document: -- More than 90 % of police chiefs and sheriffs surveyed agree that criminals are not affected by a ban on any type of firearm , while more than 70 % oppose `` waiting periods '' for the same reason . -- A prisoner survey conducted by James D. Wright et al. found that unarmed felons listed tougher penalties for using a gun as an important reason for not arming themselves . -- 75 % -80 % of U.S. violent crimes are committed by career criminals , many on some form of conditional or early release -LRB- 30 % -35 % of career criminals are rearrested with previous criminal charges still pending -RRB- . -- Gary Kleck found that using a gun for protection from violent crime -- rape , robbery , assault -- reduces the likelihood that the crime will be completed and that intended victims will be injured . Clearly , the issue at hand is not gun control but , rather , crime control . According to Mr. Gartner , `` this year about 3,000 teen-agers ... will use handguns to kill themselves . Some 9,000 adults will do the same . '' Suicides are , without doubt , tragic events affecting parents , families and society . Is how these people killed themselves the real issue , or is why more important ? The unfortunate truth is that if a person is desperate or depressed enough to commit suicide , he will find a way to do it . Guns or no guns . The most important fact of all must not be overlooked . Criminals do n't care about gun-control laws . They never have and they never will . Frank T. Iorio Mamaroneck , N.Y. -- As a life member of the National Rifle Association , I agree with Mr. Gartner -- it is not too much to ask for a nationwide `` seven-day ` cooling-off ' period '' -LRB- the Brady Bill -RRB- to give the authorities time for background checks . As a law-abiding citizen , it would be of comfort to know that other potential handgun buyers would be screened and keep those with a criminal past from owning a handgun . The reason Washington has yet to enact serious gun-control laws is due to the enormous voting and financial pressure of the pro-gun lobby . While Congress is congratulating itself on how well it acted during the vote on the Persian Gulf war , more than 100 body bags were filled here in the U.S. due to handgun violence . The NRA has not acted prudently and is alienating the support and respect of many legislators , police departments and its members . James Forbes Atlanta -- It is refreshing to read the actual motives of those who claim they simply want a waiting period for the purchase of a handgun . Mr. Gartner has now made it abundantly clear that his goal is the elimination of handguns from our society . I find it incongruous that the president of NBC News , a man who should believe in the broadening of constitutional rights , obviously has no regard for the Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms . I am sure that if there were a movement to narrow and restrict the First Amendment freedoms of the press , he would be at the forefront of the opposition . Mr. Gartner ignores the key issues regarding suicide and crime . The problem is not the instrument used to kill oneself or someone else . The problems are the breakdown of the family -LRB- black and white -RRB- ; an education system that fails to educate ; poverty ; illegal drugs , and emasculated police , justice and penal systems . This has been the message preached by the NRA for years . As evidenced by New York City and Washington , which have the nation 's strictest gun-control laws and virtually ban the ownership of handguns by law-abiding citizens , Mr. Gartner 's placebo does n't work because it ignores the root causes of suicide and crime . Richard W. Bonds Cordova , Tenn. . -- Mr. Gartner should have read The Federalist No. 46 by James Madison before he wrote his anti-gun diatribe . If he had , he would understand that the constitutional guarantee of uninfringed firearms possession is for protection against tyranny . It has nothing to do with duck hunting or target shooting . Furthermore , Madison makes it clear that state militias , by the fact of their being organized , would give private arms their greatest effectiveness in the resistance to tyranny . Otherwise , in the words of Alexander Hamilton , `` the citizens must rush tumultuously to arms , without concert , without system , without resource ; except in their courage and despair . '' Thus the `` well-organized militia '' phrase in the Second Amendment was not intended to restrict arms to those in the militia -- as the anti-gun lobby would have us believe . When we realize that the individual right to keep and bear arms is our ultimate defense against tyranny , all of the arguments about magazine capacity , armor-piercing bullets , sporting use , etc. suddenly stand before us in their naked falsity . Robert M. Beckett Fountain Valley , Calif. .
extractive_keyphrases: gun control brady bill criminals ban firearm prisoner survey violent crimes protection
abstractive_keyphrases: gun-control laws