From: [c--ma--l] at [gnv.ifas.ufl.edu] (Bob Johnson -- Engineer) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: ABC News CCW report Sunday, March 12 Date: 15 Mar 95 13:02:21 -0500 The following is an extended summary of an ABC News report that appeared Sunday evening (March 12, 1995). I have included _approximate_ elapsed times in [brackets] to help you get a better idea of how much time was spent on each topic. I added some editorial comments at the end. They are significant in understanding the report, IMHO. You don't get the full feel of the report by reading the summary alone. I couldn't remember the name of the woman who appears in connection with the massacre at Luby's in, and I had trouble understanding the reporter. I hope I got reasonably close. I hope you all enjoy arguing about this. My statement on the matter is at the end. Don't expect me to take the time to reply to email unless it is well-reasoned and polite (and maybe not even then: I'm rather busy this week). If you can't manage that, please blow off steam in a letter to your newspaper, or just post a followup here... it will fit right in! --- cut here ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Lead-in] Texas expected to join a "growing list of states willing to put more guns on the street in an effort to fight crime." [0:00] Twenty three people killed in restaurant in Killeen, TX when a lone gunman started shooting people. Susanna Grassia [? ] was eating lunch there with her parents. She appears on-screen demonstrating how killer walked from person to person, executing them. Reporter says that she carried a gun illegally in her purse for ten years, and started leaving it in her truck for fear of getting caught. She says on-screen she is mad at her legislators because they legislated away her right to defend herself and her family. If she had been allowed to keep her gun with her, her parents would still be alive. [0:35] Reporter: "But that is beginning to change." Last month, Virginia, Arkansas, and Utah enacted laws that allow a person passing a background check and taking a training course to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon. [0:50] Reporter: They are following the lead of Florida, which passed such a law in 1987. According to FBI statistics, handgun-related homicides in Florida have dropped twenty-nine percent since the law became effective. Twenty-one states currently allow a person to carry a gun. Seventeen are now considering it. The remaining twelve still have strict laws prohibiting it. The Colorado legislature voted three times already in this session to kill concealed carry legislation. [1:25] Reporter: New Republican Governor George Bush promised early in his campaign to sign concealed carry into law. It was vetoed by his predecessor. Texas State Senator Jerry Paterson appears on camera saying he thinks that's one reason Bush won. [1:50] Reporter: With an estimated seventy million guns in circulation in Texas, some say that letting them be carried in public "only invites trouble." [2:00] Assistant District Attorney Marvin Collins appears on-screen, says that allowing concealed carry "will increase _greatly_ [his emphasis] the risk that innocent people are going to get killed." [2:08] Texas State Senator Royce West appears on-screen, says "If we put more guns on the street, is that going to make people feel safer? I don't think so. Is that the right message to send to our children? I don't think so." [2:17] Reporter: "Regardless of whether it's the right message, it is the one more states are now sending. Mike Von Fremd [?], ABC News, Austin." [2:25] END OF REPORT --- cut here ------------------------------------------------------------ Impressions received while viewing: 1) This _initially_ struck me as the most fair, well-balanced piece on gun control I have ever seen from a major network news reporter. That's not saying much, though. 2) At the end, I still walked away feeling that it was trying to persuade me to oppose the legislation Why? The facts that support concealed carry were at the beginning, where they get forgotten by the time the report is over. The stuff at the end, which viewers are more likely to remember, was unsubstantiated speculation opposing concealed carry. The opposition was the impression that remained with me at the end of the report. This technique (put the points you want remembered at the end) is standard one taught in any decent writing class. In fact, I'm about to use it now: 3) Note in particular the quote from the Assistant District Attorney near the end: He didn't say "might increase," he said "will increase," which presents mere speculation as fact. This statement contradicts Florida's experience: no private citizen licensed to carry in Florida has ever used their gun to unlawfully kill, or even injure, anyone at all. In fact, Florida licensees are far less likely to commit violent crimes than are Florida law-enforcement officers. -- Bob Johnson [c--ma--l] at [gnv.ifas.ufl.edu]