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Libertarian Party Press
Releases
October 30,
2000
Fatality fumble: Football kills
as many students as school shootings
WASHINGTON, DC -- High
school football killed as many students last year as did guns --
which means politicians should either stop using school shootings as
an excuse to attack the Second Amendment or start passing "football
control" laws, the Libertarian Party said today.
"According
to the latest statistics, a football is as deadly as a gun," said
Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. "So why do first downs
continue to be exalted while the Second Amendment continues to be
vilified?"
A new study from the National School Safety
Center (NSSC) reported that there were 15 "school-associated deaths"
caused by violent crime -- including guns -- during the 1999-2000
school year.
That number is unchanged from the 1998-1999
school year, when 15 students were killed by guns, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There have been
zero student gun deaths so far during this school year.
By
comparison, 15 high school football players died during regular
season and playoff games in 1999, according to the National
Federation of State High School Associations.
Another 11
athletes have died in high school games and practices since late
August of this year -- and that number is expected to rise during
playoffs. In addition, another 29 players this year have suffered
"catastrophic injuries" on the field, leaving them paralyzed or
seriously disabled.
These numbers have Libertarians
wondering: Given the carnage on our nation's high school football
fields, why the outcry about guns -- and the utter silence about
football fatalities?
"When 15 students are tragically killed
by guns during a school year, every politician and anti-gun lobbying
group expresses practiced outrage, and immediately demands new laws
that infringe on the Second Amendment," said Dasbach. "But when 15
students are tragically killed by football, the silence is
deafening.
"If the preventable death of any young person is
a tragedy -- and it is -- then why wasn't there a Million Mom March
demanding an end to high school football? Why no calls from Bill
Clinton for 'reasonable' football control laws? Why no saturation
media coverage as dead football players are carried off the field in
stretchers? Why no class-action lawsuits against Spaulding for
manufacturing cheap Saturday Night Special footballs?
"Could
it be that politicians get more yardage attacking guns than
attacking football?"
This "outrage gap" is especially
puzzling, said Dasbach, because the Constitution doesn't guarantee
an explicit right to "keep and bear" footballs.
"Football is
nothing more than entertainment and sport. Guns are a
Constitutionally protected civil right," he said. "While every new
gun-control law triggers a fight about the scope of the Second
Amendment, football has no such protection.
"If he wanted
to, President Clinton could lobby for an absolute ban on high school
football, in order to save the lives of 15 young people every year.
The fact that he doesn't, and the fact that groups like Handgun
Control, Inc. don't demand such legislation, reveals that their real
motive is not to save lives, but to advance an anti-gun political
agenda."
Of course, Libertarians wouldn't support a ban on
football any more than they support a ban on guns, said Dasbach.
"Protecting the lives of young people who play high school
football is the job of parents, school officials, and coaches, not
politicians," he said. "And protecting the Second Amendment is the
job of every American, since so many politicians have fumbled their
duty to defend the fundamental human rights -- including the right
to keep and bear arms -- guaranteed in the Constitution."
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