Whereas, the Brady Act has been declared unconstitutional in at least four U.S. District Courts, and any action which supports the disarming of law-abiding citizens who seek to protect their families in situations when and where police cannot respond quickly enough to assure safety of those threatened will no doubt also be declared unconstitutional. More recent evidence supports the claim that self-defense and defense of others is a legitimate form of deterrence, according to the Bureau of Justice. While gun-control advocates claim that handgun owners are more likely to shoot themselves or their loved ones than to stop a criminal, it has been identified that half of the firearm accidents in which the type of weapon is known involve rifles and shotguns, not handguns. In less than two percent of the gun fatalities has the victim been mistaken for an intruder. Only about two percent of the sixty-five million plus privately owned handguns are used to commit crimes and only about one-sixth of those are purchased from a gun shop or pawn shop. Most handguns used by felons are stolen, borrowed, or bought privately.
Therefore, a realistic goal of The United Methodist Church membership in the United States should not be to support the disarming of law-abiding citizens but rather to support the reduction of the number of people who carry any weapon unlawfully. There are enough laws in place already to be able to assure a safer America. The most effective way to reduce illegal gun or other weapons carrying is to take away guns and other weapons from people who carry them without a required permit. This means that United Methodists should actively support the proper training of police officers to recognize actions that provide a reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk and to actively and aggressively enforce the law. To frisk-pat-down a person's outer clothing is lawful if the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous. If the pat-down reveals an object that might be a gun or illegal weapon, an officer can remove it. If a gun or other weapon is being carried illegally, the suspect can be arrested. This preventative or pro-active approach to addressing weapons violence in the United States is in keeping with all existing laws and rights of citizens yet represents the most realistic and achievable approach to the problem of weapons and violence in America.
References
Wilson, James Q., professor of management and public policy, UCLA; author of Thinking About Crime, The Moral Sense, and Just Take Away Their Guns.
Kleck, Gary, professor of criminology, Florida State University; research--National Review of Firearms Statistics
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
Petition Text: 20862-CS-R536-U
1996 United Methodist General Conference