New FBI Crime Report Debunks Predictions About End of Semi-Auto Ban
6/7/2005 5:30:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Alan Gottlieb, 425-454-7012; or Joe Tartaro, 716-885-6408, both of the Second Amendment Foundation
BELLEVUE, Wash., June 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Recently released data from the FBI clearly show that the dire predictions by anti- gunners last fall over the end of the so-called "assault weapons ban" have proven to be groundless, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) noted today.
The FBI reported that for the first time since 1999, homicides declined last year 5.4 percent in cities with more than 1 million people, and overall, murders fell 3.6 percent nationwide.
"Anti-gun hysterics have once again been proven wrong in their fear mongering," said SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb. "Their forecasts of blood running in the streets were baseless, and they knew it. However, when you're in a war to crush a Constitutional right, one class of firearms at a time, truth is typically the first casualty."
The ten-year-old Clinton Administration ban on certain semiautomatic firearms expired last September, amid alarmist warnings that violent crime would escalate, including violence against children.
"Here we are as a nation, nine months after the sunset of that onerous law," said SAF President Joe Tartaro, "and all the doom and gloom has been exposed as pure claptrap. Not only are murder rates down, so are the overall rates for violent crime.
"Where is the news media on this," he wondered. "If homicides had gone up, you can be certain that would be making front page headlines, with reporters linking the rise to the end of the ban. But that's not the case, and the mainstream press, with the exception of an April 28 New York Times article, has been pretty quiet about it.
"This is more proof," Tartaro said, "that the rhetoric from anti-gunners is bogus. The press should now question all the other outrageous claims and predictions from the gun control crowd. For example, the Palm Beach Post reported that violent crime in Florida is down while the number of concealed pistol licenses has climbed. Anti-gunners predicted gunfights at traffic stops and cocktail lounges, and that scenario never happened, either.
"The gun control movement is, and always has been, built on a foundation of hysteria and lies," Gottlieb stated. "From their lawsuits against gun makers to their assaults on the firearm civil rights of law-abiding American citizens, these gun grabbers have been deliberately deceitful and consistently wrong."
The Second Amendment Foundation --
http://www.saf.org -- is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.
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