Don't Take Our Word For It! by Bay Area Professionals for Firearms Safety and Educations Copyright 1989 BAYPROFS Have you ever been at something newsworthy, and seen the news reports later--and not recognized it as the same event? That's how we feel about guns and what "everybody knows" about them. Skepti- cal? Check out our claims, then decide for yourself who's telling you the real story. FACT: Every 8 minutes, a gun saves a life. According to surveys done both for the NRA and Handgun Con- trol, Inc., guns are used in justifiable defense more than 650,000 times each year. For a defensive use to be justifiable, the user must reasonably believe his life to be in danger. The surveys: Decision Making Information, "Attitudes of the American Public Toward Gun Control, 1975" in the Congressional Record 121 (Dec 19, 1975); Field Institute, "Tabulations of the Findings of a Survey of Handgun Ownership and Access Among a Cross Section of the Califor- nia Adult Public (1976)"; Cambridge Reports, Inc., "An Analysis of Public Attitudes Toward Gun Control: Report for the Center for the Study and Prevention of Handgun Violence" (Cambridge, MA: 1978); Decision Making Information, "Attitudes of the American Public Toward Gun Control, 1978" (Santa Ana, CA 1979); Peter Hart, "Gun Control" (Hart Research Associates: 1981); State of Ohio Statisti- cal Analysis Center, "Citizen Attitudes Concerning Crime and Criminal Justice" (Columbus, OH: 1982). Those 650,000 lives saved annually, times California's propor- tion of the US population (10%), gives 65,000 lives saved each year in California. There are 365 x 24 x 60 minutes a year, or 525,600. Dividing, we find a life saved every 8.08 minutes. FACT: Police take up to 30 minutes to answer calls for help. See the recent reviews of the San Francisco Police in the Chronicle, and the San Jose police in the Mercury-News. According to police dispatchers in Santa Clara County, calls to 911 emergency are routinely delayed 5-10 minutes in dispatch (before there's even a car to answer the call), and the Mercury-News recently reported delays of up to 40 minutes before a radio car was available, much less arrived. FACT: Guns are effective for self-defense. The National Crime Survey is a poll of citizens who have been victims of crime; the survey found that when police are involved, they succeed in arresting or driving off the criminal 67% of the time; when civilians alone are involved, they succeed 83% of the time. Civilians who defend themselves with guns are injured about 17% of the time, versus 30% for people who resist other ways. The injury and death rate for non-resistors varies from 25% to over 66% in some regions of the country. For reviews of the data, see Kleck, "Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force", 35 Social Problems 1 (1988); Cook, "The Relationship Between Victim Resis- tance and Injury in Non-Commercial Robbery" 15 Journal of Legal Studies (1986); Kleck, "Policy Lessons from Recent Gun Control Research", 49 Law & Contemporary Problems 35 (1986) In Orlando, Florida in the late 1960's, rape was increasing sharp- ly. The police there started a well-publicized program of training women to use guns. They trained just 3,000 women, but the rape for everyone went down 83%--and none of the women they trained ever used her gun criminally or accidentally. After the program ended, rape went up as rapists forgot, but 5 years later it was still 13% below where it had started. During that same time, rape around Orlando went up over 300%. See "Policy Lessons..." cited above, or look at the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for 1966-1971 and find the numbers for yourself. FACT: Guns don't cause crime and violence. Apart from the disparity between the number of lives guns save (65,000/year in California) and the number of murders, total (2,500), there is no evidence that having guns readily available increases domestic violence. You often hear that you are 6 times as likely to kill a family member with a gun as you are to protect yourself from a burglar. If you look at the original study, as reported e.g. in Alviani & Drake Handgun Control: "Issues and Alternatives" (Nat'l Council of Mayors, 1975), they're really counting murders of anyone you know in the "family member" category--including one crook killing a rival. Burglars, on the other hand, tend to avoid houses where someone's home (see Zimring & Hawkins, "The Citizen's Guide to Gun Control" Macmillan, 1987). This also ignores the fact that most defensive uses of guns don't involve actually shooting. Most often, the threat of a gun drives off the attacker. Here's the real story on domestic violence: In the home, women are most often beaten to death, generally after a long history of abuse by a male. See Browne & Flewelling, "Women as Victims or Perpetrators of Homicide" in 1986 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology (available from the Family Res. Lab, Univ. of NH). When a man is killed in the home, 85% of the time it's by a female who is defending herself or her children against yet another in a long series of violent, abusive attacks. See Lunde "Murder and Madness" (San Francisco, 1976). Accidents in the home? The accidental death rate has been going down steadily over the last 50 years, even though gun owner- ship has been growing sharply for the last 20. Take a look at the Uniform Crime Reports and the Centers for Disease Control annual statistics on accidental deaths, and see for yourself. There is no evidence that having a gun around makes someone more aggressive. See "Firing a Weapon and Aggression," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 22 (June, 1972). There is no correlation between gun ownership levels and crime rates--indeed, in the US, crime is lowest where guns are most prevalent. See D. Kates, "Restricting Handguns" (North River Press, NY, 1979). Go to the library. Check the facts. Don't take our word--and please don't take theirs! If you would like information about our programs, philosophy, and activities, please contact us at the following address. Bay Area Professionals for Firearms Safety and Educations 101 First Street - Los Altos, CA 94022 - Telephone 1-408-865-1720 BAYPROFS publishes a monthly newsletter. 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