A preemptive attack on a bill we expect to be filed soon.
Distributed today to members of the 3 relevant committees.
Quote:
GOCRA Letterhead
Protect Minnesota’s “Gun Show Background Check (and hidden Gun Registration) bill” is pure harassment of legitimate gun owners and their non-commercial disposition of their property because, as this empherical study demonstrates, it will have NO EFFECT on homicides or suicides and provide NO REDUCTION in firearm-related deaths (or crime, for that matter). All it will do is impose unnecessary deprivation of liberty, hassle, delay, and cost on Minnesota’s 1.5 million legitimate gun owners.
The Twin Cities’ homicide problem is largely one of uncontrolled gang/drug activity. Anyone who can sell/purchase illegal drugs can acquire a gun in the transaction. Don’t be fooled, these are black market transactions; not those of legitimate gun owners. A recent Star Tribune article (silent as to guns) identified the 2008 causes as “a steady stream of domestic abuse, drugs and gangs getting pushed into the suburbs.” As to Minnesota suicides, we all know (or should know), from the billboards, that “untreated depression” (not guns) causes suicide whether the act is committed with rope, tall buildings, or knives.
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The Effect of Gun Shows on Gun-Related Deaths:
Evidence from California and Texas
Mark Duggan
University of Maryland and NBER
Randi Hjalmarsson
University of Maryland
Brian A. Jacob
University of Michigan and NBER
September 2008 - Abstract
Thousands of gun shows take place in the U.S. each year. Gun control advocates argue that because sales at gun shows are much less regulated than other sales, such shows make it easier for potential criminals to obtain a gun. Similarly, one might be concerned that gun shows would exacerbate suicide rates by providing individuals considering suicide with a more lethal means of ending their lives. On the other hand, proponents argue that gun shows are innocuous since potential criminals can acquire guns quite easily through other black market sales or theft. In this paper, we use data from Gun and Knife Show Calendar combined with vital statistics data to examine the effect of gun shows. We find no evidence that gun shows lead to substantial increases in either gun homicides or suicides. In addition, tighter regulation of gun shows does not appear to reduce the number of firearms-related deaths.
