Gun laws cause Maryland's sky-high crime?
2nd Amendment group charges politicians with creating 'victim-rich environment'
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By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
A Maryland gun-rights activist organization has blamed the state's number-one nationwide ranking for armed robberies on restrictive gun laws that "promote victim disarmament."
According to the Maryland Citizens Defense League, "the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report [for 1999] shows Maryland with the highest robbery rate for the fifth year in a row."
The group said its study of the Uniform Crime Report, which was released by the FBI in October, "shows Maryland No. 4 in violent crime," up from "No. 5 last year." Also, the state "remains No. 4 in murder(s), and keeps America's top robbery rate, held since 1995, giving Maryland the dubious distinction as one of the most violent states in the nation."
The FBI report said Maryland's robbery rate was 263.7 per 100,000 citizens -- a rate that surpasses New York's rate of 240.8 and is much higher than that national average of 150.2.
The gun rights organization blamed the escalating violence on a lack of "'victim prevention' in the Free State," which is "at an all-time low because of onerous [gun control] legislation."
The group blames lengthy waiting periods for handgun purchases, the 1996 Gun Violence Act, bans on affordable handguns, one-gun-per-month programs, the Responsible Gun Safety Act of 2000, discretionary concealed-carry permit laws and other measures that "tie the hands of citizens who would choose to protect themselves" by owning a firearm.
"By sponsoring and promoting victim disarmament in high-crime neighborhoods," the group said, Maryland legislators and Gov. Parris Glendening, a Democrat, "have created the violent criminal's dream - a 'victim-rich' environment." The group said state gun control laws have, "for professional and amateur robbers alike, [created] the safest working conditions in these United States."
Other critics have said that while the national violent crime rate has fallen overall, in some places where gun laws are the most restrictive there remain pockets of high crime and violence.
"Politicians who support more gun control during the 2001 Maryland General Assembly demonstrate either an inability to understand the reality of violent crime confronting the people or worse -- a lack of caring," the group said.
"Our leaders have armed guards or carry permits to protect themselves, [yet] 'we the people' suffer and they deny us our right to keep and bear arms."
Other research bears out gun control opponents' assertions that more gun laws and restrictive bans increase, rather than decrease, crime.
According to a CATO Institute research paper, "the 31 states that have 'shall issue' laws allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons have, on average, a 24 percent lower violent crime rate, a 19 percent lower murder rate and a 39 percent lower robbery rate than states that forbid concealed weapons."
"In fact, the nine states with the lowest violent crime rates are all right-to-carry states. Remarkably, guns are used for self-defense more than 2 million times a year, three to five times the estimated number of violent crimes committed with guns," the paper said.
Also, Florida State University professor Gary Kleck analyzed data from every U.S. city with a population over 100,000 and found that waiting periods had no statistically significant effect, CATO said.
"Even University of Maryland anti-gun researcher David McDowell found that 'waiting periods have no influence on either gun homicides or gun suicides,'" said the institute.
Gun-control groups, such as Handgun Control, Inc. and the Violence Policy Center, have asserted that lower murder rates in other countries with much stricter gun control or virtual bans on private gun ownership demonstrate the effectiveness of such laws, and the desirability of their adoption in the U.S. as well.
But CATO said, "In Israel and Switzerland, for example, a license to possess guns is available on demand to every law-abiding adult, and guns are easily obtainable in both nations." Yet, admits Dr. Arthur Kellerman, one of the foremost medical advocates of gun control, "Switzerland and Israel 'have rates of homicide that are low despite rates of home firearm ownership that are at least as high as those in the United States.'"
"The basic premise of the gun control movement, that easy access to guns causes higher crime, is contradicted by the facts, by history and by reason. Let's hope more people are catching on," said CATO publications director David Lampo.
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