The Great Debate over Gun Control
Boortz vs Tucker
By Jeff Dantre' - Posted: 09.13.00
ATLANTA- A debate team in the Communications Department of Georgia State University
brought together two of the South's leading political pundits for "The Great Debate over Gun
Control" on Monday night. The event pitted nationally syndicated, libertarian talk show host
Neal Boortz, also known as the Mouth of the South, America's Rude Awakening, the Talk Master
and Mighty Whitie against the editor-in-chief of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, Cynthia
Tucker.
Held before a crowd at one of the school's auditoriums and heard on Newstalk 750 WSB
radio, the debate was structured using Oxford debating rules with both debaters giving opening
statements, turns of statements and rebuttals, a question and answer session, audience
questions and summations during an hour period. Dr. Steve Braden, the organizer of the event,
also said according to those rules, because Ms. Tucker was speaking for a change in gun laws,
she was allowed to speak first and last.
In her opening statement, Ms. Tucker explained what it was like growing up in lower
Louisiana
{Actually that's L.A. - Lower Alabama}NH
with a family of brothers and a father and their friends who hunted. She described
one occasion where her father took her hunting and how she killed a squirrel with a 410
shotgun. "I tell you all that so you'll know I am not anti-gun. I have not now or ever proposed
banning all firearms," said Ms. Tucker.
Ms. Tucker then offered three proposals designed, she said, to make America a safer
country. First, Ms. Tucker proposed point-of-purchase registration for all firearms and that
the information should be stored in a nationwide database available to all law enforcement
agencies. "That's exactly what we do with all car, trucks and buses," said Ms. Tucker. She
proposed that at the time of a firearms purchase the prospective gun owner would have to show
proof of completion of a safety class. Second, Ms. Tucker wants all firearms to come under the
scrutiny of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, something she says would force
manufacturers to make guns safer. Finally, she recommended criminal penalties for adults who
don't store their firearms safely. Said Ms. Tucker, "A law would force them to not be careless
with their firearms."
The newspaper chief then called the Washington gun lobby to the carpet saying they keep
making lame excuses for why we can't have sensible guns laws. She attacked what she called "one
of their favorites", the Second Amendment. Said Ms. Tucker, "The gun lobby has never won a
Supreme Court case on Second Amendment grounds." But she says her current favorite from the gun
lobby is the call to enforce existing gun laws. Ms. Tucker said it is the gun lobby who does
not want existing laws enforced. She said look at the gun lobby's regard for the chief federal
agency in charge of firearms in this country, the Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol and Firearms. "The
gun lobby has done everything possible to defend it, discredit it, dismantle it." Ms. Tucker
asked, "Drivers are licensed so why can't we license guns"?
Mr. Boortz opened by stating he has no expectation of changing anyone's mind but he hopes
that everyone listening would begin to question the media's portrayal of the gun control issue.
Quickly then to the Second Amendment, Mr. Boortz said the reason the gun rights lobby (whoever
that is, he stated) does not want a case before the Supreme Court, is the liberal leaning of
the current court. He cited the Court's ruling on the carrying of large amounts of cash through
airports and how police can confiscate the money, based on thoughts of drug dealing, without
due process.
He said there are so many references he could bring up about the Second Amendment. His
favorite though is the Bill of Rights. "The Bill of Rights", said Mr. Boortz, "was written to
guarantee that the government would not violate certain rights that the people had, inherent
rights." He said the supposition that the Second Amendment was created so this country could
form the national guard fails to recall that the Bill of Rights are rights of the people and
not the government. And he noted that the founding fathers must have been prophets because,
"the National Guard wasn't formed until 130 years after the Second Amendment was written."
"And I could quote our Founding Fathers all night," said Mr. Boortz. He quoted Thomas
Jefferson by saying, "What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from
time to time that their people preserve their spirit of independence.let them take arms." Then
from James Madison in number 46 of the Federalist Papers saying the right was for "the People."
"But the problem isn't with the Second Amendment", said Mr. Boortz. It's the 200 million
firearms in the hands of the public today. "How are you going to get them", he said. "Only the
law abiding citizens will turn them in, the criminals won't obey the law."
As for registration of guns, Mr. Boortz says 96 percent of the guns used in criminal
enterprise are not legally obtained.
Said Mr. Boortz, "They come up with all of these wonderful ideas about how we can control
guns, register guns and license guns but they never come up with one single idea of how we can
get the guns out of the hands of the criminals." As to Ms. Tucker's reference to licensing
drivers of cars, Mr. Boortz retorted that you don't need a license to purchase a car, only to
drive it.
Mr. Boortz offered that in order to believe in gun control you have to believe in the
following things: "You have to believe that the more helpless you are, the safer you are from
criminals; you have to believe that ordinary people in the presence of a gun turn into
slaughtering, blood thirsty butchers and they return to normal ordinary behavior as soon as the
gun is removed; and, you have to believe that guns cause crime which is why we see so many mass
shootings at gun shows."
Ms. Tucker said that Mr. Boortz wasn't telling the truth. She said that she did not
propose confiscation or registration of existing weapons. "But we have to start somewhere..and
we would have left the world a safer place for our children than it is now". Ms. Tucker said
criminals are given too much credit. "500,000 of them were stupid enough to go and try to buy a
gun from a gun dealer after the Brady bill passed. Mr. Boortz disputed the 500,000 claim and
questioned how it is that this many felons were turned away from buying a gun but only six or
seven, he said, were ever prosecuted for their crime.
Then Ms. Tucker raised the issue of guns in the home making references to the number of
gun accidents, gun suicides and gun homicides. "In 1998 in this country", she said, "we had
thousands of kids killed with firearms. 262 of them were killed in accidents and more than 1200
of them committed suicide. " In that time, she proposed, only 165 people used a weapon to
protect themselves in a "justifiable homicide" making it much more likely to have a negative
effect from a gun in the home than a positive one. Mr. Boortz said that the number fails to
take into account the number of people who defend themselves by injuring a perpetrator or
without even firing a shot.
Q and A Session
Mr. Boortz: "A couple of years ago when they were voting to liberalize the concealed
weapons laws in Georgia, you wrote both in editorials and in your personal column your concern
that there would just be dead police officers in the streets. Are you aware of any case,
anywhere in the country where a person with a license to carry a concealed weapon has even shot
a police officer in the line of duty?"
Ms. Tucker: "I am not aware of a single case, Neal, and you know what, you make my point.
Licensing works. You're absolutely right."
Mr. Boortz: "Your point in your columns was that if we allow people to have licenses to
carry concealed weapons, they'll be shooting police officers.it has never happened."
Ms. Tucker: "My point was that if we allow people to have concealed carry licenses, our
streets will be even more dangerous than they are now. Common sense tells you that Neal. Now
how many times do you think we will have more road rage incidents when we allow more people to
carry guns.(Boortz interrupts).I'm not gonna ban them.."
Mr. Boortz: "You have your rebuttal coming up, Cynthia, answer the question and try not
to engage in another speech. Are you aware of one single incident, anywhere in the country,
where anybody with a concealed weapons permit has ever shot anybody after a traffic accident or
in a condition of road rage."
Ms. Tucker: "Yes. Absolutely. Someone with a concealed weapons permit did shoot someone
in Texas after a traffic accident."
Mr. Boortz: "I am familiar with that case. It went to court and was adjudicated-
self-defense. (Crowd laughs) Do you believe in order for someone to defend themselves using a
firearm that they have to kill whoever is threatened?"
Ms. Tucker: "No I don't."
Mr. Boortz: "OK. I'm glad to hear that. In 98 percent of the uses of a gun for
self-defense, the trigger is never pulled. But you compare the number of people who commit
suicide or are killed with guns with the number of times a person kills somebody to protect
themselves..why don't you include all of the statistics. The number of people who defend
themselves with a gun without ever having to pull the trigger."
Ms. Tucker: "Your statistics are baloney, Neal. That's the reason why. The 98 percent is
this famous number that Gary Kleck comes up with from a survey that he does. He asks a thousand
people or so a question of how many times have you used a gun in self-defense, you're asking
people to remember incidents where they may not even have been endangered. And them he
extrapolates to get a number that very, very few people including the FBI believe. It's voodoo
statistics Neal, that's the reason I don't mention your statistics."
Mr. Boortz: "Marvin Wolfgang, director of an anti-gun.he's a man who said I'd take them
(guns) all if I had the power to do so. In the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology said, "I
do not like the conclusions that having a gun can be useful, I cannot fault their methodology."
He continues, "Can it be true that about 2 million instances occur each year in which a gun was
used as a defensive measure against a crime? It is hard to believe yet it is hard to challenge
the data collected." So here is one of the foremost gun control advocates saying it is hard to
challenge the data, the data that you call voodoo statistics."
Mr. Boortz continued with an attack of the Brady bill saying that it has not worked. He
cited a recent Georgetown University study that concluded that the Brady Bill did nothing to
reduce crime. He said the only measurable change was a slight change in the number of suicides
among men over 55 years old. And Mr. Boortz again cited the lack of prosecution of felons
attempting to buy weapons, "Someone out there is simply not doing their job. The Brady Bill has
been an absolute, abject failure."
Regarding concealed weapons, Mr. Boortz cited examples using the no issue, may issue,
shall issue state rules. "The crime rate over the last couple of years has dropped the fastest
in shall issue states. It has dropped the slowest in no issue states. People that carry guns
are a deterrent to crime."
With regard to the Second Amendment and its protection against tyranny of the government,
Ms. Tucker asked, "Supposing Pat Buchanan is elected President, but he is not re-elected and
refuses to leave office but he has all of the support of the military. The United States is a
dictatorship, do you think that citizens armed even with AK-47s could get rid of a President
with the full support of the military."
Mr. Boortz asked if she meant the class of citizens we have now? "I don't think they'd
even care." "So what's the point?", Ms Tucker asked. "So all of this effort about defending the
country from tyranny is just a smokescreen?" "Well, it wasn't 200 years ago", said Mr. Boortz.
Ms. Tucker cited the arsenal of the U.S. military asking how mere citizens could defend
themselves even if they're armed. Said Mr. Boortz, "I do not believe in this country today that
we have a class of citizen that is willing to fight for liberty." "Then why are they keeping
all of these guns?" "Well, Cynthia, because we do have a class of citizens that is aware of the
fact that there are hundreds of thousands of criminal predators out there with guns and they
would like to have the most effective means as possible to defend themselves."
Audience Questions
The audience then asked questions; the issue of school shootings was raised. Mr. Boortz
said that guns did not turn the kids into criminals. "In some cases, they clearly did, at least
in one instance, acquire the gun from somebody who had violated the law."
Mr. Boortz stated that school shootings are on the decline.
Mr. Boortz said, "Prior to 1969, virtually every high school in New York City had a
student shooting program". According to Mr. Boortz, the students brought their weapons to
school during the session, turning them in to an instructor. They participated in the shooting
session and returned home with their weapons." He used the story to cite that the easy
availability of guns has nothing to do with crime. How to prevent another Columbine, he said he
did not know.
Finally one woman offered that she was 33 years old and had never owned a weapon and got
along fine. "Are you advocating, Mr. Boortz, that I need a gun because everybody else has a
gun?" Mr. Boortz said, "Absolutely not, only if you feel you need one..but would you be willing
to put a sign in your front yard that says this is a gun free home?"
Her reply, to the roaring crowd, "No."
The Summations
Mr. Boortz: "The very act of using a firearm to defend yourself in Great Britain is a
crime. The London Times from January 16th of this year reported, since the firearm act was
placed in effect in Great Britain, killings have gone up as more than three million illegal
guns have flooded the country. Cynthia just said that countries with less guns have less, uh,
fewer murders, fewer instances of gun violence." He cited the country of Switzerland where he
said each citizen is required to have a firearm in the home. And then Italy, with extremely
restrictive firearms. Mr. Boortz said, "Italy has more than 30 times the firearm homicide rate
that Switzerland does." Finally, Mr. Boortz told the story of a woman who was being stalked by
her ex husband. When the man was coming to her house, she ran to a next door neighbor, Rex
Mongus, who hid her in his closet. The ex, toting several firearms, shot open the door of the
good-Samaritan neighbor and at gunpoint asked him where his wife was. The man refused and the
ex shot and killed him. "What if Rex Mongus had a gun in his house when this guy was in the
process of shooting off his door lock? And what if he actually had it loaded? And what if he
didn't have to open a safe to get the gun? And what if he didn't have to load the gun because
it was already loaded? And what if he didn't have to find a key for a trigger lock? And what if
he'd been standing there with a gun when this SOB came through the front door? Could that story
have ended up somewhat differently?"
Ms. Tucker:
She advised the listeners to not take her word or Neal's word on these issues. Find the
information for yourself. "Neal talked about Switzerland, so call the Swiss Embassy and ask
them about gun control, they have very strict gun control. All of those guns that the
militiamen have in their homes must be locked up and the ammunition must be stored under lock
and key." Ms. Tucker disputed Mr. Boortz's statement that crime declined in states that had
liberal concealed weapons laws. "Massachusetts doesn't have a concealed carry law. 1997-1998,
crimes down six percent. New York, no concealed carry law, same years, crime down eight
percent. Georgia, does have a concealed carry law, same years, crime's down four percent. So
crime's down more in the state's that don't have concealed carry laws." Ms. Tucker said Mr.
Boortz showed no cause and effect between concealed carry laws and the drop in crime. "This is
a great country and we've got a problem with firearms. This is a problem we can solve. We can
do it, we have to do it for our children. Children are dying, not just in criminal activity,
but in accidents, in suicides. Guns ought to be locked away so children can't get to them...We
can do better than this. We can change the culture in this country just as we did with drinking
and driving... I'm not gonna take your guns from you but I'm gonna insist you handle them
responsibly."
------------------
When women are disarmed, a rapist will never hear - Stop or I'll shoot!
Armed Citizens SAVE Lives!
<A HREF="http://www.wagc.com
http://sites.netscape.net/wagcga/homepage
Gun" TARGET=_blank>http://www.wagc.com
http://sites.netscape.net/wagcga/homepage
Gun</A> Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a
woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
"Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum
est" ("A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands")
Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the younger" ca. (4 BC - 65 AD)
Boortz vs Tucker
By Jeff Dantre' - Posted: 09.13.00
ATLANTA- A debate team in the Communications Department of Georgia State University
brought together two of the South's leading political pundits for "The Great Debate over Gun
Control" on Monday night. The event pitted nationally syndicated, libertarian talk show host
Neal Boortz, also known as the Mouth of the South, America's Rude Awakening, the Talk Master
and Mighty Whitie against the editor-in-chief of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, Cynthia
Tucker.
Held before a crowd at one of the school's auditoriums and heard on Newstalk 750 WSB
radio, the debate was structured using Oxford debating rules with both debaters giving opening
statements, turns of statements and rebuttals, a question and answer session, audience
questions and summations during an hour period. Dr. Steve Braden, the organizer of the event,
also said according to those rules, because Ms. Tucker was speaking for a change in gun laws,
she was allowed to speak first and last.
In her opening statement, Ms. Tucker explained what it was like growing up in lower
Louisiana
{Actually that's L.A. - Lower Alabama}NH
with a family of brothers and a father and their friends who hunted. She described
one occasion where her father took her hunting and how she killed a squirrel with a 410
shotgun. "I tell you all that so you'll know I am not anti-gun. I have not now or ever proposed
banning all firearms," said Ms. Tucker.
Ms. Tucker then offered three proposals designed, she said, to make America a safer
country. First, Ms. Tucker proposed point-of-purchase registration for all firearms and that
the information should be stored in a nationwide database available to all law enforcement
agencies. "That's exactly what we do with all car, trucks and buses," said Ms. Tucker. She
proposed that at the time of a firearms purchase the prospective gun owner would have to show
proof of completion of a safety class. Second, Ms. Tucker wants all firearms to come under the
scrutiny of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, something she says would force
manufacturers to make guns safer. Finally, she recommended criminal penalties for adults who
don't store their firearms safely. Said Ms. Tucker, "A law would force them to not be careless
with their firearms."
The newspaper chief then called the Washington gun lobby to the carpet saying they keep
making lame excuses for why we can't have sensible guns laws. She attacked what she called "one
of their favorites", the Second Amendment. Said Ms. Tucker, "The gun lobby has never won a
Supreme Court case on Second Amendment grounds." But she says her current favorite from the gun
lobby is the call to enforce existing gun laws. Ms. Tucker said it is the gun lobby who does
not want existing laws enforced. She said look at the gun lobby's regard for the chief federal
agency in charge of firearms in this country, the Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol and Firearms. "The
gun lobby has done everything possible to defend it, discredit it, dismantle it." Ms. Tucker
asked, "Drivers are licensed so why can't we license guns"?
Mr. Boortz opened by stating he has no expectation of changing anyone's mind but he hopes
that everyone listening would begin to question the media's portrayal of the gun control issue.
Quickly then to the Second Amendment, Mr. Boortz said the reason the gun rights lobby (whoever
that is, he stated) does not want a case before the Supreme Court, is the liberal leaning of
the current court. He cited the Court's ruling on the carrying of large amounts of cash through
airports and how police can confiscate the money, based on thoughts of drug dealing, without
due process.
He said there are so many references he could bring up about the Second Amendment. His
favorite though is the Bill of Rights. "The Bill of Rights", said Mr. Boortz, "was written to
guarantee that the government would not violate certain rights that the people had, inherent
rights." He said the supposition that the Second Amendment was created so this country could
form the national guard fails to recall that the Bill of Rights are rights of the people and
not the government. And he noted that the founding fathers must have been prophets because,
"the National Guard wasn't formed until 130 years after the Second Amendment was written."
"And I could quote our Founding Fathers all night," said Mr. Boortz. He quoted Thomas
Jefferson by saying, "What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from
time to time that their people preserve their spirit of independence.let them take arms." Then
from James Madison in number 46 of the Federalist Papers saying the right was for "the People."
"But the problem isn't with the Second Amendment", said Mr. Boortz. It's the 200 million
firearms in the hands of the public today. "How are you going to get them", he said. "Only the
law abiding citizens will turn them in, the criminals won't obey the law."
As for registration of guns, Mr. Boortz says 96 percent of the guns used in criminal
enterprise are not legally obtained.
Said Mr. Boortz, "They come up with all of these wonderful ideas about how we can control
guns, register guns and license guns but they never come up with one single idea of how we can
get the guns out of the hands of the criminals." As to Ms. Tucker's reference to licensing
drivers of cars, Mr. Boortz retorted that you don't need a license to purchase a car, only to
drive it.
Mr. Boortz offered that in order to believe in gun control you have to believe in the
following things: "You have to believe that the more helpless you are, the safer you are from
criminals; you have to believe that ordinary people in the presence of a gun turn into
slaughtering, blood thirsty butchers and they return to normal ordinary behavior as soon as the
gun is removed; and, you have to believe that guns cause crime which is why we see so many mass
shootings at gun shows."
Ms. Tucker said that Mr. Boortz wasn't telling the truth. She said that she did not
propose confiscation or registration of existing weapons. "But we have to start somewhere..and
we would have left the world a safer place for our children than it is now". Ms. Tucker said
criminals are given too much credit. "500,000 of them were stupid enough to go and try to buy a
gun from a gun dealer after the Brady bill passed. Mr. Boortz disputed the 500,000 claim and
questioned how it is that this many felons were turned away from buying a gun but only six or
seven, he said, were ever prosecuted for their crime.
Then Ms. Tucker raised the issue of guns in the home making references to the number of
gun accidents, gun suicides and gun homicides. "In 1998 in this country", she said, "we had
thousands of kids killed with firearms. 262 of them were killed in accidents and more than 1200
of them committed suicide. " In that time, she proposed, only 165 people used a weapon to
protect themselves in a "justifiable homicide" making it much more likely to have a negative
effect from a gun in the home than a positive one. Mr. Boortz said that the number fails to
take into account the number of people who defend themselves by injuring a perpetrator or
without even firing a shot.
Q and A Session
Mr. Boortz: "A couple of years ago when they were voting to liberalize the concealed
weapons laws in Georgia, you wrote both in editorials and in your personal column your concern
that there would just be dead police officers in the streets. Are you aware of any case,
anywhere in the country where a person with a license to carry a concealed weapon has even shot
a police officer in the line of duty?"
Ms. Tucker: "I am not aware of a single case, Neal, and you know what, you make my point.
Licensing works. You're absolutely right."
Mr. Boortz: "Your point in your columns was that if we allow people to have licenses to
carry concealed weapons, they'll be shooting police officers.it has never happened."
Ms. Tucker: "My point was that if we allow people to have concealed carry licenses, our
streets will be even more dangerous than they are now. Common sense tells you that Neal. Now
how many times do you think we will have more road rage incidents when we allow more people to
carry guns.(Boortz interrupts).I'm not gonna ban them.."
Mr. Boortz: "You have your rebuttal coming up, Cynthia, answer the question and try not
to engage in another speech. Are you aware of one single incident, anywhere in the country,
where anybody with a concealed weapons permit has ever shot anybody after a traffic accident or
in a condition of road rage."
Ms. Tucker: "Yes. Absolutely. Someone with a concealed weapons permit did shoot someone
in Texas after a traffic accident."
Mr. Boortz: "I am familiar with that case. It went to court and was adjudicated-
self-defense. (Crowd laughs) Do you believe in order for someone to defend themselves using a
firearm that they have to kill whoever is threatened?"
Ms. Tucker: "No I don't."
Mr. Boortz: "OK. I'm glad to hear that. In 98 percent of the uses of a gun for
self-defense, the trigger is never pulled. But you compare the number of people who commit
suicide or are killed with guns with the number of times a person kills somebody to protect
themselves..why don't you include all of the statistics. The number of people who defend
themselves with a gun without ever having to pull the trigger."
Ms. Tucker: "Your statistics are baloney, Neal. That's the reason why. The 98 percent is
this famous number that Gary Kleck comes up with from a survey that he does. He asks a thousand
people or so a question of how many times have you used a gun in self-defense, you're asking
people to remember incidents where they may not even have been endangered. And them he
extrapolates to get a number that very, very few people including the FBI believe. It's voodoo
statistics Neal, that's the reason I don't mention your statistics."
Mr. Boortz: "Marvin Wolfgang, director of an anti-gun.he's a man who said I'd take them
(guns) all if I had the power to do so. In the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology said, "I
do not like the conclusions that having a gun can be useful, I cannot fault their methodology."
He continues, "Can it be true that about 2 million instances occur each year in which a gun was
used as a defensive measure against a crime? It is hard to believe yet it is hard to challenge
the data collected." So here is one of the foremost gun control advocates saying it is hard to
challenge the data, the data that you call voodoo statistics."
Mr. Boortz continued with an attack of the Brady bill saying that it has not worked. He
cited a recent Georgetown University study that concluded that the Brady Bill did nothing to
reduce crime. He said the only measurable change was a slight change in the number of suicides
among men over 55 years old. And Mr. Boortz again cited the lack of prosecution of felons
attempting to buy weapons, "Someone out there is simply not doing their job. The Brady Bill has
been an absolute, abject failure."
Regarding concealed weapons, Mr. Boortz cited examples using the no issue, may issue,
shall issue state rules. "The crime rate over the last couple of years has dropped the fastest
in shall issue states. It has dropped the slowest in no issue states. People that carry guns
are a deterrent to crime."
With regard to the Second Amendment and its protection against tyranny of the government,
Ms. Tucker asked, "Supposing Pat Buchanan is elected President, but he is not re-elected and
refuses to leave office but he has all of the support of the military. The United States is a
dictatorship, do you think that citizens armed even with AK-47s could get rid of a President
with the full support of the military."
Mr. Boortz asked if she meant the class of citizens we have now? "I don't think they'd
even care." "So what's the point?", Ms Tucker asked. "So all of this effort about defending the
country from tyranny is just a smokescreen?" "Well, it wasn't 200 years ago", said Mr. Boortz.
Ms. Tucker cited the arsenal of the U.S. military asking how mere citizens could defend
themselves even if they're armed. Said Mr. Boortz, "I do not believe in this country today that
we have a class of citizen that is willing to fight for liberty." "Then why are they keeping
all of these guns?" "Well, Cynthia, because we do have a class of citizens that is aware of the
fact that there are hundreds of thousands of criminal predators out there with guns and they
would like to have the most effective means as possible to defend themselves."
Audience Questions
The audience then asked questions; the issue of school shootings was raised. Mr. Boortz
said that guns did not turn the kids into criminals. "In some cases, they clearly did, at least
in one instance, acquire the gun from somebody who had violated the law."
Mr. Boortz stated that school shootings are on the decline.
Mr. Boortz said, "Prior to 1969, virtually every high school in New York City had a
student shooting program". According to Mr. Boortz, the students brought their weapons to
school during the session, turning them in to an instructor. They participated in the shooting
session and returned home with their weapons." He used the story to cite that the easy
availability of guns has nothing to do with crime. How to prevent another Columbine, he said he
did not know.
Finally one woman offered that she was 33 years old and had never owned a weapon and got
along fine. "Are you advocating, Mr. Boortz, that I need a gun because everybody else has a
gun?" Mr. Boortz said, "Absolutely not, only if you feel you need one..but would you be willing
to put a sign in your front yard that says this is a gun free home?"
Her reply, to the roaring crowd, "No."
The Summations
Mr. Boortz: "The very act of using a firearm to defend yourself in Great Britain is a
crime. The London Times from January 16th of this year reported, since the firearm act was
placed in effect in Great Britain, killings have gone up as more than three million illegal
guns have flooded the country. Cynthia just said that countries with less guns have less, uh,
fewer murders, fewer instances of gun violence." He cited the country of Switzerland where he
said each citizen is required to have a firearm in the home. And then Italy, with extremely
restrictive firearms. Mr. Boortz said, "Italy has more than 30 times the firearm homicide rate
that Switzerland does." Finally, Mr. Boortz told the story of a woman who was being stalked by
her ex husband. When the man was coming to her house, she ran to a next door neighbor, Rex
Mongus, who hid her in his closet. The ex, toting several firearms, shot open the door of the
good-Samaritan neighbor and at gunpoint asked him where his wife was. The man refused and the
ex shot and killed him. "What if Rex Mongus had a gun in his house when this guy was in the
process of shooting off his door lock? And what if he actually had it loaded? And what if he
didn't have to open a safe to get the gun? And what if he didn't have to load the gun because
it was already loaded? And what if he didn't have to find a key for a trigger lock? And what if
he'd been standing there with a gun when this SOB came through the front door? Could that story
have ended up somewhat differently?"
Ms. Tucker:
She advised the listeners to not take her word or Neal's word on these issues. Find the
information for yourself. "Neal talked about Switzerland, so call the Swiss Embassy and ask
them about gun control, they have very strict gun control. All of those guns that the
militiamen have in their homes must be locked up and the ammunition must be stored under lock
and key." Ms. Tucker disputed Mr. Boortz's statement that crime declined in states that had
liberal concealed weapons laws. "Massachusetts doesn't have a concealed carry law. 1997-1998,
crimes down six percent. New York, no concealed carry law, same years, crime down eight
percent. Georgia, does have a concealed carry law, same years, crime's down four percent. So
crime's down more in the state's that don't have concealed carry laws." Ms. Tucker said Mr.
Boortz showed no cause and effect between concealed carry laws and the drop in crime. "This is
a great country and we've got a problem with firearms. This is a problem we can solve. We can
do it, we have to do it for our children. Children are dying, not just in criminal activity,
but in accidents, in suicides. Guns ought to be locked away so children can't get to them...We
can do better than this. We can change the culture in this country just as we did with drinking
and driving... I'm not gonna take your guns from you but I'm gonna insist you handle them
responsibly."
------------------
When women are disarmed, a rapist will never hear - Stop or I'll shoot!
Armed Citizens SAVE Lives!
<A HREF="http://www.wagc.com
http://sites.netscape.net/wagcga/homepage
Gun" TARGET=_blank>http://www.wagc.com
http://sites.netscape.net/wagcga/homepage
Gun</A> Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a
woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
"Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum
est" ("A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands")
Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the younger" ca. (4 BC - 65 AD)
