OVEREXCITED BRADY CAMPAIGN

Beware the lethal combination of alcohol, New Year's Eve revelry and a loaded gun, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which in its latest press release, pointed to the threat posed by "overexcited and under-intelligent" gun owners. Those people, the Brady Campaign warned, might "welcome 2005 with an act of stupidity," defined in the release as "the indiscriminate unloading of weapons into the air," or "celebratory gunfire." And "they may kill an innocent in the bargain, too," the anti-gun group stated.

However, even the gun control group, Americans for Gun Safety Foundation, found fault Wednesday with the Brady Campaign's use of the words "overexcited and under-intelligent" while referring to gun owners. "I don't think that any gun owners are likely to be persuaded by a press release that effectively calls them stupid," said Casey Anderson, executive director of the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation. "I certainly think that people ought to be careful how they handle and store their guns. But I doubt that a release of this type of tone is likely to persuade many people to take this advice seriously," Anderson added.

In urging Americans "to leave the guns locked up on New Year's Eve," the Brady Campaign contended that each year, on New Year's Eve and Independence Day, "scores of people place others at risk of injury or death as a result of celebratory gunfire. When a bullet is fired into the air, the bullet has to come down somewhere."

Celebratory gunfire is a major problem in Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix, Los Angeles and in towns along the U.S./Mexican border, according to the Brady Campaign. The group pointed to the June 1999 death of a Phoenix teenager, Shannon Smith, who was killed by a stray bullet while talking on the telephone in her backyard. "Shannon's Law," named for the 14-year-old victim, now makes it a felony to fire a gun into the air within Phoenix city limits. According to the Brady Campaign, 95 cases of random gunfire were successfully prosecuted in the city in 2003.

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Is the pendulum finally turning? "Fortunately, a critical mass of gun owners has been awakened. Thanks to their organizing, to the new medium of the Internet which allows them to bypass a hostile 'mainstream' press, and through political involvement, 1994's so-called 'assault weapons' ban has expired. Now is not the time to rest, but to understand how we got to where such clear infringements of the Second Amendment were considered politically feasible. Be forewarned: more 'gun control' laws are waiting in the wings the instant we let down our guard. Where we will be 50 years from now, when GUNS will hopefully observe its centennial, is up to us."




Good people can put guns to good use: "[G]un control advocates tell us that without the availability of guns, fewer people -- meaning fewer bad people -- would have access to them, making us safer. That is also difficult to argue with. Fewer guns mean fewer bad people with guns and, therefore, a safer community. But here in the real world, in our own communities of Western New York, there are bad people, and they do seek to injure good people. And twice last month, seemingly good people who had guns were able to prevent a crime or an even greater tragedy. So the real lesson is that in the real world -- even in Buffalo -- there are some bad people (thankfully not too many) and that sometimes good people with guns can help stop them and make our community a better place to live."