From: pat@fitz.uucp (Patrick Fitzgerald)
Subject: Re: Demo Gun Control & just who were the vigilantes in L.A.?
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 04:16:05 GMT

reid@metis.tti.com (Reid Kneeland) writes:

>It's already illegal for "psychos" and children to buy guns.  I support
>such laws, and so does the NRA.

I guess that depends on how you define "children".

[copied without permission from "The Huntsville Times", August 19, 1992]
				   
		 CITIES TARGET GUN-TOTING TEEN-AGERS
			     by Al Bravo
			 The Associated Press
 
PHOENIX --- When residents of a gang-ridden neighborhood invited the
mayor to a meeting to ask for help, it was gang members themselves who
made the strongest argument: They sat in the back of the meeting room,
carrying guns.
 
"These were 13-, 14-year-olds, wearing colors, with guns strapped to
their hips," recalled Mayor Paul Johnson.
 
The mayor got his second shock when he found out the teen-agers
weren't doing anything wrong.  [so what's the problem? -Fitz]
 
Arizona is one of 25 states that allow people to carry firearms openly
without a permit, and the "open carry" law has no age restrictions.
 
Johnson went on to push through an ordinance barring minors from
carrying guns in the nation's ninth-largest city without their
parent's permission.
 
The ordinance --- part of national trend toward separating kids from
their guns --- has been imitated by at least one other Arizona
community so far.
 
"It's good common sense," said the mayor, a Democrat.  "If you tell
someone he has to wait until he's 16 to get a driver's license, he
can't vote, he can't buy a lottery ticket, but he can have a gun
something's wrong."
 
The National Rifle Association is threatening a court challenge to the
ordinance.
 
Gun-control advocates are cheered by such measures.
 
"There's is [sic] a definite national trend, on the state and local
level, to restrict firearms from people of all ages, but especially
from children," said David Weaver, who works with state legislatures
for Handgun Control Inc.
 
Legislation is pending in 26 states to hold adults responsible for
allowing a minor access to a firearm, according to the NRA.
 
Supporters of such measures cite a report in June in the _Journal_of_
_the_American_Medical_Association_ that found gunshot wounds were the
second-leading cause of death among high school-age Americans.
One-third of high school students have access to handguns and 6
percent bring them to school, according to the study.

--

I think this study, and its flaws, has been discussed in
talk.politics.guns.

--
   ______   |o| Patrick Fitzgerald     |o| pat@fitz.b30.ingr.com
  / ___  )  |o| Sr. Software Analyst,  |o| (205) 730-3741
 / __)/ /__ |o| Intergraph Corporation |o| Mailstop GD3002
(_/it(_____)|o| TIM Documentation      |o| Huntsville, AL 35894-0001
-- 
   ______   |o| Patrick Fitzgerald     |o| pat@fitz.b30.ingr.com
  / ___  )  |o| Sr. Software Analyst,  |o| (205) 730-3741
 / __)/ /__ |o| Intergraph Corporation |o| Mailstop GD3002
(_/it(_____)|o| TIM Documentation      |o| Huntsville, AL 35894-0001
Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:40664 talk.abortion:32485 alt.politics.bush:2164