THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512010004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
The nation's gun laws enacted in 1993 and 1994 are helping to bring handgun murders down, says Handgun Control Inc., the nation's largest citizens' gun-control lobbying organization. Some of the credit is owed to Virginia, the organization says, for passing a law in 1993 limiting handgun purchases to one a month, thus ending the commonwealth's reign as a top gunrunning state for the Northeast.
Handgun Control is chaired by Sarah Brady, wife of Jim Brady, a former White House press secretary who was paralyzed in a 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan. Founded in 1974, it claims more than 400,000 members. It says it seeks to control, not ban, handguns.
In a press release this month, Handgun Control said, ``Figures released today in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for 1994 show a 3.56 percent drop in the total number of handgun homicides in 1994 compared to the previous year.'' Also, the figures showed, 38,606 fewer robberies and aggravated assaults were committed with a firearm in 1994, a 6.84 percent drop from the previous year.
``These new figures provide compelling evidence,'' Sarah Brady said, ``that the Brady Law (named after her husband) and the assault-weapons ban, both of which went into effect in 1994, are helping to reduce handgun violence. Today's numbers should serve as a wake-up call for politicians both on the federal and state level who have pledged to dismantle our nation's gun laws.''
In 1994, all 50 states conducted background checks on over-the-counter purchases of handguns for the first time. That was also the first year U.S. manufacturers ceased producing military-style assault weapons. The Brady Law blocked more than 40,000 possible felons from purchasing handguns over the counter in its first year alone, the press release claims.
Despite progress, the press release said, 61.6 percent of all 1994 murders were committed with handguns.
Virginia's one-handgun-a-month law was pushed in 1993 by then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who said it would end Virginia's reputation as ``the gunrunning capital of America.'' It has done that. Before the law took effect in July 1993, 35 percent of guns recovered by police in the Northeast and traced to dealers in the Southeast came from Virginia; afterward, that percentage dropped to 15.
A Virginia law enabling almost anyone to obtain a concealed-weapon permit took effect this year, and thus did not affect 1994 figures. Handgun Control opposed that law, with Jim Brady saying, ``If packing a piece would make us safer, we'd be the safest country on this planet. We're already up to our eyelashes with guns.''
The Handgun Control figures are not entirely convincing. Crime usually drops in good economic times, and these certainly are not bad economic times. Also, violent criminals are serving longer sentences than before, with parole a rarity. And there has been a temporary decline in the number of young males, whose ranks include a disportionate share of violent criminals.
Gov. George Allen argues that society will be safer if more good guys are packing guns - since the bad guys are armed.
But many of the controls are aimed at making it more difficult for the bad guys to obtain weapons and ammunition more deadly than police carry. Those controls make society safer, and police favor them.
Also, good guys shoot good guys - by accident or in heated arguments that, except for the presence of guns, might have come to nothing.
We agree with Jim Brady's statement: ``If packing a piece would make us safer, we'd be the safest country on this planet.'' We're not. by CNB