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Danger Dave
April 13, 2000, 03:22 PM
"Study: State gun laws lacking
By Alan Judd, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia has so few gun control laws that a new study ranks it among the nation's worst states for preventing firearms violence.

Unlike 39 other states, Georgia has no law prohibiting children younger than 18 from possessing handguns. Unlike 18 states, it doesn't hold parents criminally responsible when a child uses their gun to wound or kill a person. Georgia has no laws regulating assault weapons or cheap handguns known as "Saturday Night Specials." It places no limit on how many weapons a person can purchase. It requires no check of whether buyers in private gun sales have a history of criminal activity or mental illness.

The study by the New York-based Open Society Institute, to be released today, says that Georgia led the way among the 13 states that restrict liability lawsuits against the firearms industry. And it is one of 40 states that prohibit local governments from adopting gun control laws.

The report, "Gun Control in the United States: A Comparative Study of Firearms Laws," put Georgia's overall score at minus-5 percent--lower than all but six other states. Georgia earned its negative score from the laws preventing firearms litigation and local gun laws.

The report's findings came as no surprise to Georgia gun control advocates.

"We knew that Georgia was one of the worst," said Alice Johnson of Georgians United Against Violence. The group has lobbied the General Assembly for new firearms laws, with little success. "We knew that the Georgia Legislature has been unwilling to do anything much to address the issue of accessibility of firearms . . . or in any way to require responsibility on the part of gun owners."

However, the study did not take into account laws in Georgia and elsewhere that impose tough penalties on those who use guns to commit crimes. Georgia lawmakers approved a bill this year increasing minimum sentences for several gun-related offenses. Gov. Roy Barnes, who drafted the bill, declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the study.

Gil Kline, a spokesman for the Open Society Institute, said the study focused on laws intended to prevent gun violence.

"We were looking at gun control laws," he said, "not enforcement laws."

The study cites "severely low levels" of firearms laws; the average state score was 9 percent. It says 35 states require no licensing or registration of weapons, while 32 require no background checks for people who buy guns in private sales, such as at gun shows. Seven states, including Georgia, have no legal minimum age for a child to buy a rifle or shotgun from an unlicensed dealer.

The National Rifle Association disputed the study's findings, insisting that firearms already are heavily regulated.

"They ignore a whole body of laws," said Bill Powers, an NRA spokesman. "It somehow says there aren't all these state laws, so we need federal laws. There are state laws, and there are federal laws--thousands of them."

Regardless, many states have considered new gun laws, particularly ones that restrict juvenile access to firearms, mandate locking devices on weapons and require background checks to complete private gun sales, said Kelly Anders, who tracks the issue for the National Conference of State Legislatures. But many such proposals are greeted with hostility.

"It's a topic that everyone's very emotional about," Anders said. "Results are not easy to come by."

That certainly has been the case in Georgia. A few lawmakers, notably Sen. David Scott (D-Atlanta), have sponsored bills to make it a crime to negligently leave handguns within easy reach of children and to limit individuals to a single firearms purchase per month. But those bills have drawn intense opposition from the NRA, which counts 90,000 members in Georgia and has contributed significant sums to state political campaigns.

Scott hopes the new study builds momentum to enact gun laws in Georgia.

"It's going to require the leadership of the governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker (of the House), along with the National Rifle Association," Scott said. "Those are the four entities that, I think, need to look at this information in relationship to our state and how we look against the nation as a whole. . . . Nothing will move until that happens."

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About the sponsor
The Open Society Institute is one of the nonprofit foundations funded by philanthropist George Soros of New York. Soros gives away several hundred million dollars a year, mostly in emerging democracies in Eastern Europe, according to news reports. In the United States, the Open Society Institute's activities include working to eliminate inequities in the distribution of wealth. In recent years, the organization's Center on Crime, Communities and Culture has sought to reduce gun violence and what it terms "excessive incarceration." The institute funded the gun control study along with the Funders' Collaborative for Gun Violence Prevention, which consists of the institute, the Irene Diamond Fund and other foundations."

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I loved this bit:

Gil Kline, a spokesman for the Open Society Institute, said the study focused on laws intended to prevent gun violence.

"We were looking at gun control laws," he said, "not enforcement laws."

In other words, "We only care about controlling guns, not criminals."

Ledbetter
April 13, 2000, 03:27 PM
"Severely low levels of firearms laws."

You poor folk. You need some government "help." ;)

Danger Dave
April 13, 2000, 03:44 PM
Like the kind of "help" we got in 1864-5? No thanks!

papercut
April 13, 2000, 04:05 PM
Gee, they forgot to mention that the city of Kennesaw requires every household to have a firearm for defensive use (off the top of my head, I forget if the city ordinance specifies handgun or just firearm). And, after Kennesaw enacted that ordinance, it saw a dramatic drop in most of it's crime categories.

If someone has the crime figures for Kennesaw handy, you might want to write to the AJC and remind them of that.

The AJC might also want to be reminded of the man who defended himself with a gun from a knife-wielding mugger literally at their front door a month or so ago. Or the woman (police officer's wife) who shot and killed the man who tried to rape her a couple of weeks ago in her apartment (she did, however, suffer serious knife wounds from his attack). Or the man who shot the gun-wielding would-be carjacker in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Dunwoody (bedroom community just north of Atlanta) a few weeks ago.

And the AJC wonders why I won't subscribe to their paper. Geez.


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"There's not much comfort in the fact that crime is down 6 percent. So instead of 100 criminals targeting you, now there are only 94. Whoop-dee-doo." -- Paxton Quigley

bestdefense357
April 13, 2000, 04:21 PM
Don't forget the Atlanta golfers who were accosted by robbers. One of the golfers happened to be a CCW holder and quickly ended the robbery with a bullet to the perp's throat. Also, don't forget the two guys camping in the Oconee National Forest who were shot and wounded by two crackheads--the two campers ended the skirmish by killing one crackhead and wounding the second. It goes on and on.
Robert

Paul Revere
April 13, 2000, 04:47 PM
The attention that these antis get when they get on the anti-gun bandwagon really empowers them. They become blinded by their own ignorance shining off the lights and microphones of the media, so eager to perpetuate the lies of the anti-freedom agenda.

Divide and conquer. Many frogs are beginning to feel the water temperature being turned up. After all these years with a slowly rising temperature in the pot, it's nearly time to deliver the coup de grace.

Maybe some more apathetic gunowners and freedom loafers will wake up before the water's at a full boil.

crobrun
April 13, 2000, 05:35 PM
I don't know what the numbers are, but I suspect that crime and violence are relatively low. Assuming I'm correct, one may want to point out that there is no NEED for gun control.
Rob

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Rob
From the Committee to Use Proffesional Politicians as Lab Animals

Don Gwinn
April 13, 2000, 07:12 PM
Oh, I don't know, guys, we have registration, laws against children using guns, all that kind of crap in Illinois. And I think you all know what a crime-free Utopia Illinois is. Just the other day I was driving in Chicago for several hours and was not mugged or killed ONCE. Can you do that in Georgia?

JimR
April 13, 2000, 07:50 PM
Makes me proud, too.

Regarding the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation, I love the way that Cynthia Tucker, the editorial page editor, refuses to accept Neal Boortz's (http://www.boortz.com) challenge to a debate on gun control. Neal would take her apart in a true debate requiring logic.

FlintLock
April 13, 2000, 08:09 PM
Count me in as another proud Georgian.
Re: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, haven't bought it since we got our puppies house trained.
crobrun,
The Committee to Use Professional Politicians As Lab Animals??? I like it!

Matt VDW
April 14, 2000, 09:33 AM
Isn't it telling that the antis want to talk about a lack of laws rather than high levels of crime and violence?

Compare the list of states with the "worst" gun laws with a list of states with the most crime and you'll see how perverse their definition of "worst" really is.

Herodotus
April 14, 2000, 06:56 PM
If Soros gives several million dollars to "the emmerging democracies of Eastern europe", his gifts are like those attributed to the Greeks (Beware!).
If the man does not understand the importance of an armed citizenry, he does not understand Democracy. He is a member of the old cynical and authoritarian school that has been the bain of that area of the world for the last 1,000 years. He wants authoritarian rule, hopefully enlightened, but authoritarian in any case.