Posted by Mark Wilson (66.44.6.48) on March 21, 2001 at 18:15:
March 20, 2001
SUBJECT: Annapolis 2001 Firearms Bills
Mr. Chairmen and Members, Senate Judicial Proceeding Committee and House Judiciary Committee,
For several years now the Maryland Legislature has failed to pass significant legislation to help protect Maryland citizens against crime.1 Meanwhile, Maryland's rates of homicide, violent crime, and robbery are atrocious2 - almost the worst in the Nation for many years - and getting worse under members of this Legislature and the Administration of Glendening and Townsend.3 Police officer Anthony M. Walker, in testifying on a Senate Bill, said that Maryland is "the second most dangerous state" in the USA.
This Legislature is greatly responsible for the violence heaped upon Maryland citizens. The Legislature has failed to approve needed bills such as SB220 and HB806 in order to permit Maryland citizens to protect themselves and has not considered other needed measures for the suppression of crime.
So this year we had another repeat of what happened on similar Self-Defense bills last year. That is, on SB 220 and HB 806 many Committee members again this year acted as if they did not know the basic facts, such as how the rates of crime and violence were being reduced in many states through "shall issue" systems on their handgun permits. Some even again acted as though they did not care to learn the facts. So in Maryland we're still stuck with Glendening's "Just say 'No'" policy. That Glendening policy and the Legislature's complicity in it have resulted in the deaths of innocent Maryland citizens. Yes, there is indeed blood on the hands of many there in the Maryland Legislature.
Surely, when Maryland citizens are being murdered, maimed, and robbed at record relative levels compared to other states, your Committees ought to be able to find the time and staff to sort the wheat from the chaff - the misinformation from the facts. If your Committees do not have the time or inclination to do that, then obviously you are failing in your duty to protect Maryland citizens from crime. If that is the case, then the people of Maryland need to know it.
We trust that the annual blitz of firearms bills4 is not just a charade calculated deceive people into believing that you are attempting to do something useful, while really doing nothing to suppress crime. After all, innocent Maryland citizens are being murdered, maimed, and robbed at staggering rates compared to the citizens of other states according to the FBI UCR. Again, innocent Maryland citizens are being murdered, maimed, and robbed at rates greater than the citizens of almost all other states. Maryland citizens need the tools with which to defend themselves. How could the policy adopted by 32 other states be worse than Maryland's current policy in producing violence? Surely, it is clear to you by now that every state which has adopted "shall-issue" policies for concealed handgun licenses has a lower violence rate than Maryland. Surely you are not just cynical politicians who annually posture with these bills - without any serious thought of the proposed legislation actually passing - simply in order to later collect votes and contributions.
I hope that you will understand why it is difficult to continue, year after year, to give you the benefit of the doubt and conclude that you are just misinformed - or just without the staff or time to figure out the facts. Frankly, when drug dealers AND innocent Maryland citizens are being murdered, maimed, and robbed at horrific rates, we don't understand how the facts could be so mysteriously elusive only to this Legislature, Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse (MAHA), and a very few others.
In any event, we are going to make a maximum effort to give you the facts as plainly as possible. Please just consider this letter to be only our first step in that effort. So, although SB 220 is no longer being considered, you need to know about the distorted and misleading testimony given by certain groups about that bill. Next year we'll expect you all to have a much better handle on the facts. As professor John Lott has said, "Good intentions don't necessarily make good laws. What counts is whether the laws will ultimately save lives." Accordingly, below are some general comments and information about MAHA's recent testimony on SB 220. Later we'll be sending you many more specifics, as well as attempting to work with you in the future to understand clearly what is the whole truth and what is distortion.
In that regard, giving law-abiding Marylanders the ability to protect themselves and their families, per a 2002 Self-Defense Act, is not something which next year we'll expect you to cram into an expedited one-day hearing along with "umpteen" other less urgent bills as has been the practice for some time. That practice of cramming the agenda with many "piddly" bills and one critical bill does not permit one to reasonably expect that you and/or the audience will be able to cover the critical bills adequately, or to know who is distorting reality and who is telling the whole truth. Jamming the agenda sort of lets the Legislature be unaccountable for establishing the truth and taking appropriate action based thereon.
And what about all these firearms bills which were submitted last year and then again in 2001? Most of the re-submissions are dropping like flies just as they did last year. Surely they were not submitted again just to posture and/or jam the hearing agenda.
No, we think that those who submitted them had honestly expected to fight very long and hard for them. And that they would be especially diligent to convince others in the Legislature of their merit based on the whole truth - even if doing that would take up some of your valuable time.
However, we do expect, because Maryland citizens are being murdered, maimed, and robbed at horrific rates, that your Committees will be better focused on the truth in the future. We hope and expect that you will have your staff provide a thorough, independent, and scientific review of everyone's testimony and the facts which they submit. Anything less would not be consistent with the seriousness of this matter.
So let me begin. Take out your copy of the SB 220 testimony of Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse (MAHA), which was calculatingly designed to mislead you. Before commenting on specific MAHA distortions, which we'll address in our next communication to you, you should note that MAHA has made no reference in their testimony to any recent or thorough academic study supporting their position. MAHA's first endnote references Professor Lott's seminal and exhaustive study supporting "shall issue" permit laws. MAHA has set forth only eleven other endnotes, and those include just the following:
Six newspaper articles (endnote ii, v, vi, vii, xi, and xii).
One magazine article (endnote ix).
Two non-specific (and unavailable) references (endnotes iii and x) including one in which the MAHA letter endnote boldly proclaims: "See MAHA testimony," referring to something submitted by MAHA a year ago.
One reference to two old items published in 1975 and 1989 - which was well before the seminal academic study by Professor Lott (endnote iv).
That leaves only one item which might have some real scientific or academic bearing on SB 220, because the others do not. However, this reference is not even cited! (endnote viii) and it is not a scientific statistical study. Thus, MAHA's references are not even academic speculation, much less strict scientific analysis. And the MAHA material only gets worse.
MAHA consistently gives a single bad example of firearms abuse and then would have us jump to the conclusion that most cases are, or could be, like it. There have been at least two tragic cases in the past five years in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area where police officers shot and killed their fellow police officers not in uniform at the time. These tragic cases happened because the officers killed were mistaken for armed criminals - they did not identify themselves as police officers and they did not put down their handguns when ordered to do so. Should we, using MAHA's logic, conclude that all police officers are homicidal and need to be disarmed? In both incidents the officers doing the shooting were absolved after formal reviews because they followed police procedures.
MAHA rehashes one woman's shooting another woman in a road rage incident, but does it follow, as MAHA apparently would like for us to conclude, that all women should be disarmed or not allowed to have handgun permits? The really interesting fact is that there has apparently been only one case of that type with millions of holders of concealed handgun licensees. If that is so severe a problem, where are the other cases of road rage? Nowhere and MAHA knows it.
Also, keep in mind, as we indicated in our testimony, over two million defensive uses of firearms occur annually.5 Rarely is anything more than seeing the potential victim's firearm required in order to change a criminal's mind about attacking.
What MAHA and some others refuse to recognize, is as stated by Professor Lott:
"Guns enable 'bad guys' to kill more easily, but they also allow the innocent to defend themselves. The crucial question becomes: What is the net effect? Do guns deter crime or encourage it? Are more lives saved or lost? Anecdotal evidence cannot resolve this debate. To provide a more systematic answer, I published a book on gun control that analyzed FBI crime statistics for all 3,054 American counties from 1977 to 1994 as well as extensive information on accidental gun deaths and suicides. The study examined states that changed from discretionary to objective concealed-handgun laws. Thirty-one states now have these 'right-to-carry' rules."
We will be in contact with all of you again soon - with a discussion of the specific distortions in MAHA's testimony.
Later this year we intend to let citizens all across Maryland, as well as in the various media, know about our efforts to fully apprise you of the facts. We intend to review the past failures of the Legislature to get and/or understand those long-standing facts.
Next year any repeat failure of the Legislature to take prudent action, after being informed of essentially uncontested facts, would probably not be taken kindly by the public. Any such failure, of course, would clearly mean that your priorities do not include protecting the lives and property of Marylanders.
Sincerely,
Robert M. T. Wilson
for Maryland Citizens
1 It takes many others besides legislators to improve the plight of Maryland citizens, who continue to suffer greatly as crime victims. It takes judges, prosecuting attorneys, jurors, and others. But much of what needs to be done must begin in the Maryland Legislature. Thus far, significant improvements have not begun.
2 In my March 13th SB 220 testimony, on behalf of Maryland Citizens for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (MCRBKA), it was pointed out that Maryland's citizens are:
#4 in the nation in the number of homicides they suffer compared to citizens in other states;
#4 in the nation in the number of violent crimes they suffer compared to citizens in other states; and,
#1 in the nation in the numbers of robberies they suffer compared to the citizens of other states - and that #1 ranking has held true for each of the last five reported years under the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for 1995 - 1999. The FBI UCR data is readily available for analysis at: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr.htm
3 The plight of Maryland citizens compared to those in other states has worsened subsequent to when Glendening and Townsend entered office in 1995 according to the FBI UCR.
4 Pro-self-defense / pro law-abiding-citizen bills such as SB 220 and HB 806 and related bills, questionable mandatory-sentencing bills, and clearly anti-firearms-owners bills, etc.
5 See MCRBKA's testimony on SB 220 and HB 806, Attachment 2, third paragraph, for pertinent quote by Dr. Lott. Also see also interview of Dr. John Lott by Jacob Sullum and Michael W. Lynch which appeared in the January 2000 REASON entitled, "Cold Comfort - Economist John Lott discusses the benefits of guns--and the hazards of pointing them out" at: http//reason.com/0001/fe.js.cold.html.