Just how many handguns are there in the U.S. today?
Almost one for every family. Of the 135 million firearms, at least 40 million are handguns. And the traffic in handguns is staggering: 2.5 million guns are manufactured or imported each year into this country.
What is the toll taken by the handguns?
Each year handguns are involved in at least 300,000 violent crimes, including 11,000 murders, 175,000 armed robberies, 100,000 aggravated assaults, 4,000 suicides and 3,000 accidental deaths. To show you what this means, during the peak years of the Vietnam war 42,300 Americans were killed in combat. During those same years 103,000 civilians were murdered in the United States. Of those murders, at least 80 percent involved handguns.
What about rifles?
Long guns—rifles and shotguns—are generally used legitimately by the estimated 20 million hunters in the U.S. They account for less than 12 percent of all homicides. By contrast, about 96 percent of all armed robberies are committed with handguns.
Why do handguns play such a large role in crime?
Handguns are for one thing—shooting people. No one goes out hunting game with a pistol.
What kind of person is more apt to commit a violent crime with a gun?
Stanford psychiatrist Donald Lunde recently attempted to find the answer to that. He gathered data on education, age, race, income, sex, demographics, but failed to come up with any real common denominator. Then he went one step further and took into account where the people who committed the crimes were born. It turned out that a vastly disproportionate number of them were born in the South. This included whites who moved West and blacks who moved North to the urban slums.
Why is this so?
Perhaps it's the frontier mentality, but there is no place in the country where the possession of firearms is more cherished. Atlanta, for instance, heads the list of homicides among American cities.
Do your friends sometimes question your concern?
Yes. At a dinner party in Texas the hostess leaned over to my wife and said, "Please don't mention your husband's interest in gun control. I don't want to lose all my friends." A close family friend who lives in Arizona begged me never to ask him to join the movement for gun control. He said it would be social suicide for him to do so.
What laws govern handguns?
There are 20,000 state and municipal statutes governing handguns, but they just don't work. Only four states—New York, Hawaii, New Jersey and Massachusetts—have reasonably restrictive gun laws. In Texas it's illegal to carry a concealed, loaded gun, except on business. Now how in the hell do you define "business"?
What about federal laws that are already on the books?
This is the only major country without effective national laws controlling handguns. In Europe, only a few are allowed to carry a handgun. In the U.S., only a few aren't. Our 1968 federal law is riddled with loopholes. For example, importation of guns from outside the country is outlawed, but not the importation of parts. So the parts are simply made in Germany and Italy and Spain and shipped here for assembly.
What are current restrictions on retail sales of handguns?
A dealer is required to keep records of all sales and is prohibited from selling to known felons, drug addicts and mental defectives. But nobody ever comes to look at those records, and there is no way for a dealer to find out about a prospective buyer's background. The dealer should definitely have more guidance, more access to government records on known undesirables.
Are the existing laws being enforced?
Not really. Not many officials like to cross the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbies in the country.
But aren't most Americans in favor of gun control?
Polls taken since the late 1930s consistently show that around 70 percent favor stricter gun controls. More than 40 percent actually favor banning handguns altogether, except for use by the police.
Why then have no stronger laws been enacted?
There is fear and confusion in the minds of many, particularly among those in rural areas. They think that the law-abiding citizen will be left with no means to defend himself against criminals. There is also the erroneous fear that effective handgun controls are the first step toward a ban on rifles—and hunting. They see gun-control advocates as a bunch of raving leftists. One NRA executive told me that his organization would be "the last line of defense when the Red Chinese invade."
What about the argument that stronger regulations would abridge the Second Amendment right "of the people to keep and bear arms"?
The Supreme Court has ruled five times that the Second Amendment pertains to the states' right to maintain a militia. It is a collective right, not an individual one.
How do you respond to the gun lobby slogan: "If guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns"?
The grim fact is that handguns used in the commission of a crime are often stolen from law-abiding people to be used against law-abiding people.
If only one out of twenty hunters in this country belongs to the National Rifle Association, why is the gun lobby such a powerful force in Washington?
Even though 70 percent of the American people favor stronger gun controls, the issue itself is not No. 1 on the public's list of priorities. The economy, for example, is far more pressing. But for those who oppose control, it is the single most important issue—and they will go to the wall on it. That's why a liberal like Sen. Frank Church always votes against gun controls. Most elections in this country are decided by less than 10 percent of the electorate, and no politician wants to risk alienating that deciding vote.
What impact do you think the two attempted presidential assassinations will have on Congress?
I don't think these incidents have changed anybody's mind in Congress, and unfortunately the public's memory is awfully short. But before the furor subsides, I hope we will have succeeded in establishing the National Council to Control Handguns as a lobby strong enough to battle the NRA.
What do you think of the Administration bill now before Congress?
The Ford Administration wants to crack down on so-called "Saturday night specials"—the cheap, six-inch long handguns used in street crime. But if the law defines the Saturday night special as six inches or shorter, criminals will start packing seven-inch guns. It would affect less than half the guns used in street crime, but it's a step in the right direction.
What legislation would you like to see put into effect?
A ban on the manufacture, sale and importation of all handguns and handgun ammunition. To reduce the 40 million handguns already in circulation, we might institute a buy-back program whereby gun owners would be reimbursed for turning their guns over to the government. Of course, it will take time for the supply to dry up. But in five years or so I think we would see the beginning of the end of wholesale terror on the streets.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
