Hindsight from The New Gun Week January 20, 2000
Spinning into the New Year
by Joseph P. Tartaro,
Executive Editor
They're back: The state and federal lawmakers, who when they are in session, place you, your families, your progeny, your property and your rights in jeopardy!
Also returning are those lawmakers who take their oath of office seriously and try to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and thereby protect you and yours. Many of these are the pro-gun stalwarts you have relied upon for years, and will have to support and work with this year.
State legislatures across the country were just opening the week that this issue of Gun Week went to press. And members of the 106th Congress were returning to Capitol Hill from their half-time break.
You can bet that guns are sure to be a key topic in Washington and the state capitals this year. You can also ante-up on the sure-thing that guns will get center-ring treatment during the presidential and congressional circuses in 2000.
The President and the media have no intention of letting up on their continuing campaign to restrict your right to firearms ownership and, possibly, eliminate Americans' right to keep and bear arms altogether. Banning some guns is only part of the agenda. Prohibiting private sales, whether at gun shows or elsewhere, is another key wish list item. There's more.
Clinton End-RunsClinton has already announced that during his final year as President he intends to use every possible tool at his disposal to advance his anti-gun agenda, with or without the traditional democratic process of legislative action. He's set up a special White House strategy group for this purpose alone.
He's also indicated that he will help some 3,000 public housing authorities to join in the municipal and state lawsuits against the firearms industry through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In the minds of many politicians, it is not a question whether they support gun control, but how much they can get away with.
Last night (Jan. 5), I watched the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary debate between Al Gore and Bill Bradley. The former New Jersey senator proudly claimed that he would immediately require licensing and registration for every handgun in America-those already in private possession as well as the new ones sold.
When the Vice President responded, he took credit for casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate last May to pass the Lautenberg proposal on gun show and other sales of firearms by non-licensed individuals. He stressed that eliminating "junk guns" and limiting private sales with gun show background checks were a key part of this and the President's programs. Gore claimed that Bradley's approach was politically unrealistic.
Bradley replied that Gore's was a wimpy approach, that he was afraid to push for even more gun control. Bradley also reiterated that he wanted every handgun in America licensed and registered.
Despite setbacks to their plans, the Democratic candidates seem to believe that gun control is an important issue with the public. Polling results, of course, suggest otherwise. I'm sure that the Gore-Bradley exchange over guns will soon be spilling over into the GOP primary races.
Legislative Action
In the meanwhile, legislators in states such as California and Colorado are planning to tackle the gun issue early and often.In California, where the "assault weapon" ban was extended last year and other new gun bills were signed into law, the state Assembly's Public Safety Committee is preparing to consider one bill to require a four-year license for all handgun owners and another measure that would impose an annual registration requirement for all handguns.
In Colorado, the governor and others seem poised to push for as much gun control as they can get, focusing especially on private sales at gun shows.
And in Missouri, a bill introduced by state Sen. Harry Wiggins would ban full automatic and selective-fire guns already registered with the federal government as well as a host of commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms defined as "assault weapons." Under the proposed bill, sale or possession of one of these previously legal firearms would be treated as a class C felony. The Western Missouri Shooters Alliance warned that they expect a serious struggle over Wiggins' bill this year. (For more information, contact: WMSA, PO Box 11144, Kansas City, MO 64119.)
You might wonder why this increased push for more gun control would come at a time when violent gun-related crime has been going down steadily for several years running and fatal firearms accidents have dropped below the 1,000 mark for the first time in over 20 years. For the answer, just take a look at the Page 1 story in this issue about the Media Research Center's study of network TV programming related to the gun issue. The Center concludes that the media is so biased that they may was well be the advertising department of anti-gun organizations. Of course, it helps that the guy with the easiest access to the national media keeps using his bully pulpit to push the anti-gun cause.
Perhaps as an example of how the media can blow any story out of proportion, we have the one about Clinton running for Congress after he leaves the White House.
Just around New Year's weekend, stories about Clinton considering a House or Senate seat from Arkansas started to make headlines. They even cited the precedent of John Quincy Adams, although mentioning Adams and Clinton in the same story seems as far-out as you can get.
But apparently the story wasn't true, scary as it might be.
On Jan. 6, Reuters news service, reported that the White House had dismissed the reports that President Clinton might go to work with investment banker Lazard Freres or run for Congress from Arkansas when he leaves the White House.
The first report surfaced in Washingtonian magazine and the second was sparked by an interview Clinton gave on network television in which he laughingly suggested that perhaps he should follow in the footsteps of former President John Quincy Adams, who served in the House of Representatives after his presidency.
Clinton supposedly made the "tongue-in-cheek" comment on NBC's "Today" show that serving in Congress might be the only way to see his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for a US Senate seat from New York.
"I think there are some people in you all's business (for whom) New Year's Eve has extended for a couple of extra days," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters.
White House spokesman Jake Siewart described both reports as "absolute nonsense."
Washingtonian magazine quoted unnamed sources as saying Clinton would move to New York "to become a Lazard Freres executive at $8 million a year plus the potential of a $2 million annual bonus."
Sudden Spinning
The original stories about Clinton's future plans may have been real trial balloons, and the White House blaming reporters is just spin, or the whole thing was made up. But judging from the way Clinton has been spinning his way through all kinds of stories since Gennifer Flowers went public in 1991, you never know.It's also hard to figure out when the government is planning some new mischief. The few remaining home-based licensed firearms dealers, and others who do business out of their homes, also got a jolt when it was reported that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would be monitoring their work conditions, and that they or their employers would be legally responsible for meeting OSHA standards.
But then US Labor Secretary Alexis Herman on Jan. 6 announced that a letter making companies that allow employees to work at home responsible for ensuring the work areas meet federal health and safety standards, originally sent to a Texas company, had been withdrawn.
"Widespread confusion and unintended consequences for others," were given as the reason for the OHSA retreat.
Which proves once again that when a public furor develops, this Administration can reverse course very quickly. Too bad we can't get the public equally concerned about Clinton's gun policies.
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com