Trading on tragedy
by Paul Peake
Australian Shooters Journal
July 1999
A number of recent schoolyard shootings in the United States have encouraged anti-gun lobbyists to beat their drums over the issue of children and guns. Amid the debate about the availability of firearms and their supposedly negative impact on young people and crime, some very important facts have been overlooked.
In 1986, under the direction of the US Department of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention began a long-term research program focusing on the causes and correlates of juvenile delinquency and drug abuse among young people in three major US cities - Rochester, New York; Denver, Colorado; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (1) The project used longitudinal studies of children across different age groups to collect comprehensive information on a range of phenomenon.
On the question of firearm ownership among adolescents the Rochester-based investigation had significant findings. The study revealed that young males who owned legal firearms and who had undergone positive socialisation where gun ownership was concerned, had lower rates of delinquency and drug use than other groups.
Figure 1 shows that of the children who formed part of the study, adolescent males who had been introduced to responsible firearms ownership had lower rates of drug abuse than their non-gun owning peers and much lower rates than children who had been exposed to a culture of illegal gun ownership. Similarly, adolescent males practising responsible, law-abiding firearms ownership barely rated on the issue of gun-related crime compared to either their non-gun owning or illegal gun owning counterparts.
Figure 1. Source:
Urban Deliquency and Substance Abuse: Initial Findings.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention.
The study also considered the issue of street crime. The results showed that adolescent gun owners were much less likely to engage in the activity than their non-gun owning or illegal gun owning contemporaries.
The findings raise important questions about firearm sports and their potentially positive role in teaching young people self-discipline and responsibility, something shooters have known for years. The enviable safety record which shooting sports enjoy means they are a lot safer for children than many violent contact sports and one of the few forums where boys and girls can vie on an equal footing - apart from the scope for instilling important character building skills.
Figure 2. Source:
Urban Deliquency and Substance Abuse: Initial Findings.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention.
As Lance Morrow, writing in the wake of the multiple murders at Jonesboro, Arkansas, noted in a recent Time magazine article:
Teachers and counsellors report that kids who are taught to hunt responsibly are generally among the more mature and better-mannered and saner adolescents in the wilds of modern American culture. (2)
So why, despite positive empirical evidence like that arising out of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention study, does the anti-gun lobby spend so much time trying to undermine shooting where kids are concerned?
It understands that in order to destroy private firearms ownership it is vital that young people are discouraged from taking up the sport in the first place. The lobby consistently exploits the publicity value attached to tragedies involving children and guns, promulgating the idea that young people and firearms are a harmful mix. The publications aimed specifically at school children produced by groups such as Gun Control Australia, which include titles like A Student's Course in Gun Control, and Toys, Triggers & Television, serve to illustrate the point.
Many readers would be aware of the recent media campaign organised by the Coalition For Gun Control in an attempt to beat up support for its plan to ban handguns. The advertising material, which featured pictures of children murdered at Dunblane, Scotland, was produced free of charge by Saatchi and Saatchi - the same firm who put together the anti-gun ads which appeared in October '98 in Sain, Max and Rolling Stone magazines, all of which are targeted at adolescents and young adults.
Figure 3. Source:
Urban Deliquency and Substance Abuse: Initial Findings.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention.
While emotional sleight-of-hand is a well-worn anti-gun lobby tactic, the official reaction to the campaign has been something of a surprise however. Western Australian Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Kevin Prince, publicly denounced it, accusing the CFGC of "trading on tragedy" in order "to highlight its political aim". Prince went on to say that, "The Coalition for Gun Control simply wants a carte blanche ban on the use of any firearms in the community, which is an irrational and unfair proposition to the great majority of responsible firearm owners and sporting shooters in Australia." (3)
Experience has taught gun owners to take expressions of righteous indignation from politicians with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to finally hear a senior Minister come out and echo what has been obvious for years - the gun control movement is not about gun control at all. It's about using questionable social science and the exploitation of tragedies in order to destroy private gun ownership.
As Americans struggle to come to terms with their deeply troubled youth and the real reasons behind calamities like the recent mass murders at Columbine High School, Colorado, two things are certain. First, the anti-gun lobby can be relied upon to wring every last drop of pathos out of the situation and second, facts about the important part responsible gun ownership can play in teaching children valuable life skills will remain obscure unless shooters do more to promote them.
Many of us can remember when a significant percentage of Australian kids were introduced to responsible firearms ownership through school cadet programs, local shooting clubs and hunting with family and friends. At the same time schoolyard massacres were not simply unknown - they were unthinkable.
While Kevin Prince's candour in pointing out the anti-gun lobby's willingness to "trade on tragedy" is welcomed, only persistent effort on the part of shooters will ensure that more law-makers recognise the movement's real agenda and come to appreciate the role of shooting sports in teaching young people sound values.
1. Huizinga, D., Loeber, R., Thornberry, T (1994). Urban Delinquency and Substance
Abuse: Initial Findings. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
2. Morrow, L (1998, Nov. 30). 'Should Kids Hunt?' Time2, p. 63.
3. Tan-Van Baren, C (1999, April 28). 'Call for ban on handguns'. The West
Australian.
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