From: meyers@leonardo.rtp.dg.com (Bill Meyers)
Subject: Re: Eva Clayton bio
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 22:28:52 GMT
Organization: N/I

In article <1992Nov4.153308.16163@rock.concert.net> bing@jazz.concert.net (Carter E. Bing) writes:
[ ... ]
>	Eva Clayton, 58, Littleton, president of Technical
>Resources International Inc. planning and management firm,
>Democrat.
[ ... ]
>	Gun control: Supports Brady Bill proposal for five-day
>waiting period for handgun purchases.


Here's another woman's opinion, from American Rifleman, June '92, p. 23:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        NRA Woman's Voice

                      by Elizabeth J. Swasey


        Exploiting women.  That's what one reporter recently said
NRA was doing when I explained our concern about the impact of waiting
periods on women -- exploiting women for political gain.

        Now that the waiting period issue is reappearing in the U.S.
Congress, let's see who's really exploiting what.

        First, the reporter and I covered what is already well
documented.  That the U.S. Dept. of Justice has testified a waiting
period would not keep guns out of criminal hands.  That recent surveys
of police found they oppose a waiting period.  That the "Brady bill"
waiting period never required a background check.  That Americans
overwhelmingly favor the instant background check rather than the
waiting period.  And that the instant background check is already in
place and working in several states.

        The reporter remained unconvinced.  Then we talked about women
and waiting periods.

        I asked if she recalled the horror of Gainesville, Fla.,
where a serial killer hit in the summer of 1990, stalking petite
brunette women, killing them, maiming them, even decapitating them
and positioning their severed heads for passers-by to see.

        At the time, Gainesville had a 48-hour waiting period for gun
purchases.  Acting on the advice of the retired chief of police,
law-abiding citizens went out of town to buy guns.  Women needed
immediate protection from a very real threat that could have struck
at any moment.  Had a national waiting period been in effect, how many
more women would have died?

        The reporter said that was an "extreme example."  Tragically,
"extreme examples" are becoming more commonplace, and law-abiding
citizens must have the ability to respond.  Ask the people in Los
Angeles who, during the life-threatening riots last mmonth, were
shocked that under California's 15-day waiting period, they had to
"wait" more than two weeks to buy firearms to lawfully defend
themselves.  Anti-gun politicians had stripped them of their Second
Amendment rights -- rights that exist, in part, to secure the
citizens' ability to protect themselves when the government cannot
or will not.

        But there need not be an active serial killer or riot in the
streets for a waiting period to interfere with our right to lawful
self-defense.  I asked the reporter if she remembered the TV show
"48 Hours" about a gun-owning family in North Carolina.  In April 1991,
Tom Dowdy of Nags Head, N.C., gave his daughter (we'll call her Lisa)
a .38 revolver.  Fifteen minutes later, Lisa went to a local convenience
store, where she was attacked.  Lisa drew her .38 and the criminal fled.
According to Lisa's father, the gun was "the only thing that saved her
life."  If the federal waiting period were in place, Lisa would probably
be dead.

        And Lisa is not alone.  Ask any NRA-certified Personal Protection
Instructor or local range owner why a record number of women are buying
guns.  They'll tell you it's crime.

        It's not that women harbor some imagined sense of impending
danger.  It's because a serial rapist is on the loose.  Because a
neighborhood child was abducted from her own front yard.  Because
a friend of a family member was victimized.  Or because the woman
herself was victimized.  After all, she stands a three in four chance
of facing violent crime in her lifetime.  Instructors and range owners
will tell you that most women, unlike most men, purchase guns for
immediate protection in response to an immediate threat that could
come anytime -- today, tonight, or tomorrow.

        Waiting periods reflect a concept in law that applies here:
"facial neutrality."  Another example is the poll tax.  This tax, which
was held unconstitutional, was a fee Americans paid to vote.  While
everyone had to pay the same tax, the fact is those who couldn't afford
it couldn't vote.  The poll tax was "facially neutral" because it
appeared fair on the surface, but in practical terms it discriminated
against poor people.

        We feel it's the same thing with a waiting period.  While a
waiting period would apply to all law-abiding citizens, it would
discriminate against women because unlike most men, most women purchase
guns for immediate protection.  So a national waiting period would
discriminate against women; in practical terms it would prevent them
from acquiring immediate protection from impending harm.

        Evidently still believing NRA was merely "exploiting" women
for political gain, the reporter sighed and asked the fatal question:
But what about the case of Handgun Control, Inc.'s Jim Brady, for whom
the Brady bill waiting period is named?

        I faxed her U.S. Dept. of Treasury documents that showed John
Hinckley purchased the gun on October 13, 1980.  This document also
showed it was more than five months later, March 30, 1981, that Hinckley
attempted to assassinate President Reagan and injured Jim Brady.  How
can a five-day waiting period be considered relevant to a discussion
of the Brady case, much less a mechanism that could have prevented it?
Just who is exploiting tragedy for political gain?

        Certainly our hearts go out to the Brady family as they do to
all the other families victimized by crime.  But let's not be swayed
into passing a law that could cost thousands of lives on the clearly
erronous belief that it might have prevented one injury.

        For more information on waiting periods, call (202)828-6330.

        News Flash:  NRA just elected its first woman officer, Marion
P. Hammer of Florida, who will serve as second vice president, placing
her in line to be president of NRA in four years.  Additionally, of
the 25 members of the NRA board of Directors elected in April, six were
women, bringing the total to 16 female NRA Board Members, the most in
the Association's history.
--------
Elizabeth J. Swasey is the director of NRA's Women's Issues and
Information, an attorney, and an NRA Certified Basic Firearms Instructor.