You Guys Need To Change Course On Public Safety!

By Phil Lee

Dear Senators,

Kimberly Wilson's article ("Md. lawmakers hear gun-ban testimony," Sun, 2/11/04) has several misleading statements. The bill in question (SB288) addresses so called "assault" rifles or shotguns and not pistols that have been previously banned in Maryland. Officer John Stem is correctly reported as dying from a wound received in 1977 from an M-1 Carbine, but that firearm is not on Maryland's current list of assault weapons nor is it on the Federal list nor on California's list which is stricter than most. So, it is not correct to say that Officer Stem was "the last Maryland officer to die of wounds inflicted by an assault weapon."

This news report illustrates the problem with the Violence Policy Center (VPC) data and why their 1 in 5 statistic is propaganda and not true. Officer Stem died in 2000 of wounds received 23 years earlier from a semi-automatic rifle. Even though that rifle is not classified under the law as an assault weapon, the VPC spins Officer Stem's death as from an "assault weapon".

Since the bill in question addresses long guns rather than handguns, the Sun should know in the 16 years of 1988 through 2003, 19 Maryland police officers have died in the line of duty from traumas received in felonious assaults. One was stabbed to death, one was stabbed until incapacitated then shot with his own handgun, one died from an assault with a car, and 16 died solely from gunfire. Of the 16, 12 died from handgun wounds, 3 from shotgun wounds and Officer Stem from a rifle wound.

Maryland's experience with officers being killed with firearms confirms the preferences by criminals for firearms that are easy to conceal rather than rifles to kill police officers and people in general.

The VPC claims 41 of 211 officers dying in 1998-2001 were wounded by assault weapons. In addition to misleading the public about Officer Stem's death, the VPC has other cases of stretching the truth.

Their list of officer deaths includes 14 cases where they claim assault weapons were used, but the rifles indicated were not on the Federal assault weapons list. In two cases, the rifles were the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, a rifle model specifically excluded by name from the assault weapon list as a sporting firearm (see Appendix A of 18 USC Sec. 922 or Senator Feinstein's publication http://feinstein.senate.gov/booklets/assault.pdf). In 4 cases the rifles were M-1 carbines and in 8 cases the rifles were SKS carbines. None of these rifles are on lists of assault weapons.

In one case, the primary weapon to down the officer was a shotgun and an assault weapon was used during the thug's attempt to flee. In four cases the killers used 9 mm handguns classified as assault weapons and these guns are already banned in Maryland.

In one case a rifle was stolen from a police department and used to kill two officers. Bans usually permit police to hold these weapons, so it is deceptive to include this case as an example where a legislative remedy is possible. So, in 20 of the 211 killing or roughly one in 10, killers used assault long guns whose use might have been prevented by a ban. That is, if killers could not devise an effective substitute for the same situation. In all of the remaining 211 cases, the killers did find satisfactory alternative solutions by using 30-30 and other rifles, shotguns and handguns.

A point not addressed by the VPC is that the killers for 26 of the VPC's 41 officer had prior criminal records sufficiently serious to disqualify them from owning firearms. Two had convictions for previous killings. One in five of the killers of the VPC group of officers was on probation or parole. The idea that a ban would be effective is hard to accept given these criminals were already disqualified from possessing any firearms.

Revolving door justice is a problem Maryland has as the Sun has noted in several articles (example: "Tough gun law, timid enforcement," Caitlin Francke, Baltimore Sun, Jan 30 2000). While no assault rifle has been used to kill a Maryland police officer, Cpt. Toatley was killed by a paroled criminal in the drug trade and Sgt. Prothero was killed by a gang of thugs with records containing several violent crimes.

The Democrat sponsors of the Assault Long Gun ban bill hope to hide the fact their public safety policy is broken and they have been putting up a sham effort against crime. They need to be told to change directions for all our sakes. If they don't get the message, we'll have to tell them the hard-way by running them out of office.

Philip F. Lee
12921 Two Farm Dr.
Silver Spring, MD 20904
301-622-0446 (H)