From: cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns,talk.politics.misc
Subject: HCI printed it, so...
Keywords: it must be true?
Date: 9 Sep 92 17:39:54 GMT
Followup-To: talk.politics.guns
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.

In article <1992Sep8.150644.15740@cbnewsc.cb.att.com>, rats@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (ICOM IC-R70) writes:
> Let's see now, the headline on the USA Today article from May 4, 1992:
> 
> 		"Survival of the Armed"
> 		
> [In reference to the LA riots.]

Speaking of which, a recent HCI letter says:

"I will be traveling around the country trying to get the media -- and the
public -- to focus on a few simple facts.  Facts like:

o  95% of the American people want the Brady Bill enacted.
o  Every major national police organization has endorsed the Brady Bill.
   [Really?  Including the American Federation of Police and the National 
   Association of Chiefs of Police?]  So have dozens of national civic, 
   religious, labor, and medical associations.  
o  Waiting periods, like the Brady Bill mandates work.  In California
   last year, nearly 6,000 would-be gun buyers were turned down after a
   background check.  And most of them were convicted criminals!
   [The first time I read this, I thought it claimed that most buyers
   in CA were convicted criminals.  Did you get the same impression?
   Now -- how many people TOTAL bought guns in California last year?]
o  And, according to a recent poll, voters are more likely to vote for
   a candidate who supports the Brady Bill than one who doesn't.
   [Given the one-sided press that it's gotten, this is probably true.]

"If the Brady Bill had been law, giving law enforcement time to do a 
background check, John Hinckley might have been stopped from buying that
cheap handgun he used to shoot my husband and President Reagan."  [The
claim is demonstrably false.  Besides, the NERVE of that bastard shooting 
a REPUBLICAN with a CHEAP handgun!]

"If the Brady Bill had been law, a crack addict in Atlanta wouldn't
have been able to walk out of a mental institution and into a gun shop
where he bought the gun he used just hours later to shoot up a shopping
mall -- killing five innocent people.  [Hold on, back up to that part
about how he got out of the institution.  This is beginning to sound
like the old joke about the hobo living under the bridge telling the two 
cops, "I have here a piece of paper that certifies that *I* am sane.  Do 
either of YOU two gentlemen have one?"]

"If the Brady Bill had been law, an enraged husband in Tempe AZ wouldn't
have gotten away with lying about his criminal record in a gun store.
He wouldn't have been able to buy the gun he shot at his wife 2 1/2 hours
later in the restaurant where she worked, wounding her and two customers,
and killing a waitress who was seven months pregnant.  [True.  He would
have shot her seven days later, since the Brady Bill doesn't require any
check on the buyer's background.]

"With the Brady Bill, criminals, drug addicts, and mentally ill people
simply would not be able to walk into a gun store and walk out armed --
and quick tempers would have time to cool off.

"And with a NATIONAL law like the Brady Bill, crossing a state line from
a waiting-period state to one with weak gun laws will no longer be a
sure-fire way for a person with a criminal record to buy a gun."  [No,
he'll have to resort to the other sure-fire way, which is an even shorter
trip to some street-corner in the inner city where absolutely no questions
are asked, and where 80%+ of them ALREADY get their guns.]
-- 

cdt@pdp.sw.stratus.com      --If you believe that I speak for my company,
OR cdt@vos.stratus.com        write today for my special Investors' Packet...
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns