QUICK SHOTS

Quick Shots 2000

Quick Shots 1998

JANUARY 1999

In New York City early several City Council members, while displaying a cache of "lethal-looking weapons made of plastic," according to THE NEW YORK TIMES, introduced a bill to outlaw all toy guns that look like the real thing.
The December 10, 1998 move followed a number of incidents, like the shooting last August of Michael Jones, 16, by police officers responding to a call about an armed bicyclist. The youth, who was shot in the legs, was carrying a water gun resembling a real Tec-9 machine pistol, the police said. The Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles Hynes, said that the officers acted properly.
There already are federal, state and city regulations against realistic-looking toy guns, but critics say that toy guns, such as the ones purchased in New York for the politicians’ news conference, are readily available. Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, a sponsor of the bill, said she wants to strengthen the existing city law. Her bill would outlaw the sale, possession or use of any toy that resembles a firearm so much "as to lead a reasonable person to conclude that the toy or imitation firearm is a firearm."
Violations would be punishable by up to a year in jail, a $1,000 criminal fine and a $1,000 civil penalty.




Britons are chagrined by a U.S. Department of Justice study that finds a person twice as likely to be robbed or assaulted in heavily gun-controlled and gun-banned Britain as in the U.S. reports Toni Marshall in INSIGHT Magazine.
The study, prepared by a Cambridge University professor and a Justice statistician, compares crime rates in England and Wales with those in the United States for the years 1981 to 1995. Robberies rose 81 percent in England and Wales, but fell 28 percent in the United States. Assault increased 53 percent in England and Wales but declined 27 percent in the United States. Burglaries doubled in England but fell by half in the United States, and motor vehicle theft rose 51 percent in England but remained the same in the United States.
In 1995, the last year for which complete statistics are available for both countries, there were 20 assaults per 1,000 people or households in England and Wales, but only 8.8 per 1,000 in the United States.
The United States recorded nearly six times as many murders as Britain, but that rate is down from nine times as many in 1981. Guns were used in 68 percent of U.S. murders and in seven percent in England and Wales.
Although "common sense says America is the most crime-ridden country on Earth while Britain is an oasis of peace and tranquility," commented the London SUNDAY TIMES, "common sense is wrong. We urgently need to reexamine our cozy assumptions about law and order."
The report suggests the trends in both countries could be attributed to stiffer penalties for criminals in the United States, and falling conviction rates in England and Wales. Sentences in the United States were three years longer for murder, four years longer for rape and robbery, almost three years longer for assault, more than two years longer for burglary and more than one year longer for car theft.




In New Jersey, Republican voters would support mandatory "child proofing" of handguns by a wide margin, according to a poll commissioned by an anti-gun state group.
The poll found that 73 percent of respondents supported requiring safety measures like firing mechanisms that responded only to the owner’s palm or fingerprints, said Bryan Miller, Executive Director of Cease-Fire New Jersey, which commissioned the poll. The poll, which surveyed 500 registered Republicans in mid-October, 1998, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, Miller said.
The release of the poll results is intended to bolster support for "child-proofing" bills in the State Senate and Assembly. Focusing on Republicans was a tactic to show majority lawmakers that they would not be punished by core constituents for supporting the bills, Miller said.
A spokeswoman for the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, Nancy Ross, said no children died as a result of a handgun accident in 1995, the latest year for which statistics are available. "We’re not opposed to any of these technologies," she said. "Just don’t mandate them."




After Mayor Richard Daley and the City of Chicago filed a lawsuit against gun makers and dealers seeking $433 million in compensation for injury to the public health, welfare and safety, Daniel John Sobieski of Chicago wrote in THE WASHINGTON TIMES that "the notion of individual responsibility for one’s actions is completely foreign to the grandstanding politicians and greedy lawyers entertaining this silliness. Can we sue the lawyers and politicians
and judges whenever there is an assault, a rape, a carjacking or a murder by a criminal out on probation or parole, or who has a prior criminal record? Can we sue when judges release dangerous criminals early or when felons are released by a silly judge more concerned with the ‘harmful’ effects of prison over-crowding? According to John Lott, a fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, about 90 percent of adult murders have a prior adult criminal record.
"Of course, we are not told the other side of the equation – how many crimes are thwarted and lives are saved by potential victims being armed. Florida State criminologist Gary Kleck found that law-abiding citizens successfully use guns at least 2.5 million times each year in defense of themselves, their families and, yes, their children.
"Shouldn’t we then also financially reward manufacturers and dealers when armed victims successfully defend themselves and save lives and property? There are no headlines when public shootings are stopped before they happen. Stories about mothers using guns to prevent their children from being kidnapped by carjackers, or themselves from being raped or worse, seldom make the evening news.
"The Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey reports that the probability of serious injury or death from an attack is 2.5 times greater for women offering little or no resistance than for those resisting with a gun.
"The fact is that only 0.2 percent of firearms and 0.4 percent of handguns are used in crimes each year. If we are to punish gun makers for every time their product is used in a crime, then we should reward them every time their product saves lives in self-defense, enabling a potential victim to ward off, capture, wound, or kill a violent criminal."

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FEBRUARY 1999

The Federal Bureau of Investigation blocked 11,584 sales of firearms during the first 41 days of NICS, the new, computerized criminal records instant check system, the Associated Press reported on January 11.
According to AP, the FBI "took steps" to catch 1,541 prospective gun purchasers who were wanted for arrest.
Most of the 11,584 denials involved convicted felons, the FBI said.
When the Bureau found outstanding arrest warrants for prospective buyers, it advised either the state or federal law enforcement agency that was seeking the person.
While the FBI reported it did not know the number of arrests that resulted, it did indicate that they included a man in Oklahoma wanted for embezzlement and a woman in Texas wanted for tampering with government records.
The 11,584 blocked sales represented a fraction (slightly over one percent) of the 1,030,606 checks that the FBI reportedly performed.




In Concord, New Hampshire, U. S. Sen. Robert Smith of the state announced that he will be a "favorite son" candidate for the Republican nomination for President next year.
Sen. Smith last year introduced and promoted in the U. S. Senate a measure to prohibit the FBI from charging a user fee, or tax, on NICS approvals, to mandate the immediate FBI destruction of records of NICS approvals, and to permit citizen lawsuits against the FBI for failure to implement such immediate destruction.
The entire measure passed overwhelmingly in the Senate.
Although the entire measure was not considered by the House of Representatives, a House-Senate conference committee did report favorably on the "no gun tax" provision, and that was included in an omnibus appropriations measure which was enacted into law.
Sen. Smith, terribly disappointed that the House did not consider the other two provisions of his bill, vowed that he would reintroduce a bill with those two provisions in it this year.
Long a champion in the Senate of the right of individual law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, Sen. Bob Smith holds a CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award.




In Maryland, recently reelected anti-gun Gov. Parris N. Glendening reportedly decided not to try to promote new anti-gun legislation this year.
Last September 29, Glendening announced that he planned to introduce in January of 1999, last month, legislation requiring new handguns to have safety devices that would prevent anyone but the owner from firing them. The next day, gun control advocate James S. Brady, husband of Sarah Brady, the Chairwoman of Handgun Control, Inc., endorsed Glendening’s reelection campaign. However, Glendening now has postponed the proposal for a year, in part to lobby state legislators on the issue, reports THE WASHINGTON POST.
"On the one hand," said Ginny Wolf, Director of the anti-gun Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse, "you’re not happy about it because you’re all set to go." Wolf, whose group reportedly helped shape the new gun control proposal, said her board members "were told right away. At first they weren’t too happy…But they decided it probably was a good idea."




In New Jersey, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman announced she would propose legislation to require that every gun sold in the state include either a safety lock or the so-called "smart gun" technology, preventing anyone other than the gun’s owner from firing the weapon.
It is expected that Whitman will face opposition from Assembly Speaker Jack Collins. He said he would wait to see the proposed legislation before commenting, but would be reluctant to impose requirements on gun owners before the "smart gun" technology was widely available.




In Washington, D. C., Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia introduced H. R. 59, a bill to amend title 18 of the U. S. Code to provide that the firearm prohibitions applicable by reason of a domestic violence misdemeanor conviction do not apply if the conviction occurred before the prohibitions became law. Referred to the House Judiciary Committee.




U. S. Rep. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois introduced H. R. 85, to prohibit, with certain exceptions, the transfer of a handgun to, or the possession of a handgun by, an individual who has not attained 21 years of age. Referred to the House Judiciary Committee.




U. S. Reps. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island introduced H. R. 87, to prohibit internet and mail order sales of ammunition without a license to deal in firearms, and to require licensed firearms dealers to record all sales of 1,000 round of ammunition to a single person.

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MARCH 1999

Gun grabbing President Bill Clinton said in his February 6 national radio address that he would ask Congress to require background checks on all people who bought firearms at gun shows and flea markets, regardless of whether the sellers are commercial gun dealers.
This brought forth a storm of protest the very next day at Clark Brothers Guns in Warrenton, Virginia as sport shooters, collectors and hunters squared off against the idea, according to THE WASHINGTON TIMES.
One, Vern McHargue, 28, an Alexandria, Virginia accountant, said the proposed anti-gun initiative would have no impact on criminals while penalizing the law-abiding citizen.
Another, Tracie Walsh, 27, an Arlington, Virginia preschool teacher, said, "the people we’re trying to keep from buying guns are going to get them anyway."
John Clark, who has owned Clark Brothers Guns for 45 years, said he is sick of the stereotypes about gun owners.
He described his customers as responsible sports enthusiasts and hobbyists.
He said some dealers will applaud the idea of gun checks for everyone at gun shows. Some government-regulated sellers want common collectors who sell their guns to go through the same trouble.
Customers at gun shows are required to prove that they live in-state and must fill out several pages of background information. The dealers then check that information by phone with state and federal officials.
Under Clinton’s proposal, a licensed gun dealer would have to be involved in every sale of firearms at a gun show. Unlicensed sellers would have to arrange for buyers to go to a licensed dealer to request a background check, through a customer system operated by the FBI.
Actually, a bill to accomplish what Clinton proposed last month already had been introduced in Congress in the month before that. This is H. R. 109, by Rep. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and over two dozen cosponsors. POINT BLANK carried an item on it on page five of our previous issue.




Said to be concerned for his personal safety, White House drug policy adviser Barry R. McCaffrey has been "deputized" by the U.S. Marshals Service so that he can legally carry a concealed weapon. Jim McDonough, director of strategy for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the carrying of the concealed weapon is "for self-defense; there is the need to be secure."




Another notable who apparently realizes "the need to be secure" is Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who has an armed escort and now has a license to carry a concealed weapon, according to Ventura spokesman John Wodele. Asked if the Governor would be carrying the gun at the state Capitol, Wodele quoted Ventura as saying: "That’s my business."




What about the rest of us?
Don’t we all have a "need to be secure?"
Sounds to us like a good argument for national concealed carry legislation.




The U. S. Chamber of Congress got together during the last week of January with representatives of the firearms industry to plan a unified offense against the growing number of lawsuits filed by cities against gun companies.
"Our message will be simple," said Larry Kraus, President of the U. S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. "First tobacco, then guns, and whoever you are out there, you are next.
"What is happening to gun makers is just a continuation of what happened to the tobacco industry. We are very concerned by this trend of governments collaborating with plaintiffs’ trial lawyers to go after legal industries."




A gun group that would have brought 30,000 people to New Orleans, Louisiana has decided to hold its convention elsewhere next year because of the city’s lawsuit against the nation’s gun makers, reported The Associated Press.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation began notifying hotels January 21 that SHOT, its Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Tradeshow, will not come to New Orleans in January 2000.
Foundation officials declined to elaborate on the decision, but city tourism officials said the group warned them lastNovember that it might pull out because many of its members include gun companies New Orleans is suing.
In October, New Orleans sued 15 leading gun makers, alleging they knew "the unreasonable dangers of their guns" and failed to provide safety devices, warnings and other measures which would prevent and decrease these dangers.




In Georgia, Gov. Roy Barnes signed into law a bill blocking Atlanta’s lawsuit against gun manufacturers. He signed the measure February 9, within hours after the State Senate had voted 44-11 to approve the legislation that would prohibit local governments from suing gun makers. The State House already had approved a similar measure by a 142-24 vote in January.
Opponents of the bill called it unconstitutional. "We do not believe it is legal for the Georgia General Assembly to prohibit cities from filing lawsuits designed to protect the public’s interests," said Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. "We still believe the Senate and the House have sent the wrong message to the public."

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APRIL 1999

John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, noted in a recent nationally televised presentation that the theories underlying current third party lawsuits against firearms manufacturers and dealers could, if established in law and applied on a universal basis, lead to the "decimation of the American economy."
Snyder’s comment came on February 26 during a Cato Institute Center for Constitutional Studies Policy Forum in Washington, D. C. on cities suing the gun industry.
Snyder’s comment came in the form of a question to David B. Kopel, Research Director of the Independence Institute and a CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Awardee.
Kopel, a featured speaker at the Cato forum, agreed with Snyder and added that is why the Chamber of Commerce is lining up with the firearms industry in the current controversy.
According to a recent CNN-Gallup-USA TODAY survey of 1,054 adults, a little more than a third, 36 percent, have a gun in their home, while 62 percent said they did not.
Among gun owners, rifles are most favored. Sixty-seven percent own a rifle, while 61 percent have handguns; 59 percent own shotguns. The figures come to over 100 percent since many owners have several types of firearms.
In the poll of the general population, just nine percent said that laws regulating the sale of firearms should be "less strict," while 60 percent favor stricter controls and 29 percent are satisfied with current laws.
More respondents, 68 percent, favored stricter regulation of handguns. Six percent said they wanted "less strict" regulation; 25 percent are content with current laws.
By 64 percent to 34 percent, people rejected overwhelmingly the notion of banning "possession of handguns except by police and other authorized persons." By a 60 percent margin, however, 79 percent to 19 percent, they favored laws requiring "registration of all handguns."
Respondents were more evenly split on what the pollsters termed "minor restrictions," such as a five-day handgun purchase waiting period versus "major restrictions" such as banning certain classes of firearms, including semiautomatic rifles.
Thirty-seven percent in the poll supported "minor" restrictions, while 36 percent favored "major" restrictions. Since the margin of error in the survey was plus or minus three percentage points, the two responses constitute a statistical deadlock.
Just five percent said they would like "no restrictions at all," while 18 percent said ban all guns "except for authorized persons."




eBAY, a California-based Internet auction firm, announced in February it will no longer sell firearms and ammunition. For the benefit of POINT BLANK readers, the eBAY contact is Steve Westly, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. eBAY, Inc., 2005 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 350, San Jose, California 95125.
The phone number is (408) 369-4830. The fax number is (408) 369-4855. Their general information E-mail address is support@ebay.com and their E-mail address for questions that require a reply within 24 hours is time sensitive@ebay.com




In Virginia, the state game agency is proposing new hunting rules to encourage more children to hunt. This is part of an effort to reverse the decades-long decline in the number of hunters.
"Hunting is a tremendously traditional pastime, but there are so many other things for kids to participate in now," Rick Busch, assistant chief of the wildlife division, said early last month. "We want to remove the roadblocks we have to kids coming into the sport."
The number of licensed hunters in Virginia declined from 332,310 in 1993-94 to 283,457 last year. The number of "junior hunters" ages 12 to 15 declined from 21,196 to 16,692 in the same period.
More than 60 percent of the Virginia Deer Hunters Association’s members have been hunting at least 26 years, said Denny Quaiff, the group’s spokesman. Just two percent are new to the sport, having hunted from one to five years.
Busch said one reason for the overall decline in hunters is that Virginia is becoming a more urban and suburban state, while the population is declining in many rural areas.
"Anything we can do to get the kids involved, we should do that," Quaiff told a packed house during a hearing at the game agency in Richmond, the State Capital, on March 4.
One proposal biologists presented to the board would allow hunters 15 and younger to kill a deer without antlers on any day during the rifle or muzzle loading season rather than on designated days.
The reasoning behind the rule is simple, according to a WASHINGTON POST report: Young hunters would have a better chance at success, and successful hunters are more likely to stick with the sport.




Former Congressman Kweisi Mfume, now President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said in Washington, D. C. on February 20 that the Association is considering joining cities in lawsuits against firearms manufacturers.
"We represent a significant constituency that is disproportionately affected by gun violence," Mfume said at NAACP’s annual meeting. "The time has come for us to look at the proliferation of handguns."
Mfume said he would present to the group’s 64-member board of directors several options, including a resolution of concern about guns and joining the suits against gun manufacturers, according to The Associated Press. Mfume also said NAACP could file a separate suit. "I want to put forth some legal theories we’ve been presented and ask the board for its consideration," he stated.

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MAY 1999

When a federal judge in Lubbock, Texas early last month dismissed charges against a man for owning a gun while under a restraining order, legal experts said the development could be used to challenge gun control laws, reported the Associated Press.
"If appealed, this could be the springboard for a definitive Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment," said Stephen Halbrook, the attorney who challenged successfully certain provisions of the Brady Law before the Supreme Court.
The ruling on April 1 involved Dr. Timothy Joe Emerson of San Angelo, Texas, who was charged last year under a law which was included in the massive 1994 Clinton Crime Bill with violating a restraining order after brandishing a pistol in front of his wife and daughter.
Defense lawyers argued that Dr. Emerson had a right to own guns under the Second Amendment and that any law infringing on that right was unconstitutional.
Judge Sam R. Cummings of Federal District Court in Northern Texas agreed, ruling that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is an individual right, and not just a right belonging to an organized militia, as federal prosecutors
contended.
Judge Cummings said he based his decision on a "historical examination of the right to bear arms, from English antecedents to the drafting of the Second Amendment."
Government lawyers said they planned to appeal.
The Associated Press reported that those on both sides of the issue agreed that the decision might be the first in which a judge specifically called a law unconstitutional because it infringed on an individual’s Second Amendment rights.




In another Clinton-Gore Administration "let’s sock it to gun owners" move, the U.S. Justice Department proposed a regulation that it will turn over the identities of lawful firearm transferees to the BATF so that the BATF can "audit" such persons as well as the Federal Firearms Licensees from whom they purchased the guns. The FBI says it wants to keep the records for three months, in arrogant violation of the Brady Act, which requires that National Instant Check System (NICS) records be destroyed and which forbids "any record or portion thereof" generated by NICS from being "recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed or controlled by" the United States, and also forbids using NICS "to establish any system for the registration of firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions." The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 also made it illegal for BATF to have such records. Comments from those opposed to this proposed registry can submit comments opposed to the proposed regulation by the comment period deadline of June 1, 1999 to Emmet A. Rathbun, Unit Chief, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Module C-3, 1000 Custer Hollow Road, Clarksburg, West Virginia 26306-0147.




In Washington, D. C., Congresswoman Sue W. Kelly introduced H.R. 1330, a bill to amend title 18, U. S. Code, to increase the mandatory minimum penalties provided for possessing, brandishing or discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence of drug trafficking crime. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.




Anti-gun Sen. Charles Schumer of New York introduced S. 637, the proposed Internet Gun Trafficking Act of 1999, to require anyone who operates an internet web-site which offers firearms for sale or otherwise facilitates the sale of firearms posted or listed on the web-site to become a federally licensed firearms manufacturer, importer or dealer, and to notify the Secretary of the Treasury of the address of the web-site.
S. 637 would require anyone who operates an Internet web-site which posts or lists firearms for sale on behalf of other persons to serve as a "middleman" for any resulting gun transactions. The web-site operators would do this by prohibiting the posting of information on these sites that would enable prospective firearms sellers and buyers to contact one another directly (such as phone numbers or e-mail addresses) and thus bypass involvement by web-site operators, and require that all firearms sold as a result of their being listed on their web-sites be shipped to them, as federally licensed firearms dealers, rather than directly to the buyers.
S. 637 would prohibit unlicensed individuals who offer firearms for sale on "gun show" web-sites from shipping firearms sold as a result of being listed on such web-sites to anyone other than the web-site operator.
It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Its companion measure, H. R. 1245, by Rep. Bobby L. Rush of Illinois, was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.




Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, a CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Awardee, introduced H. R. 407, the proposed Second Amendment Restoration Act of 1999. It would provide that notwithstanding any provision of the law of any state or political subdivision thereof, a person who is not prohibited by federal law from possessing, transporting, shipping or receiving a firearm and who is carrying a valid license or permit which is issued pursuant to the law of any state and which permits the person to carry a concealed firearm, or who is otherwise entitled to carry a concealed firearm in and pursuant to the law of the state of a person’s residence, may carry in any state a concealed firearm in accordance with the terms of the license of with the laws of the state of the person’s residence, subject to the laws of the state in which the firearm is carried concerning locations in which firearms may not be carried. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

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JUNE 1999

"The simple-minded will blame guns," wrote nationally syndicated columnist Mona Charen in THE WASHINGTON TIMES and other newspapers following the tragic April murderous shooting and bombing outrage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. "But until we confront and correct our moral agnosticism," she concluded," until parents demand an end to cultural pollution, we will not see an end to the carnage."




Daytime talk show host and single mother Rosie O’Donnell wants to outlaw all guns and send all gun owners to prison: "I honestly think – and I am not an expert on the amendments – I think the only people in this nation who should be allowed to own guns are police officers," Miss O’Donnell said on her show after the Littleton, Colorado shootings.
"I don’t care if you want to hunt, I don’t care if you think it’s your right. I say, ‘Sorry.’ It is 1999. We have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison."
Ms. O’Donnell is the spokeswoman for K-Mart, one of the nation’s largest retailers of firearms and ammunition.




"It is profoundly regrettable that the President has chosen to exploit the horrific premeditated massacre at Littleton to, once again, scapegoat sportsmen, hunters and other law-abiding Americans who use guns for pleasure or personal and family safety," declared former CNN Crossfire host Patrick J. Buchanan.
"It calls to mind again Mr. Clinton’s effort to divert blame for the massacre in Oklahoma City to conservatives and Republicans who were critical of big government. Those brutal and nihilistic killers in Colorado violated 19 federal and state gun and explosives laws. To suggest that the passage by Congress of a 20th, 21st, or 22nd might have prevented this atrocity is delusional and demagogic."




Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin called for an end to the "proliferation of guns" and condemned the politicians he says have used the Littleton, Colorado tragedy to grandstand about the corrosive effects of the media on American values, reported the LOS ANGELES TIMES.
"This is the season of political opportunism," Levin said in a speech to the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. "I can’t help but think that television is an easy scapegoat. Where is the cry to stop the proliferation of guns?"
The audience, which included hundreds of entertainment industry executives, interrupted Levin’s address with applause.




In Washington, D. C., Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois introduced S. 936, the proposed Children’s Firearm Access Prevention Act.
It would impose criminal penalties of up to one year imprisonment and a $10,000 fine or both on a gun owner who knows or should know that a juvenile could gain access to the gun, and a juvenile does gain access and thereby causes death or injury or exhibits the gun in a public place.
The bill would provide for what Sen. Durbin calls five common sense exceptions:
The adult uses a trigger lock, secure storage box, or other secure storage technique.
The juvenile used the gun in a lawful act of self defense.
The juvenile takes the gun off the person of a law enforcement official.
The owner has no reasonable expectation that juveniles will be on the premises.
The juvenile got the gun as a result of a burglary.
Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, S. 936 has six original cosponsors: Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, John Chafee and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, and Charles Schumer of New York.




In Cincinnati, Ohio, the City Council voted on to file a suit against handgun manufacturers under a legal theory of recovering the costs of gun-related violence.
The Council voted to spend $100,000 on the lawsuit and hire outside counsel, including Cincinnati lawyer Stanley Chesley, who is helping with a similar lawsuit filed by New Orleans, and Jonathan Lowy, a lawyer for Handgun Control, Inc.
The suit alleges that handgun manufacturers "fail to incorporate safety designs to prevent their use by children and other unauthorized users."
It alleges also that handgun manufacturers, "through their design and marketing efforts, massively distribute in such a manner that makes them readily available for criminal use."
The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco also joined in the rush to sue firearms manufacturers for negligence.

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JULY 1999

Dennis Henigan of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, a sister organization of Handgun Control, Inc., "believes that it is imperative to steer the argument about guns away from the problematic area of criminal use, with its inconvenient focus on criminals, and toward the matter of guns in the home – incidents of suicide, accidental shootings, and domestic violence," reports Peter J. Boyer in his article on ‘Big Guns’ in the May 17 issue of THE NEW YORKER.
"This is an important shift," Boyer continues, "because it allows the gun issue to be recast as a health issue. Henigan told…lawyers about the many studies that have considered guns in an epidemiological context; in other words, guns should be thought of as pathogens, and gun ownership, perhaps, as a disease."




Nationally syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, writing on the current gun control controversy in THE WASHINGTON POST and other newspapers, commented that Boyer’s citation of Henigan’s views reveals "what really is at stake…about the shape of gun control after Littleton…
"Democratic politicians are not so candid. On April 27, President Clinton said the kind of people he grew up with in Arkansas believe that ‘every reasonable restriction is just the camel’s nose in the tent’ toward eventual confiscation of weapons. He then sternly cautioned that ‘the culture of hunting and sport shooting’ must ‘stop financing efforts to frighten their members’ into thinking ‘every time we try to save a kid’s life it’s a camel’s nose in the tent.’
"But at a May 5 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Janet Reno fostered the camel’s nose theory. Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama asked whether there would be any improvement in sluggish federal prosecutions of weapons violations. ‘I can’t promise you improvement in numbers,’ she responded. Her priority was controlling possession of guns, not their use."
"My two brothers and I grew up in a home where firearms were commonplace – my dad’s shotguns, the semiautomatic rifles my brothers and I got for our 12th birthdays," writes Robert Stacy McCain, Assistant National Editor for THE WASHINGTON TIMES.
"The same was true of our friends and neighbors," he continues. "But none of us became teen-age mass murderers. The idea of amassing an arsenal and going on a murderous rampage never occurred to us.
"Whatever caused the Littleton slayings, logic tells us the cause is something new to American society, a factor that was missing two or three decades ago, when such incidents were unknown.
"It is too vague to say that ‘violence’ is the problem…
"Guns are no more accessible to kids in America today than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Media reports use certain buzzwords – ‘handguns’ or ‘semiautomatic’ – to suggest some special menace in the firearms used by criminals. That is an appeal to ignorance. My brother’s revolver is a handgun. The .22 I got for my 12th birthday is a semiautomatic. The two sawed-off shotguns wielded by the killers at Columbine High School were neither handguns nor semiautomatic.
"Here’s an interesting statistic: 100 percent of crime is committed by criminals. Criminals are people who do not obey laws. Passing more laws will not stop crime.
"Gun-control fanatics demonize their opposition as the ‘gun lobby.’ My brothers and I are not NRA members or any part of any ‘gun lobby.’ We’re just citizens who know a thing or two about firearms and crime, and don’t think gun control is the answer. There are millions of Americans who think the same way. Gun-control laws discourage peaceful, law-abiding citizens from owning firearms."




"The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher and the other 11 children who died (during the April Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado) must not be in vain," declared Darrell Scott during a hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime in Washington, D. C.
"Their blood cries out for answers.
"The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the
murder could only be found in Cain’s heart…
"When something as terrible as Columbine’s tragedy occurs, politicians immediately look for a scapegoat…They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that continue to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre."




Most Coloradoans, even after the Littleton, Colorado tragedy, still support strongly the right to keep and bear arms, according to a survey conducted by the Denver, Colorado ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS. According to it, 75 percent believe that gun ownership is a "basic right of all Americans," and 65 percent support a shall issue right to carry concealed law.

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AUGUST 1999

U. S. District Judge Harvey E. Schlesinger told Congress that the Judicial Conference of the United States believes judges need changes in gun laws to protect themselves, particularly when traveling interstate, reports Frank J. Murray in THE WASHINGTON TIMES.
"Clearly, if a judge is in danger, the fact that he or she is in one state or the other does not eliminate the danger," Judge Schlesinger, of Jacksonville, Florida told the House Judiciary Subcommiitee on Courts. He spoke in support of a bill to give federal judges more latitude in traveling while armed.
One of the provisions in a federal courts bill, H.R. 1752 would require judges to pass a training program. Generally, it would exempt them from state and local firearms laws, allowing them to travel armed from state to state without breaking the law.




"A number of major gun manufacturers and wholesalers are boosting prices this summer," reports Vanessa O'Connell in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL for July 2. "For the first time in about three years, gun companies are enjoying surging sales. But they are telling retail dealers and consumers to blame the antigun movement for higher prices - specifically the cost of defending lawsuits against the industry by a growing number of cities and counties...
"There may be another reason for the -price jump, however. In 1999, for the first time in several years, demand for guns has surged, and manufacturers and wholesalers appear to be taking advantage of the situation, according to industry officials...
"The municipal lawsuits, which seek to recoup the public costs of gun violence, combined with talk of tougher gun control laws in the wake of the Littleton, Colorado school massacre, have also caused people to buy firearms out of concern that it will be harder to do so in the future, retailers report."




"A study performed for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has found a compelling pattern of evidence demonstrating that guns used to commit crimes move quickly from manufacturers to juvenile offenders and older criminals through a relative handful of corrupt dealers," reports Fox Butterfield in THE NEWYORK TIMES for July 1.
"The finding is particularly significant in light of the bitter gun control debate in Congress, suggesting that many of the proposed solutions - child safety locks, for instance, or a ban on the import of -high capacity ammunition clips - do not address the most important problem: some dealers' repeated sales to criminals or to 'straw purchasers' buying on their behalf.
"The report found, for example, that a mere 389 federally licensed dealers, of 104,855 such dealers around the country, had sold half of all guns used in crimes in 1996 and 1997 that could be traced by law enforcement to their initial sale.
"It also found that more than a fifth of all guns recovered in crimes in those two years had been purchased from a licensed dealer less than a year earlier, and that almost half had been bought from dealers within three years.
"In addition, the study concluded that 49.1 percent of guns involved in crimes that could be traced to the original dealer were used in those criminal acts within 50 miles of the sale...
"What is unclear is whether the dealers with large numbers of crime guns traced to them are simply stores with a large volume of sales, or whether they instead are simply inclined to be involved in illegal activity. The report also does not distinguish between sales made by dealers in stores and at gun shows."




Gun grabbers south of the border, way south of the border, in Brazil, are trying to ban legal private firearms possession in that country. Brazilian freedom-lovers tell POINT BLANK that they have just through this month to try to stop the gun grabbing measure.
As of June 21 of this year, it became illegal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to sell firearms, ammunition and related products to anyone except police, the military and private security forces. The antigun fanatics in Rio even are seeking to require current private owners of guns to turn them in within a year, maybe for nominal compensation.
The gun grabbers are trying for a similar law for the entire country, a national civilian disarmament law.




In Boston, Massachusetts the Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court, ruled that the state's Attorney General has the power to regulate handgun safety under consumer protection laws.
"The unanimous ruling paves the way for the nation's first consumer regulation of firearms, which are generally exempt under federal law from state health and safety standards that apply to products ranging from toasters to toy guns," reports Pamela Ferdinand in THE WASHINGTON POST
The court "rejected arguments by the gun industry that former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger overstepped his authority and violated federal law when he issued regulations in 1997 mandating handgun safety devices and quality control standards," writes Ferdinand.
"'It's a huge victory for gun control advocates and makes Massachusetts the first state to regulate guns as we regulate all other consumer products,' said Kristen Rand, Director of Federal Policy for the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group in Washington.
"'We hope it will spur state legislatures to enact similar laws and ultimately push the federal government to pass legislation to regulate the industry,' Rand said.
"Attorney General Thomas Reilly, Harshbarger's successor, said the ruling reaffirmed the authority of his office to crack down on unfair and deceptive trade practices. The regulations ban the sale of handguns with easily removable serial numbers, handguns made of inferior materials, and handguns prone to accidental discharge when dropped. Trigger locks and child-resistant devices are also required, among other measures..."

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SEPTEMBER 1999

In a bi-partisan move, Reps. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and Clifford Stearns of Florida introduced H. R. 2732, the proposed National Instant Notification System Act of 1999.
If enacted, it would require that state and local law enforcement authorities and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms be notified immediately when the national instant criminal background check system determines that a person is ineligible to purchase a handgun.
If the system makes such a determination, it shall immediately notify the state and local law enforcement authorities (if willing to accept the information) and the field office of BATF, that the Attorney General deems appropriate, of:
The determination (including why the receipt would constitute such a violation);
The name of, and such other identifying information about the person as the system possesses; and
The location of the licensee involved.
H. R. 2732 would provide that neither a government nor an employee of a government responsible for providing a notice of such information shall be liable in an action at law for damages for failure to provide the notice or information.
The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.




In California, the gun grabbers are having the time of their lives.
Declaring that "guns do kill people," Gov. Gray Davis signed into law a "one gun-a-month" anti-handgun law proposed by Assemblyman Wally Knox of Los Angeles.
He also signed into law a bill by Sen. Don Perata of Alameda which bans the manufacture, import or sale or any semiautomatic rifle or handgun which has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition or can be easily concealed. The same measure redefines and bans so-called "assault weapons," such as a "semiautomatic centerfire rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine," and such other features as a thumbhole stock, a flare launcher and a pistol grip. It also bans the manufacture of high capacity ammunition magazines.
The California gun grabbers have proposed a plethora of other anti-gun legislation as well, and seem well on the march in our country's most populous state.




On the other side of the country, in Maryland, Gov. Parris N. Glendening revived a proposal to require that all new handguns sold in the state be equipped with so-called "childproof" locks. He established a 21 -membertask force and ordered it to draft legislation that all new handguns in Maryland include some type of internal safety lock that would prevent them from being fired by children, thieves or other unauthorized users.
The task force, led by Maryland State Police Superintendent David B. Mitchell, is charged with reviewing a variety of gun-safety measures, from simple mechanical combination locks to so-called "smart gun" technology.
"What's really going on is that Glenclening wants to ban handguns, and he wants to accomplish this by requiring that they be sold with a technology that does not exist," said Bob McMurray, Chairman of the Maryland Committee Against the Gun Ban, and a CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Awardee.




Far fewer students were expelled for taking guns to school in the academic year 1997-1998 compared with the previous year, according to a U. S. Department of Education survey released August 10.
In the state-by-state survey, the government found that expulsions for carrying firearms onto school property dropped by nearly a third, to 3,930 students from 5,724.
The study is the second on how schools around the country are implementing the Gun-Free School Act, a 1994 federal law requiring states that receive federal education aid to enact laws requiring a minimum one year expulsion of students who take firearms to school.




In Atlanta, Georgia, Philip Anderson, President of the American Bar Association, called last month for stronger gun control measures.
Saying "we can still do something about gun violence in our society," Anderson said August 7 it should be unlawful for teenagers to buy military assault weapons and expressed support for banning the importation of highcapacity ammunition feeding devices. He said the background check required for firearm sales by licensed gun dealers should apply to such sales at gun shows and that the background checks should take a minimum of three days.
He said. "There is no reason in the world why teenagers should be able to buy assault weapons."
He said the ABA has no policy on state efforts to bar cities from suing gun manufacturers over firearm violence, but that the group generally favors access to the courts.
"Personally, I believe that any entity, city or otherwise, that has a legitimate claim should be able to pursue it," he said.
Pointing to civil rights cases during the 1960s and more recent litigation over tobacco, he added, "The gun industry is another industry that it looks like the people will have to resort to the courts for relief if the legislatures don't act."




In Cape Town, South Africa, more than 1,000 gun owners, most of them Caucasian, according to news reports, marched to the gates of Parliament early last month to protest planned curbs on firearm ownership.
The government is considering broad new anti-gun legislation that would make all gun owners apply for new licenses, prove their need to be armed and take a mental health test. To buy a gun now in South Africa, you already have to pass a police check, which can take months.
Chanting, "Crime Control, Not Gun Control," and carrying banners with slogans such as, "Don't Disarm LawAbiding Citizens," the marchers handed a petition to a representative of the Safety and Security Ministry. According to the reports, there are four million registered firearms in South Africa, one for every 10 men, women and children.

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OCTOBER 1999

According to an August 30 -September 2 WASHINGTON POST-ABC News Poll of 1,526 randomly selected adults, 63 percent of the people favor stricter gun control laws in the United States, 35 percent oppose them, and two percent had no opinion.
According to the survey, 90 percent support mandating checks on people buying guns at gun shows; 79 percent favor mandating trigger locks on all stored guns; 77 percent favor a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons; 75 percent support a requirement that all handgun owners register their firearms with the government; 66 percent support a nationwide ban on gun sales by mail order and over the internet; 49 percent support a nationwide ban on people carrying a concealed weapon; and 32 percent support a nationwide ban on the sale of handguns, except to law enforcement officers.




The anti-gun political fallout from the tragedy earlier this year at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado continues. "Columbine opened a new era in the gun debate," said Gov. Michael 0. Leavitt of Utah, a second-term Republican who has fought with his state's Republican-controlled legislature for tighter gun control, including a measure to prohibit concealed handguns in schools, reports Michael Janofsky in THE NEW YORK TIMES.
"We're starting to get a sense of proportion," Governor Leavitt added. "There is a capacity to protect Second Amendment rights, but that does not mean we can't limit the way guns are used. That dialogue is starting to go on."




In Illinois, a package of so-called "public safety initiatives," including mandatory trigger locks on guns to prevent child access, a gun storage law that holds parents accountable for acts of violence committed with a gun by their children, and new penalties for using guns in crimes, including an automatic 15 years added to the prison term of someone who brandishes a gun while committing afelony, 20 moreyears if the gun is fired, and 25 years to life if someone is shot, was signed into law by Gov, George Ryan.
Gov. Ryan also said he would veto any bill thatwould allow Illinois residents to carry a concealed weapon.




In Wisconsin, Gov. Tommy G. Thompson has vowed to veto any CCW bill.




A spokesman for Mayor Dennis W. Archer of Detroit, Michigan acknowledged August 25 that the city had sold retired police service revolvers even as it was suing gun makers, according to an Agence France Presse dispatch appearing in THE NEW YORK TIMES.
"The irony is not lost," said the spokesman, Greg Bowens, but all weapons confiscated by the police, he added, are destroyed.
The old service revolvers were sold to a company in Vermont, said Bowens, who indicated that the practice was started to raise money for new police weapons.
Detroit has filed a $400 million lawsuit against gun makers and dealers, asserting that they are contributing to a flow of illegal weapons that find their way to criminals on the street.




A well-known California manufacturer of inexpensive handguns has shut its doors, reports Paul M. Barrett in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Lorcin Engineering Company, he writes, ceased operation in mid-August, two weeks after James Waldorf resigned as President and a board member.
Lorcin is the second small Southern California manufacturer of inexpensive handguns to take "dramatic action in the wake of municipal litigation against the gun industry," he added. "In May, rival Davis Industries, Inc. filed for court protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Code.
"In another development, Connecticut's attorney general said he is considering suing the gun industry; several old-line gun makers are based in Connecticut."




"In a significant setback for the nation's largest gun show," reportsTHE NEW YORK TIMES, "Los Angeles County has adopted a law banning the sale of weapons and ammunition on its property.
"The law, approved by the county's Board of Supervisors, threatens to undermine the core business of the Great Western Gun Show, held four times a year on the county fairgrounds in Pomona, California, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. The event draws as many as 2,000 exhibitors and 35,000 visitors and brings the county an estimated $600,000 a year, the largest share of the rent it earns at the fairgrounds.
"'Our feeling is, the county should not be profiting from the gun business,' said Zev Yaroslavsky, the county supervisor who sponsored the motion. 'We shouldn't be leasing or renting the property for the sale of guns or ammunition of any kind.'
"The measure also bans discussions about firearms sales on county property, which would effectively limit the gun show to a display of weapons and their prices.
" In response, the event's promoter, Great Western Shows, has vowed to file a lawsuit ... that accuses the county of breaching its contract and impinging on constitutionally protected political and commercial speech.
"Great Western Shows said itwould also seek a restraining order to block the county from enforcing the law.
"The company says the county officials who supported the law jumped on a bandwagon that would have little practical effect on crime."

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NOVEMBER 1999

In Cincinnati, Ohio, a state judge on October 7 dismissed the city's lawsuit against the firearms industry, saying the city was improperly asking a court to change the way guns are designed, marketed and distributed, something only a legislature could do.
The decision, rendered by Judge Robert P. Ruehlman, was the first dismissal of one of the lawsuits brought against gun manufacturers by 28 cities and counties over the past year, according to lawyers for the firearms industry.
Judge Ruehlman said the city's claims were vague, unsupported by the evidence and "an improper attempt to have this court substitute its judgment for that of the legislature."
Cincinnati had based its suit largely on the charge that gun makers had failed to incorporate sufficient safety devices, like trigger locks. However, Judge Ruehlman ruled that guns are legal products and that the manufacturer could not be held liable when the guns functioned as intended, even if they are used to kill people.




Reacting to the decision by Judge Robert R. Ruehlman in the Cincinnati case, CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb, Founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, predicted "that this will be only the first in a series of dismissals against these reckless lawsuits against legal firearm companies selling a lawful product to licensed dealers in interstate commerce. Now that the first domino has fallen, it is time to take the offensive and sue the cities and other culpable organizations for violation of civil rights, conspiracy and other unconstitutional acts."
Gottlieb said the cities and counties "don't expect to win these frivolous cases, but they do intend to bankrupt a legal industry by forcing them to expend all their monies in the courts." He said pro-gun forces "will have no trouble proving damages, since one gun maker is in bankruptcy and now Colt has sent out a letter indicating that they are no longer producing the vast majority of their handgun line and raised prices on others."
The Colt memo, faxed to distributors and now posted on the Internet, states, "we have to face the harsh reality of the significant impact which our litigation defense costs are having on our ability to operate competitively in the marketplace ... Due to the continued escalation of our litigation costs ... the prices of these products will be increased six percent effective immediately."
Calling the Colt memo "the smoking gun proving that the lawsuits are designed to bankrupt a legal industry," Gottlieb charged "the goal is to end gun ownership by ending the production of new firearms, thus freezing the supply in circulation."




In Northern Virginia, Democrats are focusing their campaign for General Assembly seats in this month's elections on guns in schools, an issue which they predict will bring suburban parents to the polls to help them defeat a group of Republican incumbents.
According to The Washington Post, these Democrats are "hammering these GOP legislators for supporting a measure that would have allowed students to keep rifles and other guns locked in their car trunks on school grounds so they could go hunting after class...
"After studying polling data identifying guns on school property as a potentially decisive issue, challengers are relentlessly pursuing it in mailers, phone calls, political forums and door-to-door campaigning. It has become an issue in the majority of House races in Northern Virginia where there are Republican incumbents, and in some Senate races as well.
"The Democrats invoke images of Columbine and other school massacres, saying easy access to guns could lead to similar incidents. Two Democratic candidates called news conferences featuring the mother of a student killed last year in an Arkansas school shooting...
"Republican incumbents say their challengers are campaigning on a nonissue and misinterpreting the legislative vote...
"Del. Richard H. Black of Loudoun and other Republicans who supported the gun measure said that Democrats are distorting the proposal's impact and that it was designed to help rural parts of the state where students often go hunting after class. Black said that it would not have led to Columbine-style violence and that Republicans have come forward with more effective crime fighting measures."




"Republicans, including Texas Gov. George W. Bush, had better pray no deranged gunman shoots up a school or church next fall," states nationally syndicated columnist Morton Kondracke, Editor of Roll Call. "Gun control is an issue poised to clobber the GOP in 2000.
"In a presidential debate, if Mr. Bush tries to repeat his line after the Wedgwood Baptist Church shooting that 'government can't remove evil from the human heart'- his Democratic rival can say, 'Yes, Governor, but it can remove the instrument of evil from the human hand.'
"And Democrats can run ads especially in suburban districts charging that when Republicans had a chance to put modest curbs on gun shows, they balked.
"Every poll indicates the public supports the strict handgun control measures recommended by Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley, which exceed by miles those being rejected by the GOP Congress.
"The Gore-Bradley proposal to require all handgun owners to register their firearms was favored by a margin of 75 to 24 percent in a September poll by TNS Intersearch.
"According to a CBS News poll in August, 79 percent would favor requiring all gun buyers to pass a safety course and obtain a photo license before purchasing a gun."

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