A drum roll and cymbal clash, please, as we begin a series called "Anti-Gun-Nut-Of-The-Month", the title of which is self-explanatory and indicates the dubious achievement being noted. This month's winner: John Guernsey of Takoma Park, Maryland.
But, before we get to Mr. Guernsey, a little background, briefly, re: his place of residence. Takoma Park is the East Coast version of the radically Leftist West Coast city of Berkeley, California. It is a hotbed of lunatic politics. For example, in 1983 the Takoma Park City Council voted unanimously for an ordinance making the city a "nuclear-free zone" -- despite the fact that, at the time, the city was in no way involved with nuclear weapons.
Now, back to Guernsey. In late 1999, he organized an unofficial referendum to ban the sale and/or possession of handguns within his city's limits. This was done even though a County Circuit Judge had ruled that this referendum could not be put on an official ballot because it conflicted with state law. The result of this outlawed referendum was 409 to 85 against handguns. There are 18,600 people living in Takoma Park.
So, what, exactly, is it that causes Guernsey and his ilk to be so hysterically and un-Constitutionally gunophobic? Well, for openers, he says 85 percent of all armed robberies are with handguns "and this should be enough right there" to ban them. But, what about all the good, self-defense uses of guns every year, including handguns? Guernsey says this happens only "a very few times." To support what he says, he refers GOA to the Johns Hopkins Center For Gun Policy And Research (JHCGPR) in Baltimore, Maryland.
OK. But, Emile Lebrun, Coordinator of the JHCGPR, tells GOA that the figures they use for annual self-defense with guns, including handguns, is 108,000. This data, from a U.S. Justice Department National Crime Victimization Survey (1994), means that Americans use firearms to defend themselves or others 9,000 times a month, 2,077 times a week, 296 times a day. This is not exactly "a very few times." And it should be mentioned that this 108,000 figure is the lowest of several national surveys -- one such survey showing this annual number to be as high as 3.6 million!
In any event, when confronted with the 108,000 figure, Guernsey says: "Well -- uh, uh, well, OK. I mean, you got me there, you know with statistics." Still, he says, regardless of how many lives are saved by the use of handguns, he is still for banning all of them.
Now, to put it charitably, this position of Guernsey's is very odd. Because another one of his arguments for banning all handguns is that some are used to commit suicide and accidentally shoot people -- which is true. But, if he really cares about saving human lives, why doesn't he care about all those lives saved by the use of guns every year, including handguns? If the data show -- as they do -- that tens of thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands, more people defend themselves with guns (including handguns) than commit suicide or accidentally shoot somebody, why don't these lives count?
But, clearly, to Guernsey, these human lives saved do not count -- which is why his position is nutty.
In fact, when pressed, Guernsey admits that he personally had an argument with a woman who said her life was saved by the use of a handgun. He says that when he was seeking signatures for his handgun ban, this woman vehemently attacked him verbally "but because she was so irate there was no room for discussion."
When it is suggested that this is understandable because if his ban had been in effect this woman believes she would have been dead!, Guernsey says he thought about this "but this doesn't come up as much" as people who use guns to commit sucide or accidentally shoot people. He criticizes this woman because her focus was solely on herself "and not on the rest of the country."
But, one more time, when you look at the statistics re: the rest of the country, hundreds of thousands more people annually use firearms, including handguns, to defend their lives, the lives of friends and family, and property, than use these firearms to commit suicide and/or accidentally shoot other people or themselves.
The sad fact is that in advocating, as he told GOA, a national law to ban all private ownership of handguns, John Guernsey does not care about this Constitutional right. He does not care how many innocent lives are saved yearly by the use of handguns. Guernsey's position is, literally: Don't confuse me with any facts. And it is because of his aggressive, and dangerous ignorance, that he is our first -- but, alas, not our last -- winner of our "Anti-Gun-Nut-Of-The-Month" award.
A footnote: If you know of other possible nominees for this dubious honor, let us know about them, please, and we will consider them.