From: technews@iitmax.iit.edu (Kevin Kadow)
Subject: Coal. to Stop Gun viol.sent me a SURVEY/PETITION
Summary: Coalition to stop gun violence is hard at work
Keywords: propaganda,lies,anti-FFL, anti RKBA B.S.
Organization: Technology News, IIT, Chicago, IL
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 05:22:56 GMT

        I recently received a "IMPORTANT GUN CONTROL SURVEY" from the
Coalition to stop gun violence (formerly coalition to ban handguns) The
envelope bore a "registered survey number" printed in red, as did the
survey enclosed. (so we can't  try to un-skew their results)

  I will post the "Survey" questions tomorrow, if nobody beats me to it.

The # on my envelope was of the form: ILnannnn-PLnana (n=a number,a=a letter)

        The letter enclosed bore several references to the NRA, and the
        survey itself mentions it 3 times.

Inside the cover were "7 frightening gun facts" as follows:

        (UPPERCASE TEXT was bold in original) (_underscores_ are mine)

1 GUNS KILL THEIR_OWNERS_AND_FAMILY_FAR MORE OFTEN THAN CRIMINALS.
        Handguns purchased for home protection are _43_ times more likely to
be used to kill the owner, family member or_friend_ than it is to be fired
in self-defense, according to a study published in The New England Journal
of Medicine. Some protection, eh?

        ERRORS I FOUND: first, the bold print mentions family and owners
        only, the text below mentions friend as well. This is a biased
        statistic based on the studies classification of "acquaintance" to
        be a person "known to" the victim. Also- the # is **43** Now?

2 MORE AND MORE AMERICANS DIE EACH DAY FROM HANDGUNS.
        More than 24,000 Americans die from handgun violence each year
according to the FBI, and handgun violence is sharply increasing...

        ERRORS: Remove the suicides,accidents,drug-wars, and how many
        NORMAL americans die each year?

3 SCHOOLS NO LONGER SAFE FROM GUNFIRE
        More than 135,000 students carry handguns to school every day, and
another 270,000 have carried a gun to school at least once, according to
the National School Safety Center...

        ERRORS: Am I wrong in believing that the NSSC is a fellow anti-gun
        group which got the above figures from extrapolation/guesswork?

4 SALE OF DANGEROUS ASSAULT WEAPONS IS ALSO ON THE RISE.
        (accompanied by a image of a UZI carbine)
        The production of military style weapons have increased
dramatically in recent years. In fact, the number of weapons designed to
accept silencers and bayonets increased 51% in 1989 alone, and these
assault rifles are ten times more likely to be used in crime than other
firearms, according to a study published by Cox newspapers.

        ERRORS: first, how many people have died recently from rifle
        mounted bayonets? from silenced weapons? from guns with BOTH?
                Second, the "Cox Newspaper Study" reporting 10x more likely
        is based on the # of FBI tracebacks of weapons, not the # actually
        used in crimes. The number of tracebacks has been artificially
        inflated due to the recent policy of the FBI to traceback weapons
        chosen at random from (manufacturer's?) serial numbers.

5 5 SCHOOLCHILDER MURDERED AND 30 INJURED IN MERE MINUTES.
        One lone gunman toted a AK-47 to a Stockton elementary school and
        gunned down 34 children... Patrick Purdy riddled the schoolyard
        with 106 bullets...

        ERRORS: Purdy should have been convicted of his previous crimes and
        in jail. The criminal justice system failed, not the gun laws.

6 THERE'S VIRUTUALLY NO REGULATION OF GUN DEALERS.
        Due to NRA lobbying efforts, the US BATF does not have the funding
to thoroughly check applicants. Anyone who sends in $30 can obtain a
three-year license for selling guns, often in violation of local law.

(further down the petition to congress asks that "legislation should be
enacted limiting the availability of such licenses to regulated merchants")

        ERRORS: They do background checks. What NRA lobbying to reduce the
        BATF budget? Why not FIX the problems with the BATF rather than
        putting special restrictions on who can get a BATF license.
        Currently a BATF FFL is required in order to be allowed to ship
        weapons across state lines (including for competition mods,
        engraving, and the like) or to sell more than a small number of
        firearms per year.

7 AMERICA IS THE WORLD'S MOST VIOLENT NATION, BY FAR.
       Other industrialized mations have virtual bans on handguns sales.
That explains why the chance you will be gunned down in america is 55 times
higher than if you lived in Great Britain - while almost 7 times higher
than in Australia and more than 5 times higher than in Canada.

        ERROR: Great Britain is not a valid comparision to the USA,
        socially, economically, or culturally.

        Question: why is the chance you will be gunned down in Canada 11
        times higher than if you lived in Great Britain?

        TRUTH: America is a violent nation. People kill each other more
        often, and the people who are likely to kill people will do so no
        matter how many restrictions are put on the rest of us, who frankly
        are almost all people who will never kill anybody in their lives.


-- 
        WARNING: Contents under extreme pressure. Do not incinerate.

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