Pro-gun women go by the numbers
At Harrisburg rally they cite controversial statistics
claiming an armed citizenry suppresses crime
Tuesday, August 29, 2000
By John M.R. Bull, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Correspondent
HARRISBURG -- Along with God-and-guns rhetoric, the Second
Amendment Sisters came to a rally yesterday armed with some
hard-to-believe statistics.
Some 2.5 million violent crimes are prevented by armed
citizens each year.
More than 1,000 murders and 550 rapes are prevented each day
because people carry guns in self-defense.
These numbers show that guns should not be regulated more
than they already are, said members of the Second Amendment
Sisters, a group set up last year to counter the Million Mom
March, whose supporters favor stricter gun control.
"Self-defense is my God-given right," said Susan Camarata of
Philadelphia, one of six speakers at the 30-person rally.
She said she was kidnapped and raped in 1984 and believes
she could have prevented the assault if she had carried a
gun. Now that she does, she fears the anti-gun lobby will
try to take it away from her.
"The million misinformed moms ... misuse statistics and tell
outright lies. Do they want to put me in jail for exercising
my God-given rights?" she asked.
The statistics cited yesterday were culled from a
"well-respected study," said state Rep. Teresa Forcier,
R-Crawford, who often supports bills promoted by the
National Rifle Association. "We are here to stand and be
heard. So no to murder. Say no to rape."
The statistics are bogus, said David Bernstein, spokesman
for Handgun Control Inc.
The numbers come from studies done by Gary Kleck of Florida
State University and from author John R. Lott Jr. The
studies have been criticized by other academics and
statisticians.
"It's the two people they parade out every time they want to
make a statistical argument," Bernstein said. "It's all
bogus statistics."
The Kleck study, done in 1993, concluded that 2.5 million
violent crimes -- 400,000 of them homicides -- are prevented
each year because citizens are armed. If he is right, that
would mean that homicides are prevented by armed citizens
four times more often than criminals commit them, and that
doesn't make sense, said Bernstein.
As for Lott's frequently cited study that concluded crime
rates fell 8 percent to 15 percent when changes in laws
allowed citizens to carry concealed weapons, it was
"debunked as fatally flawed by literally hundreds of
academics," said Bernstein.
Even Kleck wrote that Lott's conclusions could have resulted
from naturally declining crime rates coinciding with changes
in gun-carrying laws and changes in law-enforcement
techniques, according to Handgun Control.
Several speakers at yesterday's rally said, statistics
aside, they are opposed to any changes to current gun laws.
There currently are no gun regulation laws pending before
the state Legislature.
Laws to force gun manufacturers to design guns that show
when they are loaded or allow only their owners to use them,
or that mandate trigger locks be sold with guns, are
technological solutions to a problem that doesn't exist,
said Maria Heil, national press coordinator for the Second
Amendment Sisters.
"Technology can fail," she said.
Trigger locks would make a gun "completely useless" in the
event of a home invasion, she said.
Any move to tighten trigger pulls on guns, so that children
could not as easily discharge weapons accidentally, is
"discriminatory" against women and the elderly who may not
have the necessary strength to use such a weapon, she added.
"We have to continue with our fight," she said. "There is
not a gun violence epidemic. There is a violence epidemic."
At Harrisburg rally they cite controversial statistics
claiming an armed citizenry suppresses crime
Tuesday, August 29, 2000
By John M.R. Bull, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Correspondent
HARRISBURG -- Along with God-and-guns rhetoric, the Second
Amendment Sisters came to a rally yesterday armed with some
hard-to-believe statistics.
Some 2.5 million violent crimes are prevented by armed
citizens each year.
More than 1,000 murders and 550 rapes are prevented each day
because people carry guns in self-defense.
These numbers show that guns should not be regulated more
than they already are, said members of the Second Amendment
Sisters, a group set up last year to counter the Million Mom
March, whose supporters favor stricter gun control.
"Self-defense is my God-given right," said Susan Camarata of
Philadelphia, one of six speakers at the 30-person rally.
She said she was kidnapped and raped in 1984 and believes
she could have prevented the assault if she had carried a
gun. Now that she does, she fears the anti-gun lobby will
try to take it away from her.
"The million misinformed moms ... misuse statistics and tell
outright lies. Do they want to put me in jail for exercising
my God-given rights?" she asked.
The statistics cited yesterday were culled from a
"well-respected study," said state Rep. Teresa Forcier,
R-Crawford, who often supports bills promoted by the
National Rifle Association. "We are here to stand and be
heard. So no to murder. Say no to rape."
The statistics are bogus, said David Bernstein, spokesman
for Handgun Control Inc.
The numbers come from studies done by Gary Kleck of Florida
State University and from author John R. Lott Jr. The
studies have been criticized by other academics and
statisticians.
"It's the two people they parade out every time they want to
make a statistical argument," Bernstein said. "It's all
bogus statistics."
The Kleck study, done in 1993, concluded that 2.5 million
violent crimes -- 400,000 of them homicides -- are prevented
each year because citizens are armed. If he is right, that
would mean that homicides are prevented by armed citizens
four times more often than criminals commit them, and that
doesn't make sense, said Bernstein.
As for Lott's frequently cited study that concluded crime
rates fell 8 percent to 15 percent when changes in laws
allowed citizens to carry concealed weapons, it was
"debunked as fatally flawed by literally hundreds of
academics," said Bernstein.
Even Kleck wrote that Lott's conclusions could have resulted
from naturally declining crime rates coinciding with changes
in gun-carrying laws and changes in law-enforcement
techniques, according to Handgun Control.
Several speakers at yesterday's rally said, statistics
aside, they are opposed to any changes to current gun laws.
There currently are no gun regulation laws pending before
the state Legislature.
Laws to force gun manufacturers to design guns that show
when they are loaded or allow only their owners to use them,
or that mandate trigger locks be sold with guns, are
technological solutions to a problem that doesn't exist,
said Maria Heil, national press coordinator for the Second
Amendment Sisters.
"Technology can fail," she said.
Trigger locks would make a gun "completely useless" in the
event of a home invasion, she said.
Any move to tighten trigger pulls on guns, so that children
could not as easily discharge weapons accidentally, is
"discriminatory" against women and the elderly who may not
have the necessary strength to use such a weapon, she added.
"We have to continue with our fight," she said. "There is
not a gun violence epidemic. There is a violence epidemic."