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Letter: Events show gun bans don't deter criminals
Michael Cornel claims not to "…hear facts from gun advocates" in his letter, "Australia case a true portrait of gun control" (Dec. 27), while slaughtering history and truth. The gun ban he referred to, the Assault Weapons (AWs) Ban of 1994 (not the 80s), was allowed to sunset by Congress in 2004 after it was found that "AWs" were used in only 1.4 percent of crimes involving firearms and 0.25 percent of all violent crime. DOJ has steadily reported a decline in violent crime since 2004.
Facts: Absolute gun bans in Chicago and D.C. do not deter criminals: more people are shot every year in those two cities than have been killed in all mass shootings in the U.S. combined. Every single mass shooting since 1950, except one (Congresswoman Giffords'), has occurred in a "gun-free" zone.
Facts: Rights to keep and bear arms — which British subjects never enjoyed — have always been about the People's ability to keep our government in check. Moreover, in McDonald (2010), SCOTUS ruled, "…individual self-defense is 'the central component' of the right."
Fact: There are over 1,000,000 defensive uses of firearms in the U.S. every year; on 97 percent of these, the gun is never fired, but its mere presence served as deterrent to a crime. Cornell is correct: this is no time for compromise. Our 2A rights are not negotiable, and they "…shall not be infringed."
A.R.
Copyright © 2013, The Baltimore Sun
baltimoresun.com
Letter: Events show gun bans don't deter criminals
Michael Cornel claims not to "…hear facts from gun advocates" in his letter, "Australia case a true portrait of gun control" (Dec. 27), while slaughtering history and truth. The gun ban he referred to, the Assault Weapons (AWs) Ban of 1994 (not the 80s), was allowed to sunset by Congress in 2004 after it was found that "AWs" were used in only 1.4 percent of crimes involving firearms and 0.25 percent of all violent crime. DOJ has steadily reported a decline in violent crime since 2004.
Facts: Absolute gun bans in Chicago and D.C. do not deter criminals: more people are shot every year in those two cities than have been killed in all mass shootings in the U.S. combined. Every single mass shooting since 1950, except one (Congresswoman Giffords'), has occurred in a "gun-free" zone.
Facts: Rights to keep and bear arms — which British subjects never enjoyed — have always been about the People's ability to keep our government in check. Moreover, in McDonald (2010), SCOTUS ruled, "…individual self-defense is 'the central component' of the right."
Fact: There are over 1,000,000 defensive uses of firearms in the U.S. every year; on 97 percent of these, the gun is never fired, but its mere presence served as deterrent to a crime. Cornell is correct: this is no time for compromise. Our 2A rights are not negotiable, and they "…shall not be infringed."
A.R.
Copyright © 2013, The Baltimore Sun