From firearms-politics-Request@GODIVA.NECTAR.CS.CMU.EDU Tue Apr 13 08:34:33 1993 Received: from portal by jobe (5.67/1.34) id AA13581; Tue, 13 Apr 93 08:34:32 -0700 Received: by portal.unix.portal.com (1.530) id AA00824; Tue, 13 Apr 93 08:34:29 -0700 Received: from portal.unix.portal.com by demon.corp.portal.com (4.1/ 1.17) id AA25547; Tue, 13 Apr 93 08:34:22 PDT Received: by portal.unix.portal.com (1.530) id AA00806; Tue, 13 Apr 93 08:34:18 -0700 Received: by nova.unix.portal.com (5.65b/4.1 1.257) id AA07654; Tue, 13 Apr 93 08:34:17 -0700 Received: by GODIVA.NECTAR.CS.CMU.EDU id ak02615; 13 Apr 93 10:01:11 EDT Received: from RI.CMU.EDU by GODIVA.NECTAR.CS.CMU.EDU id ah02240; 13 Apr 93 9:43:10 EDT Received: from crl.com by RI.CMU.EDU id aa16286; 13 Apr 93 3:08:29 EDT Received: by crl.crl.com id AA04985 (5.65c/IDA-1.5 for firearms-politics@cs.cmu.edu); Tue, 13 Apr 1993 00:07:07 -0700 Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1993 23:50:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Peter Alan Kasler Subject: Re: Question re: Dianne Feinstein To: Bob Leone Cc: firearms-politics@cs.cmu.edu In-Reply-To: <9304122031.AA29911@gandalf.ssw.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO On Mon, 12 Apr 1993, Bob Leone wrote: > 1) For our planned libertarian newsletter, we would like to have a segment > titled "hypocrite of the month". One person who comes to mind for this honor > is anti-gun senator Dianne Feinstein. I seem to remember that when California > banned a certain type of gun a few years ago, it turned out that she owned one! > Alas, my memory isn't that good and I can't find any information about this. > Does anyone remember this or am I imagining it? In 1982, when Dianne was mayor of SF, she wanted to institute a city/county-wide ban on all handguns except those possessed by cops. She was told by various authorities that such an ordinance would be illegal. Among those so advising her were the California Attorney General, the Legislative Counsel for California, the SF City Attorney, and numerous private lawyers generally "on her side." Nevertheless, she persisted and got the ordinance (CCSF 3500 et seq.) enacted. Almost immediately the California AG wrote and AG's opinion stating that the new ordinance was illegal. The Second Amendment Foundation engaged Don Kates to attack the ordinance (and similar ones enacted about the same time in Palo Alto and Berkeley). Doing what he does so well, Kates jumped on it and within a startlingly short time it was overturned. Di took it to the Appellate level, lost, and there it died. Two points of interest: 1) the ordinance is still on the books; it has never been repealed by CCSF. Only a political entity as absurd as San Francisco could behave this way. If you ask the City Attorney, any number of CCSF officials, and about half the SFPD, you'll be told "SF has an ordinance on the books that makes it illegal to have a handgun in the City/County unless you're a police officer." While this is technically true, that fail to tell you that the ordinance was struck down and cannot be used as the basis for prosecution. Point 2: In the short time the ordinance was in effect, Di called a press conference to publicize it and wallow in her victory. While she then had a SF-issued CCW (one of the very few), she asked the Police Chief to get a gun for her to use in the next day's photo opportunity and press conference. Holding the "drop gun" the PD got for her by the barrel between her thumb and forefinger as if it were a dead rat being held by the tail, she dropped it into a garbage can, symbolically "trashing" her gun in obediance of the new ordinance. Her real carry gun was in her purse, and her bodyguards, seen in some photos of her, were carrying as well. By the way, she acquired her CCW when she was a councilperson after her house was machinegunned while she was out of town. Such rationale is consistent with such people; her little 5-shot .38 Spl will do a lot of good against a few assailants with automatic weapons, won't it? Dianne Feinstein is one of the worst of the hypocritical anti-gun pigs in California. Threat Management Institute Vox: 707-939-0303 Peter Alan Kasler, J.D. Fax: 707-939-8684 800 West Napa Street TMI BBS: 707-935-1713 Sonoma, CA 95476 Internet: tmi@crl.com