the SOB"s are using our statements only in reverse........... SICK Lieing rat 
bas !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As proponents of stronger gun laws point out, the proof is in the numbers.
"If the gun lobby's argument that giving everybody guns would make us a
safer society were true, America would be the safest place on earth," said
Jacques of the Massachusetts Senate. "And it's not."
Our statement:
If gun control worked places like Mass, NJ , CA, etc would be the safest place in US, yet they have the highest crime rates
...............................................................
Gun Laws Get Credit for Homicide Declines
Feature Story
by Dick Dahl
Total gun deaths in the U.S. have been dropping steadily since 1993, when
they peaked at nearly 40,000, to around 28,000 annually 1999 through 2001.
Although firearm suicides have remained fairly constant at over 16,000 per
year, the decrease in gun homicides has accounted for the bulk of the
decline. A variety of explanations have been offered to account for the
decline in gun homicides, but recent research has demonstrated that strong
gun laws should be considered a leading reason.
An article published by the American Journal of Public Health last
December showed that the six states with the highest rates of gun
ownership--Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, and
Wyoming--had homicide rates that were three times higher than the four
states with the lowest rates of gun ownership--Hawaii, Massachusetts, New
Jersey, and Rhode Island. The study's lead author, Matthew Miller of the
Harvard School of Public Health, concluded that "guns, on balance,
lethally imperil rather than protect Americans." Combined with a 2000
assessment of gun laws around the nation by the Soros Foundation, the data
also show that lax gun laws imperil Americans. That's because the Soros
scorecard listed each of the six high-homicide states among the bottom
third of states with the weakest gun laws, and it listed the four
low-homicide states among the top 10 states with the strongest gun laws.
According to Soros, the state with the strongest gun laws is
Massachusetts, and according to 2000 data from the Centers for Disease
Control, Massachusetts residents enjoy the lowest rates of gun violence in
the nation. According to CDC, Massachusetts's overall death rate from guns
in 2000 was 2.84 per 100,000 people, well ahead of second-place New
Jersey's 4.16 and nearly one fourth of the national average, 10.41.
The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which compiles FBI crime data,
reports that there were 125 homicides in Massachusetts in 2000 and that
47.5 percent of them were committed with a gun. By contrast, the 2002 FBI
data for Louisiana, a state with a population one third smaller than
Massachusetts, recorded 560 homicides, 73.7 percent of which were
committed with a gun.
"It's no coincidence that we have the toughest gun-safety laws the lowest
gun-death rate in the country," said Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl
Jacques, a longtime leading force for stronger gun laws in the state. In
addition to enjoying the lowest overall firearms death rate in the
country, Massachusetts also has the lowest gun-crime rate of any nonrural
industrialized state, she said.
Jacques points specifically to a sweeping law that Massachusetts passed in
1998 with the help of a coalition of groups such as Boston-based Stop
Handgun Violence, that increased criminal penalties for illegal gun use,
toughened licensing procedures for background checks and renewals,
tightened screening requirements, and banned assault weapons. In addition,
the attorney general's office has begun exercising its consumer-protection
powers to regulate handguns.
Within a year of the 1998 law's passage, "we saw a more than 80 percent
reduction in unintentional shootings involving individuals age zero to
19," said Jacques' chief of staff Angus McQuilken, "and we saw a more than
20-percent reduction in suicides by firearms without a corresponding
increase in suicides by other methods." In addition, gun homicides in
Massachusetts have continued to drop.
There's only one problem being the state with the strongest gun laws and
low gun death rates. "While Massachusetts has the security of knowing we
have the toughest gun laws in the nation, we're surrounded by states that
have some of the weakest laws: Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire," Jacques
said. "So ultimately, federal protections are very much needed because
guns know no borders or boundaries."
While gun-homicide rates have been dropping steadily since the early
1990s, opinions have varied on the reasons for the decline. Typical
explanations have focused on an improved economy, the decline of urban
crack-cocaine markets, improved policing, tougher sentencing-and tougher
gun laws.
"It's largely the laws, but it's the laws combined with education on
responsible gun ownership, safe storage, efforts at working with young
people and teaching them life skills like conflict resolution, anger
management, and things of that nature," said John Shanks, director of
law-enforcement relations for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
"When you add up all those things and add in the fact that we have a
better background-check system, all of these things as a group result in a
lower homicide rate."
The degree to which gun laws are responsible for keeping gun-homicide
rates down, however, has remained largely unmeasured. And according to Jon
Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and
Research, it is a question that begs for extensive research. Not that
conclusive findings about gun laws' effects don't exist, he said. For
instance, Vernick said, evaluations of bans on cheap handguns (often known
as "Saturday-night specials") and assault weapons and prohibitions on gun
ownership by people who have committed domestic violence have shown them
to be effective.
Another area of gun laws that need careful evaluation in Vernick's opinion
includes "the broad effort to focus on illegal gun trafficking." That
effort includes such specific measures as "one gun a month" purchasing
limitations, federal law-enforcement efforts to tighten enforcement of
gun-trafficking violations, and the Brady Act's increasing of federal
license fees for dealers.
"In the field of evaluating gun laws, you can tick off the well-conducted
evaluations on just a few fingers," he said. Among those evaluations, he
said, are the recent research by law professors John Donohue and Ian
Ayres, which contradicted the research conclusions of economist John Lott
that permissive concealed-handgun laws deter crime; and the work of
Elizabeth Richardson Vigdor of Duke University and James A. Mercy of CDC,
who found that laws prohibiting domestic abusers from having guns are
effective.
The general decline in gun homicides and gun violence over the last 10
years is the result of many factors, Vernick said. "But I haven't seen the
grand unified theory that plugs all these things in and explains the
various contributions to the reduction in homicide. I think knowing which
of these things really were reasons for the decline would be tremendously
important from a public-policy perspective because we want to know which
to replicate and which we should get rid of."
Any efforts to examine how sensible laws might better reduce gun violence
will encounter opposition from the gun lobby, of course. In Colorado,
where more than 70 percent of the state's residents voted in a 2000
referendum to close a loophole which allows people to buy firearms at gun
shows without a background check, the gun lobby is pushing a bill to do
away with the loophole closure. "Why is the gun lobby so against the voice
of the people?" asked an exasperated Shanks.
As proponents of stronger gun laws point out, the proof is in the numbers.
"If the gun lobby's argument that giving everybody guns would make us a
safer society were true, America would be the safest place on earth," said
Jacques of the Massachusetts Senate. "And it's not."
:banghead: 
bas !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!As proponents of stronger gun laws point out, the proof is in the numbers.
"If the gun lobby's argument that giving everybody guns would make us a
safer society were true, America would be the safest place on earth," said
Jacques of the Massachusetts Senate. "And it's not."
Our statement:
If gun control worked places like Mass, NJ , CA, etc would be the safest place in US, yet they have the highest crime rates
...............................................................
Gun Laws Get Credit for Homicide Declines
Feature Story
by Dick Dahl
Total gun deaths in the U.S. have been dropping steadily since 1993, when
they peaked at nearly 40,000, to around 28,000 annually 1999 through 2001.
Although firearm suicides have remained fairly constant at over 16,000 per
year, the decrease in gun homicides has accounted for the bulk of the
decline. A variety of explanations have been offered to account for the
decline in gun homicides, but recent research has demonstrated that strong
gun laws should be considered a leading reason.
An article published by the American Journal of Public Health last
December showed that the six states with the highest rates of gun
ownership--Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, and
Wyoming--had homicide rates that were three times higher than the four
states with the lowest rates of gun ownership--Hawaii, Massachusetts, New
Jersey, and Rhode Island. The study's lead author, Matthew Miller of the
Harvard School of Public Health, concluded that "guns, on balance,
lethally imperil rather than protect Americans." Combined with a 2000
assessment of gun laws around the nation by the Soros Foundation, the data
also show that lax gun laws imperil Americans. That's because the Soros
scorecard listed each of the six high-homicide states among the bottom
third of states with the weakest gun laws, and it listed the four
low-homicide states among the top 10 states with the strongest gun laws.
According to Soros, the state with the strongest gun laws is
Massachusetts, and according to 2000 data from the Centers for Disease
Control, Massachusetts residents enjoy the lowest rates of gun violence in
the nation. According to CDC, Massachusetts's overall death rate from guns
in 2000 was 2.84 per 100,000 people, well ahead of second-place New
Jersey's 4.16 and nearly one fourth of the national average, 10.41.
The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which compiles FBI crime data,
reports that there were 125 homicides in Massachusetts in 2000 and that
47.5 percent of them were committed with a gun. By contrast, the 2002 FBI
data for Louisiana, a state with a population one third smaller than
Massachusetts, recorded 560 homicides, 73.7 percent of which were
committed with a gun.
"It's no coincidence that we have the toughest gun-safety laws the lowest
gun-death rate in the country," said Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl
Jacques, a longtime leading force for stronger gun laws in the state. In
addition to enjoying the lowest overall firearms death rate in the
country, Massachusetts also has the lowest gun-crime rate of any nonrural
industrialized state, she said.
Jacques points specifically to a sweeping law that Massachusetts passed in
1998 with the help of a coalition of groups such as Boston-based Stop
Handgun Violence, that increased criminal penalties for illegal gun use,
toughened licensing procedures for background checks and renewals,
tightened screening requirements, and banned assault weapons. In addition,
the attorney general's office has begun exercising its consumer-protection
powers to regulate handguns.
Within a year of the 1998 law's passage, "we saw a more than 80 percent
reduction in unintentional shootings involving individuals age zero to
19," said Jacques' chief of staff Angus McQuilken, "and we saw a more than
20-percent reduction in suicides by firearms without a corresponding
increase in suicides by other methods." In addition, gun homicides in
Massachusetts have continued to drop.
There's only one problem being the state with the strongest gun laws and
low gun death rates. "While Massachusetts has the security of knowing we
have the toughest gun laws in the nation, we're surrounded by states that
have some of the weakest laws: Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire," Jacques
said. "So ultimately, federal protections are very much needed because
guns know no borders or boundaries."
While gun-homicide rates have been dropping steadily since the early
1990s, opinions have varied on the reasons for the decline. Typical
explanations have focused on an improved economy, the decline of urban
crack-cocaine markets, improved policing, tougher sentencing-and tougher
gun laws.
"It's largely the laws, but it's the laws combined with education on
responsible gun ownership, safe storage, efforts at working with young
people and teaching them life skills like conflict resolution, anger
management, and things of that nature," said John Shanks, director of
law-enforcement relations for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
"When you add up all those things and add in the fact that we have a
better background-check system, all of these things as a group result in a
lower homicide rate."
The degree to which gun laws are responsible for keeping gun-homicide
rates down, however, has remained largely unmeasured. And according to Jon
Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and
Research, it is a question that begs for extensive research. Not that
conclusive findings about gun laws' effects don't exist, he said. For
instance, Vernick said, evaluations of bans on cheap handguns (often known
as "Saturday-night specials") and assault weapons and prohibitions on gun
ownership by people who have committed domestic violence have shown them
to be effective.
Another area of gun laws that need careful evaluation in Vernick's opinion
includes "the broad effort to focus on illegal gun trafficking." That
effort includes such specific measures as "one gun a month" purchasing
limitations, federal law-enforcement efforts to tighten enforcement of
gun-trafficking violations, and the Brady Act's increasing of federal
license fees for dealers.
"In the field of evaluating gun laws, you can tick off the well-conducted
evaluations on just a few fingers," he said. Among those evaluations, he
said, are the recent research by law professors John Donohue and Ian
Ayres, which contradicted the research conclusions of economist John Lott
that permissive concealed-handgun laws deter crime; and the work of
Elizabeth Richardson Vigdor of Duke University and James A. Mercy of CDC,
who found that laws prohibiting domestic abusers from having guns are
effective.
The general decline in gun homicides and gun violence over the last 10
years is the result of many factors, Vernick said. "But I haven't seen the
grand unified theory that plugs all these things in and explains the
various contributions to the reduction in homicide. I think knowing which
of these things really were reasons for the decline would be tremendously
important from a public-policy perspective because we want to know which
to replicate and which we should get rid of."
Any efforts to examine how sensible laws might better reduce gun violence
will encounter opposition from the gun lobby, of course. In Colorado,
where more than 70 percent of the state's residents voted in a 2000
referendum to close a loophole which allows people to buy firearms at gun
shows without a background check, the gun lobby is pushing a bill to do
away with the loophole closure. "Why is the gun lobby so against the voice
of the people?" asked an exasperated Shanks.
As proponents of stronger gun laws point out, the proof is in the numbers.
"If the gun lobby's argument that giving everybody guns would make us a
safer society were true, America would be the safest place on earth," said
Jacques of the Massachusetts Senate. "And it's not."
:banghead: 