Dan Terry's Gun Zone: The War on Guns

by Dan Terry

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
    -Benjamin Franklin, Nov. 11, 1775

(October, 1997) Pearl, Ms.: One of the first school shootings in America.  The assistant principal, who had a permit for his handgun, use to keep it in his vehicle on the parking lot.  But upon the passage of the Safe Schools Act, he was forced to park his vehicle ¼ mile away to comply with the “thousand foot rule”.  When the shooting started, he had to run a half-mile round trip to retrieve his gun, then stopped the shooting merely by pointing his weapon at the suspects.  Two people were killed during the race to his truck.  After stopping the shooting, it was another 5 ½ minutes before the police arrived. How many more may have died had he not been armed?

In the following month, going by a computer search of news stories, there was 680 news stories on the shooting.  Of them,  only 19 stories mentioned the assistant principal at all. Thirteen of the articles indicated he was involved in the situation, and 10 stories bothered to mention he had a gun.

According to Dept. of Justice survey’s, which is often quoted by the anti-gun media, guns are used in the commission of crime between 400,000 and 450,000 times per year.  What is strangely left out is, according to the same survey, guns are used in defense of people 2,000,000 times per year!

Of that, it is estimated that 95% of the time merely brandishing the gun stops crime.  Why does this information not get published?  Mostly, because it is not often not reported to police.  This is why the Justice Department uses survey’s instead of counting cases.  Does the media really refuse to print such cases as part of some dark anti-gun conspiracy?  I choose to believe a more simple answer.  One thing I learned while writing for magazines is an old cliché: If it bleeds, it leads.

When the chance to do a story on a bleeding suspect against one that ran away when he seen a gun, which headline will sell papers?

According to Dr. John Lott Jr., author of “More Guns, Less Crime”, and “The Bias against Guns”, 25% of the school shootings are stopped by armed citizens prior to the arrival of police.  Yet only 1% of news stories mention the intervention of lawful gun owners.  36% mention that the police used guns to stop such shootings.

Another statistic often ignored:  Anti-CCW people will concede that the murder rate falls by an average of 1 ½ to 2 percent in states that pass concealed carry.  They will argue that this is normal type of fluctuation, or that the overall average, even in gun control states, is going down.  But in states that pass concealed carry, the number of multiple victim public shootings, such as schools, malls and churches, drops by an astonishing 60%!

And why not?  Criminals are lazy and selfish, but not stupid.  Who would go into a place to commit a crime where people are armed?  That’s dangerous!  Who can forget the Amish school shooting of October, 2006? What place would be safer for a rapist gunman than a peaceful school in a community where no one owns guns?

And why are malls so often the target of multiple victim shootings?  All shopping mall’s in this area have a “no guns” sign on the door.  Again, we’re providing a safe haven for armed murders to get maximum carnage in complete safety.

Where guns are banned, murder and crime rates always go up.  Because who is most likely to obey these laws?  Does the governments of Australia, Ireland, or Britain really believe that thieves and burglars will voluntarily give up their weapons to comply with the law?  Where’s the common sense?

Currently, in England, the burglary rate is double that of the United States.  What is different is that in America, only 13% of the burglaries occur with the resident home.  In Merry Ole’ England, an astounding 60% of the burglaries happen when the resident is at home!  Survey’s of both nations criminals indicate that the American thief studies the home, or “cases the joint”, twice as long as his British counterpart.  Because here, he could get shot.  The English thief has not that fear.

But we never hear these statistics on the news.  Here is another one, easily checked by going to the Florida state CCW web site.  Since passing the first CCW laws in the nation, Florida has given out nearly 1.5 million concealed carry permits.  This does not include those who have renewed their license every five years.  Of that number, as of July, 2009, 166 owners have had their right to carry revoked.  That equates to 200th of one percent of gun owners have committed a gun related crime that lost them their rights to carry concealed.  And what was the most frequent crime?  Over half was simply carrying the gun into a no-gun zone,  such as forgetting the gun was in the car when they were in a school zone or airport.

But we never see these statistics in the paper or on 60 minutes.  Instead, we see stories of murder and mayhem.  As gun owners, it’s up to us to know the truth, and inform others where to find it when you hear the silly excuses of the anti-gunners.  It’s up to us to stand up for the second amendment.

Dan Terry is the Assistant Chief of Police in New Haven. He offers an eight-hour concealed-carry class several times a year in New Haven. Terry has been giving this class for six or seven years and is certified to instruct by the NRA, FBI and Missouri State Highway Patrol. His class includes time in the classroom and a marksmanship portion on the firing range. The next class starts May 23 and the cost is $100. NRA members and First Responders have a reduced cost. Anyone interested should contact him at 573-237-4798.

 
You can find Dan’s previous columns below:

The Castle Doctrine:
http://www.ngnn.com/65041/content/2010/apr/28/dan-terry-gun-zone-castle-...

The Gun Zone:
http://www.ngnn.com/65041/content/2010/apr/21/gun-zone