From: Charles C Hardy Subject: Anti-gun petition may go pro next year Date: 03 Jun 2002 11:32:37 -0600 From today's SLTrib. Nice quotes from Janalee Tobias herein. Pro-gun groups probably need to get together and figure out how to best combat this. The flyers that the LPUtah, WAGC, and other groups did last time did a great job previously. Maybe a slight update or even additional flyers are in order. I wonder how many teachers really support their union money being used to limit their gun rights? If I can trust a teacher with my child for 8 hours a day, I can trust that teacher with the means to defend herself and my child from criminal agression. If these guys do go "pro" on a new petition, we can hammer them on that, too. "This isn't grass roots Utahns. This is big money, probably frm out of state, trying to influence local decisions." And, of course, they can get all the sigs they want in Salt Lake County. If they don't get enough in the rural counties, no initiative. :) I think we know where we ought to concentrate our efforts. Charles http://www.sltrib.com/06032002/utah/742427.htm Gun Ban Drive May Be Back Monday, June 3, 2002 BY DAN HARRIE THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Supporters of a failed, four-year petition effort to ban legally concealed guns in schools and houses of worship are regrouping and may try again in 2004 to get their cause on the ballot. If there is a next time, they will do it differently, relying on fund-raising and paid petition signature gatherers to get the job done. Leaders of the volunteer "Safe to Learn, Safe to Worship Coalition" met in a four-hour retreat Saturday to lick their wounds after acknowledging they had fallen far short of mustering the 76,180 registered-voter signatures needed by today's deadline to put their initiative before voters in November. "People were feeling kind of sad and frustrated," meeting facilitator Dave Jones said Sunday. "But they were hopeful, too." "We took a little vote and no one wanted to give up." If the coalition, made up of more than a dozen organizations and religions, does launch a 2004 initiative, it will have to do so from scratch. State law nullifies an approved petition after four years, effectively trashing the approximately 40,000 signatures already in hand. Initiative organizers remain convinced that Utah residents overwhelmingly support a ban on all weapons -- including legally concealed guns -- in public schools, colleges, universities and religious edifices. They blame their defeat on the practical difficulty of using only volunteers to collect tens of thousands of signatures statewide (10 percent of voters participating in the last gubernatorial election in 20 of 29 counties). "What we have learned from this whole thing is money talks," said Jones, a former state legislator and Democratic Party leader. "If you're going to get anything on the ballot, you have to pay for it -- you have to buy it." Three of the four statewide initiatives that have made it on Utah's ballot during the past decade used paid signature gatherers. The state Legislature stiffened the requirements in 1998, and since then the only two initiatives to qualify employed professional petition passers. "I hate to say it, but that's the only way to do it," said Frank Pignanelli, an organizer of a petition to restrict and increase taxes on radioactive waste coming into the state. "Initiatives have become a political industry." Paula Plant, chairwoman of the Safe to Learn, Safe to Worship Coalition, said her group's failure has "proven it is impossible" to achieve ballot status with an all-volunteer campaign. "But if you have the money and you operate like a business, you can win." Plant and other initiative supporters insist that their cause is extremely popular. "Nine of 10 people [asked] would sign the petition," she said. Bunk, said Janalee Tobias, leader of Women Against Gun Control. "They had all the king's horses and all the king's men on their side -- the media and pollsters. They still couldn't get it passed," said Tobias. While she acknowledged that getting an initiative on the ballot is a chore, Tobias said there is a simple reason this one fell short. "It's the common-sense people who don't want to be victims in this state," she said. "I've got to hand it to the people of Utah. They understand that criminals don't obey the law." Tobias, who has actively lobbied against a ban of legally concealed guns in schools and places of worship, says such a restriction would only serve to invite violent criminals to prey on unarmed, vulnerable students and congregation members. "It should be called the 'Unsafe to Learn, Unsafe to Worship' petition," Tobias said. "The schools where they're having the shootings are ones that don't allow law-abiding people to have concealed weapons." Maura Carabello, executive director of the Utah Gun Violence Prevention Center, said the initiative was never about attacking gun rights. "We are not by any means an anti-gun coalition," said Carabello. "We're talking about restricting a handful of places, and the idea that that's inappropriate is bizarre to me." The 17 members of the coalition range from the Utah Education Association teachers' union to the Episcopal Diocese, and from the Utah Medical Association to the League of Women Voters. Some of the groups have been vehemently opposed to abandoning their grass-roots foundation to employ professional signature gatherers. While no final decision has been made, the coalition has authorized a study that in the next few weeks will provide more information about the cost and feasibility of a professional petition-passing effort for 2004. Another option would be a Capitol Hill lobbying campaign to back a bill in the Legislature, possibly including the hiring of professional lobbyists, and creation of a political action committee to support friendly candidates in elections. But that legislative strategy elicits skepticism from some. "The only cynicism in the group is toward the Legislature," said Carabello. "Our legislators have shown themselves to be pretty narrow and bull-headed on any gun issue." ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Bergeson Subject: Signatures of the Gun Culture Date: 03 Jun 2002 20:35:46 -0600 http://www.newsmax.com/commentarchive.shtml?a=2002/5/31/183751 Signatures of the Gun Culture Dr. Michael S. Brown June 1, 2002 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Bergeson Subject: Gun control drops from national debate Date: 10 Jun 2002 12:36:25 -0600 Gun control drops from national debate ---------- Washington Times Just a few years ago, restrictions on self defense and the right to bear arms were hot topics of discussion. But restrictions have proven to be ballot-box losers around the country, and candidates are now steering clear of the issue. (06/10/02) http://www.free-market.net/rd/147860169.html 'Gun-free' zone puts Americans at risk ---------- KeepAndBearArms.com by Russ Howard "That you still haven't armed pilots forces me to suspect that you may deserve some of the 'What did he know, when did he know it?' criticism Democrats are dishing out..." (05/02) http://www.free-market.net/rd/810165862.html - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Bergeson Subject: Why Trust Politicians Who Take Your Guns? Date: 10 Jun 2002 20:50:26 -0600 On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 20:40:03 -0600 Janalee Tobias provides from WAGC member Lora: ---------- http://www.arizonarepublic.com/opinions/articles/0601hancock01.html Why trust the politicians who take your guns? By Ernest Hancock June 01, 2002 I am often associated with the gun-rights issue but most in the media and public service know that my main interest is freedom. Between my IRS tax-day protests, lawsuits, campaigns, freedom initiatives, Diamondback rattlesnake barbecues and helping desperate people deal with oppressive governments, there has always been attention to gun rights. Why is this issue such a touchstone for freedom lovers? Even politicians who want to be known as "pro-gun" hate having to discuss the issue with reporters or be too specific, even with supporters. They hate it because it is an MRI into their character. It is a Vulcan mind-meld, as my friend and gun-rights author L. Neil Smith calls the gun issue. It is the ultimate test by which any politician or political philosophy can be evaluated. If a politician isn't comfortable with any individual being able to walk into a hardware store, pay cash for any firearm without producing identification or signing a single scrap of paper (and that individual being able to carry that protection concealed or open), then that politician does not support freedom. Gun-control laws only disarm potential victims, thus creating a safe work environment for criminals - kind of like an OSHA for felons. And criminals won't be deterred from getting a weapon because of a law. Criminals don't follow laws. Any attempt to rid the world of a tool that would give my 130-pound wife a fighting chance against a 230-pound man would be immoral. This test is very revealing about how someone seeking your vote really feels about you. If he doesn't want you to have the means to defend your life, do you want him in a position to control it? If a politician thinks that the highest law of the land, the Bill of Rights, is nothing more than a guideline for government, do you want to entrust him with anything? Try it yourself: if a politician won't trust you, why should you trust him? If he's a man, what does his lack of trust tell you about his real attitude toward women? If "he" happens to be a woman, what makes her so eager to render her fellow women helpless on the mean and seedy streets her policies helped create? Should you believe politicians who claim they stand for freedom, but drag their feet and make excuses about repealing limits on your right to own and carry weapons? What does this tell you about their real motives, when they ignore voters and ram through legislation actively opposed by a majority of their constituents? Makes voting simpler, doesn't it? You don't have to study every issue. Just use this X-ray machine, this Vulcan mind-meld, to find out how politicians really feel. About you. That, of course, is why they hate it. And that's why I'm accused of being a single-issue activist, thinker and voter. But it isn't true, is it? Ernest Hancock is a Phoenix restaurant owner. In a suit filed May 14 with the state Supreme Court, he asked for a ruling that the state can't tell him whether he can carry a gun on public property. The WAGC homepage is at http://www.wagc.com/ . - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Bergeson Subject: High court won't address Second Amendment now Date: 11 Jun 2002 09:35:13 -0600 High court won't address Second Amendment now ---------- Washington Post The Supreme Court said it will not hear two cases that would have tested the Bush administration's recent acknowledgement that the Constitution protects an individual's right to own guns. One of them is the much-watched Emerson case. (06/11/02) http://www.free-market.net/rd/997765994.html - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Subject: Take a Stand for Gun Rights! (fwd) Date: 20 Jun 2002 17:55:14 -0600 (MDT) I'm sending this to these groups because I know of the email addresses. if you are an owner of the group and get this bounced back, please forward it to your group members. -- Karl L. Pearson Senior Consulting Systems Analyst Senior Consulting Database Analyst karlp@ourldsfamily.com http://consulting.ourldsfamily.com My Thoughts on Terrorism In America: http://www.ourldsfamily.com/wtc.shtml ---------- Forwarded message ---------- AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM CONGRESSMAN BOB BARR [Reader], A fanatic band of obsessed gun control zealots are plotting to obliterate your Second Amendment rights. http://www.campaigncontribution.com/alerts/barr2/ With an overabundance of arrogance and . . . A critical shortage of commonsense . . . They're making an unprovoked attack on your rights as a sportsman, gun collector and heroic defender of your family, home and hearth. I'm causing an uproar in Congress by standing strong for your Second Amendment rights and I'm glad I am. Someone must put a stop to the angry mob of jeering, sneering zealots who are attempting to torch our Constitution. Obeying the call from the Clinton-Kennedy Machine, an alliance of hysterical hypocritical liberals tried to silence my voice in Congress by gerrymandering a district map designed to defeat me. They know they can't shut me up in Congress. So they're determined to manipulate district lines to defeat me. With just months to go until Election Day . . . I'm bracing for a tough re-election battle! Under the banner that all guns are bad and all gun owners are evil, liberals call me an extremist because I've gone so far as to join the board of the NRA and invite my friend Charlton Heston into my district. Using the slogan that "The Constitution is ours to change," they're calling me rigid because I know that the Second Amendment means exactly what it says. Yes, I admire the NRA that they hate, and I admire NRA President Charlton Heston whom they detest. And as long as I'm in Congress, I'll never EVER let them cheat you out of your right to keep and bear arms! Because if they succeed . . . It will prove ruinous to our republic. You have a strong stake in this great battle and wisely you're fighting with all your might for our rights. When the whimpering simpering anti-gun crowd joins forces with the ultra-liberal media that hews and spews their anti-gun lies, we must fight back with the truth. When rabid gun control groups follow their familiar pattern of vile, bitter, negative attacks designed to assassinate my character, that tells me my staunch leadership in support of your Second Amendment rights strikes terror in the hearts of the Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ted and Patrick Kennedy Crowd. I must be doing something right! Will you help me defend my honor, protect my seat and win re-election so I can keep fighting for you? Please CLICK BELOW to make your online campaign contribution of $25, $35, $50, $100 or more right away: http://www.campaigncontribution.com/alerts/barr2/ Your strong support will give me the ammunition to fight back with flyers, letters, radio spots, newspaper ads and TV commercials that will help me win. Let's stand up for our God-given American right to keep and bear arms. Let's face this great challenge together and summon the courage and commitment to win! Your Friend, BOB BARR Congressman P.S. I'll always stand up and fight for your right to keep and bear arms! But I need your help to stay in Congress -- please let me hear from you today. CLICK BELOW: http://www.campaigncontribution.com/alerts/barr2/ Paid for by Bob Barr for Congress You are receiving this message because you requested to be e-mailed regarding issues and offers of interest to conservatives, either when you sent an online petition, faxgram or mailgram, or when you donated to a conservative cause on the Internet or through postal mail. cncdnw - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Bergeson Subject: NY Rabbi defiant on armed patrol in Brooklyn Date: 24 Jun 2002 09:54:09 -0600 NY Rabbi defiant on armed patrol in Brooklyn ---------- Reuters A Jewish group is planning an armed anti-terror patrol of Jewish areas in Brooklyn, New York, even if it means arms bearers will be arrested, the rabbi who heads the group says. The neighborhood has been singled out as a terrorism target. (06/24/02) http://www.free-market.net/rd/240237085.html Congress[man McCain] fears the 'gun show loophole' ---------- Liberty For Al by Carma Lewis "With all the force of his left-leaning spirit, John McCain is pushing harder for his ... attack against lawful gun ownership and your right to dispose of your personal property as you see fit." (06/02) http://www.free-market.net/rd/881102026.html [Hard to read from Windows Netscape] Pro-gun women on full auto ---------- Armed Females of America by Carma Lewis AFA calls out for people to protest against looming anti-gun legislation. (06/02) http://www.free-market.net/rd/335939514.html [Same story, easier to read] -