Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1993 23:34:31 -0800 From: Jeff Chan To: ca-firearms, firearms-politics@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: My letter published in SF Chronincle The letter I posted a couple days ago was published in the Saturday, December 18 San Francisco Chronicle. There were 2 other pro-gun letters, but mine was in a box in the corner beneath the editor's own column (yeah!). The box was labelled "Forum" and was given the title: "A Right Defended". My letter appears below; but first, here's HCI spokes-goon Judy Binsacca's: >----- San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, December 15, 1993 Page A26 Second Amendment Editor -- In response to the December 5 letter to the editor from Bill McGregor, I wish to inform him and all your readers that we do /not/ have the right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution. Its authors specifically refused to grant that right, instead wording the Second Amendment so that the bearing of arms was for the purpose of maintaining a "well-regarding militia." A simple reading of the amendment makes that clear. More importantly, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the amendment relates only to preserving a militia and does not create the individual right to bear arms. Lower courts as well have so ruled. In fact, possibly the most well-settled proposition in constitutional law is that the Second Amendment doesn't prevent laws affecting private possession of guns. As an attorney, I want to make it clear that the "right to bear arms" for individuals is a myth that the NRA has perpetuated on a trusting public for too many years. It's time to tell the truch about the Second Amendment. JUDY BINSACCA Tiburon >------ San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, December 18, 1993 Page A20 FORUM A Right Defended Editor -- The December 15 letter by Judy Binsacca claiming that the Second Amendment does not recognize an individual right is the most obnoxious example of revisionist history I've seen in America. This lie, fabricated by Handgun Control Inc., is easily refuted with even a cursory knowledge of American history and political thought. As the U.S. Supreme Court recently recognized in U.S. v. Verdugo-Urquidez: "The people" seems to have been a term of art employed in select parts of the Constitution ... "the people" protected the Fourth Amendment, and by the First and Second Amendments, and to whom rights and powers are reserved the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, refers to a class of persons who are part of a national community or who have otherwise developed sufficient connection with this country to be considered part of that community." Has so much been forgotten that America's founding is now about communitarianism, not individual rights? I note with some irony that Ms. Binsacca's letter appeared on December 15th. This day has been declared "Bill of Rights Day" by Bill Clinton in honor of the 202nd anniversary of its ratification. Between Clinton's unfounded and relentless attack on the Second Amendment and Janet Reno's restrictions on the First Amendment, his administration is doing its best to destroy the Bill of Rights. JEFF CHAN Mountain View >----- They put my letter in a box & gave it about a 24 point title. The only editing they did was to (appropriately) take out my private offer to send Ms. Binsacca & the Chronicle editors books about the Second Amendment.... This Chimay's for you. Jeff Chan Internet: chan@shell.portal.com UUCP: {apple,claris,pyramid,uunet}!shell.portal.com!chan (Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are mine unless otherwise noted.) +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Say NO to Big Brother Government. | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ maintainer of {ba,ca}-{firearms,liberty}@shell.portal.com