DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: BREACH OF TRUST
SUBSECTION: RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
Revised 8/20/99
RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
7/10/98 Arianna Huffington Conservative Current " On Wednesday morning , at a White House ceremony the president endorsed a bill aimed at reducing children ' s access to guns . Among other things , the bill will make parents criminally responsible for the actions of children using unsafely stored guns .It is a forlorn hope to continue to pretend that we will reduce teenage violence just by focusing on gun control , just as it is delusional to continue fighting the war on drugs just by focusing on illegal drugs"
Reuters 4/26/99 Randall Mikkelsen "...President Clinton will propose new anti-gun laws Tuesday, the White House said, predicting last week's Colorado school horror would fuel support for the long-planned measures. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart also denounced the National Rifle Association, telling reporters Monday that the time had come for the pro-gun lobbying organization to stop fighting against gun control. "There is a consensus in this country that we need to do more; the president will propose doing more, and it's time for the NRA to get out of the past and get on the right side of this issue," Lockhart said..... Saturday, Clinton said he would ask Congress to crack down on gun shows and illegal trafficking, ban violent juveniles from ever buying guns and close loopholes permitting juveniles to own assault rifles...."
New York Times 4/26/99 Barry Meier "...Just hours after the gunfire had stopped on Tuesday in Littleton, Colo., another battle erupted as lobbying groups and others on warring sides of the nation's gun debate moved to turn the shootings to their advantage. Appearing that evening on CNN, Sarah Brady, the chairwoman of Handgun Control, blamed the easy access to weapons for the killings. A day later, Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association and its chief political strategist, went on the MSNBC program "Equal Time" to say Hollywood's obsession with violence, rather than firearms, was at fault...."My bottom line is that these laws were passed with the best of intentions to create safety zones for our children," Lott said in an interview. "But my concern is that the people who obey these laws are the good people and what these laws do is make safe zones for criminals."..."
WorldNetDaily 4/29/99 Jon E. Dougherty "...While much of the nation and most politicians call for increased gun control measures in the wake of mass murder by two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., April 20, a new study shows that the best way to prevent such incidents in the future is to pass more laws that allow concealed carry of handguns. The study, completed earlier this month by John R. Lott, Jr. and William M. Landes of the Chicago University School of Law, concludes "that the only policy factor to influence multiple victim public shootings is the passage of concealed handgun laws." The study also shows that other crime deterrent factors -- such as more police and wider use of the death penalty -- tend to curb "normal" instances of murder. But they do little or nothing to prevent such tragedies as those that have occurred in a number of the nation's public schools since 1997. "Not only does the passage of a shall issue law have a significant impact on multiple shootings," wrote the authors, "but it is the only law related variable that appears to have a significant impact." ..."
Associated Press 5/12/99 David Espo Freeper Brian Mosely "...The Republican-controlled Senate refused Wednesday to impose fresh restrictions on sales at gun shows in Congress' first vote on gun control since last month's shooting spree in a Colorado high school...."
Chicago Sun-Times 5/30/99 Robert Novak "...Rep. Christopher Cox is receiving private backstage criticism from fellow House Republican leaders for letting President Clinton off the hook in order to get bipartisan approval for his select committee's report on alleged Chinese theft of nuclear secrets. Cox, who as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee ranks fifth in his party's House hierarchy, responds that the report implicitly targets Clinton and that its impact is much greater for not being narrowly partisan. Members of Chairman Henry Hyde's House Judiciary Committee, accused of partisanship in their presidential impeachment proceedings, are particularly irked by the comparison with Cox. A footnote: Conservative House Republicans also were irritated that Speaker J. Dennis Hastert chose to endorse Senate-passed gun controls on the day the Cox report was released--partially upstaging the bad news for the Clinton administration..... "
Jewish World Review 6/10/99 Thomas Sowell "..."gun control." The tragic irony is that such laws are much more likely to increase shooting deaths than to reduce them. For those of us old-fashioned enough to think that facts still matter, comprehensive research has shown that allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons reduces gun violence, as well as other kinds of violence. Unfortunately, facts may carry very little weight politically, in the midst of an emotional orgy with rhetorical posturing. Yet the evidence is overwhelming that allowing law-abiding citizens to be armed has reduced violence in general and mass shootings in particular. For those to whom facts still matter, John Lott's book "More Guns, Less Crime" presents overwhelming evidence. Another study of his, with Professor William Landes of the University of Chicago as co-author, addresses mass shootings, such as those which have been taking place in schools, post offices and other public places. These shooting rampages have been far more common in places where there are strong gun control laws. No matter what other factors these authors take into account -- poverty, race, population density, etc. -- the results are still the same. Places with many armed citizens have fewer mass shootings. Their data cover mass shootings in every state and the District of Columbia, going back nearly two decades...."
Boston Globe 6/12/99 Louise D. Palmer "....While the NRA did not get exactly what it wanted, the lobby's influence during the early stages of House discussions on gun control has reversed the prevailing opinion that pronounced the gun lobby weakened after last month's defeats in the Senate. ''Our epitaph has been written many times,'' said Jim Manown, an NRA spokesman, laughing...... The NRA's two-pronged lobbying strategy, which was advertised on the Internet, in mainstream newspapers, and all over Capitol Hill, began two months ago with a campaign that questioned the wisdom of passing new gun-control laws when the Clinton administration is not enforcing existing ones. In one advertisement in The Wall Street Journal, the NRA wrote that the government prosecuted only 37 cases where felons bought firearms through straw purchases, 11 cases where individuals provided guns to juveniles, and 11 cases of juveniles caught with guns. ''More firearms legislation, like previous legislation, that is passed with no intention of enforcement is a dangerous fraud,'' the ad said. The Justice Department said it could not comment on particular prosecutions but defended its record, pointing out that combined state-federal prosecutions of gun crimes were up 22 percent since 1992. The number of federal cases in which an offender is sentenced to more than five years also rose 22 percent....."
Washington Times 6/18/99 Sean Scully "…The House Thursday night narrowly passed a measure regulating sales of weapons at gun shows - written by a rebellious faction of Democrats - that could doom a larger gun control bill set to be voted on Friday. The House voted 218-211 to support a measure sponsored by the most senior Democrat in the House, Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan. Forty-five Democrats joined 173 Republicans in the vote. The mildest of three gun-show proposals before the House, the approved measure limits to 24 hours the maximum amount of time gun buyers must wait for background checks. The strictest measure - sponsored by Democrats - sets a maximum of three business days for background checks. A Republican measure sets a maximum of 72 hours…."
Washington Compost 5/19/99 David B. Ottaway "....Some of the nation's leading private foundations and philanthropists such as billionaire George Soros are pouring millions of dollars into research and support in the battle to control gun violence. The infusion of private money has raised the wrath of the National Rifle Association, which in a publication this month named Soros and another private foundation as part of a "vast conspiracy" to bankrupt gun manufacturers with lawsuits...."
Jewish World Review 5/27/99 Tony Snow "...Even though Selleck is the nicest guy in show business, she[Rosie] treated him like meat. As hausfraus and tourists shouted "You go, girl!" the klatchmistress assailed his affiliation with the National Rifle Association, insinuating that he condoned the massacre of innocents at Columbine High School. ... The show's producers had promised Selleck the conversation would focus on his new movie, not guns. But Rosie broke the compact and ambuscaded the poor fellow. Then again, she may have had her reasons. Selleck often shoots objects -- sporting clays -- that otherwise might carry food. In any case, Rosie's attack was notable for its imbecility and hypocrisy. Begin with the dim-wit part: Gun violence in the United States has been declining for the better part of a decade. Research indicates that states with relatively permissive gun laws also have the lowest levels of gun crime -- presumably because bad guys never know whether their intended victims are packing heat. Moreover, the nostrums recently approved by the U.S. Senate -- trigger locks and background checks -- would have saved no one at Columbine High School and could make it more difficult for citizens (such as, say, battered wives) to defend themselves..... The Clinton administration has promoted more federal gun legislation than any in history, but it hasn't enforced the statutes. The Justice Department has prosecuted exactly one person in four years for violating the much-touted Brady Law and the feds have gone after 20 juvenile gun-thugs in the last three years -- out of an estimated 20,000 cases. Cut to the moral core of the controversy. The NRA never has condoned the murder of innocents. This distinguishes it from the Clinton White House -- which is considering the legal harvest of babies for medical purposes -- and Planned Parenthood. If Rosie were truly concerned about preventable deaths, she might want to ambush Democrats who support partial-birth abortion. Or she might want to bushwack Spike Lee, who recently told the New York Post that the National Rifle Association ought to shut its doors and that someone ought to shoot NRA president Charlton Heston -- not only a nice guy, but a Freedom Marcher in the 1960s -- "with a .44-caliber Bulldog." Talk about double standards! If some right-wing cracker were to suggest similar justice for Spike Lee, Janet Reno would be convening a hate-crimes tribunal and prescribing a year's worth of sensitivity training for the foul-mouthed malefactor...."
WorldNet Daily 7/2/99 Stephan Archer "..."More gun confiscation in California? State may take some firearms without compensation By Stephan Archer 1999 WorldNetDaily.com While some California gun owners are turning in their illegal guns for cash, others may have to turn them in for nothing at all. In a situation related to California's current buy back program in which the state is offering $230 to gun owners in exchange for their SKS "Sporter" rifles, owners of certain semiautomatics other than the SKS "Sporter" may have to give up their firearms without compensation to avoid facing criminal prosecution. ..."
Star Tribune 4/30/99 Larry Oakes Freeper DonMorgan "... In 1998 a civic group called Violence Free Duluth set out to study a year's worth of crimes involving guns in the port city. Among other things, its members wanted to know type of guns used, the role of alcohol or drugs, relationships between offenders and victims, and the age, sex and race of criminals. The results, released Thursday, give a detailed statistical profile of the 93 gun crimes reported in the city in 1997, with one notable exception: no mention of race of the offenders. That's because the 25-member citizens advisory council coordinating the study decided that divulging race might not be fair or relevant and might distract from the role of more universal issues surrounding gun violence..."
Reuters 5/13/99 "... A day after refusing to regulate gun show sales in a controversial vote, the Senate Thursday voted 96-2 to ban minors from purchasing semi-automatic assault weapons such as AK-47s and Uzis. Under current law, people under age 18 cannot buy handguns from either a licensed dealer or through a private sale, but the restrictions on assault weapons were not as strict. The measure approved Thursday closed the loophole and also barred youths from having high-capacity ammunition clips....The Senate later Thursday will vote on a similar amendment by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, which also bans all imports of high-capacity ammo clips, for people of any age. Such clips cannot be made in the United States but are still imported..."
Reuters 5/14/99 Joanne Kenen "...The U.S. Senate Friday, reversing itself, narrowly backed mandatory background checks at gun shows but President Clinton said the Republican-drafted version was full of "high caliber loopholes." Two days earlier, the Senate had killed a Democratic measure to institute mandatory checks at gun shows and adopted a weaker voluntary system. A number of Republicans had swift second thoughts about appearing too soft on guns after the Littleton, Colorado, high school tragedy and Republicans produced their own gun show language....Republicans, while budging on guns, have tried to stress cultural factors and violence in entertainment and they hope to offer some more amendments in that area. For instance, Wayne Allard of Colorado wants to allow students or faculty of a public school to hold memorial services or place a memorial on school grounds that includes religious prayer and symbols in situations where someone is killed on school grounds. That will likely spark a debate about school prayer and separation of church and state....."
Manchester Union Leader 6/8/99 Betsy Hart "...If Americans genuinely want to restrict gun rights, then it should be done by the process laid out for amending our Constitution, not by congressional or judicial fiat. Constitutional objections aside, such new laws don't pass the common-sense test. The murderers in Littleton, Colo., had broken almost two dozen federal and state gun-control laws in their rampage. What would another law have done? Would someone with such little respect for the law that he is willing to use guns for an evil purpose have enough respect for the law to obey new gun-control measures? Nor should anyone believe that criminal minds won't easily figure out ways around the new laws. Some might argue that at least these new gun-control measures won't hurt. Oh, but they do. In fact, the way they hurt most of all, and the reason I most oppose them, is that they distract us into wrapping our thinking, our resolve, our resources and our very understanding of the issues around all the wrong things. Gun laws may make us feel we've gone a long way toward addressing the problem of gun-violence among our youths, when to the extent we believe such a thing we haven't even begun to understand the problem. Any doubts? Consider that for much of our nation's history, guns were a regular part of life for many young people and were far more available to them legally than they are today, but only in recent times have we witnessed these killing sprees...."
NewsMax.com 7/14/99 Mona Charen "…While politicians and many in the press attempted to make the availability of guns the "lesson" of the Littleton massacre, another theme just won't seem to go away. What more and more Americans are recognizing is that the Too Busy Parent is a cultural phenomenon with vast consequences for children. One researcher estimates that 50 percent of parents do not know who their adolescent children's friends are. Another has found that the average teen-ager spends only six minutes a day talking to his mother, and even less conversing with his father. American advertising is full of time-saving devices for "families on the go." Usually they are assumed to be going in different directions…."
The New York Post 7/12/99 Brian Blomquist "…Despite President Clinton's push for new gun-control laws, his own Justice Department admits it isn't enforcing all the gun laws on the books. Two federal laws, in particular, stand out as being virtually ignored by federal investigators. One makes it a federal crime for kids to sneak guns into schools; another makes it a federal offense - with a 10-year prison sentence - for felons to lie when they apply to buy a gun. But of the 6,000 kids caught sneaking guns into schools in the last three years, the Justice Department has prosecuted only 17. And of more than 400,000 felons and other bad apples blocked from buying guns, the Justice Department says fewer than 1,000 have been prosecuted for lying on application forms…."
Arizona Republic 6/9/99 Jim Gahar "...With all of the hysteria of late, we seem to be forgetting that the entire Bill of Rights is under assault, not just the Second Amendment. On the positive side, a federal judge in Texas has just ruled the Clinton-Gore crime bill in violation of both the Second and Fifth amendments to the Constitution. The government has appealed, and the case may now go before the Supreme Court. The entire issue stems from what "the people" means in the context of the Second Amendment. In a 32-page argument going back as far as A.D. 690 in English law, the judge argued that "the people" has an identical and consistent meaning in the preamble of the Constitution and in all of the amendments in which it is used. It means "the peaceable citizens" in every case, not the states or the federal government..."
NRA 8/99 "...A LIST OF CELEBRITIES RECENTLY SIGNED A NATIONAL AD Imploring the NRA to care more about the safety of our nation's children. Apparently, nobody told Barry Manilow or Bruce Springsteen that the "13 children lost to gun violence every day" cited in their ad are in fact neither children nor accidents, but 85% are suicides or murders committed by gangbangers aged 15 to 19. Clearly, Meryl Streep and Moon Zappa are unaware that countless children's lives have been saved through the single most successful, most effective and widely used gun accident prevention program in America: the NRA's Eddie Eagle program. We've distributed it to 12 million kids in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada at a cost of almost $20 million.... The media hasn't reported how the Eddie Eagle(r) curriculum effectively teaches youngsters what to do if they encounter a firearm: STOP! Don't Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult. So Rosie O'Donnell and Tony Bennett probably don't know it's the only gun accident prevention program for kids used by 500 law enforcement agencies across the country. We doubt Madonna or Henry Winkler know that it won the National School Public Relations Association's Golden Achievement Award. Barbra Streisand and Fannie Flagg are likely unaware the National Safety Council gave the Eddie Eagle(r) program its Youth Activities Award of Merit. No one told Richard Gere or Rosemary Clooney that Eddie Eagle(r) has been officially recognized and honored by more than 35 governors and state legislatures. Jerry Seinfeld and Fred Rogers probably don't know that fatal firearm accidents among children have dropped 64% - falling 13% in Eddie's first year alone. We bet Spike Lee and Cathy Rigby are unaware that 3,500 ordinary Americans have volunteered to spread Eddie Eagle's(r) lifesaving message. It's probably news to Jack Nicholson and Brad Gooch that Eddie Eagle's(r) founder won the National Safety Council's Outstanding Community Service Award. Nobody informed Walter Cronkite and BOYS II MEN that theAmerican Legion awarded Eddie Eagle(r) its prestigious National Education Award. Nobody probably told Cher or Sting that only the Eddie Eagle(r) gun accident prevention program has won the endorsement of thousands of school systems nationwide. And probably, Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke don't know that today, fatal firearm accidents among children are the lowest in history. We won't stop until there are none. ...."
CNSNews.com 7/28/99 Lionel Waxman "...In this country, it is one of our most cherished rights to be considered innocent by the law until properly found guilty. Except in Connecticut, of course. Connecticut has just passed a law permitting police to confiscate all the firearms of anyone they believe might be considering a criminal act. All they have to do is apply to a judge for a warrant. The judge would hear the police in secret and issue the confiscation warrant if he believes the target is dangerous, if, for example, you have made threats, been cruel to animals, or abused drugs or alcohol. So in Connecticut, if you get quietly drunk at home on Saturday night, police can seize your guns. Kick your dog, lose your guns. Make an obscene gesture on the highway, lose your guns -- and probably your car....After a few years of this, Connecticut will become as safe as Cuba...."
Wall Street Journal 7/28/99 Paul Barrett "...The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering joining the legal assault against the gun industry, said people familiar with the situation. Such a move would sharply escalate the antigun court fight already being waged by 23 cities and counties around the country. A HUD spokesman said only that the agency is monitoring the litigation and has "no plans" to file a suit...."
NRA's American Guardian 8/99 NRA Institute for Legislative Action "... "Suing Gun Manufactures: Hazardous to Our Health" is the title of a recently released study that concludes the crime deterrent benefits of firearms ownership outweigh the societal costs of guns used in crime as much as $38.9 billion annually in the United States. In the study, H. Sterling Burnett, senior policy analyst as the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, Texas, attempts to bring sanity to a litigious world that grows increasingly outlandish as greedy tort lawyers and anti-gun mayors try to replace legal precedents with legal theories.....Gun industry critics and anti-gun groups frequently compare the suits against the gun industry to those against the tobacco industry. But, Burnett points out, "There is much to distinguish guns form cigarettes. Guns do not cause harm to the user or third parties in normal use, and they are not addictive. That guns are potentially dangerous is widely known and has never been disputed by the firearms industry. Unlike tobacco, guns provide a multitude of tangible social goods: pleasures for those involved in the shooting sports, U.S. national security, police-led crime prevention and criminal apprehension efforts and effective personal defense against crime. Only a small fraction of firearms, less than 1%, are ever involved in violence. The clearest evidence that even the mayors suing the gun industries believe guns are beneficial is the fact that the arm the police. It is not that guns are bad, it is that some people use them badly." ...."
Associated Press (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) 8/4/99 Kate Grossman "...Treating U.S. gunshot victims in 1994 cost $2.3 billion in lifetime medical costs, an amount that matches what Americans spend on guns and firearms annually, a new study found...... The government, mostly through Medicaid and Medicare payments, paid $1.1 billion of the total cost, the study found. Private insurers and victims picked up the bulk of the rest, accounting for 18 percent and 19 percent of the total costs, respectively. The researchers speculated that victims' costs are often passed on to other patients because many victims can't afford treatment. Despite the seemingly high numbers, Cohen said the costs are not significant when compared to the $1 trillion spent on medical care annually. "If you did away with gunshot injuries, would you reduce medical costs?'' Cohen asked. "Not by much.'' He said fraud is more costly to hospitals than gunshot wounds...."
Claremont Institute 3/4/99 Medical Sentinel Timothy Wheeler, MD "...Imagine this scenario: you visit your doctor for back pain. Your doctor asks if you have firearms in your home. Then he announces that your family would be better off (especially your children) if you had no guns at all in your house. You leave the doctor's office feeling uneasy, wondering what guns have to do with your backache. Does your doctor care about your family's safety? Or instead, did he use your trust and his authority to advance a political agenda? American families may soon find themselves in this scenario. Social activists are taking their war on gun ownership to a new battleground: the doctor's office. (1) The American Medical Association (AMA) (2), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (3), and American College of Physicians (ACP) (4) are urging doctors to probe their patients about guns in their homes. They profess concern for patient safety. But their ulterior motive is a political prejudice against guns and gun owners. And that places their interventions into the area of unethical physician conduct called boundary violations....The AAP, ACP, and AMA are members of the Handgun Epidemic Lowering Plan (HELP) Network, based in Chicago. HELP is an exclusive advocacy group dedicated to banning guns. Physicians who disagree with HELP's anti-gun agenda are barred from attending HELP's conferences, a policy unthinkable in any scientific organization. HELP's founder and leader Dr. Katherine Christoffel has compared guns to viruses that must be eradicated. (9) The group's militant advocacy has no place for differing viewpoints on firearms, and apparently neither do the medical organizations which have signed on as HELP members...."
NRA 8/3/99 "...Immediately after last night's airing of CBS Evening News' blatantly biased "Reality Check" segment, which ignored recent scholarly research and falsely claimed that the Second Amendment is not an individual right, the National Rifle Association launched a campaign to provide CBS News with its own reality check.
** CBS FAILED to cite the 1990 Supreme Court reference to the Second Amendment in U.S. v. Verdugo-Urquidez that stated, "'the people' protected by the Fourth Amendment, and by the First and Second Amendments ... refers to a class of persons who are part of the national community." Each of these rights are individual.
** CBS FAILED to report this year's federal court ruling from the Northern District of Texas, U.S. v. Emerson, in which the federal judge overturned a federal gun law on Second Amendment grounds and argued, "The rights of the Second Amendment should be as zealously guarded as the other individual liberties enshrined in the bill of rights."
** CBS FAILED to report that, in the last decade, scholars from across the political spectrum have concluded that the Second Amendment, from any method of analysis, protects an individual right, and that this view is now commonly referred to as the "Standard Model" (Glenn Harlan Reynolds, 1995).
** CBS FAILED to note that the nation's leading constitutional scholars such as Lawrence Tribe (Harvard), Akil Reed Amar (Yale), William Van Alstyne (Duke), and Sanford Levinson (Texas) ascribe to the concept of the individual Second Amendment right as the "Standard Model."
** CBS FAILED to report the conclusion of Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds, of the University of Tennessee, that scholars adhering to an individual rights interpretation, "... dominate the academic literature on the Second Amendment almost completely," and that this view is "... the mainstream scholarly interpretation."
U S Newswire 8/3/99 "...Mohammad N. Akhter, M.D., MPH, APHA's executive director, said, "Any bill they craft must include the common-sense, gun-law-loophole-closing measures adopted by the Senate." Dr. Akhter said these provisions include the following: -- three-business day background checks for all gun show purchases; -- safety devices sold with every gun; -- a ban on importing high-capacity ammunition clips; and -- a ban on juvenile possession of assault weapons. .... The American Public Health Association, the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals, represents more than 50,000 members from more than 50 public health occupations. APHA has long recognized gun violence as a critical public health issue and since 1976 has supported efforts to reduce and prevent firearm-related injury and death...."
Reuters 8/3/99 "...It may be hard to believe, but the percentage of high school students who carry a weapon to school or engage in physical fighting is declining, according to new data released this week. Nonetheless, the rates of both weapon carrying and fighting among students in grades 9 through 12 "remain unacceptably high," Dr. Thomas R. Simon of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, told Reuters Health...."
Bloomberg - Top World News 8/7/99 Greg Wiles "...Los Angeles County and three county supervisors are suing gun makers, distributors and retailers, including Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Tomkins Plc's Smith & Wesson, claiming they illegally promoted handgun sales to criminals. The suit claims the gun manufacturers violated California's pro-consumer business law by engaging in unfair and deceptive practices, marketing the weapons to disreputable dealers and designing guns that appeal to criminals. The manufacturers also failed to sell handguns that incorporate reasonable safety features, the filing said..."
business week 8/16/99 William Symonds "...At the center of this hurricane are the world's gun manufacturers, a diverse group ranging from true-blue American brand names like Smith & Wesson and Colt's Manufacturing to foreigners like Italy's nearly 500-year-old Beretta to idiosyncratic tiny players like W.S. Daniel, a company in Ducktown, Tenn., that makes mail-order assault-weapon kits. They're all dependent on America as the world's largest consumer firearms market--and they're all running scared and increasingly divided on how best to defend themselves. ''I've been in this industry 36 years, and this is the most awesome set of circumstances I've ever seen,'' says Robert G. Morrison, chief operating officer of Miami-based Taurus International Manufacturing Inc., the U.S. arm of Brazilian handgun producer Forjas Taurus. Not since George Washington established the Springfield (Mass.) Armory to defend the young republic has the American gun industry faced a more serious crisis. Trouble looms on every front. Politically, the companies are facing the prospect of a Big Tobacco-like meltdown of their power in Washington and clout with state legislatures, a development that could lead to tough new regulations that aren't riddled with loopholes. While handgun registration is still unlikely, measures that would make it harder for criminals to buy weapons at gun shows and limit the number of firearms purchased at one time seem more viable every day. Legally, gunmakers are facing an onslaught of lawsuits they can barely afford to fight, much less lose. These cases are based on the controversial theory that manufacturers are partially responsible for gun violence. The suits seek millions to cover local government expenses for health care and policing. That's a scary prospect to many gun executives because the business is financially shaky. While 1999 will be a strong year, thanks in part to fears of new restrictions on ownership, most executives expect the market to steadily shrink over the long term. ..."
New York Post 8/12/99 Frankie Edozien "...The National Rifle Association stuck to its guns yesterday - noting the suspect in California's daycare shooting spree was an ex-con and saying it proves "guns don't kill people, bad people do." The NRA - the country's leading pro-gun lobbying group - said legal gun ownership cannot be blamed for the shooting rampage. "Our members like everyone else are concerned about this tragedy. But reasonable people know there is something else going on here, and it has nothing to do with lawful people who own firearms," said Bill Powers, the NRA ..."
Houston Chronicle 8/10/99 Nicloe Schiereck "...Imagine yourself in your office, crouched beneath your desk, trying desperately to drown out the gunfire and screams that are penetrating your every thought. Your heart is beating a mile a minute as a feeling of complete helplessness overwhelms you. Are you next? You don't have to be. Mark Barton, the gunman in the office rampage in suburban Atlanta, was obviously intent on killing as many people as possible. According to reports, Barton, armed with 9 mm and .45-caliber handguns, walked through an office complex, killing workers. Because of one deranged man's abhorrent actions, there will be cries for stricter gun control laws. But don't be led astray by gun control advocates. It is essential to realize that this tragedy might have been completely avoided, and most certainly lessened, if someone else in that office had a gun...."
Sacramento Bee 8/12/99 Steve Geissinger "...Political leaders in several states with strong histories of gun ownership say they are unlikely to toughen gun-control laws following the nation's third major multiple shooting in two weeks. "Gun laws wouldn't have helped in Los Angeles," Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "Better enforcement would have helped." .... It wasn't immediately clear where Furrow obtained the weapon. California gun buyers must pass a background check with a 10-day waiting period, and convicted felons like Furrow are barred from possessing firearms. President Clinton immediately urged the nation to "intensify our resolve to make America a safer place," and White House spokesman Barry Toiv repeated the call Wednesday...."
The London Sunday Telegraph 8/15/99 James Langton "...PROBATION officers ignored an earlier judge's order that they should confiscate weapons belonging to the self-confessed Nazi and racist Buford Furrow, who gunned down children at a Jewish community centre in Los Angeles last week, writes James Langton. Furrow, 37, had been banned from owning guns in his home state of Washington because of his criminal record but was known to have easy access to weapons. A judge's order that his home be regularly searched was apparently ignored by probation officers.
It also emerged that Furrow, a white supremacist who also murdered a Filipino postman during his rampage, was a known psychotic whose behaviour was so violent that a policeman who arrested him for an earlier assault came close to shooting him in self-defence...."
NRA 8/14/99 Bob Evans/Republican Congressional Candidate vs Tom Lantos for 2000 "...NRA-ILA FAX ALERT 11250 Waples Mill Road - Fairfax, VA 22030 Vol 6 No 12 "...In what could prove to be an extremely important precedent- setting decision, a United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently dismissed an indictment against a defendant based on the opinion that the federal law he was accused of violating represented an unconstitutional exercise of congressional power that violated rights protected under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The law, which was buried within the massive 1994 Clinton Crime Bill, prohibits the possession of a firearm by anyone with a court restraining order..... "A historical examination of the right to bear arms...bears proof that the right to bear arms has consistently been, and should still be, construed as an individual right." "The rights of the Second Amendment should be as zealously guarded as the other individual liberties enshrined in theBill of Rights." "It is absurd that a boilerplate state court divorce order can collaterally and automatically extinguish a law-abiding citizen's Second Amendment rights...."
World Net Daily 8/10/99 Jon E Dougherty "...Make no mistake about it: The mainstream media is this country's worst enemy on the issue of the Second Amendment. And after another recent spate of shootings -- perpetrated not by guns alone but by deranged, psychopathic losers using guns -- the spin machine has been ratcheted up to full steam. A piece in this week's Time magazine by author Roger Rosenblatt says it all: "Get rid of the damned things!" and superficially it looks like little more than another media attempt to convince Americans that our society has outgrown the U.S. Constitution. Rosenblatt uses some familiar socialist anti-gun themes, such as never assigning blame to the criminals and social misfits who commit heinous acts and offering only one solution, the total banning of guns..... Granted, Americans should be concerned about all this gun violence. But the media is turning the debate over guns into a matter of national conscience, not simply a matter of the rule of law -- probably because liberals have discovered they cannot satisfactorily refute the simple meaning of our right to keep and bear arms. Understand one thing: These people are helping Uncle Sam come after our guns. They don't understand that if we lose our ability to defend all constitutional rights, the next one to go will be freedom of speech. God help this country then, because we all know what will happen next...."
Investors Business Daily 5/19/99 "..."There's no good reason for a child to own an AK-47,'' President Clinton said last week while pushing his kiddie gun control bill. Just as there's no good reason for a U.S. president to entertain the head of a communist entity that sells AK-47s to kids, right? Don't expect an answer from Clinton. He did just that on Feb. 6, 1996. His fund-raising pal, Charlie Trie, had invited Beijing arms dealer Wang Jun to one of Clinton's famous fund- raising ''coffees'' in the White House Map Room. Wang is the son of China's former vice president. He also runs Polytechnologies, an arms dealership owned by Poly Group, which is owned directly by China's People's Liberation Army. In May 1996, agents of Wang's dealership and another Chinese arms company, Norinco, were arrested for trying to smuggle AK- 47s into the U.S. for sale to drug gangs...."
Smith-Wesson.com 8/15/99 L E Schutz "...On June 3, 1999 the City of Boston and the Boston Public Health Commission joined a number of other cities in filing a lawsuit against Smith & Wesson and other members of the firearms industry. As in several of the other cases, the complaint has been signed not just by attorneys employed by the City, but by outside lawyers from New York, Washington, D.C. and representatives of an anti-firearm organization, individuals with their own social agenda. Although those bringing the suit say it is not about money, it asks for $100 million plus, and the law firms will get 25% of whatever is exacted from the firearms manufacturers as their only payment for handling this matter...The implications of the suit are that Smith & Wesson has no concern about firearms safety, whether it be applied to the handgun itself, or to safe and responsible storage of the gun. Nothing could be further from the truth. For nearly a century and a half Smith & Wesson has been, and continues to be, a leader in firearms design, innovation, manufacturing quality, safety and training. Smith & Wesson has lawfully and responsibly manufactured firearms in the State of Massachusetts since 1856. Every Smith & Wesson firearm is sold with an owners manual that clearly warns the purchaser about the dangers and responsibilities that accompany ownership. Since 1997, before the President and Congress began debating the merits of gunlocks, Smith & Wesson was providing a Master Lock gunlock with every Smith & Wesson shipped. Even before that Smith & Wesson guns were being shipped in lockable boxes and before that with lockable trigger devices that owners could lock if they were not going to secure their gun in another manner. Since 1955, Smith & Wesson has offered semi-automatic pistols that utilize a magazine disconnect which renders the gun incapable of firing when the magazine is removed. This feature has been incorporated into the training of many police departments and is responsible for saving the lives of officers every year. The similar pistols shipped to the non-law enforcement market also contain this feature. Other features of Smith & Wesson handguns include manual safeties, firing pin safeties and hammer blocks. Smith & Wesson handguns also require significant pressure on the trigger to cause the gun to discharge. In order for a Smith & Wesson gun to fire, the trigger must be pulled all the way to the rear and held, thus preventing the gun from accidentally firing if the trigger is bumped or the gun is dropped...."
Wall Street Journal 8/16/99 Vanessa O'Connel & Paul M. Barrett "...Since last fall, 26 municipalities have sued the gun industry, accusing it of flooding the market with handguns, many of which end up in criminal hands. There is an incongruity in the municipalities position, though: Most of the cities suing the gun industry are themselves, in effect, gun suppliers--and some could be accused of a degree of carelessness in how they unload police weapons and confiscated firearms... The cities say they need to sell or trade in the weapons to cut the cost of obtaining new, higher-power model--much as old police cars are auctioned off for cash...Thousands of these castoff guns have turned up in crimes, such as last week's shooting rampage in Los Angeles by neo-Nazi Buford O. Furrow Jr...[T]he confessed killer allegedly murdered a mailman of Filipino descent with a Glock 26 pistol......But it wasn't an isolated incident. Data obtained by The Wall Street Journal under the Freedom of Information Act show that at least 1,100 former police guns were among the 193,203 crime guns traced last year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Because of inconsistencies in how the agency compiles gun-trace data, any such annual count of former police guns connected to crime "probably represents the tip of the iceberg," says Howard Andrews, a Columbia University bio-statistician who assisted the Journal in its analysis...."
Roll Call Jim VandeHei 8/15/99 "...The National Rifle Association is under fire for its lobbying tactics, but, this time, the shots are coming from Republicans and other pro-gun activists. The NRA, easily the largest and most influential gun-rights lobby in America, has been too quick to compromise and too slow to mobilize its troops to defeat anti-gun legislation in the House and the Senate, GOP leadership sources and gun activists say. As a result, several sources warned that the NRA has presented anti-gun Democrats with the perfect opportunity to score a major political victory next month when key Members of the House and the Senate convene to put the finishing touches on the juvenile justice bill, which is expected to include the first new collection of gun laws since 1994...."
AP 8/15/99 "...Attorney General Janet Reno wants a requirement that prospective gun buyers be required to prove they have the knowledge, ability and inclination to use weapons safely and legally. ``I'd have them take a written and manual test demonstrating that they know how to safely and ... to lawfully use it under state law,'' the attorney general said Sunday on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program. ``And I would have a background check that would make sure they had evidenced the willingness and capacity to do so.''..."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_btl/19990816_xcbtl_is_it_time.shtml 8/16/99 Joseph Farah "…For instance, take a look at what happened in Australia one year after citizens were forced to surrender 640,381 personal firearms, including semi-automatic .22 rifles and shotguns -- a program costing the government more than $500 million: Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent; Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent; Australia-wide, armed-robberies are up 44 percent; In the state of Victoria, homicides-with-firearms are up 300 percent; Figures over the previous 25 years had showed a steady decrease in homicides-with-firearms -- that changed dramatically in the past 12 months; Figures over the previous 25 years had showed a steady decrease in armed-robbery-with-firearms -- that changed dramatically in the past 12 months; The story is the same no matter where you look objectively for the facts -- more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens equals less crime; fewer guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens translates to more crime. It makes perfect sense, yet it doesn't fit the agenda of the gun-grabbers who would grant government a monopoly on force -- always a recipe for disaster and tyranny…."Jewish World Review 8/17/99 Debbie Schlussel "…SURE, IT’S A TRAGEDY that Buford O. Furrow’s bullets struck human flesh at a North Los Angeles area Jewish Community Center (JCC). The shooter said he wanted to sound a "wake up call to America to kill Jews." But what may be an even greater horror is that Jewish and other political leaders — such as the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman and President Clinton — are using this tragedy — using Jewish blood — to advance a political agenda with the goal of stripping our freedom and Second Amendment right to self-defense. The fact is, Furrow was hell-bent on rampaging. He scouted out no less than three other Jewish institutions before settling on the JCC. There was one and only one reason he decided against the other sites: Armed personnel or security made his entry unfeasible. The saying, "the best offense is a good defense," is not just a football slogan. It also applies to saving human lives. But Foxman and Clinton want to take that right — the right to self-defense — away from us, the law-abiding citizens. They want to hand victory to Furrow from the jaws of defeat. .Contrary to Foxman’s and Clinton’s ill logic, if we are to ever restore peace to our streets, the right to keep and bear arms must be fully restored, not further restricted…..My grandfather told me about how the renowned Zionist leader, Vladimir "Ze’ev" Jabotinsky, who had emigrated to Israel, visited Nazi Europe just prior to the advent of the concentration camps and witnessed the anti-Semitism that was building throughout. In Yiddish, he warned, "Yiddin, learn tzoo shissin!"—"Jews, learn to shoot!" And he told Jews to get guns— the only way to protect themselves. Though the Jewish underground agreed with Mr. Jabotinsky that guns were the only way they could protect themselves from the Nazis, they did not have access to guns and — though their efforts were valiant — they failed --- six million Jews, and eleven million human lives, having perished at the fate of the Nazis. When Mr. Jabotinsky returned, he lamented that Jewish efforts to learn to shoot and to obtain guns were too little too late….."
ABC 8/18/99 Freeper commish reports "…Last night on the ABC game show "So you want to be a millionaire" they had a contestant who won $16,000 - she was unable to answer the following question to win $32,000 WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A PART OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION A. RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE B. RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS C. RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH D. RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION ….Here is the kicker - the person who could not answer this question is a HISTORY PROFESSOR at Kennesaw State College in KENNESAW, GA !!!!!! For those of you who don't know - Kennesaw was the first city in the USA to REQUIRE all homeowners to OWN at least One FIREARM - It also has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation, and has not had a Gun related murder in years! …"
Newsweek 8/23/99 Wayne LaPierre Interview "…LaPierre: People believe they have a constitutional right and a freedom to own guns in this country. And they don't want their names on government lists. They know what the next step is. It's a knock on the door confiscating their guns. And, you know, they're not going to stand in line and submit to that. What purpose is there for the government to compile a list of who has guns in their homes in this country? Why does Janet Reno need a list? Newsweek: Why do you think they want to do it? LaPierre: I think the real target is the Second Amendment. I don't think it has anything to do with crime. I don't think it has anything to do with stopping violence. I think the ultimate target is to take away the freedom and take away the Second Amendment. …"