We need handguns like we need a hole in the head
A fundraising poster puts a young woman's face under the headline 'We need handguns like we need a hole in the head', with a round white hole printed beside her temple. The text turns the figure that 'over 70%' of handgun murders are committed against people the killer knows into the claim that an owner is far more likely to 'kill someone you know, or even love'. The image stages the harm on one face; the odds claim moves from a share of murders to a risk per owner without the second number it would need.
- Date
- 1976
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Committee for the Study of Handgun Misuse (Gun Control Project, Chicago)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- NGO
- Regime
- Ford Administration
- Leader
- Gerald Ford
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Health, Security and surveillance
- Techniques
- Fear appealCard stacking
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published without copyright notice c. 1975-76; LoC: No known restrictions on publication)
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Text on the object
WE NEED HANDGUNS LIKE WE NEED A HOLE IN THE HEAD. That 10,340 people were killed by handguns in 1973 is unsettling enough. But the number has increased to 11,124 in 1974. Nothing is done. Over 70% of these handgun murders are committed by previously law abiding citizens against people they know. So if you own a handgun to protect yourself against a criminal, the odds are far greater that you will kill someone you know, or even love. Yet nothing is done. Over 200,000 more people a year are injured, robbed, or raped at the business end of a handgun. Again nothing is done. Before the end of 1976, almost 3 million new handguns will be added to the 40 million already in circulation. Still nothing is done. But when 77% of the public want handgun control legislation, as the 1975 Harris Poll states, something must be done. We need your help to bring handgun facts to the public. Control Handguns Send your tax-deductible contributions to: THE COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF HANDGUN MISUSE, INC. 109 N. Dearborn, 18th Fl. Chicago, IL 60602 GUN CONTROL PROJECT
The sentence 'Over 200,000 more people a year are injured, robbed, or raped at the business end of a handgun' is split across the column break in the source layout (the first clause ending the left column, the rest opening the right column); reassembled here into one sentence, matching the poster's own reading order.
