INTERNATIONAL GUN CONTROLS BACKFIRE 

 

As the United States takes international heat for allowing its citizens the right to keep and bear arms, data has begun stacking up to show how useless gun control is in the rest of the world.

Japan has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world, but a rash of knife murders in the nation shows that if violent people can’t get guns, they’ll find something else to kill with.

December 2000: A family of four was found stabbed to death at their home in a Tokyo suburb. No arrests have been made.

August 2000: A 15-year-old newspaper delivery boy was arrested for stabbing to death three members of a neighbor’s family in their beds in Notsu, in southwestern Japan.

May 2000: A 17-year-old boy wielding a 16-inch knife hijacked a bus in southwestern Japan and fatally stabbed one passenger.

February 2000: A teen-ager was fatally stabbed by a fellow student during a squabble at a junior high school in Fukuoka, in southwestern Japan.

December 1999: A 7-year-old boy playing in a school yard in Kyoto, in western Japan, was fatally stabbed. The 21-year-old suspect later committed suicide by jumping out of a building as he was about to be questioned by police.

The real shocker came recently in Japan’s worst mass-killing since a deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subway six years ago, when a man brandishing a knife burst into an elementary school and slashed nearly two dozen people, killing eight children.

Two weeks later a woman with a kitchen knife forced her way into a Tokyo kindergarten and slashed a teacher’s hands and leg.

At the same time, a Russian man was killed and two women were severely wounded in a shooting in northern Japan.

In Britain, which enacted strict gun laws five years ago after an especially tragic school shooting, the results of gun control are negative. Things got worse. The number of firearm offenses increased almost 40 percent from 4,903 in 1997 to 6,843 in 2000, according to a recent London Sunday Times.

British police officers, traditionally unarmed, have had more guns issued to them in recognition of potential danger: up about 6,000 in 1994-95 to over 12,000 in 1997-98. Gun control made Britain an armed camp.

France now has more crime than the United States, according to a new report by Paris security consultant ALAIN BAUER. Examining figures for a range of offenses since 1995, the study found that France overtook the U.S. for the first time last year, with the steady growth in crime in French cities and suburbs.

Per 100,000 inhabitants, there were 4,244 crimes in France compared to 4,135 in the U.S. Physical violence has increased most in France, but the U.S. still has higher numbers of murders and rapes.

Internationally, gun control fails as it has in the United States.

 

 

DANGER: UNITED NATIONS ANTI-GUN TREATY

The United Nations General Assembly has approved a gun control treaty that calls on all nations “to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components, and ammunition.”

Under terms of the UN treaty:

l All new firearms would have to be marked with a serial number and the place of manufacture.

l Nations would have to set up import-export licensing procedures.

l Countries would also be required to keep records on all guns, parts and ammunition made within their borders for 10 years.

l Nations are urged to pass laws making the illicit manufacture and sale of firearms a criminal offense.

The treaty, named the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, must be signed and ratified by at least 40 countries before it becomes international law. The signing period runs from July 1, 2001 through December 12, 2002.

The gun registration requirement of this treaty is most dangerous, as registration has historically been a first step to confiscation of firearms.

 

U.S. GUN DEAN RAISES FUROR OVER U.N. ANTI-GUN TREATY

JOHN MICHAEL SNYDER of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms condemned the U.N. anti-gun treaty vote, saying, “The treaty action is a direct and insulting attack on the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms.”

“It’s about time we knocked the living daylights out of the United Nations,” SNYDER added. “Apparently, it wasn’t enough for these globalists to insult our country by throwing us off the UN’s so-called Human Rights Commission in favor of dictatorships such as Sudan, Libya, China, and Cuba. Now these characters are trying to add insult to injury, knifing our sovereignty in the process.

SNYDER, named “dean of gun lobbyists” by national media outlets, said, “Congress should cut off the U.S. money spigot unless the UN mends its way. Why should U.S. taxpayers’ dollars go to support these anti-American shenanigans? No way!”

 

SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION URGES GUN OWNER ACTION

The United Nations’ “Conference of Small Arms and Light Weapons” in New York City this month is the target of a Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) campaign to flood Congress and the White House with calls and letters demanding that our leaders defend the Constitution and United States sovereignty.

In conjunction with the opening of the UN conference, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), a global organization dedicated to eliminating private ownership of guns worldwide, is promoting what it calls “Small Arms Destruction Day.”

A SAF alert noted that this July 4th marks the 225th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence. The alert said, “Small wonder the United Kingdom is one of the key backers of ‘Small Arms Destruction Day’ along with Bali, Brazil and the Netherlands. Evidently there are some in today’s UK that remember their history well, and know what free people with guns can do in defense of liberty.”

SAF Pubic Affairs Director Dave LaCourse urged gun owners to insist that our sovereign rights be protected.

 

 

McCAIN BACKLASH BUILDING

What happens when a politician turns against his political base? Study the last few months in the life of Sen. JOHN McCAIN, Republican of Arizona to see.

His political future is the subject of wild speculation: Will he switch parties? Will he try another run for president? Will he be kicked out of office?

Arizona is a hotbed of pro-gun support. In past elections, Arizona gun owners have delivered thousands of reliable votes for McCAIN. But he has recently decided to slap them in the face - three times.

First he joined with Americans for Gun Safety, an anti-gun organization funded by billionaire ANDREW McKELVEY, to appear in their television ads that pushed through anti-gun initiatives in Oregon and Colorado.

Second, he led the charge for a campaign finance reform bill that would make it illegal for gun groups to communicate political information to their members before an election, with federal prison time for those exercising their First Amendment free speech rights.

Third, he teamed with Democrat Sen. JOE LIEBERMAN to sponsor a gun show bill that would bury gun owners under a mountain of red tape and give the Treasury Department total regulatory control of gun shows. Even accidental violations would be punished with federal prison time.

Now McCAIN has no gun-owner friends left. It’s gotten so bad that even when Arizona’s other Senator, JOHN KYL, merely mentioned McCAIN at a Memorial Day speech, a chorus of boos and cat-calls drowned him out. McCAIN has worse troubles, as the next story shows.

 

RECALL PETITION FILED AGAINST McCAIN

Two Republican Party officials have filed petitions to force a recall election against wayward Sen. JOHN McCAIN. McCAIN opponents quickly mobilized to gather the 349,269 signatures of registered voters required to force a recall election, which is not binding on Arizona’s U.S. lawmakers. However, McCAIN has promised to resign if he is defeated in a recall election.

The recall petitions accuse McCAIN of refusing to support the Republican president of the United States. McCAIN voted against President Bush’s tax cut and has been cooperating with Senate Democrats on campaign finance and health maintenance organization reform and gun control.

After control of the Senate shifted from Republican to Democrat, McCAIN entertained the new majority leader, Sen. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD) at his Page Springs ranch.

 

YALE’S JOHN LOTT SAYS McCAIN AD “DANGEROUS”

Dr. JOHN LOTT, Ph.D., an academic researcher at Yale Law School, says Sen. JOHN McCAIN’s ad urging gun owners to keep their firearms locked up is “very misleading and dangerous.”

LOTT, author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” fears that advice is going to result in more deaths.

The ad, being shown at movie theaters all over America, warns that locking up the firearms to keep them out of the hands of children will prevent violent shootings. What it ignores is the possibility of a gun owner being awakened at night by an intruder. What does one do then? The armed burglar is not likely to be sympathetic if the victim says, “Hold your fire there for a minute while I unlock my gun cabinet, just to make this fair.”

LOTT doesn’t go with the argument that locks will keep juveniles away from guns. Many if not most of the school shootings that have scandalized the public in recent years “occurred with guns that had been locked up.” High school students and younger were able to break into the locks.

“We have to be careful to look not only at the benefits that can happen from locking up guns, but also the costs there,” says LOTT. His research shows that states with gun lock laws “actually cause more harm than benefits.”

 

 

GUN SHOW ORGANIZERS SUE COUNTY OVER RESTRICTIONS

A gun show promoter and two gun exhibitors have filed suit in federal court, challenging the legality of an anti-gun ordinance narrowly passed by the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council.

Promoter FRANK KRASNER, along with frequent exhibitors Valley Gun of Baltimore and ROBERT D. CULVER, sued to strike down the ordinance, which cuts off county funding for any group that allows the display and sale of guns on its property, restricts where gun shows can be held and imposes tough new regulations on gun show promoters.

Members of the Montgomery County Council designed the ordinance to put an end to gun shows held for more than a decade at the Montgomery County fairgrounds in Gaithersburg.

The fairground, which is privately owned but has received county government grants, notified KRASNER that it would no longer rent its facilities to his company, Silverado Promotions.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, alleges that the ordinance unconstitutionally infringes on commercial and noncommercial free speech rights. It also alleges that the ordinance violates a state law that preempts counties from enacting certain kinds of gun control measures. In addition, the suit argues that the council’s action infringes of the municipal power of gaithersburg to enact its own laws by effectively banning gun shows within the city’s borders.

 

NRA LOSES COURT FIGHT OVER BRADY LAW FILE

The United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the National Rifle Association challenging the government’s power to retain information about gun buyers under the Brady gun control law.

The NRA claimed the FBI’s practice of keeping identities of legal gun buyers on file for several months is illegal under the 1993 Brady Act itself, and amounts to compiling a national registry of gun owners.

The Supreme Court turned away the appeal without comment.

 

VIOLENCE POLICY CENTER sues justice department

A notorious gun control group has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT, arguing that he is illegally delaying regulations on background checks for firearms purchases.

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) alleges that ASHCROFT intends to eventually toss the regulations out.

The regulation came from the Clinton administration and would require that records from background checks be kept for 90 days after a handgun purchase is attempted.

The VPC claims that ASHCROFT violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which gives all interested parties the right to comment on the regulatory process. ASHCROFT stopped the final rule from going into effect without allowing the public its right to notice and comment by summarily delaying the rule twice for 60 days.

Justice Department spokeswoman SUSAN DRYDEN said the delays are allowing a thorough review of the regulation.

Gun rights advocates concerned about the privacy issues raised by the regulation have congratulated Attorney General ASHCROFT for his thorough review of CLINTON-era regulations.

 

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER ASKS ATTORNEY GENERAL ABOUT “CARNIVORE”

Rep. DICK ARMEY (R-TX), House Majority Leader has written the U.S. Attorney General asking whether a specific court warrant must be issued before the government uses the Internet surveillance system formerly known as “Carnivore.” The system could intercept emails and examine the contents of personal computers without the owner being aware of the intrusion. Rep. ARMEY asked for a speedy reply.

 

AMA LAUNCHES ATTACK ON GUNS

The newly elected president of the American Medical Association has dedicated his organization to fighting guns in the United States as a “public health scourge.”

“I believe that this is a battle that we cannot not take on,” said Dr. RICHARD CORLIN, a gastroenterologist from Santa Monica, California.

Many AMA members were disgusted with the group straying into politics, and will not renew their memberships, but do agree with CORLIN’s inaugural speech, in which he said, “People have told me that this is a dangerous path to follow. That I am crazy to do it. They say that we’ll lose members.”

That’s a pretty good guess. AMA membership has fallen for years. It lost more than 3,000 members last year and more than $4 million in membership dues.

Dr. ROBERT WOOLLEY, a Minnesota physician who belongs to AMA and gun rights groups, said he probably would not renew his AMA membership next year because of CORLIN’s anti-gun campaign.

“Nobody disputes that people dying and being injured from gunshot wounds is a terrible problem,” WOOLLEY said. “The dilemma is that groups such as the AMA are making very simplistic assumptions that the solution is more gun control.”

Guns have divided the AMA, which deems itself a leader on public health issues such as tobacco, and is pro-abortion but has been less willing to take a stand on other controversies, such as the death penalty and medical use of marijuana.

Many doctors are concerned that the AMA will be seen as opposing the Second Amendment right to bear arms, according to the Associated Press.

CORLIN, however, is intent on pushing the AMA straight into the gun control arena. “What we don’t know about violence and guns is literally killing us,” he told the Associated Press.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) sharply criticized CORWIN’s leadership of the AMA into gun control, pointing out in a news release, “What we do know about physician negligence is that is it actually killing us, and at a rate of nearly three-to-one compared to gunshot wounds.”

Dr. EDGAR SUTER, a recognized authority on the debate over guns as a “health hazard,” has repeatedly cautioned his colleagues that medical misadventures claim two to three times the number of lives annually that are lost to gunshot wounds.

The Harvard Medical School estimated that over 90,000 people die each year from physician negligence. Dr. SUTER placed that estimate as high as 150,000. About 30,000 gun-related deaths are reported every year.

By this calculation, negligent doctors are more of a public health scourge than armed criminals.

Gun rights supporter and sometime humorist, JAMESON CAMPAIGNE, came up with a tongue-in-cheek alert using real statistics:

 

HORRIFYING PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT REVEALED

 

Number of physicians in the U.S.:	700,000
Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year:	120,000
Accidental deaths per physician: