 The following is an excerpt from J. Neil Schulman's book 
 SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control, to be published Nov. 30,
 1995 by Synapse--Centurion.  Reproduction in computer file
 and message bases is permitted for informational purposes
 only. Copyright (c) 1995 by J. Neil Schulman.  All other
 rights reserved.


                 WHEN THE TRUTH IS NOT IN VOGUE


      Anytime a publication calls an article "THE TRUTH ABOUT"
something, it's likely that what follows isn't going to be
dispassionate facts about anything, but a sermon. _Vogue_
magazine's October, 1993 cover, headlined "Armed and in Danger:
The Truth About Women and Guns," bears this out.

     The article's premise is that manufacturers play on
women's fears to sell them handguns, but that firearms are more
likely to endanger the woman or her family. Writer Steve Fishman
begins with the parable of Sharon Kendall of Wichita, Kansas.

     Fishman writes: "A 52-year-old single parent with
11-year-old twins and a 13-year-old at home, Kendall talked to a
neighboring 16-year-old, a responsible kid, one who'd grown up
around guns and who'd been to a gun school to learn how to handle
them. He said he'd bring a gun over, just to familiarize her. The
weapon was a .38 semiautomatic. He said it was loaded with
blanks. The neighbor had a gun aimed at one of the twins, who
reached over to turn the barrel away from him. The weapon fired
accidentally, and Kendall's 11-year-old boy took one shot in the
chest. He died at the hospital during surgery."

     This 16-year-old neighbor was hardly "a responsible kid."
The boy broke at least three primary rules of safe firearms
handling.

     1. "Never assume that a gun is unloaded, or that a round
is safe because it misfired."  But this boy "who'd grown up
around guns" -- according to Wichita police -- had been dry-
firing rounds he assumed were duds because they'd previously
misfired. Any half-day National Rifle Association firearms safety
course would have taught him that multiple strikes on a "dud"
round can cause it to fire.

     2. "Never place your finger inside the trigger guard
until you to intend to fire."  And we can only ask why this
teenager's finger was inside the trigger guard as he pointed it
at an 11-year-old boy, if he had no intention of pulling the
trigger.

     3. "Never point a gun, even one you think is unloaded, at
anything you don't intend to destroy."  But this "responsible"
16-year-old pointed a firearm he knew was loaded at a child.

     Where was Sharon Kendall? According to Fishman, she was
in the house, aware that the kids were handling a gun, and did
nothing to take it away from them.

     So Fishman is hardly describing a responsible parent.

     The rest of Steve Fishman's polemic relies on data as
discreditable as his example. A study by Kellermann and Reay
published in the June 12, 1986 _New England Journal of Medicine_
is the centerpiece of Fishman's conclusion that "For every case
of justifiable homicide with a gun, there were 43 murders,
suicides, or accidental deaths."

     But Fishman never quotes Kellermann and Reay's own caveat
in their _NEJM_ article, which states, "Mortality studies such as
ours do not include cases in which burglars or intruders are
wounded or frightened away by the use or display of a firearm.
Cases in which would-be intruders may have purposely avoided a
house known to be armed are also not identified. We did not
report the total number of nonlethal firearm injuries involving
guns kept in the home. A complete determination of firearm risks
versus benefits would require that these figures be known."

     Fishman then gives his "balance": "The NRA claims that
guns are used one million times each year in self-defense, but
there appears to be no firm statistics to back this up."

     No firm statistics, that is, except the dozen studies
analyzed by Gary Kleck, Ph.D., professor of criminology at
Florida State University, in his book _Point Blank: Guns and
Violence in America_ (Aldine de Gruyter, 1991). Far from being an
NRA spokesperson, Kleck has avoided taking funding from either
side in the gun control debate, and he has impeccable liberal
Democratic credentials.

     Neither did Fishman ask Kleck about his recent survey
which raises the number of firearms defenses each year to well
over two million.

     All of which proves that if you're looking for "the truth
about guns," you'll find that it's just not in vogue.

                                ***


                         THE NEW BOOK
                    from J. Neil Schulman!

                           Author of 
        STOPPING POWER: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns


                 SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control


   "Schulman interestingly and insightfully raises a number of
  liberty-related issues that we ignore at the nation's peril.
   His ideas are precisely those that helped make our country
  the destination of those seeking liberty.  The book's title
 says it all: personal responsibility, not laws and prohibitions,
                is the mark of a civil society."
     Professor Walter E. Williams, Chairman
     Department of Economics
     George Mason University
     Fairfax, Virginia


Publisher: Synapse--Centurion
Price: $24.95 U.S.; $32.95 Canada
Publication Date: November 30, 1995
Approx. Shipping Date: Oct. 15, 1995
ISBN: 1-882639-05-7
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 95-74682

Full info is on J. Neil Schulman's World Wide Web Page at:  
http://www.pinsight.com/~zeus/jneil/ or download the file
SELFCONT.ZIP from GunTalk.

                     *** ORDER INFO ***

Synapse--Centurion Books is now accepting pre-printing wholesale 
orders for whole cases of SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control at 60% 
off cover price -- $10 per book and 24 books per case -- IF 
THE ORDER WITH FULL PAYMENT IS RECEIVED ON OR BEFORE 
SEPTEMBER 20TH, 1995.  

To mail-order SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control, send a check or money 
order for $240 per case plus $25 shipping & handling per case to:

Synapse--Centurion
225 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 1204
Santa Monica, CA  90401

Orders will be shipped by UPS ground unless a P.O. Box is given,
in which event they will be shipped parcel post.  California 
booksellers include your California reseller's number with
your order; otherwise, California residents include California 
sales tax of $19.80 per case.

Telephone credit card orders  -- Visa, MasterCard, Discover/Novus,
or American Express -- may be recorded on our hotline at 
500-367-7353.  

If ordering by phone, please state clearly:

1) The cardholder's name; 
2) The cardholder's daytime telephone number;
3) The credit card number and expiration date;
4) The seller's California reseller's number
       (If a California reseller's number is not 
       included, $19.80 per case in sales tax will 
       be added to orders shipped to California 
       addresses.);
5) The number of 24-book cases to be ordered 
       (at $240 per case plus $25 s&h per case);
6) The address to ship the books
       (If a post office box is given, the books will
       be shipped parcel post instead of UPS.).

Again, to be given this pre-printing price, orders will full 
payment must be received by September 20, 1995.  Books will be 
shipped approximately October 15, 1995.

 
     Reply to:
  J. Neil Schulman
  Mail:                 P.O. Box 94, Long Beach, CA 90801-0094
  Voice Mail:           (500) 44-JNEIL
  Fax:                  1-500-445-6345
  Internet:             jneil@genie.com
  World Wide Web Page:  http://www.pinsight.com/~zeus/jneil/ 

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