Recently The Brady Campaign against Gun Violence released its annual report. Maine scored an 11 out of a possible 100 points. Our neighbors New Hampshire and Vermont were graded even worse; 9 and 8 out of a possible 100 respectively. Maine Citizens against Handgun Violence commented "Maine, unfortunately, is not doing nearly enough to protect its citizens against gun violence…”. Wow, that’s bad, right? Well let’s compare the violent crime rates for us backwards Northern New England States to the Brady Campaign’s top three progressive and forward thinking States. Brady ranked California as number 1 and gave it a score of 79 out of 100 (makes me wonder what a 95 or a 100 would look like). Brady said this of California “Once again, California holds the top spot with the nation’s strongest gun laws …” Well according to the FBI; California has a violent crime rate of over 500 incidents per 100 thousand people (2008 data). You are almost five times as likely to be a victim of violent crime in California as in Maine. Brady State number 2, New Jersey was awarded a Brady score of 73 (FBI Violent Crime Rate 326.5 per 100k). Massachusetts with a Brady score of 54 rounded out the number three spot (FBI violent crime rate 449 per 100k). In 2008, Maine’s Violent Crime rate per 100k persons was 117.5, Vermont’s 135.9, and New Hampshire 157.2. If only we had laws here in Maine to keep us all safe like the citizens of California, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The truth is that draconian gun laws which infringe upon the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens do nothing to make us safer. The old bumper sticker slogan “When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns” comes much closer to the basic truth than any of the Bologna that the Brady Campaign tries to feed us.
