4/02/01 GOA Fires Shot At New Report

GOA Fires Shot At New Report

For Immediate Release
April 02, 2001
Contact: Crystal Carpenter
703-321-8585

(Springfield, VA)– Gun Owners of America today took issue with a new report issued by the Josephson Institute of Ethics. The report, which was issued yesterday, faults easy “access to guns” as one of the leading causes of school yard violence.

“Not true,” said Erich Pratt, who is the Director of Communications for Gun Owners of America. “The real issue is that teenagers increasingly are willing to resort to violence to settle their problems. The dilemma our country faces today is not about guns. In the 1950s, there were virtually no gun control laws on the books and yet teenagers were not taking their guns, or their parents’ handguns, to school to shoot up the campus.

“We have supporters of Gun Owners of America who as teenagers would order guns through the mail. Or, they would ride their bike to a hardware store, buy a gun, and return home. And you know what? They weren’t taking their guns and shooting up their schools.

“The question we have to answer is this: since there were no gun control laws in the 50s keeping guns from kids, then what kept them from taking their guns and shooting up schools? It wasn’t gun control. What is it that has changed from 50 years ago?

“As a society, we need to examine why children today are so much more violent. What are children being taught in school? What is it they are watching on TV and video? Until we get to the bottom of these questions, we will not begin to address the issue of violence in schools.

“We need to keep the gun issue in perspective,” Pratt said. “Guns are used in this country about two and a half million times every year in self-defense. That means that firearms are used more than 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.”

Erich Pratt is available for press interviews.

— GOA —