From latzko@ns1.rutgers.edu Thu Feb 17 17:48:21 1994 Received: from demon.corp.portal.com (demon.corp.portal.com [156.151.1.10]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.4) with ESMTP id RAA18942 for ; Thu, 17 Feb 1994 17:48:20 -0800 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by demon.corp.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.4) with ESMTP id RAA20156 for ; Thu, 17 Feb 1994 17:47:51 -0800 Received: from ns1.rutgers.edu (ns1.rutgers.edu [128.6.21.6]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.4-1.13) with SMTP id RAA04394 for ; Thu, 17 Feb 1994 17:48:06 -0800 Received: by ns1.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA00145; Thu, 17 Feb 94 20:30:23 EST Received: from gw1.att.com by ns1.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA00125; Thu, 17 Feb 94 20:30:16 EST Message-Id: <9402180130.AA00125@ns1.rutgers.edu> From: lvc@cbvox1.att.com To: firearms-politics@ns1.rutgers.edu Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 20:21:16 EST Subject: Report on Florida Pro Gun Rally Status: R Dateline: Tallahassee, Florida Saturday, February 12, 1994 The largest PRO-GUN Rally ever held in the state of Florida, and one of the largest in the nation, was held today on the steps of the Florida Capitol. An NBC affiliate TV station out of Tampa, Florida reported a crowd of 35,000 turned out in opposition to legislation that would ban semiautomatic "assault weapons". Although most observers reported the crowd at around 10,000, a few reporters attempted to play down the significance of the rally by deliberately under estimating the numbers at 2500 to 3000. They came by chartered bus, car caravans and pick up trucks from every corner of the state. From Key West to Pensacola and Jacksonville and all points in between they came to deliver their message to the Florida Legislature: NO GUN BANS OF ANY TYPE OF FIREARMS AND NO GUN CONTROL PERIOD! Capitol Security Police told reporters and rally organizers that it was the largest group ever assembled on the Capitol steps. The rally was a grassroots event conceived and organized by grassroots activists around the state who did it without financial assistance from NRA or Unified Sportsmen of Florida. Rally organizer, Gary Moore, of Ocala, Florida, an NRA and Unified Sportsmen of Florida member, believed that if they could put the rally together without the resources of NRA and USF, that it would truly be the "wake up call" the state and the nation need to stop this assault on our rights. Other key rally organizers, Mike Wiley, a talk show host from Orlando and Jon Gutmacher the South Florida organizer, and dozens of men and women from all over the state rolled up their sleeves and went to work to produce an outstanding event that will go down in Florida history as the day law-abiding Floridians rang the bells for Liberty, Freedom and the Second Amendment. SPEECH GIVEN BY MARION P. HAMMER AT THE RALLY AGAINST GUN CONTROL AT THE CAPITOL ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1994 This is a great sight-- seeing so many of you here. For sixteen years I have walked these halls fighting for your rights and there are two things I have never seen. One is a more diabolical, oppressive gun ban bill than Rep. Ron Klein's CS/HB-241. And the second is so many people gathered here at the Capitol either in opposition to or support of ANY cause. I thank you and welcome all of you and your support to our fight for freedom. Are you ready for the roll call of the sponsors printed on HB-241? Representative Ron Klein Representative Willie Logan Representative Suzanne Jacobs Representative Elaine Bloom Representative Eladio Armesto-Garcia Representative Anne Mackenzie Representative John Cosgrove Representative Jack Tobin Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Representative Larcenia Bullard Representative Beryl Burke Representative Fred Lippman Representative Elaine Gordon Representative Carol Hanson Representative Steven Feren Representative Josephus Eggelleton Representative Cynthia Chestnut Representative Mimi McAndrews Representative Luis Rojas Representative Ron Glickman Representative Dick McMahan Representative Vernon Peeples Representative Steve Geller Representative Tracy Stafford Representative Addie Greene Representative Shirley Brown Representative Lesley Miller Representative Mike Abrams Representative Ron Saunders Representative Mary Brennan Representative James Bush Representative Willye Dennis Representative Tony Hill Now, are you ready for the roll call of the sponsors printed on the replacement bill, HB-1913? REPRESENTATIVE RON KLEIN................That's it folks, I guess they heard your voices. You know, some of the sponsors of HB-241 withdrew their names from the bill after hearing from you. Whether or not you forgive them or give them quarter is something you really ought to give some serious thought before you make up your mind. These are your Constitutional rights that are on the line. Last night I woke up at 3:00 in the morning. I was having trouble sleeping because I wasn't sure you would all be here. There was a refrain going through my head and I suddenly realized it was the Preamble to the Constitution. Do you remember the preamble to the Constitution? We all used to learn it the 6th grade. WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, Establish Justice, Insure Domestic Tranquility, Provide for the Common Defense, Promote the General Welfare, and Secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.Think about those words. They are the essence of why we're here. We are gathered here today -- FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION! Each and every individual and group of individuals standing here together to fight for our firearms and our freedom. TO ESTABLISH JUSTICE by calling on legislators to PUNISH CRIMINALS rather than slapping them on the wrist and telling them its O.K. to commit crimes if they've had a tough life. To INSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY by telling Legislators to get VIOLENT CRIMINALS off our streets and out of our neighborhoods by locking them up behind bars and keeping them there.TO PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE by telling Legislators to leave our GUNS ALONE. We have a right to defend ourselves against criminals and our Nation against Tyranny. To PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE by telling Legislators to get their priorities straight and spend our tax dollars fixing our criminal justice system rather than trying to take Freedom, and Guns away from law-abiding people. AND to SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY by telling Legislators that its MORE THAN OUR GUNS, its our FREEDOM, our LIBERTY, and our CONSTITUTION AND WE WILL NOT GIVE UP ANY OF THEM. We're to SUPPORT OUR CONSTITUTION by reminding Legislators that when they took their oath of office they SWORE to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, THE WHOLE CONSTITUTION -- NOT JUST THE PARTS THEY LIKE. You must all remember that any Legislator who votes in FAVOR of ANY GUN CONTROL is violating the oath of office and the Constitution. And we WILL hold them accountable in the voting booth. I promise you I will continue to be here for you, for our Constitution, our Liberty and our Freedom. The NRA and Unified Sportsmen of Florida will continue to carry your Flag of Freedom through out these halls and into the elections. We will continue to be your sentry, standing guard and sounding the alarm when we must. Thank you for being here today with your overwhelming support for our Second Amendment Rights. Epilogue to end the Rally delivered by Marion P. Hammer: As you leave here to go back to home I want you to carry a thought with you. Some people will tell you that you are too extreme, too unyielding, too uncompromising, too far to the right and that you need to move closer to the middle of the road. They've said it all to me before but let me tell you what my Grandfather told me as a young girl growing up on a farm. He said you should know what you believe in, fight for your beliefs, don't compromise away your rights and whatever you do stay out of the middle of the road -- because there is nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead possums! SPEECH GIVEN BY REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE ALBRIGHT, (R) OF OCALA AT THE RALLY AGAINST GUN CONTROL AT THE CAPITOL ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1994 You know I was thinking about how I should dress today and I looked in my closet and there were a lot of suits. And I thought about how all my brethren were going to be dressed in suits. Then I got to thinking about how who I was going to be seeing and I figured I'd put on a pair of jeans. That's one way of looking at it. The other way is, I don't want to be seen in a suit because you might think I am a legislator. And we didn't know what was going to happen here today, it was a little topsy turvy. You know, I was walking in the halls this week and I heard a person say -- one of the other legislators -- he kind of laughed under his breath and said, you know, those stupid you-whos and ya-whos, they are coming up here on a Saturday. Man don't they know the legislators aren't here on a Saturday? And I stopped the guy and said, mister, those are working people. They are working on Friday to pay your salary. They only have the weekends off because they are paying the taxes to keep the lights on in that building. I want you all to go home today with a lot of self satisfaction. You ought to get it. And if you don't get off on self satisfaction, you ain't got no business being here. Because this is one of the largest, if not the largest crowd ever assembled for any reason on these steps today. They are going to know in all 50 states tomorrow in the Sunday newspaper that Florida said NO TO GUN CONTROL. You guys are laying the... you are messing up the President's plans, don't you understand that? We know that some of you all may not know Marion Hammer very well but I worked in the U.S. Congress ten years ago and she had a reputation then, as she does now, that if she gets ahold of your butt, she don't let go! She's the meanest, and the toughest, and just keeps coming and coming and coming and we're awful glad to have her on our side. I have to make a plug very quickly for the NRA and Unified Sportsmen. By the end of the day that Klein's bill had been refiled, I heard my fax go off in my office at 5:00 in the afternoon and I said you know, who could this possibly be. Everybody has gone home. Well here comes a two page fax from the NRA/Unified Sportsmen telling me exactly what that bill did and said something to the effect, it's still a snake and it still rattles. And those people (NRA & USF) support pro gun candidates. They helped me get elected and I was elected by 52-48. A lot of the people were elected by small margins. You've got to be members of the NRA. You need to join. You need to get your friends to join. And we have to have them. They need money in their political action committee. You know that an average something like 5 to 10 candidates lose every year for office to the legislature by less than 500 votes. That five seats means a 10 vote swing that controls a lot of issues. That means the destiny of this building is in our control.I talked with Ander Crenshaw yesterday who was the President of the Senate last year. He's also a gubernatorial candidate for governor and he gave me his word that he would do every thing he could to kill this bill and work with Senator Charles Williams, my good friend, to do everything possible to see that this piece of crap doesn't see the light of day on this side of the building. Senator Crenshaw is all over the state today and I am here on his behalf. And he is sorry he couldn't be here. But while you raised that point, you better ask every candidate for governor whether it is Chiles, Crenshaw, Bush, all of them -- I want to know where they stand. Not just at this time. You need to ask them throughout this thing and we need to put somebody in the chairs in November who supports our views. Before I leave the legislature, I want you all to know that Senator Crenshaw, Senator Williams and I are filing a bill that removes confidentiality for juvenile delinquents out of the Florida statutes. We're going to publish their names, their pictures, their parents names, and if they live in a social service agency such as HRS, HRS' name is going to be in the paper. Not the word non-accountability to anybody. If you bring a child into America stand up and be responsible for it. You know, Mr. Klein's office is right next to mine and we were talking for about a half an hour on Wednesday, and I'm from the good county of Marion -- how many people are here from Marion County? When I spoke down there the other day they gave me this hat and I promised them I would give it to Mr. Klein and I told him that. And the other day when I was in his office and we were talking and he was perplexed. He didn't know what to do about this opposition. Perplexed. And I was walking out the door and he said Mr. Albright you told me you had a hat for me didn't you? And I stopped and I looked at him and I said, Mr. Klein, it's coming. Don't worry, it's coming. I think it came here today and it's about to roost on his head! We've got a lot of other speakers but I think the most important point I want to make to you all is the following. You all remember Bill Clinton was for the motor voter bill and how proud he was that President Bush had killed it and that now it was in place. On the surface it sounds pretty good, you can drive in and when you get your drivers license renewed you can register to vote and the process of more people registering to vote is a good idea. What they didn't tell you was that the bill also says -- it's in black and white -- that they can put voter registration in all welfare offices in America under this bill. There is a liberal agenda here to get more people registered to vote that are either besieged and pulled down by the welfare system or tied to the social service net, what I call economic apartheid in America, and the liberal agenda wants to hold them down and they also want to use their vote. And you know what you have to do? You have to go home today and if you're not registered to vote you've got to register to vote, you've got to. Because the liberals are out there using our motor voter, using our welfare offices and everything they can to get people registered to vote to give them the liberal agenda which many times is not our agenda. So in closing, we have to get everybody registered all over the state. You need to work at every city particularly on Marion's roll call, and let's send a message to Handgun Control, Inc. Let's send a message to Howard Metzenbaum. Let's send some messages to everybody in Washington, that Florida is mad as hell and we ain't taking it any more. Thank you.