Gun Facts

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Fact: Social saving from private ownership is not used in these studies. One study302 indicated between 240,000 and 300,000 defensive uses of firearms, as described by the victim “… almost certainly had saved a life.”


Myth: Gun “buy back” programs get guns off the streets

Fact: According to the federal government, gun ‘buybacks’ have “no effect”.303

Fact: “Buy backs” remove no more than 2% of the firearms within a community. And the firearms that are removed do not resemble guns used in crimes. “There has never been any effect on crime results seen”.304

Fact: Up to 62% of people trading in a firearm still have another at home, and 27% said they would or might buy another within a year.305

Fact: More than 50% of the weapons bought via a gun buy-back program were over 15 years old, whereas almost half of firearms seized from juveniles are less than three years old.306

Fact: According to a variety of sources, the actual effect is that gun buy-back programs:

• Disarm future crime victims, creating new social costs
• Give criminals an easy way to dispose of evidence
• Are turned in by those least likely to commit crimes (the elderly, women, etc.)
• Cheap guns are bought and sold back to the government for a profit
• Cause guns to be stolen and sold to the police, creating more crime
• Seldom return stolen guns to their rightful owners

Fact: "They do very little good. Guns arriving at buy backs are simply not the same guns that would otherwise have been used in crime. If you look at the people who are turning in firearms, they are consistently the least crime-prone [ed: least likely to commit crimes]: older people and women."307


Myth: Closing down “kitchen table” gun dealers will reduce guns on the street

Fact: 43% of gun dealers had no inventory and sold no guns at all. Congressional testimony documented that the large number of low-volume gun dealers is a direct result of BATF policy. The BATF once prosecuted gun collectors who sold as few as three guns per year at gun shows, claiming that they were unlicensed, and therefore illegal, gun dealers. To avoid such harassment, thousands of American gun collectors became licensed gun dealers. Now the BATF claims not to have the resources to audit the paperwork monster it created.


302 Armed Resistance To Crime, Kleck, Gertz, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. 86, no. 1, 1995: 150

303 Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising, National Institute of Justice, July 1998

304 Garen Wintemute, Violence Prevention Research Program, U.C., Davis, 1997

305 Jon Vernick, John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, Sacramento and St. Louis studies

306 District of Columbia buyback program, 1999

307 David Kennedy, Senior Researcher, Harvard University Kennedy School Program in Criminal Justice, in appearance on Fox News, November 22, 2000

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Fact: Reforms of the Federal Firearm Licensing program – mainly focused at small volume retailers and traders – produced no significant results in firearm crime rates.308


Myth: Only the government should have guns

Fact: Only if you want criminals to have them as well. Loose inventory controls are notorious in government agencies, as shown by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that has “misplaced” 539 weapons, including a gas-grenade launcher and 39 automatic rifles or machine guns. Six guns were eventually linked to crimes (two guns had been used in armed robberies, one confiscated in a raid on a drug laboratory and two others during arrests. One was being held as evidence in a homicide investigation).309 And in July of 2001, it was reported that the FBI lost 449 weapons, including machine guns.


Myth: “Safe storage” laws protect people

Fact: 15 states that passed “safe storage” laws saw 300 more murders, 3,860 more rapes, 24,650 more robberies, and over 25,000 more aggravated assaults in the first five years. On average, the annual costs borne by victims averaged over $2.6 billion as a result of lost productivity, out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills, and property losses. "The problem is, you see no decrease in either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides when such laws are enacted, but you do see an increase in crime rates." 310

Fact: Only five American children under the age of 10 died of accidents involving handguns in 1997.311 Thus, the need for “safe storage” laws appears to be low.

Fact: In Merced California, an intruder stabbed three children to death with a pitchfork. The oldest child had been trained by her father in firearms use, but could not save her siblings from the attacker because the gun was locked away to comply with the state’s “safe storage” law.312


Myth: Local background checks reduce gun suicides313

Fact: The research reports only a change in the “firearm suicide rate” and not the total suicide rate. No strict correlation between overall suicides and background checks exists.

Fact: The report did not explain the disparity between states that all had local background checks and radically different suicide rates (Hawaii with 2.82/100,000 and Washington with 9.28/100,000). Nor does it explain how states with different levels of background checks have nearly identical suicide rates. (Hawaii has local checks and a 2.82 firearm suicide rate while New York uses state checks and has a lower 2.72 rate)


308 Christopher Koper of Pennsylvania's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, reported in Criminology & Public Policy, American Society of Criminology, March 2002

309 Associated Press report, April 17, 2001

310 Safe Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime, Prof. John Lott, Yale School of Law, March 2000

311 Ibid

312 Sierra Times and various wire services, September, 2000

313 This myth derives from Firearm Death Rates and Association with Level of Firearm Purchase Background Check, Steven A. Sumner, Layde, Guse, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 35, Issue 1, Pages 1-86 (July 2008)

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Fact: The report was a two year snapshot, which makes trending impossible. Proper analysis would have examined change in suicide rates in states before and after background check policy changed.

Fact: Researchers split homicide and suicide propensity controls by age (65+ for suicides and 15-29 for homicides).


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POLICE AND GUNS

Myth: Police favor gun control

Fact: 94% of law enforcement officials believe that citizens should be able to purchase firearms for self-defense and sporting purposes.314

Fact: 65.8% believe there should be no gun rationing, such as ‘one gun per month’ schemes.

Fact: 97.9% of officers believe, that through illegal means, criminals are able to obtain any type of firearm.

Fact: "Gun control has not worked in Washington D.C. The only people who have guns are criminals. We have the strictest gun laws in the nation and one of the highest murder rates. It's quicker to pull your Smith & Wesson than to dial 911 if you're being robbed."315


Myth: Police are our protection - people don't need guns

Fact: Tell that to 14,748 murder victims, 367,832 robbery victims, and 84,767 forcible rape victims that the police could not help.316

Fact: The courts have consistently ruled that the police do not have an obligation to protect individuals. In Warren v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981), the court stated: “… courts have without exception concluded that when a municipality or other governmental entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community.” Well, except for politicians whom receive taxpayer-financed bodyguards.

Fact: There are not enough police to protect everyone. In 1999, there were about 150,000 police officers on duty at any one time.317

• This stat was for all on-duty police, including desk clerks, command sergeants, etc. – not 150,000 cops cruising your neighborhood.
• There were approximately 271,933,702 people living in the United States which means ...318
•… there was only one on-duty cop for every 1,813 citizens!

Fact: Former Florida Attorney General Jim Smith told Florida legislators that police responded to only 200,000 of 700,000 calls for help to Dade County authorities.

Fact: The United States Department of Justice found that in 1989 there were 168,881 crimes of violence that had police response times exceeding one hour.


314 17th Annual National Survey of Police Chiefs & Sheriffs, National Association of Chiefs of Police, 2005

315 Lt. Lowell Duckett, Special Assistant to DC Police Chief; President, Black Police Caucus, The Washington Post, March 22, 1996

316 Crime In The United States 2010, Federal Bureau of Investigations

317 US Justice Department, 1998

318 US Census Bureau, 1999 estimate

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Fact: 95% of the time police arrive too late to prevent a crime or arrest a suspect.319

Fact: 75% of protective/restraining orders are violated and police often won't enforce them unless they witness the violation.320

Fact: Despite prompt law enforcement responses, most armed and violent attacks at schools were stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention.321 Often these interventions were by administrators, teachers, or other students who were licensed to carry firearms.


Myth: The supply of guns is a danger to law enforcement

Fact: The courts kill cops by letting felons out of prison early. Of police killed in the line of duty:

• 70% are killed by criminals with prior arrest records
• 53% of these criminals have prior convictions
• 22% are on probation when the officer is killed


Myth: “Cop Killer” bullets need to be banned

Fact: KTW rounds, wrongly labeled as “cop killer” bullets, were designed by police officers322 for use by police to penetrate hard targets like car windshields. KTWs have never been sold to the general public.323


Myth: Teflon bullets are designed to penetrate police bullet-proof vests

Fact: KTW rounds are Teflon coated to prevent heat build-up in a police officer’s gun barrel and help prevent bullet deflection off of doors and windshields … not to pierce body armor.324


319 This is 911 ... please hold, Witkin, Gordon, Guttman, Monika and Lenzy, Tracy. U.S. News & World Report, June 17, 1998

320 Anti-stalking laws usually are unable to protect targets, Ellen Sorokin, Washington Times, April 16, 2000

321 Threat Assessment In Schools, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education, 2002

322 Developed by Daniel Turcos (a police sergeant) and Donald Ward (Dr. Kopsch's special investigator)

323 Cop Killer Bullets, Mike Casey, July 2000

324 Ibid

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BALLISTIC “FINGERPRINTING”

Myth: Every firearm leaves a unique "fingerprint" that can pinpoint the firearm used

Fact: A group of National Research Council scientists concluded that this has not yet been fully demonstrated. Their research suggests that the current technology for collecting and comparing images may not reliably distinguish very fine differences.325

Fact: "Firearms that generate markings on cartridge casings can change with use and can also be readily altered by the users. They are not permanently defined like fingerprints or DNA."326

Fact: "Automated computer matching systems do not provide conclusive results.”327

Fact: “Because bullets are severely damaged on impact, they can only be examined manually”.328

Fact: “Not all firearms generate markings on cartridge casings that can be identified back to the firearm.”329

Fact: The same gun will produce different markings on bullets and casings, and different guns can produce similar markings.330 Additionally, the type of ammunition actually used in a crime could differ from the type used when the gun was originally test-fired -- a difference that could lead to significant error in suggesting possible matches.331

Fact: The rifle used in the Martin Luther King assassination was test fired 18 times under court supervision, and the results showed that no two bullets were marked alike.332 “Every test bullet was different because it was going over plating created by the previous bullet.”

Fact: "The common layman seems to believe that two bullets fired from the same weapon are identical, down to the very last striation placed on them by the weapon. The trained firearms examiner knows how far that is from reality."333


325 Ballistic Imaging, Daniel Cork, John Rolph, Eugene Meieran, Carol Petrie, National Research Council, 2008.

326 Feasibility of a Ballistics Imaging Database for All New Handgun Sales, Frederic Tulleners, California Department of Justice, Bureau of Forensic Services, October, 2001 (henceforth FBID).

327 Ibid.

328 Ibid.

329 Ibid.

330 Handbook of Firearms & Ballistics: Examining and Interpreting Forensic Evidence, Heard, 1997.

331 Ballistic Imaging, Daniel Cork, John Rolph, Eugene Meieran, Carol Petrie, National Research Council, 2008.

332 Ballistics 'fingerprinting' not foolproof, Baltimore Sun, October 15, 2002.

333 AFTE Journal , George G. Krivosta, Winter 2006 edition, Suffolk County Crime Laboratory, Hauppauge, New York.

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Myth: A database of ballistic profiles will allow police to trace gun crimes

Fact: The National Research Council deemed a national ballistics database as impractical due to practical limitations of current technology for generating and comparing images of ballistic markings.334

Fact: Maryland’s ballistics database “is not doing anything”335 and “has not met the mission statement of the state police."336 In the first five years of implementation, it failed to lead to any criminal arrests or convictions, despite collecting over 80,000 specimens at a cost of $2,567,633. 337

Fact: More than 70% of armed career criminals get their guns from "off-the-street sales" and "criminal acts" such as burglaries338 and 71% of these firearms are stolen.339 Tracing these firearms will not lead to the criminals, as the trail stops at the last legal owner.

Fact: Computer image matching of cartridges fails between 38-62% of the time, depending on whether the cartridges are from the same or different manufacturers.340

Fact: “Automated computer matching systems do not provide conclusive results" requiring that “potential candidates be manually reviewed".341

Fact: Criminals currently remove serial numbers from stolen guns to hide their origin. The same simple shop tools can change a ballistic profile within minutes. “The minor alteration required less than 5 minutes of labor”.342 Criminals will make changing ballistic profiles part of their standard procedures.


Myth: Ballistic imaging is used in Maryland and New York and solves many crimes

Fact: Not so far. New York has not reported a single prosecution based on matched casings or bullets343, 344, 345 and Maryland had only a single instance in 2005.346 The cost for this lack of success in Maryland exceeds $2,500,000 a year, and in New York it exceeds $4,000,000.


334 Ballistic Imaging, Daniel Cork, John Rolph, Eugene Meieran, Carol Petrie, National Research Council, 2008.

335 Maryland State Police Report Recommends Suspending Ballistics ID System, Col. Thomas E. Hutchins, the state police superintendent, WBAL-TV web site, January 17, 2005.

336 Sgt. Thornnie Rouse, Maryland State police spokesman, Ibid.

337 MD-IBIS Progress Report #2, Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division, September 2004.

338 Protecting America, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 1992.

339 Armed and Considered Dangerous, U.S. Department of Justice, 1986.

340 Feasibility of a Ballistics Imaging Database for All New Handgun Sales, Frederic Tulleners, California Department of Justice, Bureau of Forensic Services, October, 2001.

341 Ibid.

342 Ibid.

343 NY ballistic database firing blanks?, Associated Press, June 3, 2004.

344 Ballistics 'fingerprinting' not foolproof, Baltimore Sun, October 15, 2002.

345 Townsend backs New Rule on Sale of Assault Rifles, Washington Post, October 30, 2002.

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Fact: In Syracuse, the police have submitted fewer than 400 handguns for ballistic testing over a three-year span because the system is inefficient.347


Myth: A ballistic database is inexpensive to create/maintain

Fact: “ ... a huge inventory [of possible matches] will be generated for manual review.” “[The] number of candidate cases will be so large as to be impractical and will likely create logistic complications so great that they cannot be effectively addressed”.348


Myth: Police want a ballistic database

Fact: “The National Fraternal Order of Police does not support any Federal requirement to register privately owned firearms with the Federal government,” the group said. “And, even if such a database is limited to firearms manufactured in the future, the cost to create and maintain such a system, with such small chances that it would be used to solve a firearm crime, suggests to the F.O.P. that these are law enforcement dollars best spent elsewhere.”349

Fact: “We in law enforcement know it will not, does not, cannot work. Then, no one has considered the hundreds of millions of guns in the US that have never been registered or tested or printed.”350

Fact: “One, the barrel is one of the most easily changed parts of many guns and two, the barrel, and the signature it leaves on a bullet, is constantly changing."351


346 Ballistics Database Yields 1st Conviction, Washington Post, April 2, 2005

347 400 guns wait to be traced by Syracuse police, The Post-Standard, December 8, 2002.

348 Ballistics 'fingerprinting' not foolproof, Baltimore Sun, October 15, 2002.

349 F.O.P. Viewpoint: Ballistics Imaging and Comparison Technology, FOP Grand Lodge, October 2002.

350 Joe Horn, Detective, Retired, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept., Small Arms Expert.

351 Ted Deeds, chief operating officer of The Law Enforcement Alliance of America, Dodge Globe, Oct 24, 2002.

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MICROSTAMPING
Background: Microstamping is a proposed means for imprinting unique serial numbers onto cartridges fired from a gun. Similar to “ballistic fingerprinting,” it allegedly helps police identify what firearm might have been used in a crime. Microstamping uses precision equipment to remove microscopic amounts of metal from the tip of the firing pin


Myth: Independent testing by forensic technologists shows the technology is reliable

Fact: Firing pins are inexpensive and readily removable/swappable replacement parts in most models of handguns. Criminals who file down serial numbers on the sides of guns won’t hesitate to file or exchange firing pins. Micro stamped Serial Number
Fact: 46% of impressions ranked as “unsatisfactory” (i.e., illegible) after only ten rounds.352

Fact: Reloaded ammo (which is extremely common due to the economics of recycling casings and home reloading tools) will make prosecuting cases nearly impossible once the “reloaded ammo” defense is raised (for microstamping that imprints case sides). A case may have two or more markings, making the final shooter impossible to identify.


Myth: Filing the firing pin will make the gun inoperable

Fact: Firing pins are designed to be pushed deeply into the primer (igniter) of the round. The depth of the engraving (approximately 0.005 inch)353 is vastly smaller than the tolerance of the firing pins drive depth.

Fact: In a test, the engravings were removed using a 50-year-old knife sharpening stone in less than a minute. The firearm still operated correctly after the filing.354


Myth: The cost per firearm will be cheap

Fact: The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the representative for firearm manufactures, estimates the cost will be upwards of $150 per firearm, more than tripling the price of self-protection and making it unaffordable for low-income people.355 The Brady Campaign dispute those with firearm manufacturing experience claiming micro-stamping would cost only 50¢?


352 NanoTagTM Markings From Another Perspective, George G. Krivosta, Suffolk County Crime Laboratory, Hauppauge, New York, Winter 2006 edition of the AFTE Journal

353 Ibid

354 Ibid

355 Etched bullets interest law enforcement, The Record, September 25, 2006

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Myth: The numbers will let police find the gun’s owner and help solve crimes

Fact: Since many crime guns are stolen property 356 finding the original owner does not help solve the crime.


356 Armed and Considered Dangerous, U.S. Department of Justice, 1986

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ASSAULT WEAPONS

“Assault weapon” is an invented term. In the firearm lexicon, there is no such thing as an “assault weapon.”357 The closest relative is the “assault rifle,” which is a machine gun or “select fire” rifle that fires rifle cartridges.358 In most cases so-called “assault weapons” are cosmetically similar to military guns but are functionally identical to and less powerful than hunting rifles.


Myth: Assault weapons are a serious problem in the U.S.

Fact: In 1994, before the Federal “assault weapons ban,” you were eleven (11) times more likely to be beaten to death than to be killed by an “assault weapon.”359

Fact: In the first year after the ban was lifted, murders declined 3.6%, and violent crime 1.7%.360

Fact: Nationally, “assault weapons” were used in 1.4% of crimes involving firearms and 0.25% of all violent crime before the enactment of any national or state “assault weapons” ban. The rate is less than 0.1% In many major urban areas (San Antonio, Mobile, Nashville, etc.) as well as some some entire states (Maryland, New Jersey, etc.).361

Fact: Even weapons misclassified as “assault weapons” (common in the former Federal and California “assault weapons” confiscations) are used in less than 1% of all homicides.362

Fact: Police reports show that “assault weapons” are a non-problem:

For California:
• Los Angeles: In 1998, of 538 documented gun incidents, only one (0.2%) involved an “assault weapon.”
• San Francisco: In 1998, only 2.2% of confiscated weapons were “assault weapons.”
• San Diego: Between 1988 and 1990, only 0.3% of confiscated weapons were “assault weapons.”
• “I surveyed the firearms used in violent crimes...assault-type firearms were the least of our worries.”363


357 It is worth noting that there are numerous different ‘legal’ definitions of “assault weapons”. A report from the Legal Community Against Violence showed no fewer than eight jurisdictions, anywhere from 19 to 75 banned firearms, six differing generic classification schemes and several legal systems for banning more firearms without specific legislative action. In other words, an “assault weapon” is whatever a politician deems it to be.

358 Small Arms Identification and Operations Guide, U.S. Department of Defense. The exact statement from their manual is “short, compact, select-fire weapons that fires a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.”

359 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994

360 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, Preliminary Summary, 2004

361 Targeting Guns, Gary Kleck, Aldine Transaction, 1997, compilation of 48 metropolitan police departments from 1980-1994

362 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1993

363 S.C. Helsley, Assistant Director DOJ Investigation and Enforcement Branch, California, October 31, 1988

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For the rest of the nation:
• Between 1980 and 1994, only 2% of confiscated guns were “assault weapons.”364
• Just under 2% of criminals that commit violent crimes used “assault weapons.”365

Fact: Only 1.4% of recovered crime weapons are models covered under the 1994 “assault weapons” ban.366

Fact: In Virginia, no surveyed inmates had carried an “assault weapon” during the commission of their last crime, despite 20% admitting that they had previously owned such weapons.367

Fact: Most “assault weapons” have no more firepower or killing capacity than the average hunting rifle and “play a small role in overall violent crime.”368

Fact: Even the government agrees. “The weapons banned by this legislation [1994 Federal Assault Weapons ban - since repealed] were used only rarely in gun crimes”369


Washington Post editorial
September 15, 1994
“No one should have any illusions about what was accomplished (by the ban). Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be if it turns out to be, as hoped, a stepping stone to broader gun control.”


Myth: Every 48 hours, an assault rifle is traced to crime in Maryland

Fact: This claim by Cease Fire Maryland includes firearms never used in crimes. Some examples of firearms traced include:

• 47 firearms found at private residence of a person who passed-away from natural causes were traced but never used in any crime.
• Firearms were temporarily taken from owners under court Emergency Evaluation Petitions (the firearms were not used in crimes, but the judge wanted them confiscated until other issues were resolved).

Fact: This claim lacks perspective. During the same time period there were 163,101 violent crimes reported in Maryland. Even if the Cease Fire Maryland data was correct, they have connected assault rifles to just 0.4% of violent crimes during the same period.


364 Targeting Guns, Gary Kleck, Aldine Transaction, 1997, compilation of 48 metropolitan police departments from 1980-1994

365 Targeting Guns, Gary Kleck, Aldine Transaction, 1997, calculated from Bureau of Justice Statistics, assault weapon recovery rates

366 From statewide recovery report from Connecticut (1988-1993) and Pennsylvania (1989-1994)

367 Criminal Justice Research Center, Department of Criminal Justice Services, 1994

368 House Panel Issue: Can Gun Ban Work, New York Times. April 7, 1989. P. A-15, quoting Philip McGuire, Handgun Control, Inc.,

369 Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96, National Institute of Justice, March 1999

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Myth: One out of five police officers killed are killed with assault weapons370

Fact: This “study” included firearms not on the former Federal “assault weapons” list. Including various legal firearms371 inflated the statistics almost 100%.

Fact: Only 1% of police officers murdered were killed using “assault weapons.” They were twice as likely to be killed with their own handgun.372

Fact: One 2006 federal government study found zero “assault weapons” were used to kill cops.373


Myth: Assault weapons are favored by criminals

Fact: Only 6% of criminals use anything that is classified (even incorrectly) as an “assault weapon,”374 though less than 2.5% claimed to use these firearms when committing crimes.375

Fact: Criminals are over five times more likely to carry single shot handguns as they are to carry “assault weapons.”376

Fact: “Assault rifles have never been an issue in law enforcement. I have been on this job for 25 years and I haven’t seen a drug dealer carry one. They are not used in crimes, they are not used against police officers.”377

Fact: “Since police started keeping statistics, we now know that ‘assault weapons’ are/were used in an underwhelming 0.026 of 1% of crimes in New Jersey. This means that my officers are more likely to confront an escaped tiger from the local zoo than to confront an assault rifle in the hands of a drug-crazed killer on the streets.”378

Thoughts: “Assault weapons” are large and unwieldy. Even misclassified handguns tend to be bigger than practical for concealed carry. Criminals (who, incidentally, disregard concealed carry laws) are unlikely to carry “assault weapons.”


370 This claim was made by the anti-gun Violence Policy Center in their 2003 report titled Officer Down

371 The “study” included legal models of the SKS, Ruger Mini-14, and M1-Carbine, which were all in circulation before the federal “assault weapons” ban and which were excluded from the ban.

372 Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, FBI, 1994

373 Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation’s Law Enforcement Officers, U.S. Department of Justice, August 2006

374 Firearm Use by Offenders , Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2001

375 Ibid.

376 Ibid

377 Deputy Chief of Police Joseph Constance, Trenton NJ, testimony - Senate Judiciary Committee in Aug 1993

378 Ibid

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Myth: Assault weapons can be easily converted to machine guns

Fact: Firearms that can be “readily converted” are already prohibited by law.379

Fact: None of the firearms on the list of banned weapons can be readily converted.380

Fact: Only 0.15% of over 4,000 weapons confiscated in Los Angeles in one year were converted, and only 0.3% had any evidence of an attempt to convert.381


Myth: Assault weapons are used in 16% of homicides

Fact: This figure was concocted to promote an “assault weapons” bill in New York. Their classification scheme included most firearms sold in the U.S. since 1987 (center fire rifles, shotguns holding more than six cartridges, and handguns holding more than 10 rounds). By misclassifying most firearms as “assault weapons,” they expanded the scope of a non-problem.


Myth: The 1994 (former) Federal Assault Weapons Ban was effective

Charles Krauthammer, Syndicated Columnist, The Washington Post
April 5, 1996
“Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic, purely symbolic move ... Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation.”

Fact: “We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence.”382

Fact: The ban covered only 1.39% of the models of firearms on the market, so the ban’s effectiveness was automatically limited.

Fact: “The ban has failed to reduce the average number of victims per gun murder incident or multiple gunshot wound victims.”383

Fact: “The public safety benefits of the 1994 ban have not yet been demonstrated.”384

Fact: “The ban triggered speculative price increases and ramped-up production of the banned firearms.”385

Fact: “The ban … ramped-up production of the banned firearms prior to the law’s implementation”386 and thus increased the total supply over the following decade.


379 U.S. Code title 26, subtitle E, Chapter 53, subchapter B, part 1, section 5845

380 BATF test as reported in the New York Times, April 3, 1989

381 Congressional testimony, Jimmy Trahin, Los Angeles Detective, Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, May 5, 1989, 101st Congress, 1st Session, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, May 5, 1989, p. 379

382 An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003, National Institute of Justice, June 2004

383 Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96, National Institute of Justice, March 1999

384 Ibid

385 Ibid

386 Ibid

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Fact: The Brady Campaign claims that “After the 1994 ban, there were 18% fewer ‘assault weapons’ traced to crime in the first eight months of 1995 than were traced in the same period in 1994.” However they failed to note (and these are mentioned in the NIJ study) that:

1. “Assault weapons” traces were minimal before the ban (due to their infrequent use in crimes), so an 18% change enters the realm of statistical irrelevancy.

2. Fewer “assault weapons” were available to criminals because collectors bought-up the available supply before the ban.


Myth: Nobody needs an assault weapon

Fact: Their light weight and durability make them suitable for many types of hunting and are especially favored for wild boar hunting.

Fact: Recall the Rodney King riots in that anti-gun city of Los Angeles. Every major news network carried footage of Korean storeowners sitting on the roofs of their stores, armed with “assault weapons.”387 Those were the stores that did not get burned to the ground, and those were the people that were not dragged into the street and beaten by rioters. “You can’t get around the image of people shooting at people to protect their stores and it working. This is damaging to the [gun control] movement.”388

Fact: There are many reasons people prefer to use these firearms:

• They are easy to operate
• They are very reliable in outdoor conditions (backpacking, hunting, etc.)
• They are accurate
• They are good for recreational and competitive target shooting
• They have value in many self-defense situations

Fact: There are many sports in which these firearms are required:

• Hunters use these firearms (especially for wild boar hunting in the south)
• Three-gun target matches
• Camp Perry competitions, especially the Service Rifle events
• DCM/CMP competitions
• Bodyguard simulations

Fact: Ours is a Bill of Rights, not a Bill of Needs.


387 Washington Post, May 2, 1992

388 Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, Washington Post, May 18, 1993

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.50-CALIBER RIFLES

Myth: .50-calibers are the favorite weapon of terrorists

Fact: Most terrorist attacks are in the form of bombings (90%). Other acts, such as kidnapping (6%), armed attack (2%), arson (1%), firebombing (1%), and other methods (2%), are far less common.389 Of the “armed attacks,” the most common weapons used are fully-automatic AK-47 rifles.

Fact: A single.50-caliber rifle costs upwards of $10,000, yet terrorists can buy the favored AK-47 in Pakistan for less than $200. History shows they opt for the AK-47.

Fact: .50-caliber rifles are heavy (20-35 pounds), expensive, use ammunition costing $2-$5 for each round), are impossible to conceal (typically four feet long), are usually single shot (slow to reload) and thus impractical for terrorists.

Fact: .50-caliber rifles have only been used in 18 crimes in the history of the United States despite having been avialble since the early 20th century.390


Myth: American gun makers sold .50-calibers to terrorists

Fact: This “study” by the anti-gun Violence Policy Center was inaccurate. The rifles in question were sold to the United States government. Years later, the U.S. government gave the rifles to Afghan freedom fighters to defeat the former Soviet Union. There is no direct connection between gun makers and terrorists, and none of the rifles have been used in terrorist actions.391


Myth: .50-caliber shooters are terrorists in training

Fact: The average .50-caliber enthusiast is a successful businessman with an annual income of $50,000 or more – hardly a terrorist profile.392


Myth: The Founding Fathers would have had no use for a .50-caliber rifle

Fact: Common guns of the early American republic were larger than .50-caliber, many measuring up to .812 caliber. The famous Kentucky Rifle (a name eventually given to most rifles made by German immigrants) was usually between .60 and .75-caliber.


389 Facts and Figures About Terrorism, Dexter Ingram, Heritage Foundation, September 14, 2001 (some attacks had multiple methods which accounts for a total in excess of 100%).

390 Weaponry: .50 Caliber Rifle Crime, General Accounting Office Report number OSI-99-15R, revised Oct. 21, 2001.

391 Barret Manufacturing letter on their web site available January 12, 2001. This was confirmed during a visit by the BATF according to Dave Kopel in a National Review article “Guns and (Character) Assassination”, December 21, 2001.

392 John Burtt, Fifty Caliber Shooters Policy Institute, Congressional testimony

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Myth: .50-calibers are capable of piercing airline fuel tanks from a mile away

Fact: Most expert long distance shooters cannot hit a stationary target under perfect, windless conditions at such distances (notable exceptions in Vietnam393 and Afganistan394,395). Ill-trained terrorists shooting a high-recoil .50-caliber rifle at fast moving targets – a 600 mph airplane – have no chance.

Fact: The only known uses of .50-caliber weapons in downing aircraft have been military aircraft using fully-automatic machine guns spraying fire while in combat against other aircraft, and as sniper fire on stationary aircraft (i.e. on the ground) on enemy airfields. Not even the military's best sharp shooters are going to ignite a jet's fuel tank when the jet is flying between 150-500 miles per hour.


Myth: .50-caliber bullets can penetrate concrete bunkers

Fact: "It takes 300 rounds to penetrate 2 meters of reinforced concrete at 100 meters.”396 At $5 per round, it would cost a terrorist $1,500 in ammunition to shoot into one bunker.


Myth: .50-caliber bullets can pierce light armor at 4 miles397

Fact: "At 35 meters distance [0.5% of the mythical “four mile” distance], a .50-caliber round will go through one inch armor plate."398 Piercing any armor at four miles is highly improbable.

Fact: "It is exceedingly difficult to hit a target, even a large one … at anything over 1200 to 1500 yards by even highly trained individuals ... The ammo is designed for a machine gun, and is generally only good for 2-3 minutes [fraction of a degree] of accuracy. That equates to a 30-45 inch circle at 1500 yards with a perfect rifle, no wind or other conditions and a trained shooter."399


Myth: .50-caliber rifles can knock a helicopter from the sky

Fact: The terminal energy of a .50-caliber round (6,000 ft-lbs) is not enough to knock a modern military aircraft from the sky unless it hits a critical component like a fuel line. Records exist showing this has been done with common, smaller caliber assault rifles such as AK-47s.


Myth: .50-caliber guns are for snipers

393 One Shot, One Kill: American Combat Snipers in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Beirut, C. Sasser and C. Roberts, Pocket Books , referring to Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock.

394 Sniper kills Qaeda-from 1½ mi. away, New York Post, May 2, 2010

395 Longest_recorded_sniper_kills, Confirmed_kills_1.2C250.C2.A0m_.281.2C367.C2.A0yd.29_or_greater, Wikipedia

396 An Infantryman's Guide to Combat in Built-up Area, field manual 90-10-1, US Army, May 1993.

397 Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senate testimony, March 9, 2001.

398 An Infantryman's Guide to Combat in Built-up Area, field manual 90-10-1, US Army, May 1993.

399 Ibid.

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Fact: Americans have been long-distance target shooters since revolutionary times. According to period writings, Americans were shooting small targets at upwards of 150 yards using simple Kentucky long rifles and muskets.400

Fact: “The use of [.50-caliber] by the IRA in Northern Ireland to shoot both soldiers and police officers at very short range (never more than 275 yards) also gave the weapon a worldwide notoriety when the world's media slapped a ‘sniper’ label on the terrorists taking the shots. They obviously were not and soon ran scared when professional snipers were deployed to stop them.”401


400 Firearms Ownership & Manufacturing in Early America, Clayton Cramer, unpublished.

401 Sniper, Mark Spicer, Salamander Books, 2001.

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ASSORTED MYTHS

Myth: 30,000 people are killed with guns every year.

Fact: 54% of these deaths are suicides402 (80% in Canada403). Numerous studies have shown that the presence or absence of a firearm does not change the overall (i.e. gun plus non-gun) suicide rate.


Myth: The Brady Campaign has a good ranking system of state gun control laws.

Fact: There is zero correlation between the letter grades given by the Brady Campaign and the violent crime or murder rate in those states, making the Brady grade irrelevant (see chart at right).404


Myth: 1,000 people die each day from guns

Fact: 25% of this unreliable figure405 includes “direct war deaths,” and another 14% are suicides. The bulk of the rest come from violence-prone and near lawless localities.

Fact: The source for this raw data admits, “A complete dataset on people killed in conflict—directly or indirectly—does not exist. All published figures are estimates based on incomplete information.”406

Fact: Indeed, the definition of “gun” seems to be very broad: “… revolvers and self-loading pistols [semi-automatics], rifles and carbines, assault rifles, sub-machine guns, and light machine guns.” Light weapons are “… heavy machine guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable antitank and anti-aircraft guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of anti-tank and antiaircraft missile systems, and mortars of less than 100mm caliber.” And they admit to the problem of a broad definition: “The Survey uses the terms ‘small arms,’ ‘firearms,’ and ‘weapons,’ interchangeably. Unless the context dictates otherwise, no distinction is intended between commercial firearms (e.g. hunting rifles), and small arms and light weapons designed for military use (e.g. assault rifles).”407


402 National Center for Health Statistics, average rates for years 1981 through 2003.

403 Death Involving Firearms, Kathryn Wilkins, Health Report vol. 16, no 4, Statistics Canada.

404 State Got a Poor ‘Brady Gun Grade?’ Don’t Rush to Pack Your Bags, Denton Bramwell, 2006.

405 Bringing the global gun crisis under control, IANSA, 2006 citing Small Arms Survey.

406 Small Arms Survey 2005, www.smallarmssurvey.org.

407 Small Arms Survey 2002, www.smallarmssurvey.org.

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Myth: High capacity guns lead to more deadly shootings

Fact: Much of this myth comes from the fact that the general availability of high-capacity handguns briefly preceded the rise in the crack cocaine trade, which brought a new kind of violence in local drug wars.408

Fact: The number of shots fired by criminals has not changed significantly even with the increased capacity of handguns and other firearms. Indeed, the number of shots from revolvers (all with a 6-8 round capacity) and semi-automatics were about the same – 2.04 vs. 2.53.409 In a crime or gun battle, there is seldom time or need to shoot more.

Fact: Fatal criminal shootings declined from 4.3% to 3.3% from 1974 through 1995, when ownership of semi-automatics and large capacity handguns were rising at their fastest rate.410 Fatal shootings of police officers declined sharply from 1988 through 1993.411

Fact: Drug dealers tend to be “more deliberate in their efforts to kill their victims by shooting them multiple times.”412


Myth: The “powerful gun industry” stops all gun control legislation

Fact: The firearms industry is composed of "small, marginally profitable companies," with combined revenues of $1.5 billion to $2 billion per year, making it politically ineffective.413

Fact: Total political contributions from firearm industry members, PACs and employees was under $4.4 million in the 2002 election cycle, which made the industry the 64th ranked contributor. Compare that to $33 million from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. 414

Fact: Perhaps the "gun industry" being referenced is the 100+ million adults who peacefully own firearms and do not want their civil rights restricted.


408 Targeting Guns, Gary Kleck, 1997.

409 Urban firearm deaths: A five-year perspective, Michael McGonigal, John Cole, William Schwab, Donald Kauder, Michael Rotondo, Peter Angood, Journal of Trauma, 1993.

410 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1966-1995.

411 Firearm injury from crime, Marianne Zawitz, 1996, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

412 Epidemiological changes in gunshot wounds in Washington D.C, Webster, Champion, Gainer and Sykes, Archives of Surgery, 1992.

413 New York Times, Mar. 18, 2000.

414 OpenSecrets.org, May 2003.

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Myth: Access to guns increases the risk of suicide

Fact: The rate of suicide is not affected by the presence of a firearm. This is true in either a time-series analysis (like the chart at right showing the change in handgun supply in the U.S. over time),415 or through cross-national analysis. For example, Japan has no private handgun ownership (aside from an extremely limited number of licensed Olympic sport shooters), and yet had a suicide rate more than twice that of the United States in 2002.416


Myth: individuals who commit suicide are more likely to have had access to guns417

Fact: This is a classic causal effect. If someone decides to commit suicide, and they choose to use a gun, they will first acquire a gun. As noted before, the total rate of suicide does not change when a gun is present because the victim will choose a different method.


Myth: The only purpose for a gun is to kill people

Fact: Guns are used for self-defense 2,500,000 times a year in the United States.418

Fact: Guns are used as a deterrent to crime even when no rounds are fired.419

Fact: Guns are used in sports including hunting, target practice, practical pistol, scenario simulation, skeet, etc.


415 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics online, BATFE Firearm Commerce Report for 2002.

416 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, World Health Organization Suicide Prevention country reports (online).

417 Mental Illness, Previous Suicidality, and Access to Guns in the United States, Ilgen, Zivin, McCammon, Valenstein, 2008 American Psychiatric Association

418 Targeting Guns, Gary Kleck, Aldine Transaction, 1997

419 Ibid.

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