TWO MADISON AWARDS FOR THE GOLDEN STATE
The Second Amendment Foundation is proud to announce that the Orange County Register and an El Segundo City Councilman in California will receive James Madison Awards this quarter. Madison Awards are given in the spirit of James Madison, Fourth U.S. President and author of the Second Amendment.
The first recipient is the Orange County Register for their editorial entitled, "In Self-Defense", which ran on February 1, 1996. Their editorial detailed the Founding Father’s intent of the Second Amendment and how "shall issue" concealed carry laws are a critical element of the Second Amendment.
The editorial begins with, "At America’s founding the revolutionaries unequivocally endorsed the arming of the citizenry. James Madison wrote, ‘Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.’"
Other Founding Fathers, including John Adams and George Mason, are also quoted. Together, their words emphasize that arming the law-abiding citizen was not only a good thing, but essential to liberty.
The framers’ view of the Second Amendment is then applied to today’s concealed carry laws. ". . . Many states - most notably Florida, Texas and Arizona - have returned to a policy on guns more in keeping with the founders’ obvious intentions, allowing law-abiding citizens to carry with a permit. We have long editorialized on the need for such a law in California."
The California assembly had just passed AB 638, which would establish a "shall issue" policy for concealed carry licenses for all qualified citizens who pass a background check and show an ability to handle guns safely. The editorial praised this bill and criticized the gun grabbing critics claiming that government should not trust the people with arms.
The editorial cited a recent study of Florida’s concealed carry law by James T. Moore which found that, ". . . From October 1, 1987 until January 31, 1995, a total of 266,710 permits had been issued, with only 470 revoked. Of those, only 19 were revoked because a firearm was used in a crime. In other words, a minuscule 0.007% of those issued permits used those guns for crimes."
Although passage of the bill remains uncertain in the state Senate, the Register concluded that the proposed legislation was needed to prevent Sheriffs from denying qualified applicants without justification. In fact, to do otherwise violates the constitution. "Like the founders, California’s government leaders should uphold the people’s right to keep and bear arms."
Our second Madison Award goes to Michael D. Robbins, an El Segundo City Councilman, for his reasoned response to irrational pleas for more gun control. His opinion column, entitled "Gun-control laws actually lead to more violent crime", appeared in the Daily Breeze of Torrance, California on December 27, 1995. Mr. Robbins also volunteered in the nearly successful effort to amend the California State Constitution by initiative to include the right to keep and bear arms.
Mr. Robbins begins by stating that public policy must be based on the facts and that, ". . . Gun control advocates always cover up the fact that often gun control increases violent crime." Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Chicago are singled out as prime examples.
A comparison is then drawn between the successful efforts by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in reducing traffic fatalities to the failed efforts of Gun-Grabbers fail to reduce violence. Mr. Robbins declares that MADD, ". . . Would not have been successful, nor even taken seriously, if they had lobbied for laws to restrict sober drivers, or restrict ownership of vehicles because some are misused by drunken drivers. MADD was successful because it lobbied for rational laws that target criminals rather than ordinary citizens and inanimate objects."
The low crime rate in Virginia with little gun control is then compared to the high crime rate in Washington, D.C. with its handgun and assault weapon bans. In addition, Mr. Robbins points out that , "Gun-control supporters always ignore the efficacy of firearms for self-defense against stronger or more numerous attackers."
Mr. Robbins concludes that, "Gun control increases violent crime because it shifts the balance of power to favor criminals over ordinary citizens; inhibits self defense; reduces the criminal-justice resources; and is used as a smoke screen by soft-on-crime public figures who exploit the tragedy of murdered children and police officers to advance their careers and divert attention away from their failure to support real criminal-justice reforms."