LETTERS: SOME STATISTICS ON GUN-RELATED DEATHS

To the editor:

I had decided to let Mr. Cron get away with accusing me of "character assassination" after which he proceeded to attack my own character, to wit: "Mr. Hodge assumes that he is pure of heart and of superior intellect and divine wisdom." He said my letter was "devoid of anything resembling fact. He relies on pure emotion, character assassination and hyperbole to attempt to make his point." Unfortunately, he recently felt the need to spout off again.

At no time in my Nov. 19 letter did I say the Founding Fathers were wrong in setting up the Constitution. I simply said that things have changed in our world, and we should address those changes.

Please consider the following facts:

In 1995, 5,285 American children under the age of 19 were killed by handguns.

In 1996, 9,390 Americans were murdered by handguns.

In 1995, there were 35,957 firearm-related deaths in the United States. That's enough to replace the entire population of Cape Girardeau.

Guns kept in the home are 43 times more likely to kill a family member or friend than they are to kill an intruder, according the New England Journal of Medicine in 1986.

In 1994 there were only 280 justifiable handgun homicides, compared with a total of 12,780 handgun murders in the United States, according to the FBI's 1995 crime report.

In 1995, the figures change to 179 justifiable handgun homicides in a total of 11,198 murders.

Ninety-two percent of all police officers killed in the line of duty from 1988 to 1998 were committed by the use of handguns, according to FBI statistics.

Recent events in Cape Girardeau prove that we are not immune to this problem, a young girl can testify after losing part of her foot in a drive-by shooting.

Mr. Cron says the only answer is "severe penalties." Severe penalties can do very little toward bringing back the dead, nor do they console the relatives and friends of the victims of handguns.

I agree that stronger enforcement is needed, but it is only part of the answer and can be applied only after it is too late for the victims. Unless we can control the profusion of handguns in our society, it can only get worse, and we can expect more needless deaths.

S.L. HODGE

Cape Girardeau