NRA CrimeStrike's
                      CrimeWatch Weekly

           Breaking news on critical crime-fighting
               issues, policies and legislation

Vol. 2, No. 12                                  August 13, 1996

First-Ever Study On Right-To-Carry Laws And Crime Released

     At a forum at the Washington, D.C.-based libertarian Cato
Institute on Aug. 8, Dr. John Lott, Jr., of the University of Chicago
Law School, released the findings of the first comprehensive study of
the effects of right-to-carry laws on crime rates.

     In the study's introduction, Dr. Lott synthesized the controversy
over allowing lawabiding citizens to exercise their right to lawful
self-defense outside the home by lawfully carrying firearms: "Will
allowing concealed handguns make it likely that otherwise law-abiding
citizens will harm each other, or will the threat of citizens carrying
weapons primarily deter criminals?"

     While in previous Dept. of Justice research 74% of criminals
interviewed agreed they would avoid burglarizing occupied homes for
fear of being shot by an armed homeowner, Dr. Lott's study is the
first to take research one step further by evaluating nationally the
effect of right-to-carry laws on crime.

     The University of Chicago study findings: When state
right-to-carry laws went into effect in a county, murders fell 8.5%,
rapes fell by 5%, and aggravated assaults fell by 7%.

     According to NRA CrimeStrike Director Elizabeth Swasey, "We must
never forget that these percentages represent living, breathing people
our friends and families. Dr. Lott found that if states that did not
have right-to-carry laws had adopted them in 1992, that every year
approximately 1,570 fewer people would have been murdered, 4,177 fewer
women and children raped, and 60,000 fewer people victimized by
aggravated assaults."

     In the past nine years, NRA has helped 23 states pass or reform
discriminatory right-to-carry laws.

     The University of Chicago Law School professor's report, "Crime,
Deterrence and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns," co-authored with
graduate student David Mustard, is scheduled for publication in The
Journal of Legal Studies this January, However, it is available online
now at http://WWW.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/guns.html.


Washington High Court Upholds  '3 Strikes'

     The constitutionality of Washington state's "Three Strikes and
You're Out" law, the first in the nation when it was approved by 77%
of the state's voters in 1993, has been upheld by the State Supreme
Court.

     The rulings handed down last Thursday came on the appeals of
three "lifers" who said, among other things, that the state law
violated the constitutional separation of powers by giving prosecutors
more descretion than judges during sentencing, that the law gave
"decisive power" to prosecutors in plea bargaining, and that the law
amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

     In contrast to the outcome in Washington, last month California's
high court gutted that state's "Three Strikes" law by ruling that
judges can ignore the prior "strike" convictions that render
defendants eligible for enhancement of their prison sentences after a
third strike.

     NRA CrimeStrike played a major role in passage of the Washington
law and has helped "three strikes" become a national movement, now the
law in more than 20 states across the nation.  Stay tuned.


Penn. Sen. Fisher Earns CrimeStrike 'Justice' Award

     Pennsylvania State Senator Mike Fisher is the fifth state
official nationally to receive NRA CrimeStrike's "Defender of Justice"
award recognizing outstanding achievement in enacting tough criminal
justice reform that saves lives.

     The award was presented last Thursday in Harrisburg by Tanya
K. Metaksa, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative
Action.

     "With this award, we recognize the leadership of Sen. Fisher in
achieving a truly remarkable accomplishment top to bottom
reconstruction of a Pennsylvania criminal justice system that was in
desperate need of reform," Mrs. Metaksa told those attending.

     Senator Fisher, who wrote the state's law mandating a five-year
prison sentence for using a gun in a crime, served as Senate leader in
charge of the legislature's 1995 special session on crime that passed
37 new laws, including the death penalty for aggravated murder.

     Additionally, Senator Fisher authored the state's law "waiving"
juveniles charged with violent crimes to adult court and led the fight
for Pennsylvania's "Three Strikes and You're Out" law, Metaksa noted.
"Mike understands what makes families safe punishment that is certain
and swift for criminally attacking another person," Mrs. Metaksa said.

 
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