
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994                    TAG: 9406020005 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A16    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940602                                 LENGTH:

THE HIGH COST OF GUNS

{LEAD} I'm glad the honeymoon couple described in a recent news story survived their horrifying wedding-night attack by three teenagers, but it is clear that the groom's gun created more problems than it solved.

It appears that these stupid kids were trying to commit robbery, not murder. Without the gun drawdown, it is very likely the couple would have lost whatever money they were carrying and nothing more. Even after one teenager was shot, the others used their shotgun as a club on the groom rather than blow his head off with it.

{REST} Let's look at the end result of all this gun ownership: the shotgun on the one hand and the assault pistol on the other. The shotgun empowered these kids to roam the area looking for an easy victim to rob of a few dollars. Now one of them is dead and the others will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Assuming another 50 years of life for each of them at the recently published annual prison cost of $24,000, and adding judicial and medical expenses, their gun possession will cost us taxpayers roughly $2.5 million.

When the teenagers tried to use the groom's own semiautomatic pistol on him, it misfired, an extremely lucky malfunction. His so-called ``right to keep and bear arms'' almost cost him his life and probably that of his bride as well.

Gun proponents will shout that everybody should immediately run out and fill their house and car with deadly weapons. The fact is that 43 non-criminal victims of gun accidents, suicides and family arguments will die in exchange for this teenager's death. That is the real price we pay for allowing the ownership of firearms with little real regulation. The personal and economic cost of such widespread killing can't be measured.

The tragedy of this young couple and these three kids is only one in a continuing stream of gun disasters. Americans are waking up to the catastrophic effect of guns on our way of life. Reps. Owen Pickett and Norman Sisisky should end their representation of gun dealers and manufacturers and support reasonable gun legislation or resign.

RICHARD G. PARISE

Virginia Beach, May 13, 1994

by CNB