An editorial (this one signed) that calls out other editorials for their misrepresentations regarding the assault weapons ban:

Newspaper editorial pages have lately become a choir in support of renewing the ban on so-called “assault weapons.” The authors of those emotional appeals should research the issue a bit more, so they can at least get their stories straight.

Take, for example, an editorial in the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune that stated, “In 1993, prior to the ban, assault weapons accounted for 8.2 percent of all guns used in crime. After the ban had been in effect for three years, the proportion had dropped to 3.2 percent.”

Two days later, the New York Daily News editorialized, “Before the federal ban, assault weapons were used in almost 5 percent of crimes. After the ban, that number dropped to 1.6 percent.”

Well, which is it? Statistical surveys compiled by David Kopel with the Independence Institute, a Colorado-based think tank, revealed the following:

In 1990 in California — four years before the ban — only 58 of the 1,979 guns seized from drug dealers were classified as “assault weapons.” Between 1985 and 1989 in Chicago, only one murder was committed with a rifle firing a military-caliber cartridge, and in 1989 Chicago police seized 17,144 guns, only 175 of which were “military-style weapons.” Also in 1989, New Jersey authorities reported no homicide involving a rifle of any kind. Incidentally, in Chicago, according to FBI data, the chance of being stabbed or beaten to death is 67 times greater than being murdered with a so-called “assault rifle.”

Kudos to Dave Workman, a writer for Gun Week, and the AJC for printing it.

Posted in uncategorized on July 26th, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |