From: dennis@bluemoon.rn.com (Dennis Carney)
Subject: PROponent March 1992 -- Article "FROM THE CAPITOL"
Organization: Blue Moon BBS ((614) 868-998[024])
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 92 01:14:50 EDT

The following article is from the March 1992 issue of the PROponent,
the monthly newsletter published by The Peoples Rights Organization
(PRO), a pro gun, pro constitutional rights group based in Columbus,
Ohio.

As a member of the PRO -- Electronic Information Committee,
I am posting this article for information only. Questions or
comments may be directed to:

PEOPLES RIGHTS ORGANIZATION
5 E. Long St., Suite 412
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 268-0122

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(Begin article "FROM THE CAPITOL" from March 1992 PROponent)

 
FROM THE CAPITOL...

     In the Neal Knox article in the April, 1992 "Guns and Ammo"
magazine, there are some very alarming pieces of information.  In
his article Knox states:
     Though Senate Judiciary Chairman Joseph Biden has declared the
House-Senate compromise crime bill dead, it's possible if not
likely that the Senate Democrats will push a partisan vote on the
House-passed  bill early in the year-primarily to force President
George Bush to live up to his promise to veto the compromise.  That
would put President Bush in a Political box, for the compromise
bill appears to expand the death penalty.  The President wants the
"tougher on criminals" S. 1241 that passed the Senate last summer
but isn't likely to get it.  S. 1241 contains a "sometimes instant"
background check on all firearms (for an estimated $20-per-gun
fee), plus the DeConcini ban on about 13 military-style firearms.
     The House approved the compromise H.R. 3371 205-203 before
adjourning last November.  That version contains the Senate bill's
"sometimes instant" check, but does not contain the DeConcini
military-style firearms ban.  What confuses all this is that the
House knocked all the firearm provisions out of the original H.R.
3371 in October.  The second confusion factor is that the Senate
applied the "Brady Bill" name to the Metzenbaum-Dole "sometimes
instant check."  That latest "Brady Bill" is much different from
H.R. 7, the seven-day waiting-period bill the House passed last
year.  The compromise H.R. 3371 does include a Brady-like
five-working-day waiting period for 30 to 60 months while the
Justice Department is designing and implementing the"sometimes
instant" background check.
     Handgun Control Inc. has told its supporters that its No. 1
federal legislative goal in 1992 is to enact "the Brady Bill."  No.
2 is passing "a ban in assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition
magazines."  No. 3 is to increase dealer license fees, in which
they're joined with the National Association of Stocking Gun
Dealers.
     HCI's No. 1 state priority is to defend "assault weapons bans
in New Jersey, California and New York City" and defend the
Washington, D.C., law making gun manufacturers civilly liable for
criminal acts committed with their products.  No. 2 is blocking
Ohio and Illinois preemption laws.  No. 3 is to ban "assault
weapons and high-capacity magazines in Texas."  And No. 4 to block
permit-to-carry laws.
     Their principal political goals are to "Expose those
politicians who won't sign a `Pledge for Public Safety'" promising
support of both "the Brady Bill and a federal assault weapon ban."
Finally: "public education campaigns" about "the extremist nature
of the gun lobby and alert women...that they've been targeted as a
new market for the gun dealers.
     HCI is sorely upset about the talk shows featuring armed
women, news reports about armed self-defense and articles like a
January 7 Washington Post "Style Section" report that "More and
More Women Are Buying Guns For Self-Defense."  It ran alongside "`I
Want to Feel Safe Again'-One Woman Tells Why She's Carrying a Gun"
and a listing of D.C. area ranges where handgun training is
available.
     The lead article cited statistics that a third of all women
will be raped, robbed or assaulted; that the National Crime Survey
shows 30 percent of home burglaries result in violence; that
Justice Department studies show that armed citizens are much less
likely to suffer losses or personal injury from thieves and
Professor Gary Kleck's findings that "Handguns were used by
citizens for defense against criminals some 645,000 times in 1990'
and "in fewer than one percent of those cases did criminals manage
to turn the guns against their owners."  Never before have we seen
that information in the Washington Post.
     The Post and almost all the news media except an op-ed
editorial by Neil Schulman in the Los Angles Times totally ignored
the Shoney's Restaurant massacre that didn't happen in Anniston,
Alabama, December 17.  Three armed MENwere herding two dozen
employees and patrons into a walk-in cooler (site of many mass
murders) when one of the customers pulled a legally carried .45,
killed one robber and put another in critical condition.  The armed
citizen was grazed by a robber's bullet.  No one else was hurt.  No
massacre occurred."
     The editors wish to thank Neil Knox, his Hotline and his
article in Guns and Ammo for his timely and disturbing information
about HCI goals and the lethargy of the nation's newspapers in
reporting self-defense usage of firearms.
     The Neal Knox Hotline number is 1-301-871-3006.  You must have
a touch-tone phone.

 
(End article "FROM THE CAPITOL" from March 1992 PROponent)

________________________________________________________________

"If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country,
Maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. ... But
somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly.  Somewhere I read of
the freedom of speech.  Somewhere I read of the freedom of the
press.  Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right
to protest for right."
          Martin Luther King jr.
(The Words of Martin Luther King, jr, Newmarket Press)

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    dennis@bluemoon.rn.com
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