From the San Diego Union Tribune, February 12, 1995
By John Dilulio, Jr., Professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton
and nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Most Americans believe crime is on the rise, the streets of the nation's
big cities are unsafe, and law-breaking is spreading to once serene urban
neighborhoods and suburbs. Crime is the number one issue in many mayoral
races throughout the country.
Is the public's mounting fear of crime justified? For the most part, the
answer is yes. There are at least 10 things to know about crime in America
today. The more one knows, the clearer it is that both stronger responses
from the justice system and more radical social-program interventions are
needed to curb crime before it is too late.

1. Crime is concentrated in urban America.

  Unless you are a minority citizen living in an urban, neighborhood, you are
less likely to be assaulted, raped, robbed, burglarized, or murdered today
than you were in 1980. For most Americans, all crimes, save auto theft, are
down. For urban minority Americans, all crimes, including homicide, are up.

(Excerpted)

2. Urban crime is concentrated in inner-city neighborhoods.

  Urban crime is increasingly concentrated in the very inner-city neighborhoods
where rates of out-of-wedlock births, drug abuse, welfare dependency, chronic
unemployment, and other indicators of social and economic distress far exceed
national averages.

3. Inner-city crime has not spread to other places, but stay tuned.

  In 1990, Philadelphia's total crime rate was about twice that of the four
surrounding suburban Pennsylvania counties, and its violent crime rate was over
three times that of those counties. Crime rates in rural Pa. were unchanged.
Forty-two percent of all violent crimes committed in Pa. occurred in
Philadelphia, which contained only 14 percent of the population.

4. More and more crime involves chronic violent offenders under 18 years of
age.

5. Only a tiny fraction of juvenile criminals commits a majority of all
juvenile crimes and goes on to adult careers as chronic criminals.

6. Liquor, not just drugs, drives adult and juvenile crime rates.

7. Unlike the rest of America, inner-city neighborhoods and schools aren't
"target-hardened" against crime.

8. With or without community policing, more cops are needed in inner-city
neighborhoods.

9. Most predatory street criminals, adult and juvenile, are either never
incarcerated or spend well under half their sentences behind bars.

10. But more cops and prisons won't defuse the crime bomb. Radical social
program interventions are probably needed to save the inner cities.

  Unless and until massive target-hardening and effective local economic
development measures are taken to restore order and economic opportunity to
the inner cities, something must be done to remove at-risk children and youth
from these debilitating, disorderly, criminalistic, and life threatening
environments - from their parents, their neighbors, their schools, and their
neighborhoods.

  In sum, crime is concentrated in inner cities. Crime is getting worse among
juveniles. Substance abuse, including liquor abuse, drives much of the crime
problem. There is a real danger that crime will spread from the inner cities
later this decade. To combat adult and juvenile crime, we need to
target-harden inner city neighborhoods in every way possible. We need more
cops, more prisons, and less 1960s style nonsense about the root causes of
crime. The only truly radical solutions are ones that would remove at-risk
juveniles from at-risk settings. Few have confronted that controversial
reality.


From the San Diego Union Tribune, editorial, Feb. 12, 1995.
(On page two, from the above article.)
(Excerpted)

Preserve the Ban
Assault weapons should be kept off our streets.

  Despite broad popular support for gun control, a revitalized gun lobby and
its congressional allies are trying to roll back the newly enacted federal ban
on 19 types of semi-automatic assault weapons.

  Those who stubbornly cling to the belief that Americans have an unalienable
right to buy and brandish their very own Uzis, Street Sweepers and AK-47s are
hard at work rounding up votes in the House. And the betting is that, in time,
they will succeed in getting through the House a bill to repeal the ban.

  Responding to the public's concern about violent crime, House Speaker Newt
Gingrich has wisely put the repeal effort on hold. He wants to concentrate
first on the GOPs Contract With America, which does not call for a repeal
of the assault weapon law. Gingrich also prefers that the ban be dealt with
in a separate measure to help ensure swift passage of the revised crime bill
that is wending its way through Congress.

  The compelling rationale for getting assault weapons off our streets was
articulated most succinctly by Attorney General Janet Reno, who declared:
"We do not need these weapons that have no recreational purpose, that are used
just as instruments of death and conflict."

  The gun lobby would have us believe these guns are no more lethal than, say,
a .22-caliber rifle. That's like equating a samurai sword with a paring knife.

  Rapid fire assault weapons are expressly designed to kill many people in an
efficient manner. That's why most police chiefs and leading law enforcement
organizations want these weapons outlawed. That's why the overwhelming
majority of Americans want them banned. And that's why Congress finally
summoned the courage to stand up to the NRA and enact the ban.

  Repealing the ban would be a major step backward in the campaign against
gun violence in this country. The Republican-controlled House will be doing
only criminals a favor if it backslides on the assault weapons prohibition.
===============================================================================

ANALYSIS:

The first article tells us the facts, crime is down everywhere except the
inner-city. Then it ascribes to cures that would effect us all under Federal
legislation.
  Why push for more Federal intervention, in the form of Reno's
FBI Rapid Deployment Force, restriction of personal rights through Drug and
Violence Emergency Zones or Federal social programs, then repeal Federally
funded but state controlled law enforcement and economic programs?

The second article is nothing more than the same old use of misinformation to
forward the government's attack on militia "arms".
"Those who stubbornly cling, ..." distorts the meaning of the 2nd Amendment,
turning those who believe in that Right into ignorant, out of date,
protectionists. Next, they drag out Newt's Contract to remind people that
lifting the ban is counter to crime control, followed by Reno's "not a
recreational use" ploy. In the parting shots, they use *my Cops said* along
with the public's misinformation concerning the role of arms, the militia, and
crime/violence facts. The "campaign" they favor is more cops in combat gear,
more warrantless searches and seizures, more social services infringement on
ones lifestyle. The public's possession of assault weapons would impede that
agenda.

From US Code, Title 22

Sec 2573.

Nothing contained in this chapter shall be
construed to authorize any policy or action by any Government agency which
would interfere with, restrict, or prohibit the acquisition, possession, or
use of firearms by an individual for the "lawful purpose" of PERSONAL DEFENSE,
SPORT, RECREATION, EDUCATION, or TRAINING.

... It's not crime control. It's ARMS control.

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