Andrew Frechtling gives a wayward journalist a dose of truth. Will she be able to handle it?
Great letter, Major Frechtling. Thanks for letting me post it here. Please let me know if you get a reply that we can share.
Dear Ms Kinney –
You are correct about one thing in your column of 5 Oct (Tough gun laws can make a difference).
Tough gun laws increase violent crime by disarming the law-abiding and making criminals’ work safer and easier.
This table tells the tale.In the first column, we list Pennsylvania and all its immediate neighbors. The second column lists the violent crime rate in each state per 100,000 persons, taken from the 2004 FBI Uniform Crime Report, which is the latest complete UCR available as I write.
The third column is the 2005 “grade” for each state from the Brady Campaign, formerly known as Handgun Control Incorporated. This represents an aggregate grade of several sub areas rated by the Brady Campaign. As might be expected, restrictive gun control practices, like arbitrary denial of concealed handgun permits, are rated “best” by the Brady Campaign. You’ll see that New Jersey ranks high because of just the sort of restrictive procedures you had to go through to buy a gun.
We see that the two least violent of Pennsylvania’s neighbors, West Virginia and Ohio, are rated as having the least restrictive gun control laws by the Brady Campaign. And the most violent of Pennsylvania’s neighbors - Maryland – ties with New Jersey as having the most restrictive gun laws in the region.
So there is little reason to believe that gun control laws have any positive effect on violent crime rates.
However, it is indisputable that armed citizens are able to fight back against criminals more effectively than unarmed citizens.
And to the extent that gun control laws work to discourage citizens from arming themselves, such laws make us less safe, not more.
Andrew Frechtling
Major, USAF (retired
Great letter, Major Frechtling. Thanks for letting me post it here. Please let me know if you get a reply that we can share.