NOW, THE FACTS ABOUT HANDGUNS

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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993                   TAG: 9303090334
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
NOW, THE FACTS ABOUT HANDGUNS
CYNTHIA Hughes (Feb. 20 letter, "Media `dirty tricks' don't kill") demonstrates that she is a victim of propaganda. She is willing to set aside all our basic rights because she " . . . cannot figure out why anybody needs more than one handgun per month." Let me use her reasoning. I cannot figure out why Roanoke needs so many churches - there seems to be empty space in most of them. Why doesn't the state prevent any more from being built? Resources belong to the whole community. Just because you buy land doesn't mean you can build a church on it.
Ms. Hughes says handguns are not for hunting, but this year I ate venison harvested with a handgun. Clearly, she does not want to be confused with the facts. Here are some about handguns in society:

In October 1987, Florida started issuing concealed-gun carrying permits to any responsible citizen 21 years of age or older. The gun prohibitionists feared Florida would become like Beirut. Facts are, the murder rate dropped 18 percent while the national murder rate increased 18 percent. Oregon enacted a similar law in 1989. In Portland, 2,200 carrying permits were issued in the first seven months vs. 17 for the previous year. The homicide rate dropped 16 percent - the largest drop for any major city.

In 1966, New Jersey adopted "the most stringent gun law in the nation." In two years, the murder rate was up 46 percent, and the reported robbery rate nearly doubled. In 1968, Hawaii imposed gun control. By 1977, the murder rate increased from 2.4 to 7.2 per 100,000 population - an increase of 200 percent.
In 1976, Washington, D.C., celebrated the founding of our nation by denying the right to bear arms there. By the end of 1992, the murder rate increased 134 percent while in the rest of the nation it dropped 2 percent. In Arlington, the murder rate for 1992 was one-tenth what it was in our nation's capitol (7.0 vs. 77.8 per 100,000). In Virginia Beach, our largest city, evil, wicked, maiming, killing handguns were readily available, and the murder rate was 4.1 per 100,000 in 1991. ROBERT HOWAT ROANOKE

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB