Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 16:32:31 -0500 From: "Christopher W. Knox" To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: FCO 1-1-96 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ======================================================================== Online Report to the F I R E A R M S C O A L I T I O N Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD 20916 ======================================================================== January 1 , 1996 Vol. 3, No. 1 ======================================================================== In this issue: Shotgun News Column: 1/1: The Crystal Ball Telephone Log -- From the Firearms Coalition Legislative Hotline 1-900-225-3006 $0.89 per minute ======================================================================== A note from Chris Pop called this morning with New Year's greetings and wanted me to add these two items to the outgoing newsletter. Since it's already out, I'm sending the first update of the year today. This is the first issue of Volume 3. It's been three years since I started posting this little list. My how time flies when you're having fun. A bit of administratrivia and a response to some feedback from yesterday's newsletter. First, you may have noticed that the GEnie address no longer appears in our tag lines. I cancelled the account because I was the one who received the mail and GEnie has one of the most painful mail interfaces I've ever seen, even when you count mainframe systems. I have a resolution to get Neal directly on the Net this year. Most direct recipients of this list know to contact me directly at cknox@crl.com. If you didn't know, then you do now. Second, I got a concerned note from one reader who took the disappearance of the GEnie address with the appearance of the Web address as a sign that I might be de-emphasizing simpler technologies and interfaces (such as e-mail) in favor of the Web and other such fanciful googaws. That's not the case at all. This bulletin is and will remain a mailing list. The Web page is simply a repository. Best wishes for the New Year. I have some blackeyed peas on the stove that I'd better attend. Chris Knox wrote and is responsible for everything above this line. ======================================================================== Inside Our Crystal Ball By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 1, 1996) -- This is the day for a squint at our crystal ball: 1. The repeal of the semi-auto and magazine ban will pass the U.S. House this year. That's almost the same thing I said last year. If it hadn't been for the Oklahoma City bombing (which had nothing to do with firearms) the House would have passed the repeal on May 16, 1995. However, in that same column I showed that in the 1994 election we had pulled up to only a 50-50 split in the Senate. That won't improve until next November, when -- due to the record number of retiring Senators, most of them anti-gun -- we could possibly ooch up to 60 votes, enough to stop Dianne Feinstein's promised filibuster but not enough to overturn Bill Clinton's veto. 2. Yes, I think Bill Clinton will be re-elected. In a two- man race, Clinton would find it almost impossible to win -- despite his strongest card, the American people's visceral fear of too-powerful government, usually manifested by keeping the White House and Congress in the hands of opposing parties. However, I don't think it will be a two-man race. Ross Perot wouldn't have spent so much money and energy getting his third party on the ballots in key states if he didn't intend to have a go. In a three-way, or more, race, Clinton's home free. After all, that's how he was elected with 43 percent of the vote. 3. With Congress still largely stalemated in 1996, there will be more focus on state action, particularly preemption and concealed carry laws. The main push will be in states which came close to passage in 1995, like Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. Mainly because of sweeping changes in state legislatures in the last elections -- in which NRA members played just as big a role as they did in Congressional races -- ten states enacted "right to carry" legislation in 1995. Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma (despite the Oklahoma City bombing) and Texas enacted first-ever "shall issue" concealed carry laws. Nevada, Utah and Virginia replaced discretionary "need- based" laws with "shall issue" laws. And Florida, Idaho and Pennsylvania improved their existing laws. Granted, not all of them were perfect, which would require Vermont-type no-license-needed laws, but if perfection were mandated for marriage, we'd all still be single. Our spouses wouldn't have us. 4. Congress won't pass a national carry law, but might facilitate state laws. Legislation providing for a national license, or mandating that states recognize other states' laws is as unconstitutional as most Federal gun laws. It would violate state police powers, reserved by the Tenth Amendment -- which the Supreme Court used in 1995 to strike down the Federal prohibition against possessing a gun near a school, and which lower courts have used to strike down portions of the Brady Act. Constitutionalists can't pick and choose the parts of the Bill of Rights they care to support. However, there are Constitutionally sound ways to impact carry laws -- such as funding assistance to states which recognize carry laws, or a license to carry on Federal enclaves, such as the District of Columbia. 5. We'll battle "fringe" gun laws, like bullet bans and "taggants" in propellants, but no major gun laws will pass in 1996. Barely two years ago, Handgun Control Inc. President Richard Aborn boasted that the Brady Law is "the beginning of the slide to-ever-more gun restrictions ... the camel's nose under the tent." He gloated that "the rest of the camel," introduced by Sarah Brady and then-Crime Subcommittee Chairman Charles Schumer, included handgun licensing and registration, banned magazines over six rounds, banned "assault weapons" (undefined), and "Saturday Night Specials" (undefined), prohibited gun show sales, put prohibitive taxes on handguns and ammo, and required a Federal "gun arsenal permit" to possess more than 20 guns or 1,000 rounds of ammo -- or primers. We didn't have to fight such laws last year, and won't in 1996 -- but only if we keep our guard up, and only if we continue to be politically active, starting with the primaries that begin next month. Let's not go back where we were. ======================================================================== Telephone Log New Year's Eve update -- El Paso school nurse and good friend Harriet "Mikey" Voorhees is on the cover of today's USA Weekend, the weekly magazine published by USA Today and inserted in many Sunday newspapers across the nation. Inside the magazine is beautiful picture of another good friend, Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, who lost her parents in the Killeen massacre. The cover story is "Armed in America," concerning "the most important -- and impassioned -- gun control battle in years," the nationwide push for concealed carry licenses. What triggered the unusually balanced article is Texas' law which goes into effect tomorrow. Readers are asked to vote on whether they think such laws make states safer or more dangerous by phoning 1-900-370-1222. The cost is 50 cents per call, but only one call will be accepted from each family phone, and only until midnight January 2. These poll calls are important, for they will be ballyhooed if our side loses -- barely mentioned if we win. Again, the number to call is 1-900-370-1222. Happy New Year. ======================================================================== Copyright 1996 by Neal Knox Associates P.O. Box 6537 Rockville, MD 20916. Reproduction and distribution of this bulletin by any means is encouraged so long as this statement is retained. ======================================================================== Do not put your credit card number in e-mail. ======================================================================== Dear Neal, I use the information you provide to protect my gun rights. Enclosed is my contribution so that you can continue your work: $500 [ ] $250 [ ] $50 [ ] $25 [ ] Other:____ [ ] Quarterly [ ] Bill my MasterCard [ ] Visa [ ] Monthly [ ] Once [ ] Card No. ________________________________________ Expiration Date _____ Mr. [ ] Mrs.[ ]________________________________________________________________ Ms. [ ] Signature_______________________________________________________________ Address__________________________________________ Phone ________________ City _____________________________________________State ____ Zip________ Email Address ______________________ Print and mail to: Firearms Coalition Box 6537 Silver Spring, MD 20916 ======================================================================== PGP users: Remove the leading asterisks from the BEGIN and END lines before using this key. *-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAy8Q4mIAAAEEALKdSCTF6BvTg4luk1IOYtiQyxPotnTjjijSawo9htwZeFS/ KU0WAPkeDuhgKSN3H5242irpkfUu8g84fAPBH6a6joaFN7OchRa49WXnz2dReT0V iT9xeec9rPSASH04dz+lEONeDZ17yh/JGt+tjYq0CIenFZ9JMCGz4I2lBJDFAAUR tCdDaHJpc3RvcGhlciBXYXJyZW4gS25veCA8Y2tub3hAY3JsLmNvbT6JAJUDBRAv pxqvIbPgjaUEkMUBAS8BA/9PP4teu4vja6dTXkOMhVN8xgf1fl66VCc2V4A0/lli uRdf75GS1uQd+pzPIZoIReU440uuLfNSMqAAjCLHDja9ViAUllTk7YIKJMe53+nZ UnQndT2a6ikeQgh/kFxFM1z4NHgTBZ/KMg3td45WzEA3XpjWACrXWNAtYplaQ0hg Iw== =VDsh *-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMOgpcSGz4I2lBJDFAQF4PwP8DvGrNGT6stXa05swaTJ+hc5NWf7h563L b8qwfSP47RFt076my2LtAPS82F73/9R9/CIe7ARKVlcl+6n4zNiQW9W8pNk9aaGv oLbXaue6ZNj54cVBUP9n6hkEj7fwg+kX1pRo2ejiAvPXFxMFNJMN7uJRpjlRfGsb mad46opmvgI= =XxZt -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To receive the Online Firearms Coalition Bulletin send mail to listproc@mainstream.com containing in the message body: subscribe fco New! http://www.crl.com/~cknox/fco.html