Dear Editor,
Your editorial and accompanying cartoon, dated July 10, 2002, convey many errors and half-truths. Your basic argument is that guns are a public health menace.
Violence, not guns, is a public health issue. You ignore the fact that armed law-abiding citizens save lives much more frequently than they cause accidental deaths.
Florida State University criminologist, Dr. Gary Kleck estimates that at least 75 percent of all gun used in crime-related incidents are defensive uses by crime victims (about 2.4 million incidents annually). One of six defensive gun users claims that someone would almost surely have died had they not used their gun, which Dr. Kleck notes, “would imply about 400,000 purportedly lifesaving uses of their guns annually.” That’s about 462 times the number of “incidental firearm deaths” that were implied could be prevented by disarming the law-abiding.
The cartoon is a shameless attempt to demonize guns, gun owners and those who feel that the whole Constitution, including the second amendment, is an inspired document. Has Utah’s crime rate increased since concealed firearm permits began to be issued in 1995? No. The opposite is often true.
Eldon Stahl
Chadron, Neb.
