Tall Tales of Guns TWELVE TALL TALES MEDIA MYTH: "The NRA has opposed reasonable restrictions on both 'cop-killer' bullets and 'plastic guns.'" TRUTH: NRA and the U.S. Treasury Department opposed the original "cop-killer" bullet bill introduced by anti-gun Rep. Mario Biaggi because it would have banned virtually all ammunition used in big- game hunting and self-protection. The NRA helped Congress write the legislation that ultimately passed which prohibits specific types of ammunition from being sold other than to police and the military - simply regulating what had long been the industry practice. On that bill's passage, Rep. Biaggi said: "Our final legislative product was not some watered-down version of what we set out to do. In the end, there was no compromise on the part of police safety." According to expert testimony, no commercially available "plastic" firearms exist in the world today - but the so-called "plastic gun" bill would have banned millions of detectable, metal firearms. The NRA supported as an alternative, the Hughes-McCollum bill, signed into federal law, which enhanced airport security systems to counter terrorism, and banned undetectable firearms. MEDIA MYTH: "There is no need for anyone to own semi-automatic 'assault rifles' that accept large-capacity magazines. These guns are the weapons of choice of drug dealers, are a hazard to police officers and the general public, and should be banned." TRUTH: An "assault rifle" is a selective-fire military rifle capable of firing on full automatic, burst, or semi-automatic modes at the option of the shooter. True, "assault rifles" are therefore full automatic firearms for purposes of federal law, and the sale of such newly manufactured rifles has been prohibited since 1986. It is impossible to define full automatic assault rifles or semi- automatic firearms (which fire one round per trigger pull) based on a firearm's ability to accept a detachable magazine. Any firearm that accepts a detachable magazine can accept a magazine of indeterminate size. A rifle that uses a 3- or 5-round magazine for hunting can also use a 10-, 15-, or 20-round magazine for target shooting or competition, which often requires 20- or 30-round magazines. It is lawful to hunt big game with semi-automatic firearms of one kind or another in 49 states. There are an estimated 30 million lawfully owned semi-auto firearms in the U.S., 3 million to 4 million of which have a modern military-style appearance. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has testified that the functional mechanisms on all these guns are identical; banning a particular firearm because it is a semi-auto will by definition affect all semi-auto firearms in the country. Finally, according to law enforcement statistics and testimony, military-style semi-auto firearms are involved in only about one- half of 1 percent of all homicides. MEDIA MYTH: "According to a Cox newspaper article, 'assault weapons' are 20 times more likely to be used in crime than other weapons." TRUTH: Usage figures disclosed in a Cox News Service "study" are erroneous. In fact, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms issued a disclaimer stating that they "do not necessarily agree with the conclusions of Cox newspapers..." BATF data show that because of the heightened interest in these firearms due to the increased attention from the media, law enforcement agencies were more likely to run a firearms trace merely if one was found, regardless of whether any crime was involved. The assertion that semi-automatic military-style rifles are the "weapon of choice" for drug dealers is not supported by the facts. Officers from firearms divisions in the police departments of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York City have all stated that their respective agencies have seen these firearms at the rate of only one-half to 3 percent of all firearms confiscated by their departments. In Washington, D.C., the murder capital of the United States, police did not confiscate any semi- automatic military-style rifles covered under the import ban for 1988. In Los Angeles, where the drug trade is ruled by murderous gangs, police confiscated over 4,000 firearms in 1988, but only 3 percent of those would fall into the classification of military- style semi-automatic rifles. In New York, where police confiscated 16,378 firearms in 1988, only 80 were semi-automatic military-style firearms. Cox came up with its ratio by assuming that all guns traced through the BATF are crime guns and that all crime guns are traced. While Cox claimed there were only 500,000 privately owned military- style semi-autos, the government reports the number of such guns to be 3 million to 4 million. Only 1 percent of the guns in the nation's reported 400,000 gun-related crimes are traced, and only about 10 percent of the roughly 40,000 traced guns in the Cox study may have been used in violet crime. The most common description of the basis for a trace for the guns in the Cox study was not a crime or criminal investigation but "miscellaneous." MEDIA MYTH: "Polls show that the general public supports stronger 'gun control,' particularly a national seven-day waiting period. This would provide the time needed for a police background check to screen criminals and mental incompetents as well as provide a 'cooling off' period, thereby reducing gun violence committed in the 'heat of passion.'" TRUTH: Surveys on "waiting periods" that ask whether the respondent favors or opposes police approval prior to purchase of a firearm or the computer registration of name, address and firearm model find widespread public disapproval of these schemes. Twenty- eight states and the federal government have rejected the concept of "waiting periods" as an unnecessary burden upon law-abiding citizens who are merely exercising their constitutional rights and a costly and ineffective application of law enforcement resources. The U.S. Attorney General cites many hurdles to preventing criminals from obtaining firearms by means of a "waiting period." "The greatest of these hurdles...is the reality that felons obtain guns through many illegal unlicensed means." In fact, five-sixths of all criminals do not use legitimate means to obtain a firearm. The Attorney General's Task Force went on to state that, because of the dismal state of the nation's criminal records, "a truly effective check would take at least one month. Such a delay would impose an unreasonable burden on legitimate gun purchasers, and therefore is unacceptable." According to the Attorney General, a seven-day "waiting-period" has only a 50-50 chance of accurately screening out felons. To several criminological studies - concluding "waiting periods" have no effect on criminal violence or homicide - has been added the Attorney General's conclusion that background checks cannot be run with records kept in their current state. MEDIA MYTH: "There are 33,000 gun deaths each year. Something must be done to reduce this number. Stricter 'gun control' would be a step in the right direction. TRUTH: While this figure is roughly accurate, it sensationalizes the tragedy of the loss of life. Almost 55 percent of this number, or 18,000, are suicides. Roughly 40 percent, or 13,000, are homicides. About 4 percent, or approximately 2,800 of the homicides were self-defense or justifiable homicides. Another 6,000 were committed by known violent criminals. Firearms accidents have declined 62 percent in the last four decades and are now the eighth-ranked cause of accidental death behind auto accidents, falls, poisonings, drownings, fires, suffocation and medical/ surgical mistakes. MEDIA MYTH: "The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) study comparing gun violence in Seattle, which has relatively lax gun laws, and Vancouver, with strict gun laws, proves that 'gun control' is a primary factor in reducing gun violence." TRUTH: Challenged by others, the authors of that study said, "[T]he intent of our article was not to evaluate the effect of 1978 Canadian gun law..." In fact, the authors failed to note that the homicide rates prior to the 1978 law were comparable to those after the law went into effect. The study - which found that homicide rates were actually higher in Vancouver among the three-fourths of each city's population which is non-hispanic white - was dismissed by criminologists as garbage. Professor James Wright of Tulane University criticized the NEJM study in a paper called "Guns and Sputter." And Professor Gary Kleck, of Florida State University, said on National Public Radio that [T]he research was worthless. There isn't a legitimate gun control expert in the country who regarded it as legitimate research. It's the sort of research that never should have seen the light of day." MEDIA MYTH: "Stricter 'gun control' laws, including a seven-day 'waiting period,' would significantly reduce wanton acts of violence by madmen like Patrick Purdy, John Hinckley, and Joseph Wesbecker." TRUTH: In the three well-known cases of John Hinckley, Patrick Purdy, and Joseph Wesbecker, "waiting periods" either did not prevent or would not have prevented these individuals from obtaining firearms. Hinckley was not an adjudicated mental incompetent nor was he a convicted felon. He used a valid Texas driver's license and his residence was listed in the Lubbock, Texas phone directory when he bought two handguns in Texas, more than five months prior to his attack on President Reagan. These purchases were lawful; a police background check of any length would have found nothing to prevent the purchases from being completed. Following the purchase of the two handguns, multiple purchase forms were filed by the dealer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) giving BATF the opportunity to run a check on Hinckley, but that agency would have found no felony convictions or adjudication of mental incompetency. Hinckley had been arrested on October 9, 1980, in Nashville, Tennessee, for attempting to pass through airport security with handguns in his suitcase. Hinckley was charged with and convicted of a misdemeanor only, paid a small fine, and forfeited the handguns. Hinckley was checked by law enforcement through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and found to be without a criminal history. Information of that arrest and misdemeanor conviction would still have confirmed his eligibility as a non-felon Texan. Hinckley, while charged for weapons possession violations after the attack, was not charged with any violations of the federal firearms laws restricting who can purchase pistols. Although Patrick Purdy had a lengthy criminal record, Purdy had no felony convictions nor was he an adjudicated mental incompetent. His prior felony arrests were plea-bargained to misdemeanor offenses for which he spent little or no time in jail and was repeatedly placed on probation. In 1987, Purdy was identified as a "danger to himself and others" by the California probation authorities, yet was again placed on probation and set free. Purdy underwent and was cleared through California's 15-day "waiting period" and background check for the purchase of a handgun, and he purchased a semi-auto rifle in Oregon. Using an alias to purchase firearms in California, like other criminals throughout the country, no criminal record was found, nor did a felony record exist on Purdy himself. As the Attorney General recently informed congress, even if