Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 20:24:54 -0500 From: alerts@gatekeeper.nra.org (NRA Alerts) To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com Subject: INFO: Response to Cleveland Plain Dealer Article by Tanya Metaksa March 29, 1995 Brent Larkin Cleveland Plain Dealer 1801 Superior Avenue, N.E. Cleveland, Ohio 44114-2192 (VIA FAX: 216-999-6354) Dear Mr. Larkin: Perhaps the next time she files a column riddled with (literally) bold-faced lies and hatred of innocent law-abiding citizens, Mary Anne Sharkey might consider changing her byline to Mary Anne Slander. * Senator Bob Dole took an oath of office to defend the Constitution, not bits and pieces of it. He has been loyal to that oath. Millions of Americans agree with his support of laws that target the criminal, not the law-abiding. * The NRA interprets the Second Amendment in the way it was intended: a guarantee of an individual right to keep and bear arms. Even the American Bar Association published in 1965 an award-winning article titled "The Lost Amendment" which concluded that the Second Amendment guaranteed an individual right. Since then, numerous scholars have published works that confirm this interpretation. Consider just one: "For the point to be made with respect to Congress and the Second Amendment is that the essential claim advanced by the NRA with respect to the Second Amendment is extremely strong... the constructive role of the NRA today, like the role of the ACLU in the 1920's with respect to the First Amendment, ought itself not to be dismissed lightly." --William Van Alstyne, Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law, "The Second Amendment And The Personal Right to Arms," 1994 * The Second Amendment can indeed be safeguarded while effective action is mounted against "street gangs, drug dealers and homicidal maniacs." NRA has been in the vanguard to pass effective anti- crime legislation at the state and federal level. NRA made "3 Strikes" possible in Washington state long before President Clinton uttered the words in a State of the Union Address. * The impediment to effective action aimed at armed criminals is neither NRA, Bob Dole nor the Second Amendment. The impediment is the anti-gun politician -- and the shallow columnist he dazzles. NRA officials sat down in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in 1981 to help craft tough penalties against armed drug dealers and gangs that became law in 1987. When Clinton came in, the law atrophied. Federal weapons prosecutions have plummeted 23% in the first two years of his presidency. While it's high tide in violent crime, it's low tide in the courts, and Clinton, not Dole, is allowing armed criminals to wade ashore scot-free. * To Bob Dole and most Americans, any gun in any criminal's hand is a problem -- except to Bill Clinton, whose problem is any gun with military cosmetics in the hands of any law-abiding citizen. "Of course," the columnist writes, "the 19 weapons subject to the ban are so lethal that few victims have a chance ... " Of course, there are not 19 guns banned, but 190 and more, and, of course, they are far less powerful than other firearms. Many of the rifles banned are chambered in .223 Remington, less than half the energy of the .30-06, arguably the most popular deer hunting cartridge in North America and available in self-loading or semiautomatic action. * Gun control doesn't work, and Bob Dole and most Americans know it. So do most experts. In the current issue of Society, James Wright, noted expert in the field and Favrot Professor of Human Relations at Tulane, observes: "Having learned (now more than a decade ago) that the criminal acquisition of guns involves informal and intrinsically difficult-to-regulate transfers that are entirely independent of laws ..., average gun owners often conclude (whether rightly or wrongly) that [gun control] measures must therefore be intended primarily to keep tabs on them ..." The columnist's hysterical rantings tend to remove all doubt about the real reason such laws are passed. Concludes Wright: "Is it any wonder [gun owners] object, often vociferously, to such slander?" * If it is "well-documented that the NRA is financed by gun manufacturers and dealers" as the columnist maintains, show me. NRA is a service organization devoted to and supported by 3.5 million individuals, and we are occasionally at odds with industry on a variety of issues. * The columnist fails ancient history. NRA helped craft legislation to define and limit sales of so-called armor piercing ammunition. The inventor, an Ohio resident, could tell you more, but so few in the press haven't gotten his story, and this aspect of the issue right, I doubt he'd return your call. Americans are counting on leaders like Bob Dole, because he doesn't draw distinctions that don't exist. Regardless of cosmetics, all guns expel a projectile. Regardless of the gun they hold, all armed criminals are the real assault weapons. Control them, and don't be deceived: when guns are banned, criminals win. In passing the Clinton gun ban, anti-gun politicians counted on reporter incompetence in criminology and firearms technology. There are fresh signs that many journalists are realizing the truth -- they were used -- but, even today, sadly, too many are still making the cut. Sincerely, Mrs. Tanya K. Metaksa Executive Director =+=+=+=+ This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA. This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is available at any of the following URL's: http://WWW.NRA.Org, gopher://GOPHER.NRA.Org, wais://WAIS.NRA.Org, ftp://FTP.NRA.Org, mailto:LISTPROC@NRA.Org (Send the word help as the body of a message) Information may also be obtained by connecting directly to the NRA-ILA GUN-TALK Bulletin Board System at (703) 934-2121.