FOUR MADISON AWARD WINNERS
The topic of gun ownership and control is beginning to be debated with growing fervor as the November elections draw near and friends and opponents of gun owners speak out. The Second Amendment Foundation is proud to announce that we are giving out four Madison Awards for pro-gun editorials this quarter. Madison Awards are given in the spirit of James Madison, Fourth U.S. President and author of the Second Amendment.
Our first recipient is The Wall Street Journal for their editorial entitled, "Scapegoating Gun Owners," which ran on July 23, 1996. The article began by detailing how, ". . . the British press recently told of the courage shown by adults during the rampage of a madman with a machete at St. Luke’s Church of England infants’ school in rural Wolverhampton." One teacher held two kids while being repeatedly whacked in the back by the machete-wielding assailant.
The editorial continued that, "There is a lesson to be learned from this awful attack: a madman will always find a way and a weapon, no matter how often politicians preach about the merits of gun control."
The difference in reaction in this machete case, and two other murder sprees committed with firearms, one in Dunblane, Scotland and another in Port Arthur, Tasmania, are then highlighted. In both cases where the weapon of choice was a gun, lawmakers and the media cried out for more gun control.
"But the ineffectiveness of gun control laws in keeping lethal weapons out of the hands of violent criminals has been demonstrated by high levels of violent crimes in some U.S. cities that attempt to enforce tight gun control ordinances," maintains The Wall Street Journal.
The editorial stated that, "politicians wish to appear to be ‘doing something’ in response to tragedies." However, "Some police experts think the result [of gun control] is the opposite of what is intended, that owners of illegal guns are more likely to use them to commit crimes if they think their victims are defenseless. It is indeed fair to ask if the tragedies at Dunblane, Port Arthur and Wolverhampton would have turned out differently had some one in the vicinity had a gun and the training to use it properly."
The Wall Street Journal concluded that Britain, Australia, and elsewhere should look toward more realistic solutions to, "make schools -- and society in general -- safer, rather than scapegoating law-abiding gun owners."
Our second award winner is the Mirror, out of Gilmer, Texas. The June 19, 1996 editorial entitled, "Handgun Permit Law: So Far It Seems To Be Working As Intended" detailed the success of concealed carry legislation in Texas.
The editorial began by quoting Col. James Wilson, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety as stating that, "So far, it has impressed me how remarkably responsible the permit holders have been." In fact, the editorial noted that, "Gov. Bush said he believes the handgun law has made Texas safer and indicated there may be a correlation between the drop in violent crime and the new law."
The paper recognized that with so many illegally armed criminals on the loose, that it is, ". . . only fair that [law-abiding] adults should be able to scare some sense into these reprobate scofflaws by any means necessary, including pointing a handgun at them." The editorial concluded by frowning upon the idea that, "The most often and most easily demonized citizens left in the U.S.A. are those who legally own guns."
Our third Madison Award goes to Larry R. Rankin. Mr. Rankin wrote an op-ed piece entitled, "Ammo Registration, Trigger Locks No Help In Solving Gun-Related Crime." His article, which appeared in the July 4, 1996 edition of California’s Santa Maria Times, began by highlighting how the real agenda of Santa Barbara Women Against Guns (WAG), a project of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, was to take away peoples’ guns. WAG stated at a 1995 Santa Barbara School Board meeting that, "Californians have the right to be free of firearms in our homes, streets, schools, and workplaces."
Trigger locks are considered a hindrance to self-protection and no substitute for safety training, according to Mr. Rankin. But while WAG pushed for trigger locks, WAG members were instrumental in preventing safety training by adoption of the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program.
The folly of ammo registration was also exposed by Mr. Rankin, who quoted the Executive Director of the National Association of Chiefs of Police at stating such a scheme appears, "to waste valuable time and money of the police department and business persons." Furthermore, readers were reminded that the federal government scraped a similar law in the mid-70s because it was ineffective. Furthermore, if enacted on a city level, ammunition buyers would simply purchase outside the city.
Mr. Rankin concluded by urging citizens to reject incremental gun control because it, ". . . won’t work and will hurt local business."
The fourth recipient of the Madison Award is Candace Hanable for her opinion column entitled, "Gun Control Laws Don’t Cut Crime." Her column appeared in the June 28, 1996 issue of the News Press out of Glendale, California.
Ms. Hanable’s editorial began by stating that, "Despite what the politicians would like us to believe, gun control legislation has become nothing more than a symbolic gesture with virtually no effect on reducing violent crime."
The effectiveness of the Morton Grove, Illinois handgun ban and the "Shall-Issue" Concealed Carry Reform in Florida are then compared. Ms. Hanable noted that the result of the Morton Grove gun ban was, "the annual number of handgun killing has more than doubled" while Florida’s, "handgun homicide rate has decreased 38%."
Ms. Hanable concluded that the answer, "is not more gun control legislation but to begin dealing with the fundamental problem -- the criminal."