From: mwm@aps.anl.gov (Michael W. McDowell)
Subject: Re: FAQ and Letters (was: Re: My first letter
Reply-To: mwm@aps.anl.gov
Organization: Argonne National Lab -- APS
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 12:43:24 GMT

      Dan Sorenson Writes 
	How about it -- it is time to get a FAQ of all the common
arguments compiled, edited, and stored on the archives?  The anit-
RKBA can do this on their own too, and it should be given space on
the same archive.  Let's let people make up their own mind, no matter
which side of the argument they are on.
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That certainly sounds like a good idea to me, I could have used it yesterday 
when the Chicago Tribune printed this gem:
REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION from the trib monday Sep 14, 1992

HANDGUNS KILL MORE THAN THEY PROTECT
There's a sad fallacy in the argument being pushed by gun merchants
and theier allies that Americans need to arm themselves in the war on crime.
The problem is , the nation is armed. And the more weapons that get into circulation, the more the war escalates.
Handguns are protection.  This notion is demolished by the fact that the entire
increase in murders, whether measured nationally or locally in recent years,
is accounted for by the rise in handgun deaths.  It's crushed by the fact that 
handgun owners are 43 times more likely to kill themselves or a family member
than to shoot a criminal.  And by the fact that the U.S., with extraordinary 
access to guns. has by far the higest murder rate amoung devoloped nations.
By the fact that shootings have only soared with the surge in handgun posession.
By the fact that suicide is five times more common in homes with guns.  By the 
fact that handguns and other concealable weapons have no real purpose except 
to kill people.
  Firearms were used last year to murder more than 16,000 Americans, a record
number,  At least 80 percent were killed with handguns,  There's every 
indication that the toll will grow again this year.
  In Chicago, murders are running ahead of 1991's unprecedented rate.
Over the Labor day weekend, 28 people died and dozens more were wounded by
gunfire in one of the bloodiest holidays in city history.
  While police attribute much of the shooting surge to street-gang battles
over narcotics and turf, they point out that these fights wouldn't be nearly
so deadly if it weren't for the rapid proliferation of handguns and concealable
assult weapons.  
  The crossfire is becomming increasingly indiscriminate.  From just last 
weekends shootings: A 10-year old picknicker sipping water from a drinking 
fountain; an 8-year-old boy sitting on his own front porch; the unborn infant 
of a pregnant girl.
  Across the nation, handgun homicides have risen 45 percent over the past five
years.  Meanwhile, Congress and the Bush administration still dither over
the rather meek gun-control measure known as the Brady Bill, which would apply
a national waiting period and background checks to handgun purchases.
  Sure, stricter handgun control won't by itself stop the spiral of crime
and violence.  It has to be done in tandem with a concerted assault on the
social problems that breed violence - a comprehensive effort that includes interventions like the city-state experiment in counseling for gang members 
and troubled families that has just been announced in Chicago.  
  But handguns are a major part of the problem.  Their control has to be part 
of any solution.
  As one police officer noted recently, we've yet to see a drive-by stabbing.

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My comments:  A two hundred word rebuttal wouldn't put a dent in this guy
he brings more fallacies and twisted facts together than Sarah Brady has on 
her hard drive.  He even makes up a new one, concealable assault weapon indeed.
  My subscription has been cancelled.
   
Mike
Newsgroups: 2,3,talk.politics.guns,fido.rtkba