April 9, 2010

Newspaper Publishes Wildly Inaccurate Guest Column

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If we were grading the media on publishing accurate content about firearms, the  Edison-Norwood Times Review would flunk for running Chester Kulis’s error-filled rant in support of Chicago’s gun ban.

Mr. Kulis’s guest essay in the Chicago-area weekly newspaper contains many misstatements, among them . . .

–The column’s headline is “More guns equals more gun violence.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Violent crime has been dropping in the United States since the 1990s. Major cities showed historic declines in violent crime in 2009, the same year in which Americans purchased firearms in record numbers. Clearly, more guns does NOT equal more gun violence.

–Mr. Kulis writes that Chicago’s gun ban is needed because “about 15,000 guns are seized and then melted down each year from individuals who were illegally carrying them in their cars or on the street. Many were involved in gang activity, assaults or domestic disturbances.” Chicago doesn’t need to deny law-abiding citizens their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in order to have a law that stops criminals from possessing guns.

–He tries to de-emphasize the number of defensive gun uses by citing only incidents in which gun owners actually shoot and kill criminals when research has shown that up to 2 million defensive gun uses occur each year, which includes driving off criminals by brandishing a firearm.

–Mr. Kulis identifies himself as a retired federal law enforcement officer. He presumably carried a gun for self protection, yet he would deny his fellow citizens the same recourse to protect themselves from criminals.

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Categories: Education, Media Inaccuracies, Safety