January/February 1994 Issue

The Right to Bears & Arms

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Guess which one has more manufacturing regulations?

 

TEC-9 (unregulated) Teddy (heavily regulated)
1) There are no federal safety standards for the domestic manufacture of guns. 1) At least four broad types of federal safety standards cover teddy bears: sharp edges and points, small parts, hazardous materials, and flammability.
2) There are no voluntary, industrywide safety standards for the manufacture of guns. 2) In 1976 the toy industry issued a comprehensive voluntary toy-safety standard. The Toy Manufacturers Association has maintained a safety standards committee since the early 1930s.
3) Approximately one gun model is recalled every three years. 3) Six separate teddy-bear models were recalled in fiscal year 1992 alone.
4) Keeping a gun in your home makes it three times more likely that someone will be killed there. 4) Keeping a teddy bear in your home does not increase the chance someone will be killed there.
5) In 1990, guns killed 37,184 people in the United States. 5) Teddy bears killed nobody last year. Only eight child deaths from all accidents involving toys were reported in the first eight months of 1993.

The TEC-9 and its clones are used in more crimes than any other assault weapon. Its manufacturers call it a “high-spirited . . . fun gun.”

 

Every 2 minutes somebody somewhere is the U.S. is shot.
Every 14 minutes somebody dies from a gun wound.
Each gun injury involving hospitalization costs $33,159. A license to sell a gun costs $0.83 per month.
A gun rolls off the assembly line in America every 10 seconds. America imports another gun every 11 seconds.
There are 246,984 gun dealers, but only 240 inspectors to keep an eye on them.
For the first time ever, a majority of Americans, 52 percent, favors a ban on handgun sales.

 

 

Firearm deaths by cause (1990):
Suicides: 51%
Criminal civilian homicides: 44%
Accidents: 4%
Police shootings: <1%
Justified civilian homicides (self-defense): <1%

 

Solutions:

  • Regulate guns like other consumer products.
  • Ban all handguns and assault rifles.
  • Tax ammunition heavily.

 

Research by Julie Petersen and Ariel Sabar. Research assistance by Lexis-Nexis.

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