Maryland Needs
To Change Course On Public Safety!
By
Phil Lee, 2/11/04 (Rev.
3/15/05)
Kimberly Wilson's article ("Md. lawmakers hear gun-ban testimony," Sun, 2/11/04) has several misleading statements. The bill in question (SB288) addresses so
called "assault" rifles or shotguns and not pistols that have been
previously banned in Maryland. Officer John Stem is correctly reported as dying from a
wound received in 1977 from an M-1 Carbine, but that firearm is not on
Maryland's current list of assault weapons nor is it on the Federal list nor
on California's list which is stricter than most. So, it is not correct to say that Officer
Stem was "the last Maryland officer to die of wounds inflicted by an assault
weapon."
This news report illustrates the problem with the
Violence Policy Center (VPC) data and why their 1 in 5 statistic is
propaganda and not true. Officer Stem
died in 2000 of wounds received 23 years earlier from a semi-automatic rifle. Even though that rifle is not classified
under the law as an assault weapon, the VPC spins Officer Stem's death as
from an "assault weapon".
Since the bill in question addresses long guns rather
than handguns, the Sun should know in the 16 years of 1988 through 2003, 19 Maryland police officers have died in the line of duty from
traumas received in felonious assaults. One was stabbed to death, one was
stabbed until incapacitated then shot with his own handgun, one died from an
assault with a car, and 16 died solely from gunfire. Of the 16, 12 died from
handgun wounds, 3 from shotgun wounds and Officer Stem from a rifle wound
(see http://www.mcrkba.org/LEOsKIA.pdf for additional information about national and Maryland police officer deaths).
[Added note – no Maryland Police Officer has been shot and killed with
any rifle during the period 1985
through 3/15/2005.]
Maryland's experience with officers being killed with firearms
confirms the preferences by criminals for firearms that are easy to conceal
rather than rifles to kill police officers and people in general.
The VPC claims 41 of 211 officers dying in 1998-2001 were
wounded by assault weapons. In
addition to misleading the public about Officer Stem's death, the VPC has
other cases of stretching the truth:
·
Their list of officer deaths
includes 14 cases where they claim assault weapons were used, but the rifles
indicated were not on the Federal assault weapons list. In two cases, the
rifles were the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, a rifle model
specifically excluded by name from the assault weapon list as a sporting
firearm (see Appendix A of 18 USC Sec. 922 or
Senator Feinstein's publication
In 4 cases the
rifles were M-1 carbines and in 8 cases the rifles were SKS carbines. None of
these rifles are on lists of assault weapons.
·
In one case, the primary
weapon to down the officer was a shotgun and an assault weapon was used
during the thug's attempt to flee. In four cases the killers used 9 mm
handguns classified as assault weapons and these guns are already banned in Maryland.
·
In one case a rifle was stolen
from a police department and used to kill two officers. Bans usually permit
police to hold these weapons, so it is deceptive to include this case as an
example where a legislative remedy is possible.
Only in 20 of the 211 killings, or roughly one in 10, did
the killers use semi-automatic long guns whose use might have been prevented
by the proposed ban. That is, if killers could not devise an effective
substitute for the same situation. In all of the remaining police murder
cases, the killers did find satisfactory alternative solutions by using 30-30
and other rifles, shotguns and handguns.
A point not addressed by the VPC is that the killers for
26 of the VPC's 41 officer had prior criminal
records sufficiently serious to disqualify them from owning firearms. Two had
convictions for previous killings. One in five of the killers of the VPC
group of officers was on probation or parole (see http://www.mcrkba.org/VPCTableWeb.html for a table with information about each of the VPC 41
cases and http://www.mcrkba.org/Briefs.html for links to even more information about these cases).
The idea that a ban would be effective is hard to accept given these
criminals were already disqualified from possessing any firearms.
Revolving door justice is a problem Maryland has as the
Sun has noted in several articles (example: "Tough gun law, timid
enforcement," Caitlin Francke, Baltimore Sun,
Jan 30 2000). While no assault rifle has been used to kill a Maryland police
officer, Cpt. Toatley was
killed by a paroled criminal in the drug trade and Sgt. Prothero
was killed by a gang of thugs with records containing several violent crimes.
The Democrat sponsors of the Assault Long Gun ban bill
hope to hide the fact their public safety policy is broken and they have been
putting up a sham effort against crime. They need to be told to change
directions for all our sakes. If they don't get the message, we'll have to
tell them the hard-way by running them out of office.
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