2008 Woodie Awards
Gun control not a viable solution to school violence
Tom Speaker
Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: OpEd Page
After the release of Michael Moore's hole-ridden Bowling for Columbine in 2002, anti-gun sentiment became more prominent in America. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans authorities confiscated firearms from many local gun owners to combat the area's roving armed gangs. Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty recently proposed to uphold his city's gun ban even after a federal appeals court overturned it. And now, given Monday's tragedy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, many more Americans are probably going to ask, "Why does America need guns?"
The answer can be found in a 2001 Department of Justice report titled, "Firearm Use by Offenders." The first page of the file establishes that in 1997, a paltry 21.2 percent of prison inmates who had possessed a firearm received their weapon from a legal retailer. Thirty-nine-point-six-percent attained the gun through friends or family, and 39.2 percent acquired it through the black market. Added together, that's a staggering 78.8 percent of prisoners procuring their firearm illegally.
These statistics demonstrate that regardless of the restrictions set in place, a murderer or burglar, who is unlikely to abide by the law in the first place, will go through whatever procedures necessary to access a desired firearm. Hence, gun control laws will not influence him in the long run. Those laws will affect citizens who want to defend themselves from criminals.
Those who oppose this logic often cite a 1986 study by Arthur Kellerman which stated that "a homeowner's gun is 43 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder," and therefore "the advisability of keeping firearms in the home for protection must be questioned." The ratio used is 389 violent
gun deaths in one Washington county to nine caused from self-protection homicide (over the course of several years). But what the study ignores is that 333 of those deaths were from suicide, and 41 were from criminal homicide (criminals who might have received the weapon illegally). Only 12 of the deaths were accidental.
The answer can be found in a 2001 Department of Justice report titled, "Firearm Use by Offenders." The first page of the file establishes that in 1997, a paltry 21.2 percent of prison inmates who had possessed a firearm received their weapon from a legal retailer. Thirty-nine-point-six-percent attained the gun through friends or family, and 39.2 percent acquired it through the black market. Added together, that's a staggering 78.8 percent of prisoners procuring their firearm illegally.
These statistics demonstrate that regardless of the restrictions set in place, a murderer or burglar, who is unlikely to abide by the law in the first place, will go through whatever procedures necessary to access a desired firearm. Hence, gun control laws will not influence him in the long run. Those laws will affect citizens who want to defend themselves from criminals.
Those who oppose this logic often cite a 1986 study by Arthur Kellerman which stated that "a homeowner's gun is 43 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder," and therefore "the advisability of keeping firearms in the home for protection must be questioned." The ratio used is 389 violent
gun deaths in one Washington county to nine caused from self-protection homicide (over the course of several years). But what the study ignores is that 333 of those deaths were from suicide, and 41 were from criminal homicide (criminals who might have received the weapon illegally). Only 12 of the deaths were accidental.
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