From: rats@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (Morris the Cat)
Subject: Firearms Coalition Report - Aug. 31, 1992
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 16:31:54 GMT
Followup-To: talk.politics.guns
Keywords: NRA, Neal Knox, Bush, Clinton, Perot


The Firearms Coalition

Neal Knox Associates
P.O. Box 6537
Silver Spring, MD 20916

August 31, 1992

Dear Friend and Supporter,

	Handgun Control Inc. is getting panicky.
	
	The "Brady" 7-day handgun waiting period bill passed the
House almost 16 months ago. An even-worse version passed the
Senate as part of the crime bill a year ago. The House-Senate
conference accepted the Senate hybrid "Brady" last November. The
House approved the conference bill more than nine months ago.

	Now we're little more than a month from a probable final
adjournment of the 102nd Congress, and nothing has become law.

	If the "Brady Bill" doesn't pass before adjournment, HCI
will have to start from scratch, in a Congress that has already
lost some key anti-gunners, and should lose more in November.

	That's no accident.
	
	However, these delays are no guarantee that the Senate won't
turn loose the crime bill at the last minute. The majority
Democrats have the votes to pass it, but they haven't the 
two-thirds necessary to break the Republican filibuster.

	President Bush has said he would veto the bill unless it
contains the limitations on criminal rights that he wants. He's
most unlikely to get what he wants, but that's no guarantee that
he would veto the crime bill. Read my lips.

	In a desperate effort to break things loose, Handgun Control
Inc. has scheduled a dozen "Free the Brady Bill" press
conferences across the country, leading to a "massive press
conference" on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. Sept. 10.

	To meet that threat, please get letters and phone calls to
your Senators insisting that they don't release a phony "crime
bill" that would give criminals even more protection. And stop
Metzenbaum's likely amendment to put "Brady" on another bill!

	Point out that the "Brady Bill" would subject the rest of
the nation to the kind of mindless wait that prevented honest
citizens from buying guns to defend their families during the
L.A. riots.

	Point out that right now personal firearms are the only
protection for tens of thousands of Hurricane Andrew victims.
Even The Washington Post yesterday quoted a woman guarding the
remains of her home with a .22 pistol, shouting to "men skulking
in the shadows outside her bungalow, 'Whatever you've come for, you
better make sure it's worth your life.'"

	"This time they left.

	Any time there's a disaster, the rats come out of their
holes. The police cannot be everywhere. In Los Angeles, they
didn't even try.

	What happens to the people who have no means of protection,
and are denied by California's 15-day wait, or Florida's 3-day wait,
or the proposed "five government working days" wait in the
"Brady Bill." What happens when government isn't working?

	Is a weeklong wait always "reasonable?" Is an AK-47 or a
high-capacity, short-barreled shotgun unnecessary for defense?
Ask the folks in South L.A., or the folks in South Florida.

	These are the real-world questions that can stop the "Brady
Bill." They must be asked; please help ask them.

	When you write your Senator please remember to continue
supporting our efforts here in Washington.

	Your lobbyists, with your help, have managed to hold back
the flood. If we can hold them for just a few more days, the waters
will recede -- and we may have seen Handgun Control's high tide.

				Yours for the Second Amendment,
				
				Neal Knox
				
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		     H A R D  C O R P S  R E P O R T
		
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report No. 49 to the Firearms Coalition - Neal Knox Associates, Box 6537,
Silver Spring, Maryland 20916 - August 31, 1992
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		HCI Campaigns To Break Senate 'Brady Bill' Block
		
Handgun Control Inc. will kick off a series of "Free the Brady Bill"
rallies in a dozen major cities this week, winding up with a Capitol
Hill "press conference" Sept. 10. They're getting nervous because the
bill, having passed both houses, is included in a stalled "compromise"
crime bill, and Congress wants to go home to campaign.

An editorial in this morning's Washington Post calls for moving a
separate bill, but if the crime bill doesn't break loose, expect some
form of "Brady bill" to be offered by Metzenbaum as an amendment to
"must-pass" legislation; probably an appropriations bill.

HCI may fuel their campaign with a Ronald Reagan commercial supporting
the bill, which the Washington press reported was going to have been
shown on CNN during the Republican convention, but no one reports
having seen it. President and Mr. Reagan - along with the other three
living Presidents - were "honorary co-hosts" at a June fundraiser
for HCI's foundation.

The pending version of the "Brady Bill" calls for Justice Department
to develop a "sometimes instant" background check on purchases of
all firearms, with a week-long waiting period on handguns until it is
implemented.

With 16 of their colleagues having been knocked off in the primaries,
Congress is anxious to adjourn while there's time for some serious
campaigning and fence-mending - and just as anxious to avoid any
boat-rocking legislation like "gun control."

Nothing is likely to happen on "assault weapon" or high-capacity
magazines before the adjournment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		Gun Groups Sitting Out Presidential
		
With little real difference between the Presidential candidates on the
gun issue, the traditional fall campaigns are opening with gun 
organizations sitting out the election - unwilling to trust George
Bush's words or the Republican platform.

Mr. Bush and Bill Clinton seem in substantial agreement as to the type
of "gun control" they want or would accept; the difference is how
enthusiastically they would work for or against new gun laws, and who
they would appoint to promote and enforce it.

Clinton and the Democrat platform advocate the Brady Bill, a ban on
military-style semi-autos, and no apparent limits on gun
legislation.

President Bush's problem is that he has violated three out of four
of his 1988 promises to gun owners - by an executive order banning
importation of "non-sporting" firearms, introducing legislation requiring
the registration of existing over-15-shot magazines, and agreeing to
accept a broader "assault weapon" ban and a once-opposed waiting period/
background check as a bargaining chip to get other legislation.

Ross Perot never stated where he stands on the gun issue, but despite
his formal withdrawal, he informed California officials last week that
he remains a candidate. That agrees with reports from gun people within
his state organizations, and in his Dallas operation, that he is still
very much in the race.

Having succeeded in the difficult task of getting on the New York ballot,
and probably being on the ballots in all states, he remains a force
that may determine the outcome of the election though he wouldn't be
elected and - thanks to the ineptness of his midsummer withdrawal - is
most unlikely to win any states, preventing him from throwing the election
into the House of Representatives. The main question is whether Perot's
"none-of-the-above" candidacy will take more votes from Bush or
Clinton.

The leading third-party candidates - Libertarian Andre Marrou, Populist
"Bo" Gritz and Taxpayer Howard Phillips - are all pro-gun, and are all
going to get gunowners' votes, but aren't going to play a significant
role except by the number of votes they deny the contenders.

Faced with the reality that the next Presidency will be either Bush
or Clinton, some gun owners will vote for Mr. Bush as the lessor of
two evils.

But many are determined to avoid the battered spouse syndrome, and won't
climb back into bed with their abuser.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		U.S. Senate Overturns D.C. Firearms Liability Law
	
S. 2013, Sen. Robert Smith's (R-N.H.) bill to repeal the D.C. law allowing
victims of firearms crimes to sue gun makers and sellers, was
attached to the appropriations bill for the Justice, State and
Commerce departments on a 50-32 vote July 27.

The key vote was on Sen. Smith's motion to overturn the ruling of the
chair that the amendment amounted to legislating on an appropriations
bill in violation of Senate rules - which it was, and as the Senate
regularly does.

Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) was livid, but didn't force a record
vote on formal acceptance of the amendment after being assured by
Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) that he would attempt to strike the
amendment during the House-Senate conference, of which he is Senate
chairman.

However, Sen. Hollings had voted that the bill could be attached,
and is in a tough re-election race with pro-gun former Congressman
Tommy Hartnett.

The House-Senate conference is expected to meet shortly after Congress
returns Sept. 8. A majority of the conferees have pro-gun records.

The Chicago City Council has passed a strict liability bill similar
to D.C.'s. D.C. supporters of the bill are unhappy that no suits have
been filed during the seven months that the law has been in effect.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		House Supports Hunting On Refuge
		
The U.S. House killed anti-gun Rep. Jim Moran's (D-Va.) effort to prohibit
deer hunting in northern Virginia's Mason Neck Wildlife Refuge by a 255-
160 vote July 22.

The amendment, by new NRA Director Rep. Bill Brewster (D-Okla.),
was the first pure hunting vote in the House in several years. The
controversial hunt has been allowed since 1989, when wildlife managers
authorized hunters to thin the over-populated deer heard.

Moran and his anti-hunting groups claimed that deer hunting in highly
populated Northern Virginia is unsafe.

Rep. Brewster responded that there has never been an accident in the
hunt.

After the sometimes-raucous debate Rep. Moran fumed, "I just got clobbered
by NRA."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		Schumer Panel Passes Dealer Bill
		
Rep. Charles Schumer's House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee on Aug. 5
approved H. 5633, the chairman's bill to give local law enforcement
officials a sign-off on Federal firearms dealer licenses.

It would also change the present requirement that dealers report to 
BATF two sales of handguns to one person within a week to two within
30 days.

It's doubtful that the bill will go very far this year, particularly
since it would have to clear Chairman Jack Brooks (D-Tex.) Judiciary
Committee.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

			NRA Campaigns Hit Paydirt
			
The revitalized NRA-ILA political effort - which once again is fighting
and winning difficult races - gained another stack of blue chips on
Capitol Hill last week by forcing turncoat Rep. Mike Synar
(D-Okla.) into a Sept. 15 primary runoff which he will have a difficult
time surviving.

Most of the NRA political "victories" in recent years were bets on sure-
thing winners or against cripples. That was largely responsible for
the organization's diminished political clout, such as gunowners'
decisive loss on the Brady Bill in April 1991. The uncharacteristically
strong reaction from NRA and its members - which had just gotten a new
Executive Vice President and the first wave of tough-minded directors -
resulted in a decisive defeat of an "assault weapons" and over-7-shot
magazine ban last October.

Now politicians who voted wrong on those issues - like Synar and
Rep. Beryl Anthony (D-Ark.) - are being hammered by independent expenditure
campaigns in which NRA is buying hard-hitting newspaper, television
and radio ads that deal with non-crime hot-button issues like "soft-on-
crime," flag-burning votes and the House bank scandals.

Both Synar and Anthony - who was defeated in a June primary after being
forced into a runoff - are well-known, powerful members of the House
leadership. Their campaigns and NRA's key role in both races were closely
followed by Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, and other political
trade journals.

Also, NRA is being publically blamed - credited - for having three times
"done the impossible" by beating Handgun Control-backed Ben Reyes
through a massive independent expenditure effort for Gene Green in a
new Texas district designed for a Hispanic. Green forced Reyes into a
runoff, won the runoff, then won a court-ordered new election.

NRA has over 40 potential major races this year; the main question
is whether they have the NRA Political Victory Fund contributions
necessary to wade into all of them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		HCI Fires Orasin Over Chafee Bill
		
Handgun Control Inc. is keeping mum over the causes of an internal feud
that resulted in the firing of long-time President Charles Orasin.

According to the D.C. rumor mill, it stemmed from a fight between Chair
Sarah Brady and Orasin over tactics: how to respond to Sen. John Chafee's
(R-R.I.) bill to prohibit the private ownership of handguns, S. 2913.

There are numerous indications that HCI is hurting financially, stemming
from its inability to enact its platform, and dissatisfaction among
large contributors who want "real meat" like the Chafee bill, rather
than a relatively modest waiting period bill.

Orasin has been with HCI since it was established by ex-CIA operative
Ed Welles in 1974. He was assistant to Nelson Shields when Shields
laid out a plan to enact, by increments, a law that precisely describes
the Chafee bill (except for its buy-back provision).

In a July 26, 1976 New Yorker Magazine interview (pp. 53f), Shields
said "The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of
handguns 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 club, and licensed gun
collectors - totally illegal."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		Hughes is Letter Campaign Target
		
Independents Against Corruption and Waste, an independent New Jersey
organization with a pro-gun cast, is running a "chain letter" campaign
against Rep. William Hughes (D-N.J.), author or key supporter of all
House anti-gun legislation in recent years.

For the first time in several years, Hughes has a serious, pro-gun
opponent, popular State Sen. Frank LiBiondo, according to Chairman Bill
Duncan, (Box 742, Hopatcong, N.J. 07843).

The organizers of the plan assemble master copies of newspaper articles
and other factual materials concerning Hughes, which will be distributed
across the country at cost. They will make copies of the master material
and send them to a supplied list of voters in Hughes' new district.

If resources allow, IACW plans a similar effort against Robert Torricelli
(D-N.J.) who also has a tough race against a pro-gun legislator, Pat
Roma, in a new district.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		House Approves Bill Easing Reloading Tax
		
H.R. 2735, a House-passed group of "non-controversial tax measures,"
includes a bill by Reps. Bill Barrett (R-Neb.) and Bill Thomas
(R-Calif.) to eliminate BATF's requirement that an 11 percent excise
tax be charged on commercially reloaded ammunition unless the reloader
returns the customer's exact same cases.

The bill allows commercial reloaders to replace fired cases with the
same quantity of the same type of ammo.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

		New Jersey Passes Repeal Of Semi-Auto Law
		
The New Jersey Senate joined the Assembly in overwhelmingly repealing
the state's "assault weapon" confiscation law Aug. 4, supposedly by a
veto-proof margin - 28-9 in the Senate and 47-16 in the Assembly.

However, to a well-orchestrated media drumbeat, Gov. Jim Florio has
been campaigning up and down the state, twisting arms and offering plum
jobs to lawmakers who will vote against overriding his coming veto.

One Republican assemblyman who voted for the bill, Robert Martin - whose
full-time job is to get grants for his college from the state - now says
he won't vote for the overide. And the Republican Senate President has
hinted he will try to work out a compromise with the Governor.

The bill re-defines "assault weapon" by the Pentagon definition of a
moderate-power rifle capable of selective automatic fire, but at
the last minute Senate Republicans, who were swept into power by gun
owners' efforts last fall, left the semi-auto AK-47 and UZI in
place. Existing owners of those models would be allowed to keep their
guns, and make limited transfers, but the sop to the anti-gunners
predictably made no difference.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

			Gun Rights Meeting
			
Neal Knox is scheduled to be one of the speakers at the Second Amendment
Foundations' Sept. 25-26 Gun Rights Policy Conference at the Los Angeles
Airport Hyatt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[END]
Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:44706 talk.politics.theory:4113 soc.culture.greek:8723