Mar/Apr 99

Bugged by the Millenium
By Julianne Versnel Gottlieb

Dear Self-Reliant Reader:

By the time this column is published we will be ten months from the turn of the century—the year 2000.

We have passed George Orwell’s "1984." I think. I hope. The current state of our personal freedom does not fit in the commentary here, but certainly deserves some serious reflection.

My daughter will graduate from high school in 2002, a palindrome, she explains.

My son used one of his favorite phrases the other night, "Guess what, Mom?" I responded with the usual "I don’t know, what?" He stated an obvious truism, "In 2005 I will be able to drive."

As if these thoughts were not frightening enough, the Millenium or Y2K is staring us in the face. Y2K is a pop phrase used by media, computer gurus and those who are or would like to be in the know.

You probably have a credit card, membership card or driver’s license that has an expiration date where the year ends in "00" or "01." Intuitively you know that this means it ends in the future. But the computer that generated that date may not really know that it is not in the past.

In the infancy of computers, they were big, expensive and only available to the government and large companies. To save precious and essential space, dates were presented in numeric fields and the first two digits of the year were ignored. More data was able to be stored and everything worked well.

One of my responsibilities is to make sure that you get this publication and that the members and supporters of its owner, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), get their newsletters and other materials. In the late 1970s, computer technology allowed SAF to purchase its own mainframe computer and we started writing our own internal code to process the information necessary to meet the needs of our supporters. In the early 80s, we addressed the date issue and four years ago and three mainframes later we spent four months reorganizing our files, rewriting and testing all our programs so that all our information would be in four digit year form and we would be ready. Your subscriptions are good to go.

This seemed so logical to me. It was a problem that had been recognized years before and one that was eminently solvable.

But according to the latest information, U.S. Government data processing is only about 50% of the way to compliance with potential problems caused by January 1, 2000. The Presidential commission established by President Clinton, the Technology President, is sending out messages of progress tinged with caution.

There are numerous books available, some optimistic, most almost frightening. But the sizzle always sells. There are even radio and television talk shows that air daily and discuss only the Year 2000, Y2K, the Millenium Bug. There are web sites abounding and advertisements for survival guides and expensive generators and food supplies.

My concern is that the government is not prepared. The Presidential Commission on the Year 2000 estimates that only 45 percent of the computers operated by the U.S. Treasury Department are ready. This is the agency that oversees the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the new National Instant Check System known as NICS.

I have heard from firearms dealers, and individuals attempting to purchase guns, that this system is not working. It is certainly not instant. The calls are being placed to a central phone bank, contracted by the government and right now, there are busy signals, an hour or more wait and disconnections. There are additional concerns as Nancy Norell explains in her "Behind the News" column on Page 12.

My concern, real worry, is that NICS is not Y2K compliant. It does not seem to work now and it will not work ten months from now at all. You will not have the choice to purchase a firearm of any sort. You just plain won’t be able to.

I am not trying to frighten anyone. The thought of my son at the wheel of a car has already given me gray hair.

I read anything and everything and in looking at the Y2K factor in NICS, I read a number of books. One of them was a fictional account of the Millenium, "Y2K—It’s Already Too Late" by Jason Kelly (JK Press, 1998).

The item that caught my interest is on page 49 of this novel. Mr. Kelly writes a "memorandum" from his main character to the employees of the fictional company concerning what it necessary for a "survival kit." The second of seven items, listed only after food, is to have a pistol, long gun and large amount of ammunition and train your family including, older children, in their use.

I am not heading for the mountains. I am not losing sleep over the coming new millenium; over the recent lawsuits by cities against manufacturers, yes.

As a child it seemed so far away that I never thought that I would ever live to see it. Even a year before, it is surreal. The class of ’02 seems like it should belong to my great grandfather not my daughter. But I am concerned.

The alphabet soup of government agencies may or may not be able to function seamlessly from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000.

But I am most concerned about being able to exercise my Second Amendment choice; the right to keep and bear arms in defense of self and family.

The Second Amendment is the lynchpin for the entire Bill of Rights. It is your right to choose. It is your right to freedom. It is essential.