The U.S. Department of Justice published a Bureau of Justice
Statistics Select Findings titled, Guns Used In Crime (NCJ-148201).

	It is the first of a series of reports on firearms that will
become, Firearms, Crime and Criminal Justice.  The report focuses on
the use of guns in crime, trends in and consequences of gun crime, and
statistics concerning criminals who use firearms and appropriate
punishment.

	It reads like my seven year old attempting to persuade me that
she should have a slumber party with five other 3rd graders even
though I have ten people coming for dinner the same evening and my in
laws will be arriving the next day. And if I don't agree, she will be
the ONLY one in her entire lifetime not to celebrate an eighth
birthday only twice.

	I know I am being played for a sucker and the logic is either
convoluted or non existent.

	The first two Highlights of the paper are:

	 Although most crime is not committed with guns, most gun
crime is committed with handguns;

	 Although most available guns are not used in crime,
information about the 223 million guns available to the general public
provides a context for evaluating criminal preferences for guns;

	These broad statements mean to lay the groundwork for the
substantiation of further gun control. In reality, the data provided
simply refutes the original premises.

	According to the 1993 National Crime Victimization Survey
(NCJ-151658) almost 43.6 million crimes occurred. Of these, 1.3
million involved the presence of a firearm in the control of the
criminal.

	Accepting these figures, 2.98 percent of crimes involved the
use of a firearm by the perpetrator.  "No national collection of data
contains detailed information about all of the guns used in crime,"
states the author. But, according to the "snapshots of information"
available, handguns were used in 86% of those crimes.

	Considering information culled from research by Wright and
Rossi in Armed and Considered Dangerous, it appears that most
criminals prefer well-made, concealable, large caliber guns.  This is
the choice that most of us make. The only difference is that we must
be able to pay for our preferences.

	With all the clean graphics and synthesized rhetoric, the one
statement that strikes me most stridently is: "By definition, stolen
guns are available to criminals."

	There is no reason to believe that criminals will obey gun
laws any more than they obey robbery, murder, or rape laws. The
majority of criminals already acquire their guns in illegal ways.  The
Bureau of Justice Statistics (NCJ-136949) reports that in 1991, 73% of
state prison inmates who had possessed a gun had acquired a gun by
some means other than by purchasing it legally. Theft, purchase on the
black market, acquisition from family or friends or through other
informal means accounted for those firearms.

	The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports
(ISBN 0-16-045321-6) contains a page labeled "Crime Factors. "  On
that page are "Some factors which are known to affect the volume and
type of crime occurring from place to place. . .  Neither gun
availability nor gun control laws are listed as a factor.

	Armed private citizens are extraordinarily effective in crime
reduction. Succinctly stated, "An armed society is a polite society."
Examples of guns in the hands of private citizens deterring crime
abound. Evidence suggests that when guns in the hands of private
citizens are both common and publicized, the crime rate tends to drop.

	In Orlando, Florida, police instituted a heavily publicized
firearm training course in which over 2,500 women were trained. In the
following year, rape dropped 88% there, although rape rates remained
constant in the rest of Florida and in the U.S.

	It is a fact that most criminals are looking for an easy mark
_ not someone who will make trouble for them.  According to Florida
State University Professor Gary Kleck, 57% of convicts agree that
"criminals are more worried about running into an armed victim than
they are about running into the police"; 43% said they had, at
sometime in their lives, decided not to commit a crime because they
knew or believed the potential victim was carrying a gun; 58% agreed
that "a store owner who is known to keep a gun on the premises is not
going to get robbed very often." (Crime Control Through the Private
Use of Armed Force)

	Many of these gun owning citizens actually use their guns for
self defense.

	If violent crime is common, so is the use of a gun for self
defense. According to the FBI's "Crime Clock, " there is a violent
crime every 16 seconds, an aggravated assault every 28 seconds, a
robbery every 48 seconds, and a murder every 21 minutes.

	According to a 1995 survey conducted by the National
Association of Chiefs of Police, 92.7% of all law enforcement agency
heads believe that citizens should retain the right to own firearms
for self-defense

	Guns Used In Crime is a distortion of truth and statements of
dubious integrity. It's time that the U.S. Department of Justice
stopped putting out its negative message about the right to keep and
bear arms and started getting serious about keeping the people of this
country safe.


Personal Parting Shots... Thanks to Marie for all her excellent
research. Also to AMG for the original paper. SMG, AHG, and AMG2 and
all our readers, Happy Thanksgiving! jhvg@saf.org.