Gun control does not work even if it were constitutional -- and it is not constitutional.

Some folks defend the First Amendment and want to ignore the Second Amendment. We need to recognize and uphold all of our Constitutional freedoms.

Today, there is plenty of evidence - both in our country and elsewhere - that simply disarming law-abiding citizens DOES NOT help reduce violent crime. Why does the Clinton-Gore Administration continue to push for new restrictions on legal gun ownership instead of prosecuting criminals who DO misuse guns to hurt and kill people, particularly when the evidence shows that prosecuting gun felons DOES help reduce violent crime? Why does the administration keep calling for new laws when its record of enforcing laws already on the books is spotty at best?

If the President and Vice President want to know how well simply banning lawful gun ownership works, all they have to do is look around the city where they both live: Washington, D.C. There it is illegal for average citizens to even OWN a handgun. And yet Washington, D.C., ranked 12th highest among 315 American cities in violent crimes committed in 1998.

Or the President and Vice President could study the experience of Australia where a government gun-control effort resulted in citizens turning over 640,000 rifles and shotguns. Critics of gun control point to statistics showing attempted murders and armed robberies have risen by close to 20 percent!!! "The number of Victorians murdered with firearms has almost trebled since the introduction of tighter gun laws," commented a newspaper in that region of Australia.

The drive for new gun laws might make some sense if the Clinton-Gore Administration were really enforcing the laws already on the books, which plainly it is not. Between 1996 and 1998 the Clinton-Gore Justice Department mounted exactly ONE prosecution under the Brady Act dealing with background checks for gun purchasers. In that same period, the Administration prosecuted 21 cases in the entire nation for transferring a handgun or ammunition to a juvenile. According to Syracuse University researchers, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the lead agency in most federal firearms prosecutions, referred 44 percent fewer cases to federal prosecutors in 1998 than were referred in 1992, a peak prosecution year during the Bush Administration.

Then there's the case of 1960s radical Black Panther H. Rap Brown, now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. If the Clinton-Gore Administration had done its job, a Cobb County, Georgia, Deputy named Ricky Kinchen might still be alive today. After a 1995 shooting in Atlanta, Al-Amin was arrested in possession of a 45-caliber pistol. Because Mr. Al-Amin had been convicted previously of attempted robbery, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms recommended that he be prosecuted as a felon in possession of a firearm, a charge that could have drawn a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. But the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta, under the control of the Clinton-Gore Administration, declined to prosecute.

On March 16 of this year, Cobb County Deputies including Kinchen tried to serve a warrant on Al-Amin, but he allegedly opened fire with a .223 Ruger rifle, killing Kinchen.

Again, why is there so much effort to punish law-abiding citizens and not nearly enough focus on getting the real "bad guys" off the streets. The President and Vice President do not have to look far to find evidence to show that catching and jailing criminals is the approach that WORKS. Just across the Potomac River from their homes in Washington, D.C., they can look to the Commonwealth of Virginia, which has adopted "Project Exile," a tough new program against people who use guns to commit crimes.

The program mandates a minimum of five years in prison for people convicted of gun crimes. In Richmond, Va., where it was first adopted, the number of murders fell from 160 in 1994 to 74 in 1999 - a reduction of more than half.

One good step toward solving the gun violence problem in America is to lock up the gun criminals and leave law abiding citizens and the Second Amendment alone!!!!