Fewer Guns Would Mean Less Crime

* In a Jan. 4 letter (“Banning Guns Gives Thugs the Advantage”), William O. Felsman showed that his gift for rhetoric exceeds his knowledge. Felsman cannot see the logic of calling for tighter restrictions on guns after the shooting of a high school student. “What’s the connection?” he asked.

I will explain the connection in simple terms. If we were to impose stricter controls on guns, they would be less available and fewer problems would arise. Many people argue that criminals obtain their guns illegally, but they ignore the fact that many--perhaps most--of those guns were once legally owned, then were stolen. That is how criminals obtain guns.

Felsman suggests that banning guns would benefit only criminals. If this is the case, why do countries with outright bans or near bans on handguns have significantly lower crime rates?

Critics of gun control like to point to the high murder rate in Washington as an example of the failure of gun control. In reality, a study published in the Dec. 5, 1991, New England Journal of Medicine reported that the crime declined after strict gun control was enacted in the nation’s capital.

Nine years after the 1976 law was passed, gun-related homicides and suicides both declined by about one-fourth (use of other weapons for suicide or homicide showed no significant change), while the same figures remained relatively unchanged in surrounding areas. Also, the study indicated that homicide and suicide rates dropped immediately upon enactment of strict gun control.

Even if one can ignore the decreases in crime associated with decreased gun ownership, private gun ownership causes other problems. Can Felsman deny that accidental deaths by handguns would decline if handguns were not easily available? And what about the “crimes of passion” where someone gets shot in a domestic dispute? Most shooting victims are shot by someone they know, not the roving “bands of thugs” to which Felsman refers.

The bottom line is this: Tighter restrictions on handguns, even to the point of outright bans, reduce deaths. We should ban ownership of firearms except for use in a well-organized militia, as specified by the 2nd Amendment.

DAVID HOLLAND

Granada Hills