1 Pulpless.Com™ Books by J. Neil Schulman Novels Alongside Night The Rainbow Cadenza Nonfiction The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana The Frame of the Century? Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns Book Publishing in the 21st Century, Volumes One and Two Short Stories Nasty, Brutish, and Short Stories Omnibus Collection Self Control Not Gun Control Collected Screenwritings Profile in Silver and Other Screenwritings J. NEIL SCHULMAN STOPPING POWER WHY 70 MILLION AMERICANS OWN GUNS FOREWORD BY CRIMINOLOGIST AND CIVIL-RIGHTS LAWYER DON B. KATES, JR. A FTERWORD BY CRIMINOLOGIST GARY KLECK PULPLESS. PULPLESS. COM COM , , INC INC . . 10736 Jefferson Blvd., Suite 775 Culver City, CA 90230-4969, USA. Voice & Fax: (500) 367-7353 Home Page: http:// www.pulpless.com/ Business inquiries to info@pulpless.com Editorial inquiries & submissions to editors@pulpless.com Copyright © 1994, 1999 by J. Neil Schulman All rights reserved. Published by arrange- ment with the author. Printed in the United States of America. The rights to all previously published materials by J. Neil Schulman are owned by the author, and are claimed both under existing copyright laws and natural logorights. All other materials taken from pub- lished sources without specific permission are either in the public do- main or are quoted and/or excerpted under the Fair Use Doctrine. Ex- cept for attributed quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permis- sion from the publisher. First published by Synapse˜˜Centurion, June, 1994 Pulpless.Com™ HTML Edition May, 1996 Revised Pulpless.Com™, Inc. Editions July, 1999. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-60343 Trade Paperback ISBN: 1-58445-057-6 Acrobat PDF ISBN: 1-58445-058-4 HTML ISBN: 1-58445-059-2 Cover designed by CaliPer, Inc. Cover Illustration by Eugene C. Herrera To L. Neil Smith Who Made Me Ashamed to Be Unarmed Author’s Acknowledgements Authors get all the credit, but they usually have help. Consider- ing the many hours in which I have been educated on the subjects of history, liberty, morality and ethics, justice, criminal justice and law enforcement, firearms, and criminology, I would be remiss if I did not pay acknowledgements to the personal instruction I received from the following individuals: Sean Barrett, Alan Brennert, Steve Clar, Culver City Police Chief Ted Cooke, Charles Curley, Robert Durio, Art Eisenson, Harlan Ellison, Dan Feely, Elizabeth and Justin Feffer, Manuel Fernandez, John Ferrero, Dennis Foley, David Friedman, James Gatlin, Alan Gottlieb, Helen Grieco, Stephen Halbrook, Sylvia Hauser, Robert and Virginia Heinlein, Steve Helsley, Randall Herrst, Karl Hess, Ray Hickman, John Hosford, Phill Jackson, Dan Gifford, Sal Grammatico, T.J. Johnston, Don B. Kates, Jr., Keith Kato, Bill Keys, Gary Kleck, Peter Lake, Wayne LaPierre, Robert LeFevre, Rick Lowe, Elodie McKee, Michael McNulty, John Milius, Armando Miranda, Andrew Molchan, Jerry Pournelle, Dennis Prager, Leroy Pyle, Pat O’Malley, Paxton Quigley, Ayn Rand, Robert Ray, Michael D. Robbins, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Fred Romero, Murray Rothbard, Jim Saharek, Randy Shields, Jay Simkin, Culver City Police Lt. Owen Smet, Thomas Glenn Terry, Lance Thomas, Linda Thompson, Cathy Tolley, Luis Tolley, Kent Turnipseed, Jim Waldorf, Aaron Zelman, and, of course, my parents and family. Additionally, for their direct guidance and help on this book, I’d like to thank Léon Bing, John Douglas, Larry Freundlich, Kent Hastings, Dafydd ab Hugh, Keith Kirts, Neal Knox, Victor Koman, Samuel Edward Konkin III, Richard Kyle, Jared Lobdell, Tanya Metaksa, Kate O’Neal, Ave Pildas and the students of the Otis De- sign Group at Otis College of Art and Design, Dori Smith, and Albert Yokum. And, finally, a very special thank you to Brad Linaweaver and Randy Herrst for assistance at the penultimate hour. I know that some of the people I’m thanking disagree with my views as expressed in this book. Tough. They have my gratitude any- way. —JNS, 1994 Contents Foreword by Don B. Kates, Jr 11 Preface 17 Introduction: as American as Guns 21 Sorties into Enemy Territory: the LA Times Op-Eds28 A Massacre We Didn’t Hear About 30 Joining Forces Against a Common Foe 34 Gun Fight at the 4 ‘n 20 Pie Shop 37 If Gun Laws Work, Why Are We Afraid? 40 Some Practical Arguments for an Armed Civilian Population 43 A Time to Kill 44 140,000 LA Gun Owners Have Used Firearms Defensively 47 Do Guns Do More Harm or More Good ? 50 Q & A on Gun Defenses 56 How Does Japan Get That Low Crime Rate, Anyway? 67 An Overview of the Statistical Case 69 It’s Time to Take A Second Look at Murder 85 The War to Bear Arms in the City of the Angels 89 Remarks to the LA Board of Police Commissioners, 7/16/91 90 The Case for a Concealed Weapon’s License in Los Angeles 92 Remarks to the LA Board of Police Commissioners, 11/3/92 105 Guns Are Still “Equalizers” 108 Los Angeles Revises Concealed-Weapons Policy 111 How I (and 4 Million Friends) Successfully Fought City Hall . 113 The Thrill of My Life 117 The Second Amendment and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms 119 Reply to the Executives of the ACLU of Southern California on the Meaning of the Second Amendment 120 English Usage Expert Interprets Second Amendment 151 The Unabridged Second Amendment 153 Some Notes and Discussion on the Second Amendment 160 Reserve Militia Training and Regulation Act: A Proposal . 163 “With Liberty and Justice For All” 169 Open Messages to Judge Glen Ashman 170 A Rather One-Sided Debate on Gun Rights 179 Was Waco Warranted? 207 Does Hugging on TV Cause Real Violence? 213 Old Enough To Die, Old Enough To Live? 217 Instead of Crime and Punishment 221 If Execution Is Just, What Is Justice? 227 A Note To Freedom Activists 231 Ripostes And Counters 235 KNX Editorial Replies 236 Excerpts from a letter to Nadine Strossen, President, ACLU 239 Letter to Scientific American 242 A Reply to Joyce Brothers 244 Can You Trust Handgun Control, Inc.? 246 The Mark of Kane is on Firearms Reporting 251 Excerpts from a letter to the CEO of WAL*MART 256 When Doctors Call for Gun Seizures, It’s Grand Malpractice 259 What It Takes to Get Me to Put on a Yarmulke 266 Talk At Temple Beth Shir Shalom 267 More Stopping Power 273 A Rude Awakening 274 A Letter to The Economist 277 Cease Fire, Ed Asner 279 The Unconstitutional Bill of Rights 285 Afterword: Guns & Self Defense by Gary Kleck, Ph.D. 291 Sources and Recommended Further Reading 307 Pro-Firearms-Rights Organizations 313 Firearms Instruction 316 About J. Neil Schulman 315 [...]... to try to explain is why 70 million Americans — about half the adults in the United States of America — already own at least one firearm, and many Americans own a veritable arsenal of them The second thing I’m going to try to explain is why — despite a barrage of anti-gun propaganda by virtually the entire institutional establishment in this country — these 70 million American gun owners are morally,... distinguished cultural historian, calls those who own guns for family defense “anti-citizens,” “traitors, enemies of their own patriæ,” arming “against their own neighbors.” Ramsey Clark calls defensive gun ownership “anarchy, not order under law — a jungle where each relies on himself for survival.” The Washington Post deems “The need that some homeowners and shopkeepers believe they have for weapons... two months after the Killeen restaurant massacre, was the Christian Science Monitor —JNS 34 STOPPING POWER The following article appeared in the Los Angeles Times of June 8, 1992 Joining Forces against a Common Foe There are about 200 million guns in America in the hands of about 60 million Americans The sale of guns nationwide following the Los Angeles riots has reached record levels, many of them to... arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.” (Hitler's Secret Conversations – 1941 - 1944, Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953, Page 345) 20 STOPPING POWER I enjoyed quoting this to my liberal Jewish relatives right after they first saw Schindler’s List And no list of soundbytes would be complete without a bumpersticker: “When guns are outlawed, only liberals won’t have guns. ” This, then, is the... and juveniles Banning guns created a thriving business, with black marketeers obtaining scores of handguns in adjoining states and selling them on D.C.’s streets to anyone with the money to buy The situation will be even worse if HCI and NCBH attain their goal of a federal handgun ban In addition to importing millions of handguns, the black marketeers will produce modern handguns in pot-metal copies... 18 years Predictably, however, that didn’t mean no one was carrying concealed guns A May 17, 1992 Los Angeles Times poll found 250,000 people admittedly carrying handguns without a license Think of that: 250,000 uncontrolled people carrying concealed guns around — their identities, training, and qualifications completely unknown to the police! Now, of course, criminals wouldn’t seek licenses even if they... owner uses her or his firearm in defense against a criminal If you’re only counting handguns, it’s every 16 seconds • Women use handguns 416 times each day in defense against rapists, which is a dozen times more often than rapists use a gun in the course of a rape Handguns are used 1145 times a day against robbers Handguns are used 1510 times a day in defense against criminal assaults • A gun kept in the... saying that HCI proposes federal gun licensing under which self-defense would not be accepted as a ground for gun ownership Only sportsmen would be allowed to own guns Of course the Los Angeles Times, in an editorial from October 22, 1993, agrees So does NCBH, though it also seeks to have all handguns (even target 22s) banned and confiscated And, again, both HCI and NCBH insist that all firearms be kept unloaded... writing about guns is that I’m interested in justice — not to mention life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — and I don’t believe any of these things are possible if the government and criminals are well-armed and the people aren’t 18 STOPPING POWER In this book I’m going to try to explain two things I hope I’m explaining them to people who have never owned, or even considered owning, a firearm... would alienate and radicalize the millions of Americans who believe in that right as firmly as the advocates of abortion rights believe in theirs As long as the advocates of gun control write laws and court rulings that abridge the right of private citizens to buy, own, and carry the firearms they feel are theirs by right to have for defensive and sporting use, gun owners will continue to be alienated . Interview and Other Heinleiniana The Frame of the Century? Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns Book Publishing in the 21st Century, Volumes One. Screenwritings Profile in Silver and Other Screenwritings J. NEIL SCHULMAN STOPPING POWER WHY 70 MILLION AMERICANS OWN GUNS FOREWORD BY CRIMINOLOGIST AND CIVIL-RIGHTS LAWYER