From: owner-utah-firearms-digest@lists.xmission.com (utah-firearms-digest) To: utah-firearms-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: utah-firearms-digest V2 #209 Reply-To: utah-firearms-digest Sender: owner-utah-firearms-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-utah-firearms-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk utah-firearms-digest Tuesday, April 17 2001 Volume 02 : Number 209 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 21:24:13 -0700 From: charles hardy Subject: Professional lobbyist for anti-gun group From today's SLTrib, . Our fight is obviously far from won. Also, looks like monster.com needs to be added to known anti-gun businesses. Finally, so far as I know from my layman's reading of Utah law, the contention in this article that a gun can be carried loaded so long as it is in plain sight is in error. I fairly sure statute prohibits carrying a loaded gun inside city limits unless it is carried concealed purusiant to a State issued CCW permit. Of course, having lived in Arizona for a few months and having enjoyed the ability to openly carry a loaded weapons without having to get a permit, I think it would be a fine change to make to our laws. :) We need to make sure that our legislators hear from us during the off season. - ---------------- Charles Hardy Gun Control Is No Easy Sale in Utah Monday, March 26, 2001 BY GREG BURTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE For Utah gun owners, little has changed since the days when Brigham Young cautioned Mormon pioneers to stock food and rifles. More than 30,000 Utahns have applied for and been granted concealed-carry permits, and virtually every able-bodied, law-abiding citizen able to vote can strap on a holster with a loaded pistol in Utah as long as the weapon remains in plain view. It's an environment that makes Maura Carabello's job all the more difficult. Fresh from handling the failed congressional campaign of a young Democrat running in a district engulfed by Utah County Republicans, Carabello will now attempt what some would view as trying to squeeze water from a rock -- altering the course of Utah's gun culture. Earlier this year, Utahns Against Gun Violence, or UAGV, hired Carabello to apply a polish to their grass-roots organization. She will lobby the state's pro-gun Legislature, rally donors to her side and begin a campaign bent on incremental change to laws governing guns in Utah. UAGV was founded in 1993 by Ron and Norma Molen after their 22-year-old son Steven was killed trying to save a friend attacked in a dorm on the campus of Indiana University. For nearly a decade, board members have done their own, part-time lobbying. Carabello is the group's first dedicated employee assigned to the fight for gun control, a realm few Utahns have dared venture into. "What surprises me is some of the venom on the Hill spewed by the pro-gun lobby," she says. "We disagree, but, wow!" Carabello's position was created through a $65,000 grant from Monster.com mogul Andy McKelvey, who has funded scores of similar projects across the country since establishing Americans for Gun Safety last year. On McKelvey's dime, the group has run a national advertising blitz defending the right to own guns while arguing that law-abiding gun owners need not fear sensible restrictions. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joined the group's fight this year to close the loophole that allows sales of some weapons at gun shows without a background check. Like McKelvey's organization, Carabello's first priority is to close what the groups call Utah's gun show loophole, a proposition that withered without debate this year in the Utah House of Repre- sentatives. "Maybe having a dialogue off-session will help," she says. Originally from Colorado, Carabello graduated from Utah State University and was director of the Children's Friends Foundation and the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission before running 3rd District congressional candidate Donald Dunn's 2000 campaign. Two of Dunn's friends, board members for Utahns Against Gun Violence, asked Carabello if she would be interested in running their group after the campaign. "We simply needed to do something to fight this cavalier attitude toward guns," says Steve Gunn, an attorney and founding board member of UAGV. "Personally, I am concerned about the fact that there seems to be no voice for reasonable gun control. All I can hear is the loud voice of the [National Rifle Association]." Carabello's first taste of Utah's gun fever came during a January legislative committee hearing where she was outnumbered nearly 50-to-1 by pro-gun citizens. "You have to give the gun owners credit. They are organized and focused," she says. "But I don't think that makes them representative of more people." Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Self-Defense Instructors Network, disagrees. "Our legislative process is open to everyone -- you cannot stop anyone from calling a House or Senate member," he says. "If they have the numbers on their side, why don't they pack these rooms? The fact is they don't have the numbers." Aposhian, like the NRA and the state's most dogged gun-rights group, Utah Gun Owners Alliance, opposes any change to gun show laws. "What 'Utahns Against Gun Owners' " -- as Aposhian calls Utahns Against Gun Violence -- "are saying is now we are not going to allow these individuals to sell their own personal property. What they are really looking to do is shut [gun shows] down." Carabello did little lobbying before the 2001 Legislature. Her opponents, as in years past, lobbied furiously before and during the session. Even so, the gun-rights advocates managed to clear just one significant measure through the House and Senate. House Bill 376 allows out-of-state visitors with concealed-carry permits to carry their guns in Utah for 60 days. After two months, the visitors would be required to secure a Utah concealed-weapon permit. The bill was sold as an attraction for gun-toting tourists, although the pro-gun faction made little secret of its desire for all states to also endorse Utah permits. Next year, Carabello will push legislation to end unrestricted gun show sales and a bill that would punish parents who allow children access to loaded guns. Utahns Against Gun Violence also supports an initiative sponsored by the Safe to Learn Safe to Worship Coalition that would ban guns from churches and schools. "I look at these things and say 'Wow, that sounds reasonable,' " she says. "We're not talking about taking anybody's gun away. That's where we need to work on our message. We need to have a dialogue, and that's where I come in." - ---------------- Charles Hardy ________________________________________________________________ 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/tagj. - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 23:31:24 -0500 From: "Chad Leigh, Pengar Enterprises, Inc & Shire.Net LLC" Subject: Re: Professional lobbyist for anti-gun group I don't know the current utah law but you used to be able to carry an "unloaded" gun openly. Loaded was defined as needing 2 actions to fire it so a loaded mag in a semi could be carried but not in the chamber, for example. I used to carry like that in that back in 94 off and on, in Utah County and one or twice in Sandy and at the point of the mountain when flying my rc planes. Chad from what was warm spring like NH, but it snowed 1/2" or so tonight and I think it is still snowing, and we still have 4-16" on the ground which has ben snow covered since Dec 30 00. - --On Monday, March 26, 2001 9:24 PM -0700 charles hardy wrote: >> From today's SLTrib, . > > Our fight is obviously far from won. Also, looks like monster.com needs > to be added to known anti-gun businesses. Finally, so far as I know from > my layman's reading of Utah law, the contention in this article that a > gun can be carried loaded so long as it is in plain sight is in error. I > fairly sure statute prohibits carrying a loaded gun inside city limits > unless it is carried concealed purusiant to a State issued CCW permit. > Of course, having lived in Arizona for a few months and having enjoyed > the ability to openly carry a loaded weapons without having to get a > permit, I think it would be a fine change to make to our laws. :) > > We need to make sure that our legislators hear from us during the off > season. > > > ---------------- > Charles Hardy > > > > > Gun Control Is No Easy Sale in Utah > Monday, > March 26, > 2001 > > > BY GREG BURTON > > THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE > > For Utah gun owners, > little has changed since the > days when Brigham > Young cautioned > Mormon pioneers to > stock food and rifles. > More than 30,000 > Utahns have applied for > and been granted > concealed-carry permits, > and virtually every > able-bodied, law-abiding > citizen able to vote can > strap on a holster with a > loaded pistol in Utah as > long as the weapon > remains in plain view. > It's an environment that > makes Maura Carabello's > job all the more difficult. > Fresh from handling the > failed congressional > campaign of a young > Democrat running in a district engulfed by Utah County Republicans, > Carabello will now attempt what some would view as trying to > squeeze > water from a rock -- altering the course of Utah's gun culture. > Earlier this year, Utahns Against Gun Violence, or UAGV, hired > Carabello to apply a polish to their grass-roots organization. She > will > lobby the state's pro-gun Legislature, rally donors to her side and > begin a > campaign bent on incremental change to laws governing guns in Utah. > > UAGV was founded in 1993 by Ron and Norma Molen after their > 22-year-old son Steven was killed trying to save a friend attacked > in a > dorm on the campus of Indiana University. > For nearly a decade, board members have done their own, > part-time > lobbying. Carabello is the group's first dedicated employee > assigned to > the fight for gun control, a realm few Utahns have dared venture > into. > "What surprises me is some of the venom on the Hill spewed by > the > pro-gun lobby," she says. "We disagree, but, wow!" > Carabello's position was created through a $65,000 grant from > Monster.com mogul Andy McKelvey, who has funded scores of similar > projects across the country since establishing Americans for Gun > Safety > last year. > On McKelvey's dime, the group has run a national advertising > blitz > defending the right to own guns while arguing that law-abiding gun > owners need not fear sensible restrictions. Sen. John McCain, > R-Ariz., > joined the group's fight this year to close the loophole that > allows sales of > some weapons at gun shows without a background check. > Like McKelvey's organization, Carabello's first priority is to > close > what the groups call Utah's gun show loophole, a proposition that > withered without debate this year in the Utah House of Repre- > sentatives. > > "Maybe having a dialogue off-session will help," she says. > Originally from Colorado, Carabello graduated from Utah State > University and was director of the Children's Friends Foundation > and the > Utah Statehood Centennial Commission before running 3rd District > congressional candidate Donald Dunn's 2000 campaign. Two of Dunn's > friends, board members for Utahns Against Gun Violence, asked > Carabello if she would be interested in running their group after > the > campaign. > "We simply needed to do something to fight this cavalier > attitude > toward guns," says Steve Gunn, an attorney and founding board > member > of UAGV. "Personally, I am concerned about the fact that there > seems to > be no voice for reasonable gun control. All I can hear is the loud > voice of > the [National Rifle Association]." > Carabello's first taste of Utah's gun fever came during a > January > legislative committee hearing where she was outnumbered nearly > 50-to-1 > by pro-gun citizens. > "You have to give the gun owners credit. They are organized and > focused," she says. "But I don't think that makes them > representative of > more people." > Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Self-Defense Instructors > Network, disagrees. > "Our legislative process is open to everyone -- you cannot stop > anyone from calling a House or Senate member," he says. "If they > have > the numbers on their side, why don't they pack these rooms? The > fact is > they don't have the numbers." > Aposhian, like the NRA and the state's most dogged gun-rights > group, > Utah Gun Owners Alliance, opposes any change to gun show laws. > "What 'Utahns Against Gun Owners' " -- as Aposhian calls Utahns > Against Gun Violence -- "are saying is now we are not going to > allow > these individuals to sell their own personal property. What they > are really > looking to do is shut [gun shows] down." > Carabello did little lobbying before the 2001 Legislature. Her > opponents, as in years past, lobbied furiously before and during > the > session. Even so, the gun-rights advocates managed to clear just > one > significant measure through the House and Senate. > House Bill 376 allows out-of-state visitors with > concealed-carry > permits to carry their guns in Utah for 60 days. After two months, > the > visitors would be required to secure a Utah concealed-weapon > permit. > The bill was sold as an attraction for gun-toting tourists, > although the > pro-gun faction made little secret of its desire for all states to > also > endorse Utah permits. > Next year, Carabello will push legislation to end unrestricted > gun show > sales and a bill that would punish parents who allow children > access to > loaded guns. Utahns Against Gun Violence also supports an > initiative > sponsored by the Safe to Learn Safe to Worship Coalition that would > ban guns from churches and schools. > "I look at these things and say 'Wow, that sounds reasonable,' > " she > says. "We're not talking about taking anybody's gun away. That's > where > we need to work on our message. We need to have a dialogue, and > that's where I come in." > > ---------------- > Charles Hardy > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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/tagj. > > - > Pengar Enterprises, Inc. and Shire.Net LLC Web and Macintosh Consulting -- full service web hosting Chad Leigh chad@pengar.com chad@shire.net - - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 12:04:43 -0700 From: "Scott Bergeson" Subject: Monster.com Billionaire Andrew McKelvey is the owner of Monster.com, and according to http://www.denverpost.com/news/election/pol1005.htm is a registered Republican. Scott Future of gun control murky - ---------- Gun control forces are in disarray around the country, with traditional gun grabbers turning their wrath on a new ally that wants to recognize the individual right to bear arms even as it lobbies for restrictions. (03/27/01) http://www.dallasnews.com/national/322293_guncontrol_27n.html - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 13:52:48 -0700 From: "Scott Bergeson" Subject: Texas gun bill wounded by surprise attack This sort of NRA acquiescence to victim disarmament goes on in other states as well, and fortunately other groups encounter them in some other states as well. Scott Texas gun bill wounded by surprise attack - ---------- A Texas bill that would bar even those simply accused of domestic violence from having a gun has been slowed on its seeming easy track to passage by an upstart gun rights group's aggressive e-mail attack. The state NRA affiliate had rolled over and agreed not to oppose the measure. (03/28/01) http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/323189_gallery_28tex..html - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 15:56:11 -0700 From: charles hardy Subject: Stay up on interim meetings this year While it is always important to follow the interim meetings of the legislature, this article from today's SLTrib seems to indicate it will be particularly important to be involved in those meetings this year. Let's make sure we don't end up with bad bills passing and being on the "fast track" during the session. Let's also try to get some good stuff passed. - ---------------- Charles Hardy Lawmakers Spike Special Session Before Olympics Wednesday, March 28, 2001 BY GREG BURTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE It's the Winter Olympics 1, the 2002 Legislative session 0. Two months after Utah lawmakers thought they had hammered out a compromise schedule to fit around the 17-day Olympic extravaganza, Democratic and Republican leaders acknowledged defeat Monday. A tentative schedule -- approved in a meeting during the 2001 Legislature -- included a 10-day special session preceding the general session, mandated by the Utah Constitution to begin the third Monday of January. The general session would have adjourned Feb. 7 for the Olympics, restarted Feb. 25 and been closed for good March 6. Unfortunately, unfinished business from the special session won't transfer to the general session, analysts told the Legislative Management Committee. So while lawmakers still plan to break for the 2002 Winter Olympics -- a period during which they probably will be paid -- they have scrapped plans for the special session. Instead they hope to front-load much of their committee work during less-restrictive interim meetings. Most bills passed during interim meetings will put on a fast-track straight to the House and Senate floors. Squeezing the session down, though, presents a host of other problems, House Minority Leader Ralph Becker said. "We're that much more rushed for time, that much less deliberative." To ease their burdens, House and Senate leaders will ask lawmakers to "voluntarily" limit their bill-writing to no more than six measures, cutting an average workload of 1,000 bills to a more workable 600. Under another proposal, House Speaker Marty Stephens suggested the Legislature schedule sub-appropriation meetings during the interim session, remov ng much of the money-guessing game from the general session. ________________________________________________________________ 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/tagj. - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2001 16:08:57 -0600 From: Scott Bergeson Subject: Rosie O'Donnell Gun Poll It's down to 89%, so get cracking and pass it on. Scott - ----- Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2001 13:48:49 -0600 From: "L. Neil Smith" Subject: [Fwd: Neil -- you might want to pass this on...] "David Anderson (PNOC)" wrote: Subject: The flailing squeaky whale woman known as Rosie O'Donnell I just got this from www.shooterstalk.com (who got it from ak-47.net) Seems like everyone's favorite gun control spouting cow has her own magazine now. On the magazine's website there is a poll relating to gun control. The funny thing is that right now, 93% of respondents are saying that anyone should be able to own a gun without restriction. I bet she wasn't expecting that one! I wonder how long it will be before they take the poll. Go cast your vote at the link below. http://www.rosiemagazine.com/causes/index.jsp Have fun, David Anderson TELUS Enhanced Services 9th Floor, 622-1 St SW Calgary AB T2P 1M6 Direct (403) 530-6507 Office (403) 530-6530 Fax (403) 262-4766 Toll Free 1-800-887-1221 Option 2 - 4 =============================================== "Aim small, miss small." -- Captain Benjamin Martin, _The Patriot_ - - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 18:05:47 -0600 From: Scott Bergeson Subject: FW: Score one for the conspiracy buffs Subject: Score one for the conspiracy buffs Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 18:19:45 -0400 From: hunter@mva.net To: "LRT Discussions Mailing list" Have a look at this, gang. Somebody filed a FOIA request on NCIC traces of the gun found with Vince Foster's body, which supposedly belonged to him. As you might expect, there was a trace request that night. There were three others 3 and 4 months BEFORE the shooting, and the Justice department refuses to say what agency asked for those traces. Curiouser and curiouser. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22334 - --- Hunter's Seventy Seventh Rule: The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes. Ceterum censeo fiscum delendum esse - --- >= LIBERTY ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS LIST (http://www.vader.com/lrtdiscuss) >= >= TO POST TO THE LIST: send mail to lrt-discuss@vader.com >= TO SUBSCRIBE TO LIST: send mail to lrt-discuss-request@vader.com >= TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM LIST: send mail to lrt-discuss-drop@vader.com - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 10:06:25 -0600 From: "Scott Bergeson" Subject: Gun Toters Are Safer Than Cops http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/edmonds16.html - - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 09:39:15 -0600 From: "Scott Bergeson" Subject: Schools protect bullies Then wonder why some people use guns in a less restrained manner. If they were serious about stopping violence, serious felony (attempted murder, conspiracy, for starters) prosecution of the bullies is appropriate. In his News update, April 13, 2001 David A. Hansen provided: WEST PALM BEACH -- Artis Hardwick was looking at 20 years in prison for firing a gun on school property but walked free Tuesday after arguing he was just trying to protect his son from bullies. A jury acquitted Hardwick, 43, who said he fired once into the air as his son was beaten by a gang of teens at Glades Central High School. "I never intended to hurt anybody. I just wanted to make them scatter, and they scattered all right," Hardwick said from home Tuesday night. "I told the truth. I feel born again." The fight started after school March 30, 2000, in a mobile home park and spilled over onto the Belle Glade school's campus. His son's girlfriend ran to tell Hardwick that his son, also named Artis, was being beaten. Hardwick tried to pull the teens off his son before going to his car to get a gun, his lawyer, Marie Kendall, said. "He fired it and they dispersed. It's the only thing that worked," she said. Hardwick had talked to an administrator earlier in the day about both his sons being badgered, she said. The six-person jury took about three hours to acquit Hardwick of aggravated assault with a firearm, discharging a weapon on school property, possession of a weapon on school property and battery. "None of us want firearms on school grounds but it came down to self-defense for his son," said juror Joseph Colpack, 56, of Boynton Beach. Palm Beach County School District Police Chief Jim Kelly called the jury's finding "unbelievable," particularly the acquittals for possession and discharging of a weapon on school property. "To bring it (a gun) on and not be held accountable for that, sounds like a little examination of state laws have to be made to see what's wrong," Kelly said. He did not attend the trial. One juror said the panel adhered to jury instructions that said a person can be found not guilty if he acts to defend himself or another person. "If I didn't see the instructions, I'd say he was guilty," said juror Eric Weinbaum, 45, of Boca Raton. The verdict will not change how school police handle gun crimes, Kelly said. "I don't care what they bring it for, they're going to be charged." Under the zero-tolerance "10-20-Life" gun law, Hardwick would have faced 20 years in prison if he were convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm. The law sets minimum prison terms: 10 years if the person carries a firearm during a crime, 20 years if he fires it, 25 years to life if someone is killed or seriously injured. Prosecutor Tom Lawson could not be reached for comment after the verdict. Hardwick has no criminal record, Kendall said. Four teens who allegedly attacked Hardwick's son that day were charged with aggravated battery. Hardwick's son went to the hospital with a head injury and other minor injuries. The teens all plea-bargained to misdemeanors, according to Kendall. Hardwick's son, now 19, praised his dad Tuesday: "He's courageous for doing what he did. He really set himself up as a man . . . and as a role model in my life for what he did that day." His father said Tuesday night that he thought that afternoon of Joshua Stern, the Loxahatchee teen who was severely beaten at a high schoolers' party. Would Hardwick do it again? "I ask myself that. If my son was in the same situation I would have to go to his rescue over the law," Hardwick said. "I'm a law-abiding citizen, but a father first." susan_spencer_wendel@pbpost.com - - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 13:11:07 -0600 From: charles hardy Subject: Fw: Fw: Million Mom March leaving its office space Of interest... ================================================================== Charles C. Hardy Utah Email Coordinator--Women Against Gun Control - --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Nancy" To: Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 14:30:18 -0400 Subject: Fw: Million Mom March leaving its office space >Way To go Jim March! Yeahaaaaaa! :D >------------------------------------------------------------------------ - --- - - >---- > >Million Mom March leaving its office space >By Christopher Merrill >Of The Examiner Staff > >The Million Mom March foundation is moving out of rent-free office space it >enjoyed for two years on the third floor of a building at San Francisco >General Hospital. > >A pro-gun activist launched a campaign against the group this year when he >discovered what he said were unapproved taxpayer subsidies -- meaning free >rent -- going toward the ailing gun-control organization. > >The foundation, which gained notoriety for its march on Washington last >year, has had financial trouble lately, said Mary Leigh Blek, president of >the foundation. Thirty of 35 staff were let go last month out of the >national office in the hospital. Executive director James McGuire resigned >as director and as a board member last month. > >The questions about the propriety of the group's office space was another >headache for the organization. > >The hospital property belongs to the city, and the Board of Supervisors has >to approve such arrangements. That has not happened in the case of the >Million Mom March, an education and advocacy group that supports stricter >gun laws. > >McGuire said the group is an offshoot of the Trauma Foundation, a nonprofit >injury prevention group that has rights to the space. That group, which >McGuire also founded, was given the space for free in 1981 through an >arrangement with Donald Trunkey, then the director of the hospital's burn >center. McGuire said all political activities of the Million Mom March are >carried out at another office, meaning that taxpayers aren't unwittingly >supporting a political organization. > >Gun activist James March dismissed that explanation, saying McGuire is >involved in several gun-control groups, some of which are used as a cover >for others. > >"They can't keep their story straight," March said. "All roads lead back to >(McGuire)." > >On Wednesday, some supervisors said they were concerned the groups may have >become too cozy with city property. > >"Any property that the city and county owns, that we then lease to someone, >should not be subleased," said Supervisor Leland Yee, who has questioned the >hospital's financial practices in the past. > >Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a member of the city's finance committee, raised >questions about the lack of lease for either group. He noted that the city >administrative code requires all leases worth more than $500,000 in a >five-year period be revisited. > >Blek is confident the group will rebound in the coming year. Rallies are >planned on Mother's Day in every state the group has chapters. In Sacramento >the group will support a bill that requires Californians to pass a written >test, a firing-range demonstration and a thumbprint for a state Department >of Justice background check. > >Email Christopher Merrill at cmerrill@sfexaminer.com > > >http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.mom.0412w ________________________________________________________________ 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/tagj. - - ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 17:25:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Subject: April 16 column -- reenfranchising felons (fwd) There are some interesting views expressed herein regarding the right to keep and bear arms. FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED APRIL 16, 2001 THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz Restore released felons' rights -- all their rights The tale is told of the African farmer who complains to his neighbor of all the trouble he's having catching and killing the mice that are eating up the crops in his field. "Why are they so hard to catch?" the neighbor asks. "Because they keep hiding between the elephants' legs." Many of us are susceptible to fixating on those pesky mice, ignoring far larger sources of trouble and destruction simply because we've grown so accustomed to them. This is the case for many of today's political liberals, as the once noble cause of "Civil Rights" falls increasingly into the clutches of political opportunists angling for votes via exercises every bit as arcane as medieval scholastics counting the angels on the head of a pin. Are "too few" black-owned contractors landing highway subcontracts? Just set up race-based quota and set-aside systems for "black-owned businesses" - -- blithely ignoring the number of white entrepreneurs who promptly pay off black "front men" to fill out the required paperwork. (And needless to say, this street only runs one-way -- no federal mandates that professional football or basketball teams contain a percentage of white or Asian players "appropriate to the racial makeup of the metropolitan market they serve.") Perhaps the silliest of these modern exercises is the recurring demand that the government somehow intervene to fix the "wage gap" between men and women -- a statistical artifact 98 percent explained by the fact that women tend to make different career choices, in part to allow them to take years off to bear and raise children (God bless them). Meantime, what about our own elephants -- the massively obvious laws still on the books which not only have a (start ital)de facto(end ital) racist impact, but which were originally enacted with the specific (start ital)purpose(end ital) of keeping American blacks, Asians, and Hispanics in a permanent state of "second-class citizenship"? Take the War on Drugs ... please. What consciousness-altering drug causes by far the most crime, disease, death (both on and off the highways), family destruction, and general sociopathology in America today? Alcohol. So why do we lock up hundreds of thousands of our young men in prison for decades -- giving America the highest incarceration rate in the civilized world -- for non-violent trafficking in marijuana, cocaine, and the opiates ... while far more damaging alcohol remains legal? Because marijuana, cocaine, and opium were inseparably linked to America's Hispanic, black and Asian minorities in the early years of the last century, of course -- yellow journalists like William Randolph Hearst selling plenty of newspapers with blatantly racist tales of black, Mexican and Chinese men seducing white women after plying them with these insidious tools of miscegenational seduction. To this day, black and Hispanic drug convicts fill our prisons far out of proportion to their numbers in the general population, precisely because there is no such punishment for the irresponsible use of alcohol -- drug of choice for the white majority. So why don't today's "Civil Rights activists" demand an end to the "War on Drugs"? Could it be because they really constitute nothing but get-out-the-minority-vote auxiliaries to the established parties of Big Government Power? Nor is the "Drug War" the only scheme developed after the Civil War to keep America's minorities disarmed and out of the voting booth. In postbellum America, while white men were free to carry long guns in their saddle scabbards or later in their pickup racks, a black man walking abroad with such a weapon could be in deep trouble. Therefore, black men "uppity" enough to arm themselves in readiness to defend their families and their property found it necessary to carry more easily concealable handguns. Taking advantage of this disparity between the way the two races tended to go armed, enter a clever racist scam known as the "concealed weapon permit" -- easy enough to acquire in you played poker with the judge or the sheriff on Friday nights, but likely to be issued to the average black applicant ... right about the time we finish clearing the snow from that big July blizzard. Now, no matter how well justified his actions, any black man who defended himself against an assault could be charged with "carrying a concealed weapon without a permit." Duly convicted by a (usually all-white) jury, he would not only do time, but -- under an additional set of new enactments -- forever forfeit his right to bear arms or to vote, even after he had "paid his debt to society." Pretty clever, huh? To this day, the Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch tell us 13 percent of black men in this country -- a number way out of whack with the statistics for other races -- can't vote, most of them because they have a felony conviction on their records. Does anyone believe this facilitates these men landing good jobs, supporting their families, and becoming active in the self-government of their communities? Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and NAACP head Kweisi Mfume appeared at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas April 9, calling for new legislation to re-enfranchise citizens who have paid their debt to society -- allowing former felons to vote. It's a no-brainer. Let's get it done. All of a convict's civil rights but two are considered to be automatically restored the minute he walks out of prison -- and rightly so -- as it is. (Would anyone contend a former felon can't go to church -- that he doesn't merit another jury trial if accused of a new crime -- because the rights previously guaranteed him by the First and Fourth Amendments of the Bill of Rights were never "restored" to him via some formal written document following his release?) But having gone that far, why do Messrs. Reid and Mfume stop short? If a convicted felon is still dangerous, he shouldn't be out walking around at all -- he should serve his full sentence. (And we'll have more than enough prison space to allow that, once the Civil Rights folks get busy and end this racist War on Drugs.) If, on the other hand, we're finally committed to ending this loathsome regime of "permanent second-class citizenship" for men who have "done their time," then let's restore (start ital)all(end ital) their Constitutional rights ... including the crucial Right to Keep and Bear Arms, described by our Founding Fathers as "necessary to the security of a free state." The importance of an armed citizenry for maintaining freedom and order in our communities was once so well understood in this country that virtually all Confederate veterans of the Civil War were allowed to carry their personal weapons home with them after the North accepted their surrender. These are men who -- from the point of view of the conqueror -- had just spent four years committing treason and armed insurrection. What felonies could be more violent than those? Yet they went home armed, lived peaceable lives, and rebuilt a nation. Let's do it again. Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 1475 Terminal Way, Suite E for Easy, Reno, NV 89502. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at 1-800-244-2224, or via web site www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html. *** Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com "When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. 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The Vinyard is maintained by Michael Voth in Flagstaff, who may be reached directly at mvoth@infomagic.com. - - ------------------------------ End of utah-firearms-digest V2 #209 ***********************************