At the start of the 104th session, the U.S. House of Representatives held historic hearings on firearms rights, including defensive uses and Second Amendment issues. Letters from Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bill McCollum and Congrssman Bob Barr introduce the series.
The first hearing on March 31st had testimony by several individuals who used guns (including models banned by Clinton) to protect their lives. It also included testimony by leading scholars James Wright and David Boruda about gun ownership, legal use and criminal abuse. Tanya Metaksa's comments and the NRA-ILA fax alert summarize the first hearing. Here's a review of AP versus Reuters wire service coverage.
The NRA-ILA Grassfire newsletter for April 1995 leads off with coverage of the 3/31 and 4/5 hearings. April 5th heard testimony by a chief and various police officers against the bans, confirming that criminal abuse of so-called "assault weapons" is seldom encountered. Also heard was Second Amendment scholarship from Professors Joyce Lee Malcolm, Daniel Polsby, Robert Cottrol and Nicholas Johnson. Anti-rights Congressman Charles Schumer's official hearing statement demonstrates his paranoia and irrationality on this issue. (Schumer also maligned one of the pro-rights cops who testified, calling him not a "real hero" because he wore his nine decorations earned while serving as a Marine in Vietnam.) Though CSPAN covered the first hearing, the second was pre-empted by the House vote on the Republican tax cut. NRA may make their own tapes of the whole series available later. The third and final hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, May 2nd.