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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (239032)	3/17/2002 5:29:51 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

kevie more retarded associations. I say the decrease in crime in the District of Columbia is due to the fact that poor black women are encouraged to have the skull of the child they are carrying smashed in and this over the years has lead to a reduction on those who were born and grew up to be criminals. I know of no direct cause and effect evidence between gun laws and gun deaths. The gun deaths are dozens of times more in the District of Columbia over may places the have no restrictions on guns. It would be nice if you learned how to think. tom watson tosiwmee

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (239032)	3/17/2002 5:34:45 PM
From: Sedohr Nod	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Thanks Kevin...i appreciate the quick response....statistically it is safer to fly than to drive...so how come i feel safer on the ground behind the wheel of my vehicle?....i hope neither of us ever has to confront a madman on a killing spree...but if it does happen ....i hope someone fills that s.o.b. full of holes and quickly whether they are carrying legally or not.... And on a side note...i'm not sure a site called bradycampaign.org would qualify as an unbiased source...but i will look into their numbers....thanks again

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (239032)	3/17/2002 6:43:11 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Respond to of 769670

disastercenter.com One murder in Vermont would cause an increas of 10% yet they have the same pop, as Wash. DC. Crime rates need to be stated in rates and actual numbers. Vermont, with the most liberal CC laws (none) in the country had 10 murders. What does that prove? Not much except that CC does not relate to murder rates in a negative way. Why so many more murders in Wash. DC? Well, it's because of concealed carry laws, of course, NOT. Vermont crime rates disastercenter.com Crime rates for Washington D.C. disastercenter.com By Bruce A. Clark baclark@med.pitt.edu (Written 5/19/96) A Modest Proposal: End Gun Control in Washington, D.C. ... let's begin our noble experiment by repealing all local gun laws in the District. (We can leave in place the extremely mild-mannered federal Form 4473 and related procedures--hell, let's go all the way and get rid of these too.) The Contract Republicans have sworn that after the initial 100 days of passing Contract-related legislation, they will repeal last year's ban on certain semi-automatic weapons. Let's repeal that ban now, in the District only, as part of our experiment. Interestingly enough, you are not the only person to have this idea. On March 19 of this year, about 100 Capitol Hill residents met with four members of the Washington, DC, Police Department to discuss home security, including how they could legally own shotguns and rifles for self defense. Lt. Lowell K. Duckett told them that Residents are right to arm themselves. He said that the District's gun control law should be repealed. Duckett is a special assistant to Police Chief Larry D. Soulsby and president of the Black Police Caucus. He said "Gun control has not worked in D.C. The only people who have guns are criminals. We have the strictest gun laws in the nation and one of the highest murder rates. It's quicker to pull your Smith & Wesson than to dial 911 if you're being robbed." The District's 1976 gun law banned handguns, and the public perceives that all gun ownership is illegal in the District. This is not true. Citizens can legally own rifles and shotguns. However, people must make an application to police prior to purchasing a gun. DC's gun law also mandates registration of shotguns and rifles. The law makes it difficult for honest people to defend themselves even with long guns, because those in homes must be kept unloaded and disassembled or locked. It looks like experimentation on people is already being conducted in Washington, DC. The experiment seems to be this -- Let's see what happens to honest people when we neither provide good police protection, nor require police to protect any individual person, nor allow people to have the means to defend themselves. In the twenty years since DC enacted a virtual handgun ban, the city's murder rate has risen 200% and there has been a 300% rise in handgun-related homicide. Handgun use went from less than 60% of killings to 83%. The Capitol's gun law simply makes honest citizens easy prey for criminals. In case you are tempted to say, despite what I've written on the subject previously, that the crimes in DC are the result of guns being brought in from other places, just as Virginia's Governor Wilder said in the debate over Virginia's 'gun rationing' law, remember: DC's total violent crime rate is about 13 times higher than Virginia's, and the homicide rate was 23 times higher. In DC, handguns are nearly prohibited, and in the Northern Virginia areas DC metropolitan area, there are relatively unintrusive gun laws. If it's just the availability of guns which is causing the problem, why are the crime rates in the two areas so dissimilar? When compared with other areas with similar demographics and circumstances, no gun law any city, state or country can be demonstrated to have ever reduced violent crime, or slowed its rate of growth. Here's one more important detail: to establish that the whole thing is a fair experiment, that we wouldn't ask anyone to submit to something that we wouldn't ourselves, let's add one rider. Every member of Congress will be required to reside in the District. And not in some fenced off, guarded, wealthy enclave either. In the neighborhoods. Great idea!!