Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, July 27,1988 wsmmBBBmmaBaamm Shoot-outs are dead We have all heard the statis tics. The thou sands of deaths and injuries in this country cbmpared to other countries that have some sort of gun control laws. Oswald shot John Kennedy with a gun he bought by mail or- ^ m " m der from the National should have no limits on handgun acces- sablity: 1) gun control laws are unconsti tutional, 2) people need handguns for protection and, 3) if guns were illegal then only criminals would have guns, or take care of the crime problem and gun control will not be needed. I’ll begin with the myth that gun control is uncon stitutional. Jill Webb Rifle Associa tion’s (NRA) magazine. Sirhan Sirhan used a .22 caliber pistol to kill Robert Kennedy. James Brady was left perma nently paralyzed when he was shot with a gun that cost 30 dollars. The drive-by shootings, the shots fired by drunk, an gry or hate filled people are all made more probable by the accessablity of guns in our society. We at least need a seven to 14 day re taining period to do a background check on everyone who goes to buy a handgun. This would serve two pur poses. It would see if the buyer has a criminal record or a history of mental instability. It would also ward off the “impulse” buyer who wants to get a gun in a moment of passion, to harm himself or herself or others. Even such conser vative approaches to gun control are op posed by the NRA, which has one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington. Even though Jerald Vaughn, director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police called the NRA “one of the most potentially dangerous organiza tions in the United States today” and most other police organizations and ci vilians support some kind of gun con trol, the NRA is still able to spread its misinformation. Opponents of gun con trol say there are three basic reasons we The second ammendment states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” As Robert J. Spitzer wrote in the June issue of America, “The Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment safeguards the col lective right of citizens to be protected by an armed military, not the individual right to carry any type of gun . . .” The fact that we do not have a sweeping gun control act is not because of constitu tionality it is because of the political clout of gun control opponents. The Su preme Court has consistantly upheld gun control laws. Second, handgun owners often say they need their guns for protection. There are 120 million privately owned guns, and 75 percent of gun owners say self-protection is at least part of the rea son for having firearms. But the owners of the guns are not killing the burglars; they are killing innocent people. In a re cent study in Washington state, it was found that for each gunshot slaying for self-protection in a gun owning home, there were 43 suicides, homocides or ac cidental deaths by firearms. To break that down further, when someone was shot with a firearm, 84 percent of the time it was a suicide, 10 percent were slayings during an argument, three per cent were accidents, and just over two percent were for self protection. Of those, .05 percent were slayings of bur glars. Other than suicides, 55 percent of victims were family members, and 30 percent of the victims were friends and aquaintances. Obviously, the price our society pays in innocent lives is not enough to justify “self-protection.” Finally, gun control opponents say that if we made guns illegal, then only criminals would have guns. This is a catch phrase that does not have nuch basis in truth. Most organizations do not want to make guns illegal. The seven to 14 day wait to get a background check only makes it harder for individuals with mental problems and felons to get handguns, not other people. Also, continuing the same thinking, some say that we should crack down on crime, and the need for gun control will disap pear. I’m all for cracking down on crime, and part of doing that is taking away criminals’ guns. Also, the cost that society pays for handguns is not just re flected in the crime statistics, it is also part of the suicide statistics as stated above. Gun control opponents cry out for tougher penalties while they fight prevention. They speak about how ter rible the killing is, while they cherish the instruments of death. People have to take w ritten and prac- d river’s lb His wi of Ha They have to because we knowtk automoble is dangerous if not used B^> S 'sponsibly. We should have thesaineB ssl ol law s and exams for guns, whidiiBRay more dangeious. m<>ie .messable.iHe w country is paying for the N'RA’s) an