not affect millions of rifles and shotguns...

...Controlling the vector Recognizing that eliminating a disease requires prevention, not treatment, health professionals have been in the forefront of those calling for a national ban on handguns...

...Of course, there is no way to lock society's cupboard and prevent every distraught soul from injuring him or herself...

...According to HCI communications director Barbara Lautman, together these measures would "attack pretty much the heart of the problem ." HCI appears to have arrived at its crime focus by taking polls...

...with that of nations with strict handgun laws, HCI states: "In 1983, handguns killed 35 people in Japan, 8 in Great Britain, 27 in Switzerland, 6 in Canada, 7 in Sweden, 10 in Australia, and 9,014 in the United States ." Handguns killed a lot more than that in the United States...

...But the final solution lies in changing the way handguns and handgun violence are viewed by society...

...The black market that has fed off the legal sale of handguns would continue for a long while...

...Moreover, most burglaries occur when homes are vacant, so the handgun in the drawer is no deterrent...

...It would also probably be the first item stolen...

...For once, the NRA is right and America's leading handgun control organization is wrong...

...Saturated dresser drawers In a nation with 40 million handguns—where anyone who wants one can get one—it's time to face a chilling fact...

...Not surprisingly, the American Public Health Association, the American Association of Suicidology, and the American Psychiatric Association, are three of the 31 national organizations that are members of National Coalition to Ban Handguns (NCBH...

...Handguns were used in more than 70 percent of those deaths...

...Of course, someone who truly wants to kill himself can find another way...

...Beyond any doubt, thousands more lives are lost every year because of the proliferation of handguns than are saved," says Joseph McNamara, chief of police of San Jose, who has also been police chief in Kansas City, a beat cop in Harlem, and is the author of a book on defense against violent crime...

...Each of these measures may save some lives or help catch a few criminals, but none—by itself or taken together—will stop the vast majority of handgun suicides or murders...

...It also endorses mandatory sentencing for the use of a handgun in a crime...

...A last-minute amendment added by pro-control forces banned the future production and sale of machine guns for civilian use...

...Although handguns are rarely used to kill criminals, an obvious question remains: How often are they used merely to wound or scare away intruders...

...Consider that although women try to kill themselves four times as often as men, men succeed three to four times as often...

...That's the problem when you use public opinion polls to tell you what your position's going to be...

...Outlawing handguns would in no way be a panacea...

...We're way past the point where registration, licensing, safety training, waiting periods, or mandatory sentencing are going to have much effect...

...About 13,000 suicides and accidents more...

...Further increases in suicides among women, for example, might be curtailed...

...Only 15 percent were committed by strangers, and only 18 percent were the result of felonious activity...

...Between 1981 and 1983, nearly 69,000 Americans lost their lives to handguns...

...Many will also undoubtedly argue that any control measure—no matter how ill-conceived or ineffective— would be a good first step...

...From 1984 to 1986 he was communications director of the National Coalition to Ban Handguns...

...Michael Beard, president of NCBH, maintains that HCI's focus on crime "started with a public relations concern...

...In all, fewer than 10 percent of handgun deaths are felony-related...

...Those advocating a step-by-step process insist that a ban would be too radical and therefore unacceptable to Congress and the public...

...In his 1981 book, Guns Don't Die—People Do, Shields points out that the majority of Americans don't favor a ban on handguns...

...A handgun is not a blender...

...The report linked the rise in murders and suicides among the young to the increased use of firearms—primarily handguns...

...In its most recent poster comparing the handgun murder toll in the U.S...

...In 1981, the Surgeon General's Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health traced the "epidemic of deaths and injuries among children and youth" to handguns, and called for "nothing short of a total ban ." It is estimated that on average, one child dies from handgun wounds each day...

...That's why they're criminals...

...Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that stated, "Because the possession of handguns is not part of the right to keep and bear arms, [the Morton Grove ordinance] does not violate the Second Amendment !' Criminal equivocation Unfortunately, powerful as the NRA is, it has received additional help from the leading handgun control group...

...Most control recommendations merely perpetuate the myth that with proper care a handgun can be as safe a tool as any other...

...But it isn't criminals who are killing most of the 20,000 to 22,000 people who die from handguns each year...

...High suicide rates seem to occur where highly lethal suicidal methods are not only available, but also where they are culturally acceptable," writes Dr...

...In its attempt to paint handgun violence solely as a crime issue, HCI goes so far as to sometimes ignore the weapon's non-crime death tally...

...A hardcore 40 percent of the American public has always endorsed banning handguns...

...In other areas of firearms control there has been increasing recognition that bans are the most effective solution...

...Few suicides, accidental killings, or acquaintance murders are the result of cop-killer bullets or machine guns...

...In each case, the reasoning was simple: the harm done by these objects outweighed any possible benefit they brought to society...

...Most people who commit suicide with a firearm use a handgun...

...But experience shows that no weapon provides the combination of lethality and convenience that a handgun does...

...As several public health organizations have noted, the best way to curb a public health problem is through prevention—in this case, the banning of all handguns from civilian hands...

...It advocates mandatory safety training, a waiting period during which a background check can be run on a purchaser, and a license to carry a handgun, with mandatory sentencing for violators...

...At minimum, a handgun ban would prevent the escalation of killings in segments of society that have not yet been saturated by handgun manufacturers...

...Last year, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzing gun use in the home over a six-year period in the Seattle, Washington area, found that for every time a firearm was used to kill an intruder in self-defense, 198 lives ended in murders, suicides, or accidents...

...Of course there are other ways of committing suicide or crimes of passion...

...But by ending new handgun production, the availability of illegal handguns can only decrease...

...Robert Markush of the University of Alabama, who has studied the use of handguns in suicide...

...HCI endorses a ban only on short-barrelled handguns (the preferred weapon of criminals...

...But the historic 1981 Morton Grove, Illinois, ban on handgun sale and possession exploded that rationale...

...In 1986, Congress banned certain types of armor-piercing "cop-killer" bullets...

...The handgun must be seen for what it is, not what we'd like it to be...

...Comparing the relationship between handguns and violence to mosquitos and malaria, Stephen P. Teret, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Injury Prevention Center, says, "As public health professionals, if we are faced with a disease that is carried by some type of vehicle/vector like a mosquito, our initial response would be to control the vector...

...A 1985 NCBH study found that a handgun is 118 times more likely to be used in a suicide, murder, or fatal accident than to kill a criminal...

...Only one out of every ten people attempting suicide is going to kill himself no matter what...

...England, for instance, curbed suicide by replacing its most common means of committing suicide—coal stove gas—with less toxic natural gas...

...We are...

...What they do want, however, is a set of strict laws to control the easy access to handguns by the criminal and the violence prone—as long as those controls don't jeopardize the perceived right of law-abiding citizens to buy and own handguns for self defense [italics his]" Shields admits "this is not based on any naive hope that criminals will obey such laws...

...Some people in the movement felt Americans were worried about crime, and that was one way to approach the problem...

...But even the NRA has admitted that there is no "adequate measure that more lives are saved by arms in good hands than are lost by arms in evil hands ." Again, the NRA is right...

...No reliable statistics are available, but most police officials agree that in a criminal confrontation on the street, the handgun-toting civilian is far more likely to be killed or lose his handgun to a criminal than successfully use the weapon in self-defense...

...Ultimately, nothing short of taking the product off the market is really going to have an effect on the problem" HCI's cops and robbers emphasis has been endlessly frustrating to many in the anti-handgun movement...

...Most murders aren't crime-related, but are the result of arguments between friends and among families...

...Unfortunately, no law has addressed the major public health problem...

...An additional 1,000 fatalities are accidents...

...Handguns, however, lend themselves well to spontaneity...

...Handguns are the number one weapon for both murder and suicide and are second only to auto accidents as the leading cause of death due to injury...

...As the FBI admits every year in its Uniform Crime Reports, "murder is a societal problem over which law enforcement has little or no control ." The FBI doesn't publish separate statistics on who's killing whom with handguns, but it is assumed that what is true of all murders is true of handgun murders...

...For one reason: women use pills or less lethal means...

...Though handgun availability is not a crime issue, it does represent a major public health threat...

...fied as murders, most are not caused by predatory strangers...

...The success or failure of an attempt depends primarily on the lethality of the means...

...During that same period there were only 583 justifiable homicides reported to the FBI, in which someone used a handgun to kill a stranger—a burglar, rapist, or other criminal...

...HCI would offer handgun control as a solution to crime, and the NRA would effectively rebut their arguments with the commonsensical observation that criminals are not likely to obey such laws...

...There's no reason why if the vehicle/vector is a handgun, we should not be interested in controlling the handgun ." The NRA refers to handgun suicides, accidental killings, and murders by acquaintances as "the price of freedom ." It believes that handguns right enough wrongs, stop enough crimes, and kill enough criminals to justify these deaths...

...men use handguns...

...Fifteen years after the switch, studies found that suicide rates had dropped and remained low, even though the number of suicide attempts had increased...

...For the past 12 years, many in the handgun control movement have confined their debate to what the public supposedly wants and expects to hear—not to reality...

...But no means is more lethal, effective, or handy...

...There was also a silver lining to last year's NRA-McClureVolkmer handgun "decontrol" bill, which weakened the already lax Gun Control Act of 1968, making it legal, for instance, for people to transport unloaded, "not readily accessible" handguns interstate...

...The only two federal measures passed since the Gun Control Act of 1968 have been bans...

...Nothing could be further from the truth...

...Handguns represent only 30 percent of all the guns out there but are responsible for 90 percent of firearms misuse...

...I can't help but think that HCI's refusal to abandon the crime argument has harmed the longterm progress of the movement...

...And I think a lot of the handgun control movement has looked at whatever's hot at the time and tried to latch onto that, rather than sticking to the basic message that there is a relationship between the availability of handguns and the handgun violence in our society...

...Still, there are ways we can promote public safety without becoming a nation of nannies...

...In a 1985 report, the Surgeon General's Workshop on Violence and Public Health recommended "a complete and universal ban on the sale, manufacture, importation, and possession of handguns (except for authorized police and military personnel...

...In 1983, the U.S...

...Handgun violence is usually the result of people being angry, drunk, careless, or depressed— who just happen to have a handgun around...

...Rather, it is based on the willingness of the rest of us to be responsible and accountable citizens, and the knowledge that to the degree we are, we make it more difficult for the criminal to get a handgun ." This wasn't always HCI's stand...

...Keep handguns out of the wrong hands," HCI says...

...Five states reported that more than 130 citizens were murdered with handguns for each time a handgun was justifiably used to kill a criminal...

...Contrary to NRA fantasies, black-booted fascists would not be kicking down doors searching for handguns...