From cknox@crl.com Sun Feb 20 20:12:21 1994 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.4) with ESMTP id UAA17391 for ; Sun, 20 Feb 1994 20:12:20 -0800 Received: from crl2.crl.com (crl2.crl.com [165.113.1.13]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.4) with SMTP id UAA16225 for ; Sun, 20 Feb 1994 20:12:16 -0800 Received: by crl2.crl.com id AA14099 (5.65c/IDA-1.5 for chan@shell.portal.com); Sun, 20 Feb 1994 19:54:31 -0800 From: "Christopher W. Knox" Message-Id: <199402210354.AA14099@crl2.crl.com> Subject: Firearms Coalition Online Bulletin 2-19-94 To: cknox@crl.com (Blind CC sent to the Firearms Coalition Online) Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 20:54:30 -0700 (MST) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 27554 Status: RO -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ======================================================================== Online Report to the F I R E A R M S C O A L I T I O N Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD 20916 ======================================================================== February 19, 1994 Release 1.5 ======================================================================== In this issue: * Roberti Faces Recall -- At last, good news from California. * Hearings set in Schumer's House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime * NRA Board Meeting -- Metaksa confirmed at ILA helm. * "Sorry State of the Union" -- What Bill said and what it means. * State issues -- Trouble in Paradise, pretty good elsewhere. * NRA Board Meeting -- Changes in the works, and a campaign ad. * CIA and HCI? -- Something for the conspiracy buff in all of us. A note from Chris It's been four weeks since the last edition of the Bulletin. It seems that four issues are enough for some folks to form a habit; I've received more than a couple of notes to the effect that I should get Neal or myself off our respective duffs and another bulletin out. A gratifying response. I hope you'll find this one wort the wait. As a bonus, I've pulled a couple of head-scratchers from cold storage regarding an interesting overlap of personnel between Handgun Control Inc. anc the Central Intelligence Agency. I'm not into conspiracy theory as a rule, but this is too much fun to leave alone. Something to think about while you're trying to fall asleep. Speaking of spooks, you'll notice that this document has a PGP 2.3 signature. I believe I can say that I came by my paranoia honestly back in the early seventies there was a fellow travelling around Texas claiming to be Neal Knox. He used Pop's name to "borrow" some guns and equipment. So now, you can verify that I sent you this mail. My public key is at the bottom of this bulletin. For those who don't keep up with such things, PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) provides military-grade encryption for the masses. The government doesn't like it. That alone is reason enough to use it. The State Department classifies the software as munitions for export purposes. Sounds like a Second Amendment issue to me. PGP is available from a variety of sources on the Net. If you're receiving this from an indirect source such as a BBS, I'd suggest checking with your sysop. Please don't contact me for a copy. ======================================================================== And now a word from our sponsor. I really don't mind the guys who sent mail asking me to check to make sure they were still on the list. It's nice to know that people miss us when we're gone. And there's only one way to make certain that we keep showing up in your mail box: that's to make sure that we CAN keep showing up in your mail box. Yes, I'm talking about money. Think of the Public Radio or Public TV fund raisers. Put a price on this bulletin. How much is your subscription worth to you? That's your bill. And now back to our regularly scheduled program. --cwk ======================================================================== Roberti Faces Recall By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 10) -- California Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti -- infamous for the Roos-Roberti semi-auto ban -- faces a recall election April 12 that he won't win. At least that's the plan of the gun groups which forced the resignation of his accomplice Mike Roos by stirring unresolved questions about political corruption. This time a coalition of anti-tax and pro-gun groups -- led by the same Californians Against Corruption which pioneered the "chain letter" campaign against Roos -- used a Constitutional recall provision which hadn't been successfully used in 80 years. The groups gathered some 45,000 signatures -- twice as many as required to be valid. The anti-gun press went bananas. So did the political establishments of both parties. So did Handgun Control Inc. Sarah Brady promised "all-out support for Dave." They are trying to make the election a referendum on "gun control." And they're accusing Roberti's opponents of costing the state money for an unnecessary election -- an allegation blown down by Gov. Pete Wilson who set it to coincide with a previously scheduled election. Russ Howard, who researched the effort for CAC, figures that, for once, the playing field may be tilted our way. Under the state's recall rules (Sorry, there's no Federal recall provision.), Roberti must get over 50 percent of the vote against almost a dozen opponents -- at least three of them strongly pro-gun. Last year he couldn't get 50 percent despite spending $2 million in the most expensive California State Senate race in history. Roberti will be out of the Senate at the end of the year because of term limits, but he had already announced for State Treasurer. If he wins the recall, he'll be a shoo-in; if he loses, he may as well forget that race -- and we'll be rid of him. If you live in or near that L.A. area district, please volunteer to help in the campaign of any of the pro-gun candidates. Otherwise, you can help fund the conclusion of the Dump Roberti effort by contributing to CAC, 2201 E. Willow St., D-333, Signal Hill, CA 90806. The recall election sent shock waves through the State Capitol; a wire service alert said this guerilla warfare tactic "could change the political landscape in California." It may have already had one important effect, for the legislature shot down an effort to increase unlawful carrying of a firearm from a misdemeanor to a felony. The greatest impact will be if David Roberti goes down in flames -- and politicians get the message: "The Gunnies Will Getcha For That." ======================================================================== Schumer Committee Hearing Slated A U.S. House Crime Subcommittee hearing will possibly be held next week on Rep. Craig Washington's "gentle" crime bill, H.R. 3315, which has the support of the 40-member Black Congressional Caucus and the rest of left wing of the House. The timing is to boost Rep. Washington's visibility, for he faces a tough opponent in the March 8 Texas primary. The bill will be offered as a substitute for the tough-on- criminals provisions of the Senate crime bill, but will have even more firearms provisions. It includes a version of the Senate bill's Feinstein gun and magazine ban, plus a ban on *possession* of "Saturday Night Specials" (defined as "non-sporting handguns") and an 89 percent tax on .25, .32 and 9mm ammo. It would prohibit an individual from purchasing two or more handguns within 30 days. Earlier this month, Schumer held a Kiddie Day hearing to kick off his registration and licensing bill. Several kids who had witnessed killings were his witnesses. I'm told he refused to allow testimony from a girl honor student who isa championship class shooter. House Vote Coming on Feinstein "Assault Weapon" Amendment It looks as if we'll be seeing a House vote next month on the Feinstein amendment to the Senate crime bill, which bans about 184 so-called assault weapons. Only 19 of them are named. The bill also bans all over 10-shot magazines and tubular magazine semi-auto shotguns with a capacity over five rounds. It doesn't specify what shell length; many standard tubular magazine guns will exceed the limit if loaded with British 2-inch or other short shells. Sorry State of the Union By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 1) -- President Bill Clinton said so little about guns in his State of the Union address that if I were Handgun Control Inc., I would've been disappointed. Except that Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was grinning like the Joker in the Batman series, as retiring ILA Director Jim Baker so aptly put it. Clinton did call for building on the Brady law, gave lip service to hunting, and piously said "law-abiding adults should always be free to own guns and protect their homes." Then he added "there is no sporting purpose on earth that should stop the United States Congress from banishing assault weapons that outgun police and cut down children." But he didn't name the Feinstein Amendment which he had earlier supported. The rest of the stuff that I know to be on the Clinton Administration agenda wasn't mentioned. That includes the $600 FFL fee Treasury Secretary Bentsen is pushing, registration of handgun transfers, licensing of all gun owners (being pushed by Attorney General Janet Reno and Justice's No. 3 man -- many say he's really No. 1 -- Hillary's former law partner Webster Hubbell), limitations on the numbers of guns that can be purchased, limitations on the number of guns and ammo (and primers) that can be possessed, and more. By focussing only on "assault weapons" -- whatever those are - -- Clinton is indicating that he has become aware that by asking for everything, and scaring the blue blazes out of casual gun owners who rarely get excited about gun laws, he could get nothing. Further, by not pushing for immediate passage, they're signaling that they don't think they presently have the votes. But I tell you truthfully, my friends, they're too close to suit me. Though there's still a possibility of a quick House-Senate conference on the crime bill -- including the Senate-passed Feinstein "assault weapon" and magazine ban -- we're more likely to first see a vote on H.R. 3315, an alternative crime bill promoted by the Black Caucus and the left wing of the House. H.R. 3315 eliminates the Senate-passed bill's tough-on- criminals provisions, but contains a grab bag of gun bills: many of the enacted "Brady Bill" provisions, plus a version of the "Feinstein Assault Weapons and Magazine Ban," a ban on possession of "Saturday Night Specials" (defined as "non-sporting handguns"); it would impose an 89 percent tax on .25, .32 and 9mm ammo; and would prohibit an individual from purchasing two or more handguns within 30 days. It imposes strict liability for manufacturers, importers or dealers of handguns and "assault weapons" used to injure anyone unless they are shot by a cop or soldier, or were shot while committing a felony. Expect to also see Handgun Control Inc.'s "arsenal permit" for anyone possessing more than 20 guns or 1,000 rounds of ammo - -- which the law defines to include primers and components. Schumer intends to hold firearms hearings on all this and more in February, but the odds are that there won't be any House votes until March and perhaps later. But I suspect this to come to a head in May -- coinciding with the NRA annual meetings in Minneapolis. ======================================================================== NRA Board Holds Winter Meeting At the February 5-6 NRA Board meetings, Tanya K. Metaksa was enthusiastically confirmed as the replacement for ILA Director Jim Baker (who will continue to represent NRA as a contract lobbyist). Tanya will do well. She is a tremendous grass roots organizer, earned her spurs by defeating the Massachusetts handgun ban referendum in 1976, started NRA-ILA's State & Local Division, was later my Deputy Director at ILA, ran Sportspersons for Reagan- Bush in the 1980 and 1984 campaigns, and was Legislative Director for Sen. Al D'Amato for 3 years. The anti-gun feeding frenzy makes it clear that we must have the strongest-ever NRA. That won't come until we have truly organized the grass roots membership, and give the members a role other than putting their signature on a letter to a Congressman or a check. [You net folks who have expended calories flogging NRA for backing the wrong legislation, or lying down on the job should pay particular attention. This is about giving the grass roots activist the power -- and responsibility -- to guide NRA in local fights. Things are changing. It takes time, but they are truly changing. -- cwk ] The NRA Board also endorsed Mississippi's drivers license- encoded version of the "instant check" as preferable to the "instant check" language they had previously endorsed. (See also "State News".) NRA Defends Marine Charged with Murder NRA is defending a woman Marine charged with murder in a military court martial for killing another Marine, a former boy friend who had stalked her and been confined to Quantico because of his threats against her. Three days after buying a .380 pistol for protection, he broke into her off-base apartment in the middle of the night, armed with a bayonet. Local authorities quickly ruled it justifiable self- defense, and we've used that case as an example of how a five-day waiting period could have cost her life. Incredibly the Marines charged her with murder. NRA staff counsel Mike Murray, a retired Marine colonel is handling her defense. NRA BoD Elections Coming At the fall Directors meeting, the changing and much-changed Board approved the goal of creating an NRA office in every state. The Directors elected in the last few years, and a few of the older Directors, have a much-different attitude toward aggressively defending your firearms rights. And we're beginning to make significant changes in how NRA does it. If you're a voting member, there will be a ballot in your March American Rifleman/Hunter. I'm one of the Directors up for re-election this year, and I'll appreciate your vote. I'm a nominee of the Nominating Committee. (Now that's a switch!) Please pick your 25 from among the 27 on the Nominating Committee's list, which you'll find in the Official Journal section near the biographies. State News Feb. 19 update -- With 42 state legislatures in session, there are a lot of pending gun bills, but these seem to be most critical. Hawaii The Hawaii Senate passed six gun bills late Wednesday night, including one banning future sales and importations of handguns. Another would make the present permit to acquire a long gun valid for only ten days, and another would allow police to seek a medical opinion before issuing a permit to purchase a handgun. The Hawaii House Judiciary Committee has tentatively set a hearing on these bills for March 5, and local activists are attempting to get a large turnout. Washington In Washington State, key legislators decided yesterday not to push a Feinstein-like ban on so-called "assault weapons." The main remaining bill is H.B. 2906, which would increase the fee and stiffen the requirements for issuance of a carry permit, and allow local governments to ban firearms sales through zoning. Colorado In Colorado, a liberalized carry law is close enough to passage that it's making the national news media nervous. Connecticut But in Connecticut, Gov. Lowell Weicker is pushing a handgun ban. It's a serious threat, although the state has one of nation's strongest right to keep and bear arms Constitutional provisions. That Constitutional provision is the basis of a well-crafted challenge to Weicker's ban on military-style semi-autos, which passed last year. Both Second Amendment Foundation and NRA are backing the suit. Mississippi Mississippi passed an improved -- and less easily perverted -- version of "instant-check." Convicted felons would have that fact coded into a magnetic strip on their drivers' licenses. Gun dealers would be required to run the license through a scanner that would give a simple red or green light on the sale -- and in Mississippi's twist, a "clean" license would qualify any applicant for a concealed carrying license simply by completing the form and paying the license fee. The state's liberalized carry law was enacted in 1990. The advantage of the system is that it requires no check against a central computer for each gun purchase, a check that could be recorded despite prohibitions against keeping such data. Though not a new idea -- a similar bill was almost enacted about five years ago -- it now has potential for passage in several states for it is potentially less costly than the Brady- mandated "Instant Check." Similar bills have been proposed in Virginia and Montana. Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania Assembly passed a bill last week affirming -- by 134-63 -- that the state's preemption laws applied to all legal firearms, including so-called assault rifles. It still must pass the Senate, which passed a similar bill by a vote of 45-2 last fall. The big question is whether the governor will veto it -- and if he can make it stick. Arizona -- by Chris Knox A weak concealed carry bill moved out of the Firearms Subcommittee of the State House Judiciary Committee. The bill includes language endorsed by Department of Public Safety (state police) that gives the local police chief or sherriff discretion over whether to issue a permit. The discretionary language was enough to turn Arizona activists against it. Friends in the House promise floor amendments. The threat of a perverted concealed carry law in Arizona brought about the birth of a new group in the Net. The group began innocently enough as an e-mail conversation between a couple of would-be activists who started including friends in the CC: line. The CC: list bloomed into more than forty in the course of a week. The group met with a surprising initial success as fair-weather friends suddenly turned stalwart and DPS backed off of its most objectionable provisions and assumed a lower profile. Currently simply a long CC: list in an e-mail header, the group is in search of a list-serv home. Contact me at cknox@crl.com if you can help us out. ======================================================================== [ Somebody posed a nutty question in the Net several weeks ago to the effect that he'd heard Josh Sugarmann of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence was a former CIA employee. The nutty answer is, no, not Josh. It's Ed Welles, a member of the HCI Board. I mentioned it to Pop and asked about his ancient scribblings on the subject. He dug around in his archives and found these items -- cwk] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + + + Washington Post Sept. 2, 1988, D3, Chuck Conconi Personalities + + + + Alongside William Colby photo + + + + "Former CIA director William E. Colby and his wife, former + + ambassador Sally Shelton, who have been quietly working for the + + past several years with the National Colation to Ban Handguns, + + are opening their Georgetown home later this month for a coalition + + fundraiser that will feature the music of 71-year-old cabaret + + mouth organist Larry Adler. Colby has said he learned of the + + dangers of handguns during his years at the CIA ..." + + + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ EXPLORING THE CIA CONNECTION (From Neal Knox column, Jan. 1989 Guns & Ammo) The Washington intelligentsia tittered nervously when the Washington Post's gossip column reported that William Colby, appointed Director of the CIA by President Richard Nixon, was hosting a fundraiser in his home for their beloved National Coalition To Ban Handguns. Quizzed about the curious connection between a pair of the Washington Establishment's most-hated and most-fawned-over organizations, Colby said he had been "quietly working with NCBH for the past several years," and that he had "learned of the dangers of handguns during his years at the CIA" -- from September 4, 1973 to January 30, 1976. Ve-r-r-ry interesting. NCBH was established in 1974 by Rev. Jack Corbett of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. He was "greatly assisted" -- Rev. Corbett told me at the time -- by Ed Welles, the Executive Director of the similarly named and ostensibly competing National Council to Control Handguns (later renamed Handgun Control Inc.) which was also established in 1974. Ed Welles was correctly identified in HCI Chairman Nelson Shields' book as having "just retired from the CIA." Maybe he was retired, and maybe he just disliked guns (though a friend of his once innocently told me Welles owned two handguns and a Sharps- Borchardt rifle when he set up those groups). A conspiracy theorist, particularly one who thinks Nixon's CIA was trying to take over the country, might claim HCI and NCBH were established as CIA fronts -- but that would be illegal. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NEAL KNOX REPORT (Jan. 20, 1989 Shotgun News) CIA-NCBH Connection? By NEAL KNOX Washington, D.C. (Dec. 19, 1989) -- The curious connection between President Nixon's CIA and the two leading anti-gun organizations, reported in my new "Guns & Ammo" column, has caused an uneasy stir among the CIA-hating hard left. Particularly in the Nixon years, the left was convinced that the CIA was trying to take over the country. In October 1973, when President Nixon ordered the "Watergate" special prosecutor fired, an almost hysterical acquaintance told me Nixon was ready to mobilize the CIA and Army and declare himself dictator. Even if the President had such notions, and I never thought he did, American citizens would not have tolerated an overthrow of the Constitution, and were adequately armed to make such a coup impossible -- which is exactly what the framers of the Bill of Rights had in mind when they guaranteed the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. But just for the sake of discussion, if someone within the White House or the CIA had given serious thought to a "bloodless coup," and been thwarted by the existence of an armed populace, would they perhaps have tried to do something about removing that roadblock? However we might speculate upon that question, the fact is that during the next few months both of the leading anti-gun organizations were formed -- and a principle player in the formation of both was one Edwin O. Welles, who had just "retired" from the CIA [and who sits on the HCI BoD to this day -- cwk]. As noted in Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Nelson Shields' book, ex-CIA agent Welles was the first chairman of the National Council to Control Handguns (later renamed HCI). Further, according to Rev. Jack Corbett, who founded the National Coalition to Ban Handguns under the auspices of the United Methodist Church, Welles was a "guiding light" to NCBH -- an ostensibly competing organization. During 1974 (the year both groups were formed) I had several telephone conversations/debates with Dr. Corbett. Once when he was stymied by my recitation of facts that refuted his anti-gun arguments, Corbett handed the phone to Welles -- to my utter astonishment. What particularly puzzled me about that conversation is that ex-CIA Agent Welles didn't seem the sort of zealot that would help form not one but two anti-gun organizations. Years later I learned, through a mutual acquaintance, that at the time he started HCI and helped form NCBH he owned two handguns (which he supposedly buried in his back yard) and a Sharps-Borchardt rifle. What brought this puzzle to mind was a fundraiser for NCBH hosted at his Georgetown home last September [1988] by the man President Nixon appointed as CIA Director, William Colby. The "Liberals" love the NCBH about as much as they hate the CIA, so the linkage of the two caused some puzzlement around Washington. Colby told a "Washington Post" gossip columnist that he had been "quietly working with NCBH for the past several years," and that he had "learned of the dangers of handguns during his years at the CIA" -- from September 4, 1973 to January 30, 1976. ======================================================================== -##- Retain Neal Knox Associates as your lobbyist and begin receiving the bi-monthly "Hard Corps Report" by contributing to the Firearms Coalition, Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD 20916. For legislative updates call (301) 871-3006 [automated voice] Email: nealknox@genie.geis.com To subscribe to the Firearms Coalition Online Report send email to cknox@crl.com with "subscribe" as the subject line. ======================================================================== Reproduction and distribution of this bulletin by any means is encouraged. Please respect your source with an appropriate citation and include our address. ======================================================================== - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.3 mQCPAi1KuPcAAAEEALAXvtfWggjpIRGe8hDWyTZ1PIJ3TRzOoxi0rOZSiPxVX2rn yhx1Ua+IkagWtrdmJe3mh2BsOfvNR3FPOM7Ikc4nd9DdD9fRcxyQtzsL6wbYQ7P8 +5ya6hVM0o0I9be/sx3/3sVVRJUP0s1YslS6pWtzdOrCVUyEyFg10vys3mWZABEB AAG0J0NocmlzdG9waGVyIFdhcnJlbiBLbm94IDxja25veEBjcmwuY29tPg== =Tgcj - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- We recommend encryption of sensitive data such as credit card numbers. ======================================================================== Dear Neal, Enclosed is my retainer for your services as my Capitol Hill lobbyist: $500 [ ] $250 [ ] $50 [ ] $25 [ ] Other:____ [ ] Bill my MasterCard [ ] Visa [ ] Quarterly [ ]; Monthly [ ]; Once [ ] Card No. ______________________ Expiration Date _____ Mr. [ ] Mrs.[ ]______________________________ Signature ______________________ Ms. [ ] Address __________________________________________ Phone _______________ City _____________________________________________ State ____ Zip_______ Email Address ______________________ Print and mail, or send via Email to nealknox@genie.geis.com Firearms Coalition Box 6537 Silver Spring, MD 20916 ======================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLWa9ZFtGNBDmS7e9AQEMpwP7Bhgy525sfFRqfR/eXPn/VNiiheKSCYFK IVltwPDIdZBLOfPGHe2BO2X5MK3mpa2HbP/E98U0GM5yJgc8hnB+C1xoVD5D7gAS twNEsKCbo4HjE/SlCST34mr9wF715VjITCk05XHNKa4ukTblmLh4+DZNA4yOIhsP lqgYjORy9Xg= =H4Bc -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- And the rifle? Wouldn't go out naked of a rifle. When shoes and clothes and food, when even hope is gone, we'll have the rifle. -- The Grapes of Wrath Send mail to cknox@crl.com to receive the Online Firearms Coalition Bulletin. finger cknox@crl.com for more information and for PGP Public Key.