Date: Wed, 15 Mar 1995 12:06:27 -0500 (EST)
From: Bob Johnson <REJO@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu>
Subject: MEDIA: Summary of ABC Sunday evening CCW report
To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com


The following is an extended summary of an ABC News report that appeared 
Sunday evening (March 12, 1995).  I have included _approximate_ elapsed 
times in [brackets] to help you get a better idea of how much time was 
spent on each topic.

Forgive me, but I added some editorial comments at the end. They are 
significant in understanding the report, IMHO.  You don't get the 
full feel of the report by reading the summary alone.

I couldn't remember the name of the woman who appears in connection with
the massacre at Luby's, and I had trouble understanding the reporter.  
I hope I got reasonably close.

--- cut here ----------------------------------------------------------------

[Lead-in]
Texas expected to join a "growing list of states willing to put more 
guns on the street in an effort to fight crime."

[0:00]
Twenty three people killed in restaurant in Killeen, TX when a lone 
gunman started shooting people.  
Susanna Grassia [?] was eating lunch there with her parents.  She
appears on-screen demonstrating how killer walked from person to 
person, executing them.  
Reporter says that she carried a gun illegally in her purse for ten 
years, and started leaving it in her truck for fear of getting caught.  
She says on-screen she is mad at her legislators because they 
legislated away her right to defend herself and her family.  If she 
had been allowed to keep her gun with her, her parents would still 
be alive.

[0:35]
Reporter: "But that is beginning to change."  Last month, Virginia, 
Arkansas, and Utah enacted laws that allow a person passing a background 
check and taking a training course to get a permit to carry a concealed 
weapon.

[0:50]
Reporter:
They are following the lead of Florida, which passed such a law in 1987.
According to FBI statistics, handgun-related homicides in Florida have
dropped twenty-nine percent since the law became effective.
Twenty-one states currently allow a person to carry a gun.
Seventeen are now considering it.
The remaining twelve still have strict laws prohibiting it.
The Colorado legislature voted three times already in this session 
to kill concealed carry legislation.

[1:25]
Reporter: 
New Republican Governor George Bush promised early in his 
campaign to sign concealed carry into law.  It was vetoed by his 
predecessor.  
Texas State Senator Jerry Paterson appears on camera saying
he thinks that's one reason Bush won.

[1:50]
Reporter: 
With an estimated seventy million guns in circulation in Texas, 
some say that letting them be carried in public "only invites 
trouble."

[2:00]
Assistant District Attorney Marvin Collins appears on-screen, says 
that allowing concealed carry "will increase _greatly_ [his 
emphasis] the risk that innocent people are going to get killed." 

[2:08]
Texas State Senator Royce West appears on-screen, says "If we put 
more guns on the street, is that going to make people feel safer?
I don't think so.  Is that the right message to send to our 
children?  I don't think so."

[2:17]
Reporter: "Regardless of whether it's the right message, it is 
the one more states are now sending.  Mike Von Fremd [?], 
ABC News, Austin."

[2:25] 
END OF REPORT


--- cut here ------------------------------------------------------------

Impressions received while viewing:

1) This struck me as the most fair, well-balanced piece on gun 
   control I have ever seen from a major network news reporter.
   That's not saying much, though.

2) At the end, I still walked away feeling that it was trying
   to persuade me to oppose the legislation.  After some thought,
   I realized why: 
   The facts that support concealed carry were at the beginning, 
   where it gets forgotten by the time the report is over.  The 
   stuff at the end, which viewers are more likely to remember, 
   was unsubstantiated speculation opposing concealed carry.  
   When it was over, the stuff at the end is what stuck with me.

   This is a standard technique taught in any decent writing 
   class (make the points you want them to remember at the end).  
   I'm just about to use it myself:

3) Note in particular the quote from the Assistant District Attorney
   near the end of the report:  He didn't say "might increase," he 
   said "will increase," which presents mere speculation as fact.  
   This speculation contradicts Florida's actual experience: no 
   private citizen licensed to carry in Florida has ever used their 
   gun to unlawfully kill, or even injure, anyone at all. In fact, 
   Florida licensees are far less likely to commit violent crimes 
   with their guns than are Florida law-enforcement officers.
   
-- Bob Johnson
   rejo@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu