Letter: Crime weapons not from gun shows

Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999 | 9:37 a.m.

Then two years ago a study conducted by the Department of Justice found that perhaps 2 percent of crime guns, including those purchased through so-called straw men, were obtained at gun shows. Another study, surveying felons during the mid-1980s in a dozen state prisons, discovered that less than 1 percent of them had obtained their arms from gun shows.

The shootings in Littleton, Colo., have been used as an excuse to attempt to place more controls on law-abiding Americans -- including more restrictions on gun show purchases and imposing lengthy background checks. Yet criminals are far more likely to get their guns through theft and the black market than from gun shows.

As for a waiting period, that would not have made a difference, either. The shooting spree in Colorado, Reynolds and Burnett note, "was planned more than a year in advance -- and the guns in other shootings were stolen, borrowed, or brought from home."

It is clear that background checks and waiting periods for purchases at gun shows are of no avail. Moreover, they result in loss of further freedom for the average, law-abiding citizen.

CHARLES A. DELZOTTI