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Subject: SNET: America Will Be Safer If You Give Grandma an Uzi
Date: 24 Apr 2001 15:22:28 -0400
To: Mark 


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            America Will Be Safer If You Give Grandma an Uzi

                             by Brad Edmonds

Look at the Facts

Giving fully automatic weapons to old ladies sounds extreme, and I’m not
claiming that people too weak to care for themselves should brandish
sidearms; neither should drunks or children. But arming decent people,
including your Aunt Bea, and arming them with – yes – machine guns if
they want, is the way to make America safer for all of us. Let me
explain:

Prof. John Lott has shown (see his book, articles, and testimony) that
violent crime decreases when states and cities relax restrictions on gun
ownership and concealed carry. Further, people holding concealed-carry
permits commit an almost implausibly low number of violent crimes. I
noted some figures earlier, and provided links, regarding revocations of
concealed-carry permits following arrests of permit holders. Those
impressive numbers become dramatically more impressive when revocations
are counted only for violent offenses; they go lower still when only
convictions are recorded.

Whether this success is due to self-selection (few felons march into the
sheriff’s department offering positive ID) or to the self-inhibiting
awareness that you are both physically secure and legally liable (as I
discussed a few weeks ago) is an interesting question, but the rule
holds in every state regardless: Civilian gun toters are goodguys.

And it’s not because they’re shrinking violets – see Keep and Bear Arms
and Packing.org for daily news of the legal acts of law-abiding gun
owners, from basic self defense to heroic intervention in defense of
others.

Even policemen should be happy. Not only are they not threatened by
permit holders, though some department chief in every state will claim
so when laws are relaxed, but there is preliminary evidence from Prof.
David Mustard that police in carry-permitting areas are safer after
people begin toting than before.

Now, how about automatic weapons? This is almost common knowledge among
2nd-Amendment activists, but it was new to me: There are over 240,000
legally owned fully automatic firearms in the United States. There are
also illegal ones; join a gang to get yours. But of all the legally
owned machine guns, there has been one (!) occasion since 1934 where one
has been used in commission of a crime, and that was by a policeman.
(This startling datum is documented here and here; also interesting is
that relatively few machine guns are used by criminals.)

"But why would anybody need a machine gun?" While violent crime
generally is on the decrease in the USA, there are still pockets where
residents are afraid to leave their homes even in daylight. And those
areas with the fewest legal weapons are the ones in the worst shape –
L.A., D.C., New York City…

"But why a machine gun?" Well, for one small matter, drive-by shooters
are hard to hit with a single-shot anything. I’m not recommending you
spray the neighborhood when a suspicious car appears; rather, gang
members will be less brazen when they believe the residents match or
beat their firepower.

And most importantly, there’s home defense. Only an expert can use a
pistol well when an intruder is moving; you and I would mostly miss.
Pistols are for carrying, as when walking to your car. Shotguns are
better in the home, but their recoil is too strong for weaker people, so
Bea had better hit him with the first shot. By contrast, a small-caliber
machine gun can stop a big, drugged-up felon even when used by a tiny
and relatively inexpert citizen (though practice is requisite for
responsible ownership) – many of these guns shoot standard 9mm rounds,
and thus recoil gently, and they move a lot of lead. For older women
living alone (among others), a small machine gun is the best firearm for
home defense.

And no, civilians will not start shooting their families and the cable
guy. Such accidents are surpassingly rare, and if Bea hasn’t been
terrorizing innocents with her derringer, she won’t do it with her Uzi
either. The data show we should not be afraid of law-abiding people who
own machine guns; nor of people with carry permits; nor of John Doe with
a hunting rifle at home; nor of little old ladies, though I don’t have
data on them – I’ll assume they tend not to be violent criminals.

But you should be a little afraid of criminals, and you should be able
to stop criminals who threaten your life, liberty, or property.
Comprehensive data establish this: There is no sensible reason to
deprive decent folk of the most effective tools of self defense,
particularly since criminals don’t play by our rules.

Limits on magazine capacity; vaguely worded, thus infinitely expandable,
bans on "assault weapons"; limits on shotgun barrel length; and bans on
fully automatic weapons are nothing but feel-good, do-bad laws that
function as a violent assault on decent people through their empowerment
of criminals and the government. All such laws should be repealed.
                                                          April 23, 2001

Brad Edmonds, MS in Industrial Psychology, Doctor of Musical Arts, is a
banker in Alabama.

Copyright © 2001 LewRockwell.com




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America Will Be
Safer If You Give Grandma an Uzi

by
Brad Edmonds


Look at the Facts
Giving
fully automatic weapons to old ladies sounds extreme, and I’m not claiming
that people too weak to care for themselves should brandish sidearms; neither
should drunks or children. But arming decent people, including your Aunt
Bea, and arming them with – yes – machine guns if they want, is the way
to make America safer for all of us. Let me explain:
Prof.
John Lott has shown (see his book,
articles, and testimony)
that violent crime decreases when states and cities relax restrictions
on gun ownership and concealed carry. Further, people holding concealed-carry
permits commit an almost implausibly low number of violent crimes. I noted
some figures earlier,
and provided links,
regarding revocations of concealed-carry permits following arrests of permit
holders. Those impressive numbers become dramatically more impressive when
revocations are counted only for violent offenses; they go lower still
when only convictions are recorded.
Whether
this success is due to self-selection (few felons march into the sheriff’s
department offering positive ID) or to the self-inhibiting awareness that
you are both physically secure and legally liable (as I discussed
a few weeks ago) is an interesting question, but the rule holds in every
state regardless: Civilian gun toters are goodguys.
And
it’s not because they’re shrinking violets – see Keep
and Bear Arms and Packing.org
for daily news of the legal acts of law-abiding gun owners, from basic
self defense to heroic intervention in defense of others.
Even
policemen should be happy. Not only are they not threatened by permit holders,
though some department chief in every state will claim so when laws are
relaxed, but there is preliminary evidence from Prof.
David Mustard that police in carry-permitting areas are safer after
people begin toting than before.
Now,
how about automatic weapons? This is almost common knowledge among 2nd-Amendment
activists, but it was new to me: There are over 240,000 legally owned fully
automatic firearms in the United States. There are also illegal ones; join
a gang to get yours. But of all the legally owned machine guns, there has
been one (!) occasion since 1934 where one has been used in commission
of a crime, and that was by a policeman. (This startling datum is documented
here and
here;
also interesting is that relatively few machine guns are used by criminals.)
"But
why would anybody need a machine gun?" While violent crime generally is
on the decrease in the USA, there are still pockets where residents are
afraid to leave their homes even in daylight. And those areas with the
fewest legal weapons are the ones in the worst shape – L.A., D.C., New
York City…
"But
why a machine gun?" Well, for one small matter, drive-by shooters
are hard to hit with a single-shot anything. I’m not recommending you spray
the neighborhood when a suspicious car appears; rather, gang members will
be less brazen when they believe the residents match or beat their firepower.
And
most importantly, there’s home defense. Only an expert can use a pistol
well when an intruder is moving; you and I would mostly miss. Pistols are
for carrying, as when walking to your car. Shotguns are better in the home,
but their recoil is too strong for weaker people, so Bea had better hit
him with the first shot. By contrast, a small-caliber machine gun can stop
a big, drugged-up felon even when used by a tiny and relatively inexpert
citizen (though practice is requisite for responsible ownership) – many
of these guns shoot standard 9mm rounds, and thus recoil gently, and they
move a lot of lead. For older women living alone (among others), a small
machine gun is the best firearm for home defense.
And
no, civilians will not start shooting their families and the cable guy.
Such accidents are surpassingly rare, and if Bea hasn’t been terrorizing
innocents with her derringer, she won’t do it with her Uzi either. The
data show we should not be afraid of law-abiding people who own machine
guns; nor of people with carry permits; nor of John Doe with a hunting
rifle at home; nor of little old ladies, though I don’t have data on them
– I’ll assume they tend not to be violent criminals.
But
you should be a little afraid of criminals, and you should be able to stop
criminals who threaten your life, liberty, or property. Comprehensive data
establish this: There is no sensible reason to deprive decent folk of the
most effective tools of self defense, particularly since criminals don’t
play by our rules.
Limits
on magazine capacity; vaguely worded, thus infinitely expandable, bans
on "assault weapons"; limits on shotgun barrel length; and bans on fully
automatic weapons are nothing but feel-good, do-bad laws that function
as a violent assault on decent people through their empowerment of criminals
and the government. All such laws should be repealed.
April
23, 2001

Brad
Edmonds, MS in Industrial Psychology, Doctor of Musical Arts, is a banker
in Alabama.
Copyright
© 2001 LewRockwell.com

 

 
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