Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 20:20:59 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts <[a--er--s] at [NRA.org]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[r k ba alert] at [mainstream.net]>
Subject: INFO: Brady Act: Nothing But Politics

November 20, 1996

                   Brady Act: Nothing But Politics

During the recent presidential campaign, Democratic party strategists
ran television ads that featured lobbyist Jim Brady acting as a
character reference for Bill Clinton. Brady praised the President for
signing the bill that bears his wife's name, and urged viewers to
"look at the lives the Brady bill will save." Let's do just as he
suggested.

HARD FACTS

Waiting periods don't stop murderers. California has a 15-day waiting
period for handgun purchases, three times the length of the Brady Act,
and yet California's murder rate is 43% higher than the rest of the
country's. Los Angeles has more murders than any other city, with the
exception of New York City.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports show that 71% of the violent crimes in
America are not committed with firearms of any sort.

REAL BRADY NUMBERS

It's 4 for 4.  The four American cities -- New York City, Los Angeles,
Chicago and Detroit -- with the highest number of murders in 1995 are
exempt from Brady's five-day wait because political leaders have
misguidedly subjected residents to even more stringent forms of gun
control.

Not 1 study. There is not one study published in any academic journal
that concludes that waiting periods are effective. Not one serious
criminologist has suggested that waiting periods affect a decrease in
homicides.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY             

"[I]t is possible to disentangle the different effects of waiting
periods and concealed handgun laws. . . . A study I conducted with
David Mustard shows these distinctions. We were the first to examine
the simultaneous effect on crime rates of state waiting periods, the
length of these waiting periods, nondiscretionary concealed-handgun
laws and other gun laws. . . . Our estimates show that in states that
adopted nondiscretionary concealed-handgun laws, murders decreased by
at least 8%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robberies by
3%. We found that the murder rates of women permit-holders fell by as
much as five times the drop of their male counterparts, and we found
no significant evidence that state waiting periods reduced crime."

     --Professor John R. Lott, Jr., University of Chicago
     (Washington Post, Oct. 31, 1996)
                                 
=+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.

This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org