PIML 96061805 / Forwarded to Patriot Information Mailing List: [Neal Knox on gun confiscation, etc.] PIML ================================================================== From: "Cravens, Roger D." Subject: FW: FCO 6-12-96 Part 2 Date: Mon, 17 Jun 96 14:48:00 EST From: firearms-alert-errors Subject: FCO 6-12-96 Part 2 Date: Sunday, June 16, 1996 2:55AM Phone logs tomorrow. They are also broken up into two pieces. Chris -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Shotgun News Columns April 10 - June 2 'Ultimate Confiscation' By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 10) -- "Washington Post" columnist and television pundit Charles Krauthammer, in an April 5 article condemning the House repeal vote, revealed the truth about "reasonable" gun laws: "(T)he assault weapons ban will have no significant effect either on the crime rate or on personal security. Nonetheless, it is a good idea, though for reasons its proponents dare not enunciate." "Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic -- purely symbolic -- move.... Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation." That's what this fight is really all about: the ultimate confiscation of all firearms. When I say such a thing, and I've been saying it for over 30 years, I'm accused of paranoia. I'm not paranoid; I simply know how to read. On June 17, 1968, when the Johnson Administration's Gun Control Act was still being debated, Rev. J. Elliott Corbett, then the secretary of the National Council for a Responsible Firearms Policy, said in a letter to a Maryland supporter: "We are now supporting the President's Bill which provides stringent restrictions on rifles and shotguns. We shall also get behind the Tydings Bill which provides for national registration and licensing [Note: of all guns]. "I personally believe handguns should be outlawed.... Our organization will probably officially take this stand in time but we are not anxious to rouse the opposition before we get the other legislation passed. "It would be difficult to outlaw all rifles and shotguns because of the hunting sport. But there should be stiff regulations. The day may come in this country when police are issued weapons for 24 to 48 hours." The Rev. Corbett, who was the Director of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, in 1974 formed the National Coalition to Ban Handguns. (NCBH recently softened its name to "Coalition to Stop Gun Violence," though its objectives haven't changed and it's still located in the Methodist Church building on Capitol Hill.) I called Corbett several times about his organization's plans and policies. Once, when he couldn't answer a question, he turned over the telephone to Edward O. Wells, who he said had helped him set up NCBH. I was astounded, for Ed Wells was the founding chairman of another group formed in 1974, the National Council to Control Handguns. To reduce the confusion with NCBH, NCCH was later renamed Handgun Control Inc. About a year after starting what is now HCI, Wells, who had just retired from the Central Intelligence Agency, turned over the chairmanship to Nelson T. (Pete) Shields (who passed it to Sarah Brady). In the July 26, 1976 New Yorker Magazine (pp. 53f), Shields told columnist Richard Harris: "We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily -- given the political realities -- going to be very modest." "Our ultimate goal -- total control of handguns in the United States -- is going to take time. ... The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced.... The second problem is to get handguns registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition -- except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors -- totally illegal." The step-by-step plan that Corbett laid out in 1968, that Shields revealed in 1975, and Krauthammer in 1996, is precisely what we've watched them try to do -- with too much success. About 1990 HCI changed its corporate charter to allow it to pursue the so-called "assault weapons" ban of rifles and shotguns, and NCBH changed its name from "Handgun" to "Gun." No matter how restrictive the gun laws may be, when they fail to prevent a rise in crime -- particularly some especially heinous crime like the slaughter of kindergartners in Scotland -- the anti-gun crowd has an excuse: the gun laws aren't restrictive enough. The United Kingdom's all-restrictive laws are the supposed model for U.S. gun "controllers," but they've been very quiet, for their colleagues in Great Britain are now attempting the ultimate step: prohibition and confiscation of licensed handguns. Yet dupes in the public, and even within our own ranks, still think our foes only want a "reasonable" gun law. ======================================================================== NRA In Dallas Dallas, Texas (April 22) -- If you missed the NRA 125th Anniversary Meetings this weekend, you missed a whale of a party. A record crowd -- almost 30,000 -- saw an unusually large number of exhibits (including the NRA Museum in Microcosm). There was too much to see if you also attended the annual meetings and some of the outstanding special sessions. Millions got a partial look on C-Span, which televised the speeches of the officers. The election of NRA's first woman president, Marion Hammer, accounted for much of the media's interest -- including more requests for her to appear on television than she could possibly accommodate. After much polite campaigning for Second Vice President, the Nominating Committee narrowed their choices to Directors Don Henry, Kayne Robinson and Albert Ross, then recommended Ross. As soon as their decision was announced Robinson and Henry both withdrew, asking their supporters to vote for Albert. All the other officers were re-elected. The third of the board elected or re-elected had all been recommended by the Nominating Committee. Ross, a soft-spoken attorney from Arlington, Texas, has been active for years in youth shooting and hunting programs, is the former president of the Dallas Arms Collectors, and is a legislative activist. Despite the efforts of the press to find controversy, it was the most harmonious meeting in years. During my report I stated that the massacre of kindergartners at Dunblane, Scotland, showed that even the United Kingdom's vaunted gun laws couldn't prevent the acts of a madman. A reporter from the London Times had the audacity to ask me if that horror had "helped NRA" by proving our case! I told him that visitation of evil had not helped anyone. The only truly unpleasant action at the meeting was the Board's removal from the NRA, after a lengthy ethics procedure, of Dave Edmondson for "specific violations of provisions of the NRA Bylaws regarding the filing and confidentiality of complaints," NRA said in a formal statement. Edmondson, a defeated board member, has been a frequent NRA critic in the press and on national television programs, but the expulsion (which required a three-quarters vote) "did not involve the matter of his criticisms of the NRA and its officers," the statement said. The Bylaws prohibit Directors from discussing facts of the case. Despite recent newspaper articles claiming NRA is going broke (most quoting Edmondson), the Treasurer reported that membership is stable at 3 million, the loan on the new NRA building has been reduced, the value of investments has increased some $8 million in the past year, and NRA is managing to continue to operate in the black after finishing 1995 with a balanced budget. Meanwhile, much has been happening in Washington. Last week the much-modified conference version of the anti- terrorism bill -- roundly condemned by Sen. Joe Biden, Rep. Charles Schumer and President Clinton -- passed the Senate 91-8 and the House 293-133. Despite the grumbling, and a futile last- minute effort by opponents to add 15 amendments (including restoring the anti-gun provisions) those veto-proof votes mean Clinton will sign it. There's little or nothing in the final bill to worry gun owners, but much to worry convicted killers and abusive Federal law enforcement agencies, for it includes limits on death row appeals and a requirement for a blue ribbon commission to be appointed to investigate the way the BATF, FBI, U.S. Marshals and other agencies are doing business -- including what they did at Waco and Ruby Ridge. Hearings will be held this week in Rep. Jim Lightfoot's (Iowa) Treasury Appropriations subcommittee to hear the initial results of a General Accounting Office review of how BATF is treating Federally licensed firearms dealers. Sen. Arlen Specter's planned hearings on the future of BATF, also scheduled for this week, have been postponed for six to eight weeks. There also will be hearings this week concerning so-called "canned hunts" before the crime subcommittee, of all places. And next week there will be hearings on the Centers for Disease Control and the Injury Prevention Center, including the fact that they're spending big dollars for anti-gun research which is so biased that the researchers have refused to provide their data and methods. ======================================================================== Roberti's Revenge By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 1) -- When California Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti and Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos pushed through the infamous Roberti-Roos ban on military-look semi-autos in 1989, gunowners across the state -- and the nation -- swore they'd get even. They did. Both Roberti and Roos are now out of politics. But their friends have struck back with an $808,000 fine against two of the leaders of the fight against them! Roos resigned after pro-gun grass roots groups began stirring up his smelly political past, using an innovative "chain letter" technique for reaching the voters in his district -- a system that the politicians couldn't control. Then came the big one: An equally innovative effort to use an obscure constitutional provision to recall Roberti, the first recall to get on the ballot since 1914. Roberti survived the recall election, but only after expending so much political capital and campaign funds that he was defeated in his subsequent campaign to be elected state treasurer. Last fall, the California Fair Political Practices Commission struck back with that grossly unfair $808,000 fine. Citizens Against Corruption Executive Director Russ Howard (who did most of the research on the recall effort) and Assistant Treasurer Steve Cicero were each saddled with the largest such political fine in U.S. history -- over five times the total raised by the committee. It wasn't enough to rap CAC, Howard and Cicero the maximum $2,000 fine for each of the 105 contributors whose names and donation, but not their addresses, were reported. Instead, the FPPC charged one count each for failure to report the address, occupation, and employer's name. In many cases that amounted to a $6,000 fine for initially reporting only the name and amount of a $100 contribution! Russ says there were three main reasons for the initial reports not being complete: (1) Many contributions came from out-of-staters who didn't provide that information; (2) The inability of a tiny band of amateurs to comply with all the bureaucratic requirements while attempting to conduct a campaign and, most importantly: (3) Desire to save contributors the harassment that occurred after names and addresses of supporters of the Roberti recall were published in local newspapers. By double and triple-counting each incomplete report, FPPC came up with 404 counts at $2,000 each. Perhaps it's only coincidence, but Roberti spent some $800,000 -- almost exactly the amount of the fine -- in defending against the recall. A few days before the recall election Roberti told CBS News: "They want to send a message to any politician who dares fight them that they're going to make it so costly and so expensive that they're not going to fight the gun lobby." And I think it's a fair assumption that the California political establishment, through the FPPC, is now sending an $808,000 message to grass roots activists who invade their turf, or figure ways to evade their control and/or give politicians fits. The innovative "chain letter" campaign used against both Roos and Roberti involved gun owners across the country -- many of them readers of this column -- who photocopied campaign material, then used their own envelopes and postage to send it to registered voters in Roberti's and Roos' districts. The recall effort these guys helped pioneer has since been used three times to recall politicians who angered their constituents. A "brain trust" of skilled constitutional, administrative law, and gun rights lawyers has formed to try to save Russ and Steve from bankruptcy -- and give the FPPC pain. (The FPPC has filed suit to have the fine converted into a civil judgement.) And the Institute for Constitutional Rights, an established IRS 501(c)(3) organization which often defends the "politically incorrect," has taken up the case. Even with that kind of legal help, it's expensive to fight the establishment. The immediate need is about $10,000 to pay 10 cents per page to copy documents showing how FPPC has treated others -- which will show the rank discrimination against Russ and Steve. We can't leave our wounded warriors on the battlefield. Please send a generation contribution to ICR, 1999 Avenue Of The Stars, Suite 2800, Los Angeles, CA, noting that it's for the CAC Defense Fund. It's tax-deductible. As Russ has said, "Isn't it nice that the government will be helping to weaken its own power to oppress?" ======================================================================== The New Frontier By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10) -- While preparing my speech at the NRA annual members meeting in Dallas, I thought about how close North Texas is to the frontier -- where a gun was not merely something used for recreation, but for defense of self, family and community. Exactly 30 years ago, when I was a newspaper reporter and editor in Wichita Falls, about to move to Sidney, Ohio, to start Gun Week, I began receiving the local newspaper. The "75 Years Ago Today" column made me think I was moving into a foreign land, particularly when it reported who won the May 1891 trap shoot at the Shelby County Deer Hunters Club. In 1891, my part of North Texas was only three years away from the formal closing of the frontier. It had been only a few years since the Comanches were on the warpath along the Red River. That wasn't long ago. One of my grandmothers knew Quanah Parker, the last of the Comanche war chiefs. People who lived in North Texas in 1891 didn't waste ammunition on trap targets. They needed guns, ammo, powder and shot to feed their families, and, particularly, to protect them. Firearms were critical on the frontier -- which explains why opposition to gun laws has always been strongest in the areas where the frontier is closest. Today there's a new frontier -- one which has nothing to do with geography. It's the frontier between the civilized, law-abiding, peace- loving people who are the overwhelming majority of this nation, and the uncivilized, law-breaking, vicious people who prey on the helpless. That frontier has no boundaries, but it is most-sharply defined in long-settled urban areas, the traditional breeding areas for both crime and gun laws. The failure of gun laws to disarm any but the law-abiding, and the growing awareness that the law-abiding must have the means to protect themselves, is causing a reversal in the gun law trends. People who live on that new frontier are demanding the same rights of protection which were once demanded by those who lived on the old frontier. A few weeks ago the Washington Post reported on a neighborhood meeting where residents of the District of Columbia met with police about how they could protect themselves. The law-abiding can't have handguns in D.C. -- those have been outlawed since 1976 -- and rifles and shotguns are almost impossible to legally obtain and are required to be registered and licensed. Incredibly, the law prohibits even legal guns in residences from being loaded or fully assembled! It may not have been intended as an OSHA for criminals, but it certainly assured them a safe work environment! Those D.C. cops recommended that the residents of crime-infested neighborhoods acquire shotguns. Lt. Lowell Duckett, head of the Washington D. C. Black Police Caucus told the Washington Post that while honest citizens can't legally have a handgun, the crooks have all they want -- and that it was time to repeal the law. He and his fellow officers are the embattled scouts on the new frontier. Recognition of that new frontier, and the resurrected need for protection of self, family -- and even community, as the Los Angeles riots showed -- is the reason that in the past two years 16 more states have enacted laws requiring the issuance of concealed carry permits to law-abiding citizens. No peace-loving citizen truly wants to arm himself or herself to defend their loved ones. But as has been wisely said, "It is far better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun a not have it." A gun is something that most of us use only for recreation, but it is also an insurance policy that we pray we never need to for defense of ourselves and our families. Each of us has insurance on our homes. We pray we never need it, either. But just because we don't want our homes to burn doesn't mean that we should cancel our insurance policy -- and we sure shouldn't allow our government to void the insurance policy provided by the Second Amendment. Political Foolishness By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 20) -- Until I heard Dennis Fusaro trash House Speaker Newt Gingrich at Saturday's Gunstock rally in Detroit, I didn't believe that the leadership of Gun Owners of America had lost their collective minds. Fusaro heads state and local matters for GOA, and I had heard that, in addition to well-known NRA-bashing (perhaps to enhance their fund-raising), he and they were adopting some incomprehensible and counter-productive political positions. Speaker Gingrich took immense flak for causing the promised repeal vote on the semi-auto and magazine ban; if it hadn't been for him, there would have been no Waco hearings, and Freshman Bob Barr wouldn't be chairman of the House Firearms Task Force. To treat Gingrich as an enemy is plain stupid. Yet Saturday Fusaro blasted him for "supporting gun control" which he defined as "anything that increases government power." The most damning thing I had previously read about GOA's new course was a "Trip Report" by Northern Californian gun rights activist Peter Nesbitt concerning his attendance at a GOA Advanced Legislative Project Management April 29. Retired Senator H.L. "Bill" Richardson, who founded GOA and Gun Owners of California, keynoted the seminar, with Fusaro as the principal instructor. Nesbitt said they were told: "Instead of mobilizing our people in electing and assisting 'pro-gun' politicians, we should be busy inflicting Political Pain. By becoming too involved with the politician, becoming his friend, or accepting appointments to his various committees and panels, we lose our effectiveness as a grassroots activist. .... He then controls US, instead of us controlling HIM." Nesbitt concluded: "The main theme in this course is exercising our POWER against the politician through CONFRONTATIONAL techniques. "The techniques taught in this seminar indicate that we should be able to get ANY elected official to vote our way irregardless [sic] of who put him in office. .... "Much of the course content is very controversial, as it goes against the grain of what we as gun-owners, have been taught over the last few years." No kidding! This theology of "Only" Confrontational Politics is a prescription for disaster. Certainly we should "punish our foes," and I have delighted in dis-electing many anti-gunners; but it is equally critical to "support our friends." Support of non-incumbent pro-gunners was the sole reason Sen. Bill Richardson originally set up Gun Owners of California in 1975; I was a member of his board of directors. Bill probably would never have been elected if some gun activists in his district -- particularly Jim Watkins and Tom Wentz -- had taken the position that GOA/GOC now prescribes. They formed the San Gabriel Valley Gun Lobby and worked hard to elect him and three other hopefuls who did sterling work for gun owners. (One of them was U.S. Rep. Carlos Moorhead who is retiring this year after an exemplary career.) After Bill was re-elected enough times to become Senate Majority Leader, Watkins and Wentz felt that he began playing Republican politics so hard he sometimes forgot to dance with those gunowners "what brung him." Though they never treated him as an enemy -- Fusaro's prescription for politicians who backslide -- they quit working for him. And when Bill realized he had lost his base of support, he retired. Saturday Fusaro described GOA as the "junkyard dogs" of the gun movement; but their tactics are causing them to be treated more like skunks. Example: In 1992, local activists and GOA were significant factors in electing Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) while NRA supported a pro-gun Democrat with a proven voting record in the state legislature. Rep. Bartlett Congressmen was the prime sponsor for GOA's legislation guaranteeing the right to self-defense with a firearm. And he sponsored the successful amendment to the "anti- terrorism bill" requiring a commission to investigate Federal law enforcement, including Waco and Ruby Ridge. But on Friday, to quell an attack from his opponent, Rep. Bartlett said he was returning $6,700 in campaign contributions from GOA because Executive Director Larry Pratt (whom I know not to be a racist) would not publicly renounce white supremacist groups. Will GOA now turn against Rep. Bartlett? I hope not. Rep. Bartlett is not our enemy; nor is Newt Gingrich. 'Real' AK-47's Smuggled By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 2) -- No sooner had the Clinton Administration recommended "Most Favored Nation" trading status for China -- those friendly folks who created the Tiananmen Square massacre -- than the Treasury Department seized 2,000 Chinese full auto AK-47's supposedly destined for "street gangs." The alleged smuggling ring included representatives of the state-owned China Northern Industrial Corp. (Norinco) and Poly Technologies, which make guns for the Chinese "People's Liberation Army." Poly Tech's president is He Ping, son-in-law of China's senior leader Deng Xiaoping. While BATF was given much of the credit by the press, a BATF spokesman said the seizure was the result of a 16-month sting operation conducted primarily by the Customs Service. The sting was dramatically called "Operation Dragon Fire." The "Washington Post" reported that BATF had purchased five AK-47 machine guns and a suppressor-equipped pistol early last year as part of the first part of the sting, when the U.S.-based smugglers were proving they could obtain sophisticated equipment. Agents were reportedly working on a deal to extend the purchase to include hand-held Stinger-type anti-aircraft missiles, "silencers," explosives and other devices -- "intended for militia groups." No such purchases were made, and none sold. Surely it was mere coincidence that on May 27, just three days after the embarrassing Customs seizure, the China News Agency reported that some 4,000 seized guns had been destroyed as part of a crackdown on illegal gun ownership. The article, and a flurry of almost concurrent press reports, cited "poor controls over the munitions industry." Surely that fortuitous timing had nothing to do with the desire of China to keep its Most Favored Nation status -- or the Clinton Administration's request to Congress to extend it. One of the funniest things about all this was reporters trying to explain how these real assault rifles differed from the semi-auto civilian versions that they had been calling "assault rifles." Many gave up and called them merely "rifles," or simply made no distinction from the semi-autos that they have been "shown" in countless TV clips of similar guns in full-auto fire. As I told Christian Science Monitor Radio, which called me early on the morning the story broke, none of these guns could be sold to law-abiding citizens. All new machine guns have been banned since 1986, but if criminals want them, they'll get them. Cutting out supply increases demand, and increases the price criminals will pay. If the profits are big enough, smugglers will bring in the prohibited product -- whether booze during prohibition, drugs or machine guns today, or handguns should they ever be made theoretically impossible for criminals to obtain. If drug smugglers can bring in tons of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, they'll have no problem bringing in illegal weaponry -- and they will if they can make money on it. Drugs are used once, then must be resupplied; guns will last 100 years, and ammunition 50 years. The notion that criminals can be deterred by firearms interdiction laws is silly -- criminals can always obtain illegal guns, and this BATF sting proves it. Needless to say, none of those comments was used. ======================================================================== Copyright 1996 by Neal Knox Associates P.O. Box 6537 Rockville, MD 20916. 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Enclosed is my contribution so that you can continue your work: $500 [ ] $250 [ ] $50 [ ] $25 [ ] Other:____ [ ] Quarterly [ ] Bill my MasterCard [ ] Visa [ ] Monthly [ ] Once [ ] Card No. ________________________________________ Expiration Date _____ Mr. [ ] Mrs.[ ]________________________________________________________________ Ms. [ ] Signature_______________________________________________________________ Address__________________________________________ Phone ________________ City _____________________________________________State ____ Zip________ Email Address ______________________ Print and mail to: Firearms Coalition Box 6537 Silver Spring, MD 20916 ======================================================================== PGP users: Remove the leading asterisks from the BEGIN and END lines before using this key. *-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAy8Q4mIAAAEEALKdSCTF6BvTg4luk1IOYtiQyxPotnTjjijSawo9htwZeFS/ KU0WAPkeDuhgKSN3H5242irpkfUu8g84fAPBH6a6joaFN7OchRa49WXnz2dReT0V iT9xeec9rPSASH04dz+lEONeDZ17yh/JGt+tjYq0CIenFZ9JMCGz4I2lBJDFAAUR tCdDaHJpc3RvcGhlciBXYXJyZW4gS25veCA8Y2tub3hAY3JsLmNvbT6JAJUDBRAv pxqvIbPgjaUEkMUBAS8BA/9PP4teu4vja6dTXkOMhVN8xgf1fl66VCc2V4A0/lli uRdf75GS1uQd+pzPIZoIReU440uuLfNSMqAAjCLHDja9ViAUllTk7YIKJMe53+nZ UnQndT2a6ikeQgh/kFxFM1z4NHgTBZ/KMg3td45WzEA3XpjWACrXWNAtYplaQ0hg Iw== =VDsh *-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- ======================================================================= -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMcDuACGz4I2lBJDFAQGsVAP+I43XGLCH6pni4dt8ziWN3PVyyk3QdBt5 /jSQCPl3+GagymztvxwO0Gc12dZbnVTcjncUbhUodv0f+1XYY6j2gTgL67GW0ZCw gGntt1QG+kZF4QQ5dx03DKb6IR+CD6nSF0tV0ZfnZ+akYhdSG6o0BX3DcPImsYcs tWChhtAbfLg= =aueJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To receive the Online Firearms Coalition Bulletin send mail t listproc@mainstream.com containing in the message body: subscribe fco