Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 00:01:41 -0400 From: NRA Alerts To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com Subject: ALERT: Your Tax Dollars are Funding Political Advocacy to Rob You of Your Rights! September 23, 1995 YOUR TAX DOLLARS ARE FUNDING POLITICAL ADVOCACY TO ROB YOU OF YOUR RIGHTS! As a gun rights advocate you probably don't receive the "Injury Prevention Network Newsletter," but you need to be aware of it! This publication urges its readers to defend current anti-gun legislation like the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban and to actively promote additional anti-gun laws like ammunition bans and the elimination of state preemption statutes. Sounds like the standard anti-gun line doesn't it? So why the fuss? BECAUSE YOUR TAX DOLLARS ARE PAYING FOR IT! The Spring 1995 issue of the Injury Prevention Network Newsletter states, "This newsletter was supported in part by Grant #R49/CCR903697-06 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC)." THAT MEANS YOUR TAX DOLLARS! Beneath the thin veil of "violence as a public health issue" the Injury Prevention Network Newsletter is pure anti-gun/anti-rights political advocacy. But don't take our word for it; read for yourself part of what your tax dollars are funding. >From the Spring 1995 issue: "What Advocates Can Do" "The following ideas for participation in reducing gun violence are based on those generated from the symposium 'Articulating Guns and Violence as a Women's Issue': * Put gun control on the agenda of your civic or professional organization. * Release a statement to the media or explain in your organization's newsletter why gun control is a women's (or nurses' or pediatricians'. ..) issue. * Ask TV and print media to name the gun manufacturer in every story it runs involving gun violence. * Make your support for federal, state, and local gun laws known to your representatives. This may include: * opposing repeal of the assault weapons ban; * maintaining support for the Brady Law; * restricting ammunition availability by caliber and quantity; * increasing enforcement of federal firearms laws; * maintaining restrictions on issuance of concealed weapons permits; * removing state preemption language to allow cities and counties to regulate firearms. * Organize a picket at gun manufacturing sites, perhaps with posters showing pictures of victims of gun violence. (Modeled after the "Madres de los Desaparecidos" in Argentina and Chile, this can evoke a very powerful moral image.) * Work for campaign finance reform to weaken the gun lobby's political clout. * Boycott publications that accept advertising from the gun lobby or manufacturers. Write to the editors explaining why you will no longer buy their publication. * Launch a program aimed at getting pediatricians to counsel their parents to properly lock and store guns away from their children. * Work with religious or community groups to organize gun amnesty programs. Get media attention for your events. * Encourage your local police department to adopt a policy prohibiting officers from recommending that citizens buy guns for protection." BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), a division within the CDC, has been funding biased, anti-gun research to the tune of millions of dollars. The CDC itself has a history of promoting firearms and firearms ownership as a public health menace. There are numerous examples of bias in NCIPC's research. One of the more telling flaws is the "43 times" fallacy put forth by Dr. Arthur Kellermann. Kellermann says that a "gun owner is 43 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder." Here, Kellermann underestimates the utility of guns as a self-defense tool by only counting a firearms use as protective if the intruder was killed. Since less than 1% of all protective uses of firearms involve the killing of the attacker, Kellermann underestimates the benefits by a factor of 500 to 1,000. NCIPC uses the wrong yardstick to measure self-defense. Self-defense is measured in lives saved and crimes thwarted. WHAT YOU CAN DO. Call your Senators today at (202)224-3121! Currently the U.S. Senate is considering future funding for the Centers for Disease Control, and now is the time to make your voice heard on this issue. Please tell your Senators to support completely defunding the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. WHY ELIMINATE ALL NCIPC FUNDING? The goals of NCIPC can be adequately fulfilled by other agencies with more expertise. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA),the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency all conduct research to prevent and control injury. There are more than twenty grants, cooperative agreements, and interagency agreements supported by the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ) to prevent and reduce criminal violence, including domestic violence. Moreover, divisions within the National Institute of Health (NIH) are conducting violence-related research at a cost of over $50 million for FY `95 alone. NCIPC's work product is either a duplicate of other agency work and can easily be absorbed by an agency with direct expertise -- or it is just plain biased research and political activism, ALL WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS. YOUR SENATORS MAY BE CONSIDERING THIS ISSUE THIS WEEK! PLEASE CALL TODAY -- (202)224-3121! For more information on how you can help, please call NRA-ILA's Grassroots Division at 1-800-392-8683. For more information on the CDC & its political advocacy please see: 1. Children & Firearms: Lies The CDC Loves 2. The Federal Factoid Factory On Firearms & Violence: A Review Of CDC Research And Politics =+=+=+=+ This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA. This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is available at any of the following URL's: http://WWW.NRA.Org, gopher://GOPHER.NRA.Org, wais://WAIS.NRA.Org, ftp://FTP.NRA.Org, mailto:LISTPROC@NRA.Org (Send the word help as the body of a message) Information may also be obtained by connecting directly to the NRA-ILA GUN-TALK Bulletin Board System at (703) 934-2121.