Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 21:15:53 -0700 From: Jeff Chan To: firearms-alert Subject: INFO: Tax dollars used for anti-contitutional lobbying [As an aside Ed's group appears to have a new name. -- Jeff C.] __ Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 09:53:34 -0700 (PDT) From: "Edgar A. Suter" To: Jeff Chan Cc: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com Subject: smoke and mirrors (and money) - the anti-self-defense lobby Keep in mind that the primary reason that the anti-self-defense lobby seems to "have more money than us" is that _your_ tax dollars are routinely being used to subvert your civil rights. For example: At the fedeal level, your tax dollars fund anti-self-defense researchers such as Arthur Kellermann MD, Colin Loftin PhD, and others through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Additionally, Directors at the CDC, such as Mark Rosenberg MD and James Mercy MD, frequently attend strategy planning meetings of various anti-self-defense lobbying groups (e.g. Dr. Christoffel and Kellermann's Handgun Epidemic Lowering Program, the American Bar Association, etc.). Interestingly, when our organization invited Dr. Mercy to send a representative to our scientific panel on the "public health" research on gun violence, Dr. Mercy declined. At the state level, the California Department of Health has been funding anti-self-defense lobby propaganda as an "educational" campaign. At the local level, your tax dollars have funded, for example, a Board Member of Josh Sugarman's Violence Policy Center (a group so radical that it split with HCI because HCI was too moderate), Andres Soto, to promote the gun prohibition strategy described by Sugarman in his monograph, "Cease Fire." That some of these proposals are illegal, violate California's state preemption laws, seems to matter neither to Mr. Soto or the Contra Costa County Supervisors. We wonder how the Supervisors would feel if an NRA Board Member was directing Contra Costa County's gun policies. It can also be disheartening that the victim-disarmament lobby has deep pocket groups, such as the Joyce Foundation, California Wellness Foundation, etc., that spend millions of dollars to subvert your civil rights. Keep in mind what this means. It means that they don't have the grass roots support of the American people. The actual _dues-paying_ membership of Handgun Control Inc., as best we can determine from the financial data, numbers about 100,000 --- nothing like the million members that HCI claims. To further disguise their minuscule grass roots support, the anti-self-defense lobby clones numerous "gun control advocacy" groups, so, when it comes time for a press release or testimony, it seems that there's lots of support for gun control. If, however, you keep track of the players, the same players materialize in many different costumes. For example, Ms. Michelle Scully JD will appear as a supporter of HCI, the Legal Community Against Violence, Stop the Gun Violence, etc. To the careful observer, it appears that many of the "groups" consist of only one or a few people. No wonder at election time all that support for gun prohibiiton claimed by the pollsters vanishes. So take heart. You have the NRA. Over 3.5 million members who support their civil rights a dollar at a time and a vote at a time. ************************************************************************* * Edgar A. Suter, MD suter@crl.com * * National Chair Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc.* ************************************************************************* Oh, by the way, DIPR is pleased to accept donations, too. Edgar A. Suter MD DIPR 5201 Norris Canyon Rd. #140 San Ramon CA 94583-5405