Mackie, scholar debate gun laws Prosecutor, author clash on wisdom of gun control.

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Mackie, scholar debate gun laws Prosecutor, author clash on wisdom of gun control. Thursday, November 8, 2001By ART AISNER NEWS STAFF REPORTER Violent crimes in Michigan should decrease slightly in the first year of less-restrictive gun laws, according to a national expert, but a local prosecutor isn't buying it.John Lott, a research scholar with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and author of "More Guns, Less Crime," debated the issue Wednesday with Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie. The two participated in an hour-long discussion on the University of Michigan campus hosted by the U-M Law School.Lott said he expects violent crime in the state to drop by 1 percent since the Legislature made it easier to obtain a concealed weapons permit. The drop would be slightly less than, but consistent with, average decreases in other states adopting similar laws."Guns make it easier for bad things to happen, but guns also make it easier for people to defend themselves and prevent bad things from happening," Lott told more than 100 students and residents at a Hutchins Hall lecture hall Wednesday.Mackie, who resigned from the Washtenaw County Gun Board in protest of the Legislature's July decision, said he does not believe Lott's research. There are good reasons the majority of prosecutors and police chiefs across the state opposed the law, he said."It's not because they're not as smart as Dr. Lott, but it's because they have experience in law enforcement," Mackie said.Lott contends that Americans use guns defensively about 2 million times a year, five times more frequently than guns used during crimes. He said people don't know that because incidents where potential victims deter attackers by using a gun defensively are rarely reported or are overshadowed by violent crimes involving guns.He cited a 1997 school shooting in Pearl, Miss., as an example. In that case, an assistant principal with a concealed weapons permit held off the gunman, who had already killed two students, until police arrived. Yet of the 697 news stories Lott said he researched about the shooting, only 13 mentioned that the assistant principal stopped the attack. Just 10 mentioned that he used a gun.Mackie offered a local example while arguing the opposite point. He said it was the access to guns that assisted in the only school shooting his office has dealt with: the 1993 murder of Chelsea School Superintendent Joseph Piasecki by a teacher after a disciplinary hearing."I don't know that having Stephen Leith armed with a handgun increases the safety of any staff or students at Chelsea High School, a place that had never had a crime like that before," he said.Leith is now serving a life sentence.Mackie also expressed disappointment in a legislative proposal to allow citizens, licensed or not, to carry concealed weapons in their vehicles as long as they are unloaded.Lott did not comment on that proposal, but said there are no studies indicating that currently enforced background checks or mandatory waiting periods for gun permits have reduced crime rates.Such laws actually make it more costly and cumbersome for citizens to own guns and, in effect, can disarm them in relation to criminals, who normally acquire guns illegally, Lott said. "You can have increases in violent crimes rather than drops, because the criminals have less to be afraid of when they attack," he said.Jessie Gabriel, a first-year law student, said Lott's theory might prove true, but it causes her more fear than relief."He might be right, as much as I don't want to agree with it, but what does that say about our society?," she said. "There's a psychological effect to knowing that person you just accidentally bumped into might have a gun. I don't want to live like that."Ann Arbor resident Tim Hillebrand brought a copy of Lott's book for an autograph and wore a T-shirt he said reveals his opinions on gun control.The front depicts a saluting Adolf Hitler and instructs those in favor of gun control to raise their right hand. On the back of the shirt is a sarcastic list of the benefits of gun control: concentration camps, killing fields and gulags."I think you just run into trouble when you legislate to try and stop crime before it happens," Hillebrand said. "I don't want to be part of a society where people don't have the right to defend their right to live." Art Aisner can be reached at aaisner@annarbornews.com or(734) 994-6823. http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20011108ab1gundebate08.frm