Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Sat, 23 Jan 1993 23:30:03 CST
From:         Rodger Kamenetz <ENRODG@LSUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Yoshi Hattori gun controlpetition

I'm passing this petition on in the hope that you will consider helping. It
was originally posted to Buddha-L.-- Rodger Kamenetz
                                   254 Nelson Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70808
                                   January 4, 1993
 Dear Members of the Buddhist Community,

 On October 17, we received a call from the police that we all dread.  We
 were told that our son Webb is ok but our other son, our AFS exchange student
 Yoshi Hattori from Japan, had been shot and killed. The boys knocked on the
 door of the wrong house believing that they had arrived at a Halloween party.

 Our first response was to tell Yoshi's story to everyone who would listen; we
 wrote an essay that was published in the New York Times and International
 Herald Tribune and gave about 50 media interviews.  We believe that the story
 will raise the consciousness of our country and touch a nerve; it certainly
 has in Japan which has been saturated with news coverage.  Our second re-
 sponse now is to circulate a petition as the Hattoris are doing in Japan. We
 are writing to seek the help of everyone who believes we can still turn our
 country away from ever increasing gun violence.  We appeal to you since Yoshi
 was a Buddhist.  His funeral in Japan was a 35 day Buddhist ceremony.

 The Hattori petition to the President of the United States and the Prime
 Minister of Japan asks Americans to "Tighten the controls on individual
 ownership of firearms".  They already have 800,000 signatures.  The Hattoris
 delivered 40,000 signatures to the Bush Administration via the US Ambassador
 to Japan, Mike Armacost.  Prime Minister Miazawa met with them also.

 We have started the enclosed petition in the US in the same spirit as theirs.
 We have launched it through all contacts we can find; including purely
 grassroots efforts like this and through newsletters, newspapers and large
 and small national organizations.  We both expect to get millions of
 signatures.  This could culminate with the Hattoris and us and possibly high
 profile public figures in the battle against gun violence, presenting the
 petitions to President Clinton sometime in the spring.  Both petitions are
 from the heart, not attempting to lobby specific legislation.  Both petitions
 are really asking the American people, through their president, to find a way
 to deal with this scourge.  This personal tragedy can be a springboard for
 discussion of ideas far beyond the actual event. If all goes as planned there
 will be follow-up of more substantive efforts.  We feel the opportunity
 afforded by a huge ally of millions of Japanese people must not be lost.

 There are three ways in which you can help us get millions of signatures:

 We are writing to our friends and colleagues all over the country asking them
 to circulate the petition among their friends and to continue the process.
 It can then be circulated easily among friends.  To those who feel very
 strongly, we urge you to take it to your community organizations and places
 of worship.  We am asking specifically if you would please consider copying
 this letter and the petition and writing to your friends and colleagues.
 Of course one signature would be appreciated. If you would like to help in
 this larger way we need you very much and welcome you to our effort.

 Getting this petition to select individuals is another key to the success of
 this drive.  We have found people who are extremely upset over the prolifera-
 tion of gun violence in this country and are very anxious to get involved.
 Would you please try to think of individuals who might be key in this drive
 and contact them and get the petition and our phone number to them.

 Third, if you think of an appropriate newsletter, or organization that might
 publish the petition or publicize it please contact us.

 Our sincere thanks,            Holley Galland Haymaker and Richard Haymaker
 (504) (h) tel:766-6432; (h) fax:769-3810; (o) tel:388-8471; (o) fax:388-5855
-------------------------------(new page)------------------------------------



                                   PETITION

  To: The President of the United States of America

  Petitioners:

  Richard and Holley Haymaker (and friends)
  254 Nelson Drive
  Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA

  Petition:

      To protest the easy availability of firearms in the United States

  This year we were privileged to be the host parents to a 16-year-old Japa-
  nese AFS exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori, from Nagoya, Japan.  Yoshi's
  planned year long stay with us was tragically cut short.  At 8:30 on October
  17, 1992, Yoshi and our son Webb were on their way to a Halloween party for
  exchange students in a quiet suburb of Baton Rouge.  Dressed as a dancer and
  a hospital patient, without masks, they knocked on the door of the house
  that they believed to be correct.  They were greeted by a woman who was ap-
  parently very frightened by the two boys.  She closed the door and called to
  her husband.  Meanwhile Yoshi and Webb realized it was the wrong house and
  returned to the sidewalk when the woman's husband emerged from the carport
  with a .44 magnum handgun.  Yoshi moved back toward the house saying 'we are
  here for the party'.  The man shouted to the boys to 'freeze'.  We believe
  Yoshi did not understand or realize the danger he was in and continued to
  move toward the man; Webb calling to him from the sidewalk to come back. The
  man shot Yoshi in the left chest at close range.  Yoshi died minutes later.
  The 30 year old homeowner, claiming the killing was in self defense, was
  subsequently charged with manslaughter by a Baton Rouge grand jury.

  Yoshihiro's tragic death begs us to look at our country through the eyes of
  others, to ask how a democracy at peace can be so violent, to ask how a
  nation so blessed with diversity and riches can live in such fear.  We can
  not help but ask what the man who shot Yoshi would have done had he not had
  a gun in his home.  Together, fear and guns are a deadly combination.

  We grieve for this young man, our host son.  We grieve for his natural fami-
  ly in Japan.  He was a cherished human being.  We ought to grieve as well
  for our nation where fear and violence breed too many tragedies each day. In
  Japan, where gun ownership is almost non-existent, it is particularly diffi-
  cult to understand Yoshi's senseless death.  Here, we may understand it, but
  we must not accept it as inevitable.  We remain one of the most heavily
  armed nations in the world, a nation that apparently has greater cause to
  fear aggression from our own citizens than it has cause to fear aggression
  from outside enemies.

  We call upon the President of the United States to reassess the easy
  availability of guns in this country and, in so doing, help prevent the
  thousands of similar incidents or accidents that will, no doubt, occur in
  the future.

  We the undersigned, support this petition in memory of Yoshi and in the hope
  that his death will not be in vain.

  PLEASE MAIL COMPLETED PETITIONS TO :
  Richard and Holley Haymaker, PO BOX 14839, Baton Rouge, LA 70898, USA

---------------------------(new page)-----------------------------------------

  PETITION TO PROTEST THE EASY AVAILABILITY OF FIREARMS IN THE UNITED STATES

  COUNTRY OF SIGNATURES: ________________________________

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