John Stossel :: GUN CONTROL ISN'T CRIME CONTROL

[NineseveN]

From "the law", a member of my forum...




More studliness from John Stossel:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3083618&page=1

GUN CONTROL ISN'T CRIME CONTROL
Stricter Gun Control Laws Wouldn't Have Prevented Va. Tech Tragedy

April 26, 2007— This past Tuesday the governor of Virginia announced he would close the loophole that allowed Seung-Hui Cho to buy the guns he used to kill 32 people — and himself — on the Virginia Tech campus. OK, it's a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable. But be careful about how far the calls for gun control go, because the idea that gun control laws lower gun crime is a myth.

After the 1997 shooting of 16 kids in Dunblane, England, the United Kingdom passed one of the strictest gun-control laws in the world, banning its citizens from owning almost all types of handguns. Britain seemed to get safer by the minute, as 162,000 newly-illegal firearms were forked over to British officials by law-abiding citizens.

Click here to buy my book full of "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity," available in paperback May 1. And tune in to "20/20" Friday May 4 at 10 p.m. EDT for a full hour of myths.

But this didn't decrease the amount of gun-related crime in the U.K. In fact, gun-related crime has nearly doubled in the U.K. since the ban was enacted.

Might stricter gun laws result in more gun crime? It seems counterintuitive but makes sense if we consider one simple fact: Criminals don't obey the law. Strict gun laws, like the ban in Britain, probably only affect the actions of people who wouldn't commit crimes in the first place.

England's ban didn't magically cause all British handguns to disappear. Officials estimate that more than 250,000 illegal weapons are still in circulation in the country. Without the fear of retaliation from victims who might be packing heat, criminals in possession of these weapons now have a much easier job, and the incidence of gun-related crime has risen. As the saying goes, "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."

It's true that if gun control laws had been stricter in Virginia, Seung-Hui Cho would have had a more difficult time getting ahold of the weapons he used to gun down innocent students and teachers. But it's foolish to assume that stricter gun laws will prevent maniacs like Cho from committing heinous crimes. A deranged criminal will find a way to get his hands on a gun. Or a bomb.

The sad truth is that if gun laws had been less strict in Virginia, there is a possibility that the tragedy at Virginia Tech could have claimed fewer lives.

In January 2006, a bill was proposed in the Virginia State Assembly that would have forced Virginia Tech to change its current policy and allow students and faculty members to legally carry weapons on campus. Teenage college students carrying guns makes me nervous, but shouldn't adults be able to decide if they want to arm themselves — just in case? When the bill was defeated, a Virginia Tech spokesman cheered the action, saying, "This will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

However, one gun rights advocate lamented the bill's failure with chilling accuracy: "You never know when evil will pop up." Back in 2002, evil arrived at Virginia's Appalachian School of Law. A disgruntled student opened fire on the school's campus, killing three and wounding more. The law school also prohibited guns on campus, but fortunately two students happened to have firearms in their cars. When the pair heard gunshots, they retrieved their weapons and trained them on the killer, helping restrain him until authorities arrived.

There's no way to know whether Seung-Hui Cho's murderous rampage could have been stopped in a similar way, but what's certain is that strict gun control laws do not always have the effect that legislators intend. More guns (in the right hands) can stop crime, and fewer guns (in the wrong hands) can make for more crime. Gun control isn't crime control.

[SGTUSArmy]

I knew I liked John Stossel for some reason. In fact when I think of news anchors, his voice is the one I hear.

[CHAUKA]

Stossel takes a lot of heat from his "News Peers" - because of his views do not always match thiers.

[ChamberedRound]

Stossel takes a lot of heat from his "News Peers" - because of his views do not always match thiers.

Yeah, God Forbid anyone is in disagreement with the liberal majority in the media. God Forbid people have the right to speak their minds.

[LastManOut]

Yeah, God Forbid anyone is in disagreement with the liberal majority in the media. God Forbid people have the right to speak their minds.

Yep, the socialists want to restrict the first amendment, but first they must get rid of the second amendment.

[lexington86]

I've always liked John Stossel. He actually wrote another article about the failures of Gun Control while he was working on his "Myths" series of stories. I can't find the link to the article, but I do have the full text (I posted it on my blog a little while back).

Myths About Gun Control
By John Stossel

Guns are dangerous. But myths are dangerous, too. Myths about guns are very dangerous, because they lead to bad laws. And bad laws kill people. "Don't tell me this bill will not make a difference," said President Clinton, who signed the Brady Bill into law.

Sorry. Even the federal government can't say it has made a difference. The Centers for Disease Control did an extensive review of various types of gun control: waiting periods, registration and licensing, and bans on certain firearms. It found that the idea that gun control laws have reduced violent crime is simply a myth.

I wanted to know why the laws weren't working, so I asked the experts. "I'm not going in the store to buy no gun," said one maximum-security inmate in New Jersey. "So, I could care less if they had a background check or not."

"There's guns everywhere," said another inmate. "If you got money, you can get a gun."

Talking to prisoners about guns emphasizes a few key lessons. First, criminals don't obey the law. (That's why we call them "criminals.") Second, no law can repeal the law of supply and demand. If there's money to be made selling something, someone will sell it.

A study funded by the Department of Justice confirmed what the prisoners said. Criminals buy their guns illegally and easily. The study found that what felons fear most is not the police or the prison system, but their fellow citizens, who might be armed. One inmate told me, "When you gonna rob somebody you don't know, it makes it harder because you don't know what to expect out of them."

What if it were legal in America for adults to carry concealed weapons? I put that question to gun-control advocate Rev. Al Sharpton. His eyes opened wide, and he said, "We'd be living in a state of terror!"

In fact, it was a trick question. Most states now have "right to carry" laws. And their people are not living in a state of terror. Not one of those states reported an upsurge in crime.

Why? Because guns are used more than twice as often defensively as criminally. When armed men broke into Susan Gonzalez' house and shot her, she grabbed her husband's gun and started firing. "I figured if I could shoot one of them, even if we both died, someone would know who had been in my home." She killed one of the intruders. She lived. Studies on defensive use of guns find this kind of thing happens at least 700,000 times a year.

And there's another myth, with a special risk of its own. The myth has it that the Supreme Court, in a case called United States v. Miller, interpreted the Second Amendment -- "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" -- as conferring a special privilege on the National Guard, and not as affirming an individual right. In fact, what the court held is only that the right to bear arms doesn't mean Congress can't prohibit certain kinds of guns that aren't necessary for the common defense. Interestingly, federal law still says every able-bodied American man from 17 to 44 is a member of the United States militia.

What's the special risk? As Alex Kozinski, a federal appeals judge and an immigrant from Eastern Europe, warned in 2003, "the simple truth -- born of experience -- is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people."

"The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do," Judge Kozinski noted. "But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."

[RiflesRock]

I read one of his books and it was excellent. He tells it they way it is or only reports and lets you decide. He is an all right guy as far as I am concerned. He has common sense.

[NineseveN]

I've always liked John Stossel. He actually wrote another article about the failures of Gun Control while he was working on his "Myths" series of stories. I can't find the link to the article, but I do have the full text (I posted it on my blog a little while back).

I posted this here last week as well: http://www.pafoa.org/forum/general-2...ence-myth.html

http://www.abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3053333&page=1

The School Violence Myth
Despite Media Coverage of the Va Tech Massacre, American Schools are Safer than Ever
By JOHN STOSSEL

April 18, 2007 — The randomness of the Virginia Tech shootings, and the way we hear the gory, horrific details reported over and over can make us lose perspective. One psychologist issued a press release saying, "We need to take action now to … end this epidemic of violence."

California legislators held special hearings on campus safety, and Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said she hoped this would "reignite the dormant effort to pass common-sense gun regulations in this nation." Please. That's a lot of reaction for something that almost never happens.

Many Americans believe schools are more dangerous than ever, but that's a myth! It's one of many I've discovered in 36 years of consumer reporting. (Click here for more myths).

Death Toll Declining

In the early '90s — the first years records were kept — there were more than 40 deaths just from K-12 school shootings per year. Since then, the death toll has been trending down, not up.

MYTH: Schools are violent.
TRUTH: Schools are pretty safe.

Media bad news bears love crime and violence. Terrible things are happening, and everyone knows they're happening much more often. The gory pictures and the excited copy conceal the actual truth: America is safer than almost any country in human history.

The Virginia Tech shooting has resurrected the fears that the Columbine, Jonesboro and Paducah school shootings created during the late 1990s. Those killings triggered a regular spate of stories about "spreading school violence." But school violence in America had been steadily decreasing. Violent crimes in schools dropped by half between 1992 and 2002, although reporting about school violence increased.

Schools Are Safe

The shooting incidents are awful but aberrant; more Americans die from lightning strikes than from school violence. More kids die in bathtubs. But the media had become obsessed with school violence. After Columbine, my network aired 383 stories about the tragedy. Sam Donaldson warned wary parents and students about "angry teens turning up in other towns." CBS News correspondent Bob McNamara called school shootings "an American nightmare that too many schools know too well."

But it wasn't a nightmare that schools knew well. In fact, students are probably safer in school than they are at home or at the mall. Crime statistics show that kids are twice as likely to be victims of violence away from school than they are in school.

The media hysteria encouraged people who run schools to do crazy things, like spend thousands of dollars on security cameras, and hire police officers to guard the doors. Some schools terrified students by running SWAT team drills; cops burst into classrooms and ordered kids down to the floor. The result? Students felt less secure than ever before. Though school violence was down, studies show kids were more scared. "They can't learn under these conditions," said psychologist Frank Farley, former head of the American Psychological Association.

To listen to the media, Farley told me, you'd have to believe that Chicken Little was right. "The sky is truly falling. America is in terrible straits and our schools are a mess and they're violent. But they are not violent. I don't know why there is all this press coverage, other than the need for a story," said Farley.

That's it. The media beast must be fed. Scares drive up ratings.

And here's a video about the myths piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR9RN_iSKtg

[lexington86]

I posted this here last week as well

Oops... sorry I missed that. Thanks for the other articles and the video, though.

[NineseveN]

Oops... sorry I missed that. Thanks for the other articles and the video, though.

I don't think the articles we posted are exactly the same, I was just adding to yours. More Stossel is good.