[ftp://ftp.shell.portal.com/pub/chan/letters/cbsn0814]

                           Jeff Chan 
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REPLY REQUESTED -- DO NOT BUCK 

                        August 14, 1994

                 OPPOSE GUN AND MAGAZINE BANS; 
        ATTACKING THE CONSTITUTION DOESN'T FIGHT CRIME.

Dear Senator:

I urge you to OPPOSE the Feinstein-Schumer firearm and magazine bans in
any and all forms.  These extreme proposals are unconstitutional and do
not address crime in a significant way.  Contrary to highly politicized
reports, regular street cops do not support the bans; they know that
such laws only disarm potential victims and do not affect criminals who 
overwhelmingly get their guns illegally.

The proposed bans conflict directly with the Second Amendment which
recognizes a broad, individual right to arms ownership.  For references,
I urge you to see Federalist Papers No. 29 and 46, current federal
statute in 10 USC 311, and recent scholarship such as Joyce Lee Malcom's
To Keep and Bear Arms (Harvard University Press), Prof. William Van
Alstyne's recent Duke Law Journal article, and Prof. Sanford Levinson's
The Embarrassing Second Amendment (Yale Law Journal, Volume 99).
Please see That Every Man Be Armed (LibertyTree Press, telephone
800-927-8733) by constitutional scholar, philosopher and admitted
Supreme Court Attorney Stephen Halbrook, which includes a review of the
1939 Supreme Court decision United States v Miller (307 S. Ct. 39-174)
supporting broad individual ownership of militia arms.  Other more
recent court cases also affirm private gun ownership and the Second
Amendment: US v Lopez (5th Circuit Court of Appeals, September 15,
1993), US v Thompson/Center Arms Co. (S. Ct. 91-164), US v Rock
Island Armory (S. Ct. 92), Verdugo-Urquidez (110 S. Ct. 90-3039).

As shown in polls by the National Association of Chiefs of Police,
Southern States Police Benevolent Association and others [1], the
overwhelming majority of police officers do not support gun bans.
Politically motivated chiefs and police labor union officials may tell a
different story, but scientific polling of regular street cops, away
from political pressure, shows that they know what Federal Justice
Department research has proven: 94% of felons get their guns illegally
and banning guns will not affect violent criminals.  In California, the
Rand Corporation found that a small percentage of these repeat violent
felons are responsible for the majority of violent crime.  The only type
of crime control that is proven to work is to keep the hard core
criminals behind bars and away from society.

The same police surveys echo what America's 70 million honest gun owners
already know: bans only serve to disarm the law-abiding.  Instead of
affecting criminals, the outrageous Feinstein-Schumer bans could make
criminals out of the 10 million or so who own the listed and generically
banned guns and tens of millions more who own firearms that take
magazines of 10 rounds or more.  A large portion of the 35 million
handgun owners in the U.S. who own modern semiautomatic pistols for
personal defense would also be affected adversely.  These firearm owners
are your neighbors, church and Rotary club members, the person next to
you in the voting booth.  They are the people you've been hearing from
in recent weeks urging you to OPPOSE the bans.

Sincerely,

Jeff Chan

1.  To confirm these findings please contact the Law Enforcement
Alliance of America at (703) 847-2677 and Dennis Martin, President of
the National Association of Chiefs of Police.