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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992                   TAG: 9202110377
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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CRIME RISE PARALLELS GUN PROHIBITIONS

CONTRARY to the Roanoke Times & World-News' continuing diatribe, access to guns has not become easier at all. Since the turn of the century, incremental increases in gun prohibition have been followed by a corresponding increases in crime. No case can be made to defend gun prohibition as crime control. The evidence suggests just the opposite.

A Jan. 25 article describes how a young thug is still free after shooting a cab driver and discharging several random shots. Isn't it possible that punishing criminals would be better crime control than gun prohibition?

James Madison, the father of our Constitution, recognized arms in the hands of the people as the ultimate check against encroachment by the new federal government. In his Federalist No. 46, he said that the people need not fear the new government because of "the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation."

It is true that the courts have a poor record for recognizing the right to bear arms. It needs to be pointed out that the Bill of Rights did not create rights but only recognized them.

Rights are not granted by governments. They are either retained or lost by the people according to their will and vigilance. I believe that Americans have lost most and will lose more of their rights because many of them avoid the responsibilities that necessarily come in equal part with them. WILLIAM D. STUMP II DUBLIN

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