* Crossposted from: FREEDOM'S_VOICE
The following examples provided by attorney and public policy analyst David
Kopel33 are instructive:
Bonnie Elmasri
On March 5, 1991 Bonnie Elmasri called a firearms instructor, worried that
her husband-who was subject to a restraining order to stay away from her-had
been threatening her and her children.  When she asked the instructor about
getting a handgun, the instructor explained that Wisconsin has a 48-hour
waiting period.  Ms. Elmasri and her two children were murdered by her
husband twenty-four hours later.
Rayna Ross
On June 29, 1993, at three o'clock in the morning, a 21-year-old woman named
Rayna Ross was awakened by the sound of a burglar who had broken into her
apartment and entered her bedroom. The burglar was her ax-boyfriend, a man
who had previously assaulted her. This time, having smashed his way into her
apartment, he was armed with a bayonet. Miss Ross took aim with a .380
semiautomatic pistol and shot him twice. The burglar's death was classified
as a "justifiable homicide" by the Prince William County commonwealth's
attorney, which determined that Miss Ross had acted lawfully in shooting the
attacker.
Miss Ross had bought her handgun one full business day before the attack,
thanks to Virginia's "instant background check." Virginia's 1993 Democratic
candidate for governor, Mary Sue Terry (endorsed by Handgun Control, Inc.),
proposed that-although the Virginia instant check already checks all handgun
buyers-Virginia handgun purchasers should undergo a "cooling-off period" of
five business days. Had the proposal been law in Virginia in 1993, Rayna Ross
would now be undergoing a permanent "cooling-off period.''34
Sonya Miller
Armed with a knife, Charles A. Grant, Jr., sexually assaulted a 33-year-old
woman on a Virginia beach one Tuesday in 1991. The assault was videotaped by
a tourist who (not having a permit to carry a concealed handgun for
protection) apparently could do nothing to help except record the crime.
The following day, Wednesday, Charles Grant raped a 12-year-old girl. News
broadcasts of the videotape of Grant's Tuesday assault frightened many people
in the nearby Nags Head community.
A young woman named Sonya Miller had been wanting a handgun for a while, and
on that Wednesday, her father bought her a .38 Special revolver. He gave her
the revolver that evening.
At about 9 P.M., Miss Miller went to the post office to pick up her mail. As
she stepped into the dimly lit parking lot near the post office, Charles
Grant saw her, and she saw Charles Grant. They both screamed. Grant told the
young woman he would not hurt her, but when she attempted to get into her
car, Grant lunged at the door. He stuck a .25 caliber pistol in her face,
began climbing into the car's back seat, and said, "I'm going to kill you."
"No," she replied, "I'm going to kill you." Sonya Miller picked up the
revolver she had acquired less than fifteen minutes before. When she pulled
the hammer back (a step preparatory to firing), he dropped his gun and fled.
Miss
Miller drove home; her father called the sheriff's offices, and Charles Grant
was apprehended.
Regarding the handgun Miss Miller had just acquired, "It's the only thing
that saved her life," her father observed.35x
Virgen Blanca
At the age of seventeen, Virgen Blanca emigrated to the United States from
Spain. By the time she was twenty-three, she had three children and was
divorced. To make ends meet for her family, she had to work two or three
jobs, as long as eighteen hours a day. In 1993, Ms. Blanca and her three
teenage children moved from Mesquite, Texas, to Dallas, in order to be closer
to her job as a house painter. The family moved into a seven-unit apartment
building, where they were the sole tenants.
During the night of Saturday, July 24, 1993, a prowler twice attempted to
break into the apartment. The second time, Ms. Blanca's 15-year-old son Reel
jumped out a second-story window to call the police. By the time they
arrived, the prowler was gone, having left behind a message scrawled on a
light switch next to the Blanca apartment, "I'll be back."
On Sunday, Mrs. Blanca purchased a Bryco semi-automatic pistol [an
inexpensive pistol]. On Monday night, Mrs. Blanca left the apartment to buy
food. Moments later, 15year-old Reel, 14-year-old Alexandra, and 10-year-old
John Paul heard a door creaking outside the apartment house. Recognizing the
man to be the same man who had twice attempted to break in Saturday night,
Reel took the Bryco pistol from his mother's room, and aimed it out the
window at the man in the courtyard below. Reel yelled "Freeze!" but the man
began to open the door to the apartment building. Reel shot the gun three
times, wounding the man in the groin.
The man limped two blocks, asked someone to call an ambulance, and claimed
that he had merely been looking for a place to urinate. Because Mrs. Blanca
could not make a positive identification of the man, police dropped burglary
charges.36
What a Difference a Day Makes
In 1985 in San Leandro, California, a woman and her daughter were threatened
by a neighbor. Instead of being able immediately to obtain a handgun for
self-defense, the woman had to wait fifteen days. The day after she finally
was allowed to pick up her gun, the neighbor attacked them, and she shot him
in self-defense. Had the man attacked fourteen rather than sixteen days after
his initial threat, the woman and her daughter might have been raped.
Catherine Latta
In September 1990, a mail carrier named Catherine Latta of Charlotte, North
Carolina, went to the police to obtain permission to buy a handgun. Her
ex-boyfriend had previously robbed her, assaulted her several times, and
raped her The clerk at the sheriff's office informed her the gun permit would
take two to four weeks. "I told her I'd be dead by then," Ms. Latta later
recalled. That afternoon' she went to a bad part of town, and bought an
illegal $20 semiautomatic pistol on the street. Five hours later, her
ex-boyfriend attacked her outside her house, and she shot him dead. The
county prosecutor decided not to prosecute Ms. Latta for either the
self-defense homicide, or the illegal gun.37
These anecdotes illustrate our contention that innocents suffer and die when
denied timely access to the safest and most effective means of protection -
guns.  The Brady Law waiting period and the extraordinary number of Brady
background check errors - almost the rule rather than the exception - deny
timely access to dozens of thousands of good and needful people.  In so
doing, it is our contention that the Brady Law costs many more lives than it
saves.
Recommendations
In balance, the Brady Law is a constitutionally offensive political fraud, a
public policy failure, and should be dismantled in its entirety.
We strenuously object to the concept of proving qualification to exercise an
inherent and irrevocable right to self defense.  We strenuously object to
even the suggestion of proving qualification to exercise a pre-existent and
constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms.
If despite our most strenuous objections there is to be an infringement of
these rights to self-defense and right to keep and bear arms, let it be the
least intrusive infringement available; let it be the Instant Check system as
freely adopted by states (rather than imposed by the Brady Law's usurpation
of Tenth Amendment state powers).  State Instant Check systems are less
intrusive and less destructive of individual rights and state powers than the
Brady Law.  On a purely pragmatic level devoid of constitutional concerns (an
unprincipled position we neither adopt nor recommend), there are no benefits
whatsoever from the Brady Law except those that are better served by Instant
Check systems.
1 Lott JR and Mustard DB. "Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed
Handguns."  Journal of Legal Studies. January 1997 forthcoming.
2 Suter EA  Waters WC 4th  Murray GB  Hopkins CB  Asiaf J  Moore JB  Fackler
M  Cowan DN  Eckenhoff RG  Singer TR  et al. "Violence in America - Effective
solutions." J Med Assoc Ga June 1995; 84(6):253-263.
3 Sugarmann J and Rand K. Cease Fire - A comprehensive strategy to reduce
violence. Washington DC: Violence Policy Center. 1993.
4 this voluminous literature is best summarized in Kleck G. Point Blank: Guns
and Violence in America.  New York: Aldine de Gruyter. 1991.
5 McGonigal MD, Cole J, Schwab W, Kauder DR, Rotondo MF, and Angood PB. Urban
firearms deaths: a five-year perspective. J Trauma. 1993; 35(4): 532-36.
6 Hutson HR, Anglin D, and Pratts MJ. Adolescents and children injured or
killed in drive-by shootings in Los Angeles. N Engl J Med. 1994; 330: 324-27.
7 Suter EA  Waters WC 4th  Murray GB  Hopkins CB  Asiaf J  Moore JB  Fackler
M  Cowan DN  Eckenhoff RG  Singer TR  et al. "Violence in America - Effective
solutions." J Med Assoc Ga June 1995; 84(6):253-263.
8 Kleck G and Gertz M. "Armed Resistance to Crime: the Prevalence and Nature
of Self-Defense with a Gun." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. Summer
1995:;  86:143-186.
9 Suter EA  Waters WC 4th  Murray GB  Hopkins CB  Asiaf J  Moore JB  Fackler
M  Cowan DN  Eckenhoff RG  Singer TR  et al. "Violence in America - Effective
solutions." J Med Assoc Ga June 1995; 84(6):253-263.
10 Kellermann AL. and Reay DT. "Protection or Peril? An Analysis of
Firearms-Related Deaths in the Home." N Engl J. Med 1986. 314: 1557-60.
11 Kates D, Schaffer HE, Lattimer JK, Murray GB, and Cassem EW. "Guns and
Public Health: Epidemic of Violence or Pandemic of Propaganda?" Tennessee Law
Review. Spring 1995; 62(3): 513-596.
12 Suter EA. "Guns in the Medical Literature - A Failure of Peer Review."
Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. March 1994: 133-48.
13  Suter EA, National Chair, Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public
Policy. testimony before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the
Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate. March 23, 1994
14 Waters, WC 4th, Eastern Director, Doctors for Integrity in Policy
Research, Inc.; Wheeler TW, President, Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership;
Faria M, Professor of Neurosurgery and Adjunct Professor of Medical History,
Mercer University, former editor of the Journal of the Medical Association of
Georgia; and Kates DB, civil rights attorney and criminologist. testimony
before the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations,
 Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.  March 6,
1996.
15 Bennett A and Sharpe A. "Health Hazard: AIDS Fight Is Skewed By Federal
Campaign Exaggerating Risks." Wall Street Journal. May 1, 1996, pp 1 & 6.
16 Clinton WJ, President of the United States of America. Remarks at the
Democratic National Committee Gala. Washington Convention Center. Washington
DC. May 8, 1966 10:32PM EDT.
17 Clinton WJ, President of the United States of America. Remarks to the
people of DesMoines. Knapp Center, Drake University, Des Moines IA.  February
11, 1996 2:05PM CST.
18 United States General Accounting Office. "Report to the Committee on the
Judiciary - House of Representatives - Gun Control: Implementation of the
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act." GAO/GGD-96-22 Washington DC: USGAO.
January 1996. hereinafter "GAO survey."
19 GAO survey Chapter 2.
20 Wright JD and Rossi PH. Armed and considered dangerous: a survey of felons
and their firearms. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. 1986.
21 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "Protecting America: The
Effectiveness of the Federal Armed Career Criminal Statute."  Washington DC:
US DOJ BATF. undated. page 28.
22 Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice. Uniform Crime
Reports: Crime in the United States 1993. Washington DC: US Government
Printing Office. 1994.  Table 5. and Federal Bureau of Investigation, US
Department of Justice. Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States
1994. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office. 1995.  Table 5.
23 GAO survey at page 5.
24 Wright JD and Rossi PH. Armed and considered dangerous: a survey of felons
and their firearms. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. 1986.
25 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "Protecting America: The
Effectiveness of the Federal Armed Career Criminal Statute."  Washington DC:
US DOJ BATF. undated. page 28.
26 Aborn R, President of Handgun Control Inc. Letter to the editor.
Washington Post. September 30, 1994.
27 Howlett D. Jury still out on success of the Brady Law. USA Today. December
28, 1994.  p A-2.
28 Clinton WJ, President of the United States of America. Remarks on MTV's
"Enough is Enough" forum on crime. Kalorama Studio. Washington DC. April 19,
1994 11:30AM EDT.
29 Jacobs JB and Potter KA. "Keeping Guns Out of the 'Wrong' Hands: The Brady
Law and the Limits of Regulation." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology.
Summer 1995:;  86:93-120.
30 Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice. Uniform Crime
Reports: Crime in the United States 1992. Washington DC: US Government
Printing Office. 1993.  Table 5.
31 Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice. Uniform Crime
Reports: Crime in the United States 1994. Washington DC: US Government
Printing Office. 1995.  Table 5.
32 Suter EA  Waters WC 4th  Murray GB  Hopkins CB  Asiaf J  Moore JB  Fackler
M  Cowan DN  Eckenhoff RG  Singer TR  et al. "Violence in America - Effective
solutions." J Med Assoc Ga June 1995; 84(6):253-263.
33 Kopel DB. "Guns: Who Should Have Them?"  Amherst NY: Prometheus Books.
1995. pp 61-65.
34 "No Duty to Protect." Washington Times. July 13, 1993. page missing.
35 Thiel E. "Gift of a Gun Warded Off Attack, Father Says." Virginia-Pilot.
April 12, 1991. p. D-1.
36 Gilman TJ and Talley O. "Violent Reactions: Citizens' Growing Use of Force
Stirs Societal Questions." Dallas Morning News. August 1, 1993. page 1-A.
37 Wright GL. "Woman Won't Be Charged: Boyfriend's Slaying Ruled
Self-Defense." Charlotte Observer. October 3, 1990. page missing.
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