From: ataylor@nmsu.edu (Nosy)
Subject: Re: Demo Gun Control & just who were the vigilantes in L.A.?
Organization: NMSU Computer Science
	<l29mqhr.crisp@netcom.com> <p59m-0j.garyd@netcom.com>
	<1992Aug19.212129.10966@ttinews.tti.com>
	<1992Aug20.041605.11200@infonode.ingr.com>
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 21:12:10 GMT

<In article <1992Aug20.041605.11200@infonode.ingr.com> pat@fitz.uucp (Patrick Fitzgerald) writes:
<   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".

	Federal law prohibits the sale of any handgun to any person
	under the age of 21. Federal law prohibits the sale
	of shotguns and/or rifles to any person under the age of
	18.

	It is a Federal felony to violate the above law, punishable
	by at least 5 years (possibly more) in Federal prison.

<   [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]

	How did they obtain these firearms? Unless they were gifts,
	a crime has been committed.

< 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.

	What's the problem with that?

<   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.

	I would want to see the ordinance prior to commenting
	on it.
	
<   The ordinance --- part of national trend toward separating kids from
<   their guns --- has been imitated by at least one other Arizona
<   community so far.

	This is rather "purple" prose, however.

<   "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."

	Why is that? Learner's permits are available at a younger
	age than 16, or used to be. What is wrong with a child
	of 11 learning to shoot? That's when I did, on a range
	at Boy Scout Camp under the careful supervision of a
	rangemaster from a nearby Air Force Base.

<   The National Rifle Association is threatening a court challenge to the
<   ordinance.

	Possibly the NRA knows more about this ordinance than 
	the newspaper is willing to pring.
	
<   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.

	Since HCI's stated goal is the abolition of private
	ownership of handguns, their support is obvious.

<   Legislation is pending in 26 states to hold adults responsible for
<   allowing a minor access to a firearm, according to the NRA.

	And many of these laws are so poorly written that they
	would hold a woman whose house is broken into by 17 year
	old gangbangers responsible for their misuse of her property.
	
<   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.
 
	AMA has a different idea of "high school age" than most
	of us do; 18, 19 and 20 year olds are usually not thought
	of as "high school students", but AMA included them.

<  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.