The day I join the NRA, I think I'll shoot myself...let me help you here...just like the NRA, you present distorted fact or choose one statistic out of 100's to prove or disprove a fact...while you are correct that some states and localities have enacted strict licensing and other control measures, and federal legislation (1968) which prohibit the sale of rifles by mail, your lovely NRA has figured out all sorts of end runs around this restriction by either offering up firearms at gun shows or antique auctions...the 1994 federal crime bill banned the manufacture, sale, and possession of certain assault weapons, but the NRA continues to fight that one as well...what need does this world have for cop killer teflon bullets, assault weapons, Saturday Night Specials, and the latest and greatest technology (laser sights, caseless ammunition, etc), all of which are wildly supported by the NRA...you want statistics, try a few of these:
1) In 1995, nearly 35,000 Americans died by gunfire. Among all consumer products, only motor vehicles outpace guns as a cause of fatal injury, and guns will pass them by 2003.
2) Contrary to popular perception, most homicides do not occur as the result of an attack by a stranger but stem from an argument between people who know each other and are often related. For murders in 1995, almost half of the victims were either related to (11 percent) or acquainted with (34 percent) their killers. Only 15 percent were killed by strangers. Of female victims, 26 percent were killed by their husbands or boyfriends.
3) A gun is far more likely to be used in suicide, murder, or fatal accident than to kill a criminal. Using federal government figures, for every time a citizen used a firearm in 1995 in a justifiable homicide, 131 lives were ended in firearm murders, suicides, and unintentional shootings.
4) Homicide is the leading cause of death among both African-American males and females 15 to 34 years of age. Tallying up murders, suicides, and unintentional shootings, the firearm death rate among teenagers aged 15 to 19 increased 59 percent from 1988 through 1993, reaching 27.8 deaths per 100,000?the highest level ever.
5) For all our fear and fascination with guns and murder, the fact remains that most gun deaths in America are not the result of murder (15,456 for 1994), but suicide (20,540 for 1994). It is estimated that only about 10 percent of suicides by firearms are committed with firearms purchased specifically for the act.
6) The wholesale value of firearms manufactured in the United States in 1994 totaled more than $1.4 billion. The value of handguns manufactured that year totaled $668 million, while the value of rifles and shotguns totaled $737 million. The value of ammunition manufactured totaled $680 million. The combined wholesale value of both manufactured firearms and ammunition in 1994 was more than $2 billion.
7) In 1980 pistols?semi-automatic handguns?accounted for only 32 percent of the 2.3 million handguns produced in the United States. The majority was revolvers. By 1994 this ratio had reversed itself; pistols accounted for 77 percent of the 2.6 million handguns produced that year.
8) To counteract the sales slump of the 1980s, gun makers began to expand the market with niche marketing campaigns aimed at women and youth.
9) It is estimated that in 1990 the lifetime economic cost of firearms violence totaled $20.4 billion.
10) Prior to the Violent Crime Control Law Enforcement Act of 1994 the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) estimated that the majority of America's quarter million gun dealers did not operate businesses such as gun stores or sporting goods outlets, but out of their homes. An unknown number of these "kitchen-table" dealers were involved in high-volume, criminal gun trafficking. Due to changes contained in the 1994 law, as of February 1996, the number of illegitimate dealers has dropped by more than 100,000. The number of illegitimate dealers continues to drop by 150 a day.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." ---Thomas Jefferson, 1816 |
