OR More antigun legislation
Senator Ginny Burdick (D Portland) introduced five new bills, including an assault weapons ban more restrictive than the federal ban that was allowed to sunset last September.
Included in the proposed legislation are SB 927, SB 942, SB 954, SB 956, SB 957 and SB 960.
SB 927 creates the crime of possession of assault weapon and if enacted places a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 10 years, $250,000 fine, or both. The bill would make it a crime to manufacture, import, sell or transfer an assault weapon.
In addition the bill would make it illegal to advertise the sale of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine with maximum penalties of imprisonment of one year, $6,250 fine, or both.
The bill defines assault weapons by model, manufacturer and characteristics. If approved the possession of a magazine capable of containing more than 10 cartridges could be punished by a maximum imprisonment of five years, $125,000 fine, or both. The bill also declares an emergency making it effective upon passage.
The bill goes beyond what is normally considered an assault weapon by adding centerfire hunting rifles capable of accepting a detachable magazine to the assault weapons list. Other features added to the classification include weapons with pistol grips that protrude beneath the action of the weapon, a thumbhole stock, such as those on competition rifles; a folding or telescoping stock; a flash suppressor or a shotgun that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has touted the former federal assault weapons ban as being responsible for a decrease in violent crime. However, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Enforcement rejected the claim. Studies by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Justice, and the Congressional Research Service, found that so called assault weapons are used in only about 1% of violent crimes. In addition, it was found that the decrease in crime claimed to be a result of the federal assault weapons ban began three years before the ban went into effect in 1994.
According to statistics, the nation's violent crime rate has decreased every year since 1991, to a 27-year low. Many criminologists, sociologists and law enforcement professionals, including the FBI, attribute the decrease to factors unrelated to "gun control," such as increased prison sentences, mandatory sentencing, the hiring of additional police officers, improved policing methods and equipment, the aging of gang populations, the decline in the crack cocaine trade and an improved economy during the 1990s. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, only about one-fourth of violent crimes are committed with guns.
Recently, gun shows have come under fire as places criminals obtain weapons. However, according to Bureau of Justice statistics, fewer than two percent of guns used in crimes were obtained from flea markets or gun shows while about 12 percent were garnered through retail stores or pawnshops. According to the same statistics, about 80 percent of guns used in crimes were obtained from family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source.
Previously, Burdick introduced Senate Bill 956 which allows school district boards to prohibit persons with concealed handgun licenses from carrying firearms in certain public buildings. In addition, the bill expands the definition of 'public building' for purposes of laws relating to possession of weapons on public property.
The federal and 44 state constitutions recognize the right to arms for defensive purposes. Survey research conducted during the early 90s by Gary Kleck, an award-winning criminologist, found as many as 2.5 million protective uses of guns each year in the U.S.
"The best available evidence indicates that guns were used about three to five times as often for defensive purposes as for criminal purposes," Kleck concluded. Using National Crime Victimization Survey data, Kleck found, "robbery and assault victims who used a gun to resist were less likely to be attacked or to suffer an injury than those who used any other methods of self-protection or those who did not resist at all."
Studies show that in most defensive gun uses, the gun is not fired and in about 1 percent of instances criminals are wounded and in about 0.1 percent are criminals killed.
A 1986 Department of Justice survey found that 40 percent of felons chose not to commit at least some crimes for fear their victims were armed while 34 percent admitted having been scared off or shot at by armed victims.
Thirty-eight states now have Right-to-Carry laws allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed guns for protection. Twenty-eight states have adopted RTC laws since 1987 and according most recently published state population data from the US Census Bureau, two thirds of Americans live in RTC states.
Professor John R. Lott, Jr. and David B. Mustard, in the most comprehensive study to date of RTC laws in 1998, found "When state concealed-handgun laws went into effect in a county, murders fell about eight percent, rapes fell by five percent and aggravated assaults fell by seven percent."
RTC states have lower violent crime rates on average. According to FBI statistics, 27 percent lower total violent crime, 32 percent lower murder, 45 percent lower robbery and 20 percent lower aggravated assault.
According to experts, strict gun control cannot be proven to reduce crime. A 1983 study commissioned by the Department of Justice found that there are about 20,000 firearms laws currently in place. However, a 2005 NAS study conducted by a panel of academics organized during the Clinton administration could not identify a gun control scheme that reduced crime, suicides, or accidents.
In 1968, the federal Gun Control Act went into effect while violent crime rose until 1991. In Washington, D.C., handguns were banned in 1976. According to crime statistics, by 1991 the city's homicide rate had tripled, while the U.S. rate rose by 12 percent.
According to the DOJ, between 1999-2000 and 2001-2002, the rate of violent crime decreased by 21 percent showing that 130,000 fewer Americans fell victim to crimes involving firearms than in the previous two years.
