Date: Tue, 29 Aug 1995 13:47:03 -0400 From: "Christopher W. Knox" To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: FCO 8-23-95 -----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 ======================================================================== August 23, 1995 Vol. 2, No. 7 ======================================================================== In this issue: Hard Corps Report -- Waco summary Telephone Log (900) 225-3006 .89 per minute, first 15 seconds free Does BATF need 22 attack aircraft -- an unanswered question Terrorism bill stalls -- a victory in what didn't happen Clinton repeats veto threat -- says he'll close the government Connecticut upholds semi-auto ban -- Constitution State, eh? Carjacker's mistake -- another dumb crook award nominee Shotgun News Columns ======================================================================== A note from Chris I know that I'm not the only one who was disappointed by the Waco hearings. The disjointed five minute question periods alloted to each Representative were tailor made for stonewalling and evasion, while the witness could claim simply to be giving the member's question the thoughtful answer it deserved. Here's hoping there are some corrections in the Weaver hearings in the House and on the Senate side. --- As you will see elsewhere in this issue, there is a change on the way for users of the telephone legislative update line. With 2,500 lines virtually guaranteeing no busy signals, you'll always be able to get through. There was some evidence that the 871-3006 line was occasionally abused with a war dialer. The charge of $0.89 per minute doesn't kick in until fifteen seconds into the call, so you'll be able to see whether there is anything new without getting soaked for the time. This system should pay for itself, but only just. --- Chris Knox wrote and is responsible for everything above this line. ======================================================================== Hard Corps Report August 23, 1995 Hotline Goes 900 The Firearms Coalition legislative hotline, which has been free since the service began in 1988, is switching to a toll charge with a new number: 1-900-225-3006. (Remember .225 Winchester and .30'06.) The main advantage is a 2,500-line system that will eliminate busy signals when Congressional action is occurring and information is most needed, plus a slight profit after long distance and service charges are paid. The disadvantage is the cost of 89 cents per minute, but a strong majority of users favored the new line. That charge will put an end to the practice of deliberately blocking the lines, which has often happened in the past. The free system will continue for a few more weeks. We're trying to develop a system for regular contributors who can't call from work. Waco Damage Control NRA-ILA's attempts to gather information for the Waco hearings triggered major screams from Rep. Charles Schumer and the press, causing co-chairman Bill Zeliff to prevent most of NRA's research from being presented. But little was said about Handgun Control Inc. having paid for the White House Waco damage control czar, John Podesta. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) wrote HCI Chair Sarah Brady that his subcommittee intended to investigate that unusual arrangement, and warning her not to destroy any records concerning their relationship. Rep. Bill Brewster (D-Okla.) reported that Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin called, requesting that he not ask any questions that might be damaging to the Treasury Department. Rubin also spoke at a Fraternal Order of Police meeting, claiming that the hearings were intended to trash police, a major theme of the White House damage control effort. The Justice Department refused to allow Failure Analysis Associates, which determined the cause of the Challenger space shuttle disaster for NASA, to X-ray the guns recovered at Waco to determine whether they had been converted to full auto. Though accompanied by committee staffers, they had been contracted by NRA. FaAA also did a major study of the gas attack, where the bodies were recovered, and the cause of death, all summarized in a computer simulation video. Because NRA-ILA paid for the research, they were not allowed to testify, but the video has been given to many Congressmen and their data will probably be included in the hearing record. A volunteer member of the ILA Waco hearing team, criminologist Fran Haga, Ph. D., was loudly accused of causing Texas child welfare worker Joyce Sparks to think she worked for the House committee. However, Dr. Haga gave Ms. Sparks a copy of her reports to NRA team leaders. In another sparring match, about the time that co-chair Bill Zeliff accused President Clinton of making the decision for the final attack at Waco, the press was alerted that Zeliff had been fined $30,000 for campaign violations. Reno Dodges Bullet At House Hearing Attorney General Janet Reno received a congratulatory telephone call from Bill Clinton after her haughty performance at last week's windup of the joint subcommittee Waco hearings. Though BATF was again pummeled, she and Justice Department managed to dodge the bullet. But many questions were raised that may come up again in Sen. Arlen Specter's terrorism subcommittee hearings into the Randy Weaver case Sept. 6, and he isn't nearly as easy to hoodwink as the House chairmen. Sen. Specter has invited Sen. Larry Craig (R-Id.) to sit with his subcommittee and question witnesses. Sen. Craig is an NRA Board member with particular interest in what happened in his home state. A wiser House joint committee intends to hold hearings on the Ruby Ridge standoff in October. Rep. Charles Schumer also received a well-deserved call from the President, for he saved the Clinton Administration immense grief. As Wall Street Journal Paul Gigot put it: "Schumer, the Brooklyn motormouth, dominated the House Waco hearings against less experienced GOP chairmen. His debates with New Hampshire Rep. Bill Zeliff should have been stopped on grounds of cruel and unusual punishment." The biggest thunderclap of the hearings occurred just before they started, when newly promoted Deputy FBI Director Larry Potts, manager of both the Waco and Randy Weaver standoffs, was suddenly demoted. Co-chairman Bill McCollum was harsh on BATF and Treasury Department, but his criticisms of Justice Department and FBI were noticeably muted -- from his opening statement that the purpose of the hearing was to restore law enforcement credibility, when most thought the purpose was to identify and correct gross law enforcment abuses. The news media, particularly NBC, ignored all but the most salacious, irrelevant parts of the hearings -- Kiri Jewell's lurid tale of having been sexually abused by David Koresh when she was 10, which is not a Federal offense. The press parroted the White House damage control line that "nothing new" came out of the hearings. Not so. A New York Times editorial summarizing the hearings declared: "The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms executed an arrest-and-search plan in a grossly stupid manner that cost the lives of four agents. Then the FBI took over and, after a 51-day siege, staged an imprudent and needless raid with tanks and tear gas." Rep. McCollum surprised even Schumer by declaring that he was satisfied that the Davidians fired on the BATF first. Little attention was paid to testimony from Davidian attorneys Jack Zimmerman and Dick DeGuerin that the shooting probably started by mistake when Davidians heard the BATF shooting their pet dogs in their pens, and thought they were being fired upon. The attorneys testified that the missing metal front doors would show that all or most of the shots came from outside -- not from within as attacking BATF agents claimed. Only one of the two doors (the one with few bullet holes) was shown in the Texas trial at which surviving Davidians were acquitted of the murder charges. While there was testimony about the unusual amount of military involvement in the BATF raid -- bordering on violation of the posse comitatus law, according to experts -- and BATF's almost-admitted lying about a drug lab to obtain "free" military assistance, little was said about the still-unexplained involvement at Waco of the crack British SAS commando force. By the time the BATF phase ended, there was near-total agreement on the committee (1) that BATF should have taken Koresh's offer to Agent Davy Aguilera to come inspect the guns (which is not the action of someone with something to hide, raising doubts as to how many, if any, of the guns had been converted before the raid began), (2) that BATF could have and should have arrested Koresh off-premises, (3) that the raid sure shouldn't have continued after BATF knew Koresh knew they were coming, and (4) that BATF raid commanders Phillip Chojnacki and Chuck Sarabyn, who lied to their superiors and faked raid plans, shouldn't have been rehired (which wasn't ordered by a Civil Service hearing board, as implied, but by negotiation with superiors). One of the biggest questions still hanging is why Justice Department prosecutors wrote memos directing BATF to stop the shooting review so witnesses' memories would dim, and so there would be no written evidence which might tend to criticize BATF or exonerate the Davidians (which the prosecutors would have to turn over to the defense). The saddest testimony was that the Davidians' attorneys thought they and Koresh had a firm, detailed agreement with FBI to peaceably surrender as soon as he wrote on the meaning of the Seven Seals, from the Book of Revelations. FBI ground commander Jeff Jamar told the attorneys Koresh had all the time he needed, but said he was convinced that Koresh was merely stalling, and that he would never come out. Proof that Jamar was wrong was that Koresh had completed his writing on the First Seal the night before the final raid. Only by accident did that writing escape the blaze, when FBI Agent James McGee heroically ran into the burning building to forcibly rescue Davidian Ruth Riddle, who happened to have the computer disk in her pocket. There clearly had been ongoing friction between FBI negotiators and the attack-minded FBI Hostage Rescue Team, for the two units often worked at cross purposes. While the negotiators pretended to listen to what they privately called "Bible-babble," they declined to use Biblical scholars. Nor would they allow the Texas Rangers (who the Davidians trusted) to assist in the negotiations, or to allow a BATF negotiator back on the phone even though Koresh agreed in exchange to send out a little girl who later died. None of the Davidians came out after the FBI HRT began aggressive psychological warfare tactics such as cutting off the electricity (after negotiators had promised not to), shining bright lights on the compound, blasting it with the sounds of slaughtered rabbits and Nancy Sinatra singing "these boots are gonna walk all over you." Jamar insisted that the final plan to force the Davidians out of the building originated from within his command, and that Attorney General Reno resisted it for some three weeks. The plan called for gradually inserting CS gas from a converted tank over two days, then begin destroying the building. But the fine print -- which the Justice Report claimed Reno didn't read -- said that if the tanks drew fire, they would immediately begin dumping in all their gas, shooting in almost 400 ferret CS rounds from shoulder-fired M-79 grenade launchers out of Bradleys, and systematically destroying the building. Jamar had said he was 99 percent sure the tanks would draw fire, as the FBI said they did. Communications were lost when a tank tread broke the phone line, resulting in a Davidian throwing out the phone -- not as a refusal to talk, but as the FBI learned that morning, a signal that it was inoperative. Although it probably will never be known how the final fire started -- Rep. McCollum said he was convinced it was the Davidians - -- that is immaterial. The Davidians had been taught that Babylon - -- the U.S. Government -- would make a final all-out attack which would end in a fiery holocaust. If an FBI tank didn't accidentally start the fire, that attack certainly lit the fuse. The scientific literature, and the military's own manuals, warn against using CS gas in confined areas, or -- because of the disorientation and nausea it produces -- using it to attempt to move a crowd. FBI knew that. The same FBI HRT had considered, and declined to use CS, during the Randy Weaver standoff eight months before because of the danger to Weaver's infant child -- according to the FBI crisis log. During the hearings the FBI produced Harry Salem, the Defense Department expert who had advised Ms. Reno that CS wouldn't cause "any permanent harm to the children." In fact, the U.S. Defense Department in Viet Nam (and the British military in Northern Ireland) was accused of severely injuring and killing children with CS. The U.S. argued that CS was more humane than napalm, which was not an option at Waco. Salem dismissed a medical journal article warning of the effects of CS by pointing out that the subject, an infant exposed to CS for two to three hours survived -- but only barely, after 29 days hospitalization, much of it in intensive care. Branch Davidian Clive Doyle told of the pain he and other adults experienced from the CS, adding: "What the children were going through, God only knows." Despite 10 days of hearings and 94 witnesses, many questions remain -- particularly the missing videotape and limited still photos of the start of the BATF raid, and the failure of recording devices, government cameras and FLIR recorders during the last five minutes before the fatal fire. The two subcommittees are expected to prepare a written report after the House returns in September. Why Does BATF Need 22 Attack Aircraft? BATF owns 22 former Marine Corps twin-engine OV-10D ground attack aircraft, nine of them operational. So far it has declined to tell why. Although the armament has been removed, and one pilot familiar with the planes says the controls have been -- another pilot who has inspected the planes contends the armament controls are still in place. BATF has claimed that the same type plane, which include upgraded Forward Looking Infrared video, were sold to the Forest Service as fire spotters, but those planes are less-powerful OV- 10A's. If BATF's ownership is as innocuous as they claim, why are they registered with the FAA under a front organization, American Warbirds, Inc. at the address of an unmarked BATF radio shop in Gaithersburg, Md.? Terrorism Bill Stalls The anti-terrorism bill -- which Bill Clinton once insisted be on his desk by Memorial day -- is stalled until after Labor Day, if not forever, by a combination of Conservative and Liberal opponents unhappy with the increased police powers, broad new wire-tapping authorities, and definition of almost any non-financial gun crime as "terrorism." The Waco hearings helped. Clinton's original anti-terrorism bill, by Sen. Joe Biden and Rep. Charles Schumer, was going nowhere until the Oklahoma City bombing put it on a fast track. Senators Bob Dole and Orrin Hatch watered it down as S. 735. The Senate passed that version after reinstating some Clinton provisions, and amending black and smokeless propellants from an explosives-tagging requirement. The House Judiciary Committee passed a similar version in June, but eliminated all of Rep. Charles Schumer's tagging proposals. The House would pass it after the Fourth of July recess, Chairman Hyde had said. "We believe the bill goes too far in granting new powers to the federal government at the expense of the civil liberties," said Rep. Thomas W. Ewing (R-Ill.), chairman of the Conservative Opportunity Society, in a recent letter to Hyde signed by 43 Republicans. A similar letter was sent by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), acting chairman of the Conservative Action Team, who said most of the group's 70 members agreed. One of the main opponents of the bill is Rep. Bob Barr (R- Ga.), chairman of the Firearms Task Force and a standout during the Waco hearings. He opposes "creating new categories of federal crime." Schumer scoffed: "Conservatives are new to civil liberties. We'll see how long they stick with it." Clinton Repeats Veto Threat President Bill Clinton, during a satellite speech to the Fraternal Order of Police August 1, again promised to veto any effort to reverse gun control laws. He threatened to veto five bills that day, including an Environmental Protection Act appropriations bill that radically reduces EPA's ability to shut down ranges due to so-called "lead pollution." Such a veto could put the EPA totally out of business, which the entire government might be if Clinton uses the veto on all 13 appropriations measures to which he has objected because they reduce Federal programs. The repeal of last year's semi-auto and high-capacity magazine ban, included in H.R. 1488, is likely to move this fall, in the middle of that financial furor. Opponents are asking Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) to stall the bill, which has caused talk of pushing an already-filed discharge petition on H.R. 125, a pure repeal bill. Many gun rights activists are concerned that Section 3 of H.R. 1488 could broaden Federal powers by making state firearms offenses prosecutable by the FBI. While this is arguable, making enhanced punishment for gun use apply only to Federal crimes would resolve the issue. Clinton Campaign Begins President Clinton began his re-election campaign with three anti-gun, anti-NRA speeches and a $2.4 million, 11-state re- election advertising campaign on those themes. Though paid for by his re-election committee, he claims they aren't campaign ads -- an unprecedented 17 months prior to the election. Connecticut Upholds Ban The Connecticut Supreme Court has upheld the state's semi-auto ban despite the state constitution's declaration that every citizen has the right to bear arms ``in defense of himself and the state.'' The court held that the law was constitutional because only some guns were banned -- which is like saying that newspapers could be prohibited because magazines were still available. Carjacker's Mistake A Coral Springs, Fla., car-jacker who put the car's owner in the trunk, made the mistake of opening it to be sure he didn't have a cellular phone. The owner had two handguns in the trunk. He used one of them to kill the car-jacker. Shotgun News Columns Waco Hearings Open By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 20) -- The most dramatic testimony during yesterday's 12-hour opening day of Waco hearings was 14- year-old Kiri Jewell, who told how David Koresh had taken her virginity at age 10. And Rep. Steve Schiff (R-N.M.) patiently, repeatedly, stated that such sexual abuse, other alleged child abuse, and David Koresh's personal behavior had nothing to do with BATF, FBI or the joint committee's oversight, for such areas do not come within Federal jurisdiction. The press ignored his admonitions -- Kiri's testimony was too juicy to ignore. The press is continuing to give prominent play to Rep. Charles Schumer's (D-N.Y.) tirades against NRA for hiring highly qualified researchers and research organizations to review Waco issues, and providing the results of those probes to the committee. He and others are demanding an investigation of NRA, and trying to distract from the investigation of BATF and FBI. But despite Schumer's red herrings and the extraneous child abuse issues, the size of the BATF screwup seems to be getting through to both the press and the public -- and the Congress. And the Administration is getting nervous: last week FBI Deputy Director Larry Potts, who managed both Waco and Ruby Ridge from Washington, was demoted. That was the first scalp. Co-Chairman Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), on PBS, summed up BATF's behavior as "Keystone Kops." Though yesterday's hearings were focussed on the initial investigation and search warrant, Co-Chairman Bill Zeliff (R- N.H.) outlined the full scope of the eight days of hearings, from questions as to why Koresh wasn't arrested while in town, to Army involvement in the bloody commando raid, to the conflict between the FBI's negotiators and psychological warfare efforts, to the final assault on 85 men, women and children with tanks and potentially lethal CS gas. Dick Reavis, author of "The Ashes of Waco," who was leadoff witness, said that BATF and FBI had misled Congress, such as by claiming Koresh rarely left Mt. Carmel. Reavis said that in fact Koresh frequently went jogging, went to a custom car shop a few miles away, and even visited with the landlord of the BATF's undercover house, next door to where they were maintaining their surveillance. Reavis' statements about Koresh were backed up by David Thibodeaux, a Davidian who was in the center at the beginning of the fire. He added that they were immediately suspicious of the BATF "college students" who moved in across the road, all of whom he said were in their 40's, drove $40,000 cars and wore Serengetti sunglasses and Rolex watches. Thibodeaux claimed that he never saw any of the illegal acts charged against Koresh, said that they had not discussed suicide, and that he saw no fuel spread through the building to destroy themselves. BATF's firearms expert declared that almost 50 of the guns obtained from the Mt. Carmel Center were illegally converted full-autos. Most uncharacteristically, BATF hasn't publicly displayed their trophies -- except for a gun shown yesterday that we hadn't heard about before: a pristine converted AK-47S with folding stock "found" in a car parked in front of the building. What particularly astonished committee members was BATF undercover agent Davy Aguilera's admission that when he began asking gun dealer Henry McMahon about the guns sold to the Davidians, McMahon phoned Koresh, who promptly invited Aguilera out to Mt. Carmel to inspect the guns. Aguilera discussed it with his boss, but they never took Koresh up on his offer. Although a few new items came up in yesterday's hearings -- most of the information had been seen before. But as the hearings continue through eight or more days, stretching over at least two weeks, we're going to get into much new ground -- particularly concerning the CS gas. This week ABC News cited manufacturers' warning against using CS in enclosed areas, and cited evidence that Justice Department knew it: an entry in the FBI's Ruby Ridge log that the use of CS gas was rejected because of the danger to Randy Weaver's 10-month-old baby. That was a half-year before Waco. --- Waco Winds Down By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 3) -- The House Waco hearings wound down Tuesday with Attorney General Janet Reno adamant that she had neither been misinformed nor directed or pressured by Bill Clinton to launch the final attack when she did. Maybe Clinton didn't give her orders, but internal White House memos indicate that nothing was to happen without his okay -- so if Clinton merely said he'd back her decision, the tank/CS attack must have been what he wanted. More serious is her insistence that she had been kept properly informed, both that the negotiations were going nowhere -- even when Koresh and his attorneys though they had a deal -- and the assurances by the Defense Department's so-called gas expert that CS would have no lasting effect on those two dozen young children. The literature on CS is clear that it should never have been used as it was at Waco -- particularly where there were two dozen small children. The Defense Department wants to be able to use it as they did in Viet Nam, to rout guerillas out of buildings and tunnels. They ignored Vietnamese reports of serious illness and death from CS gas, and even the fact that an Australian corporal died from asphyxiation after entering a tunnel filled with CS. Many of the victims at Waco, particularly children, were listed on autopsy reports as having died of asphyxiation -- which I'm told is how a CS death would look to a pathologist. CS is undoubtedly less deadly than other Defense Department weapons, like napalm, but that didn't make it suitable for use at Waco. One of the most telling pieces of evidence against the FBI was the fact that the same Hostage Rescue Team which was at Waco had also been at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, eight months before --and, according to the "crisis log," had declined to used CS there because of the danger to Randy Weaver's 10-month-old baby. The Waco hearings were a disappointment mainly because we knew how much more could have and should have come out. Those failures were mainly due to the ineptness of the Republican chairmen, particularly Bill Zeliff (R-N.H.). They're the ones who allowed Kiri Jewell to testify on opening day, which made David Koresh the issue, instead of the government agencies whose performance was being investigated. As horrible as her testimony was, child abuse is not a Federal offense -- and certainly not under the jurisdiction of the BATF. Rep. Zeliff let Charles Schumer bully him into not allowing testimony from the highly respected Failure Analysis Associates, which had done massive research into Waco under contract to NRA. The Justice Department wouldn't allow FaAA to X-ray the guns recovered at Waco, which is the only way to determine whether they have been converted. FaAA found the cause of the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the NBC fakery of the "exploding" Chevrolet pickups; that firm wouldn't have destroyed its reputation simply to satisfy whoever hired them. Schumer knew that, and was afraid of the truth. The senior Republicans are so accustomed to getting only crumbs and scraps from the Democrats that they don't know how to carve a turkey. If they had handled the hearings like Jack Brooks or John Dingell would have, they would have had a feast. Nevertheless, the hearings were not a waste. Huge numbers who previously knew nothing about Waco are now aware of just how badly the BATF and FBI screwed up -- despite the unquestioned bravery of individual agents. The evidence is in the admission in this morning's Washington Post editorial that BATF's funding "could stand a closer look" and a New York Times editorial lamenting "the lack of prudence and reasonable foresight on the part of Attorney General Reno and other Clinton administration officials." While Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) appears to be waffling about Senate Waco hearings, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) still plans to have hearings on both Waco and Ruby Ridge Sept. 6. --- Because our legislative hotline computers are failing, and two lines aren't adequate when news needs to get out, we're launching a 2,500-line 900 service. The bad news is: the cost will be 89 cents per minute, including long distance charges. That's cheap by 900 standards, but high compared to the nothing we've charged for seven years. The number is two favorite calibers: 1-900-225-3006. --- Ruby Ridge Unraveling By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 15) -- The FBI today agreed to pay $3.1 million to the Randy Weaver family -- $1 million to each of his children and $100,000 to him -- to settle the lawsuit brought against the agency for its outrageous behavior at Ruby Ridge. It's not an admission that members of the sacrosanct Justice Department had acted like "jackbooted thugs" -- but it's close. Last week four more FBI supervisors were suspended because of a reopened investigation into the Weaver shooting, in which 14-year-old Sammy Weaver was shot in the back and a Federal Marshal killed, then Mrs. Weaver was killed and Weaver and a family friend were wounded by FBI snipers. Those suspended include FBI Deputy Director -- until last month -- Larry Potts, who managed both the Ruby Ridge and Waco outrages. Also suspended was Danny Coulson, in charge of the bureau's Dallas office, who directed the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team at Waco. Coulson was one of 11 agents who received wrist slaps for "inadequate performance, improper judgment, neglect of duty and failure to exert proper managerial oversight" at Ruby Ridge. Two Baltimore agents accused of participating in the alleged cover-up of who had approved the unconstitutional "shoot on sight" orders were also suspended. Two weeks before the House Waco hearings, Agent Michael Kahoe was suspended, after reportedly admitting to have destroyed documents that apparently showed that Potts approved telling FBI's snipers that they "could and should" use deadly force against any armed adults. The FBI escaped the House hearings relatively unscathed -- with only lower level BATF supervisors taking the heat -- but it's unlikely that the Justice Department will get past Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and his subcommittee so easily Sept. 6. However, the FBI's reopened investigation will allow key witnesses to clam up on the grounds that a potentially criminal investigation is under way. The FBI's report into Ruby Ridge had been submitted to a shooting review group headed by Kahoe, then section chief of the Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Section in Potts' division. Kahoe oversaw the board's work despite having played a role in overseeing the standoff from FBI headquarters. Kahoe and his group decided in November 1992 that "no administrative action should be taken against any FBI employee as a result of this incident." When Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris went on trial for murder in 1993, FBI strenuously resisted producing their shooting report and other records the trial judge had ordered. After Harris was acquitted and Weaver found guilty only of failing to appear for trial, Boise, Idaho, Federal Judge Edward J. Lodge angrily fined the FBI $1,920 and said "its behavior served to obstruct the administration of justice." "The actions of the government, acting through the FBI, evidence a callous disregard for the rights of the defendants and the interests of justice and demonstrate a complete lack of respect for the order and directions of this court," he added. But last January FBI Director Louis Freeh declared there had been "no conspiracy to either obstruct justice or deny the defendants their information." In April he "disciplined" Potts with a letter of censure -- the same treatment he gave himself for losing a cellular phone -- and the following month promoted him to the bureau's No. 2 job. That was an arrogant slap at those of us who were furious over Waco and Ruby Ridge. Freeh demoted Potts just before the Waco hearings, trying to put some air between themselves. Now, on the eve of the Ruby Ridge hearings, he has suspended his former deputy -- but that may not be enough air, though Freeh is a masterful politician who plays Congress like a fiddle. A senior Justice Department official anonymously told reporters that the investigation is "jolting and devastating in its potential in terms of the numbers [of FBI officials] who might be involved." Freeh's friends at the Washington Post are stunned. This morning (before the $3.1 settlement was announced) The Post ran an editorial entitled "A Ruby Ridge Coverup?" It concluded: "As of now, the picture looks terrible." Those who thought nothing would come from the Waco and Ruby Ridge hearings were mistaken. --- Gun Law Fight Soon By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 20) -- The gun law battle is about to heat up on Capitol Hill, with H.R. 1488 -- containing the repeal of last year's ban on military-look semi-autos and high-capacity magazines -- again moving toward a vote in the House. Congress has a lot on its plate, particularly the building fight over what programs get cut, how many trillions of dollars the government is allowed to borrow to keep the government running, and whether there will be a "train wreck" that will shut down the government shortly after the beginning of the October 1 fiscal year. That's the big fight, so the repeal bill is going to have to be squeezed in somewhere in the middle of the financial muddle. Typically, a lot of politicians -- from both parties -- don't want to vote on anything as controversial as a repeal of the "assault weapon" ban. But Bill Clinton, clutching polls that show the public wants to keep that ban on the books, is slathering over the prospect of beating up the Republicans who call for it (ignoring the many Democrats who also support it), then vetoing it should the bill survive a probable Senate filibuster. No one seems to notice that the poll numbers Clinton is being fed, and that so many Republicans are nervous about, are precisely the same numbers that encouraged a swarm of Democrats to vote for the gun ban as part of last year's crime bill. Those are the Dems whose absence from the Congress Clinton lamented during last January's State of the Union message. The House would have voted on H.R. 1488 on May 16 if it hadn't been for the Oklahoma City bombing, which had nothing to do with guns or NRA, but Bill Clinton and his spin doctors made the people think it did -- with the overwhelming help of most of the news media. After talking about delaying the vote for a month or two while the dust from Oklahoma City settled, the leadership said the bill would move in the fall, probably September. But a lot of Republicans who committed to support the repeal last fall don't want to. And a lot of our friends are telling us that it is foolish to force them to vote on something that isn't going anywhere. I've heard it all before. It's even more foolish for those Republicans who wanted to ride to the election dance in our beat up pickups to expect us to quietly park them out of sight behind the barn until next year's election. Fact is: the Republicans have a commitment to America's gun owners. If they refuse to dance with "them what brung 'em," they'll be thumbing a ride next election for we and our pickups won't be around. Those Congressmen's new friends, and all that after-election PAC money they're wallowing in, will be off chasing another skirt if they think someone else is more electable in '96. That's the fickle nature of politics. George Bush followed Lee Atwater's advice -- "Where else are gunowners going to go?" -- and began shafting us within days of taking office. He was furious when we went hunting on election day, or cast protest votes for Ross Perot, or even voted for Clinton in hopes that he would improve our economic lot. (The fact that we weren't there in 1992, as we had been in 1988, had a lot to do with Bush's defeat -- and the reason for his payback resignation from NRA last spring. But a lot of Republicans are slow learners.) Some gunowners are leery of H.R. 1488 because, as written, it puts whopping mandatory sentences of five years for possessing a firearm during any violent crime or drug offense, to 20 years for firing a gun with intent to injure. The concern is that the provision, Section 3, would allow the Federal government to begin prosecuting state firearms offenses. Whether or not that adds new powers, there are indications that the bill's sponsors are willing to limit the enhanced penalties to apply to Federal offenses only. Section 8 stipulates that anyone who may possess a gun shall have the right to use any type of firearm for protection in his home. It allows civil actions against individuals and governments which prohibit ownership for protection. Getting this bill through the House -- even if it then stalls -- would have positive effects for many years, and many elections, to come. --- Telephone Log Aug. 22 update BATF Director John Magaw made further changes at the top levels of BATF yesterday, including moving spokesman Jack Killorin to head of the Washington D.C. office. By the time Magaw gets through, we're told, all the Special Agents in charge will have been moved in an effort to break up cronyism, parochialism and clear up lines of authority -- all problems that have plagued BATF for years. These changes are the continuing fallout from Waco and Ruby Ridge, both started by BATF, further screwed up by FBI. --- The California Senate yesterday passed a resolution applauding former President Bush for resigning from NRA. Criticizing NRA is about the only way Democrats will applaud a Republican, and past Presidents get little applause -- especially one-termer Bush. August 19 First 900 Update This is an Aug. 19 advisory that the Firearms Coalition's new legislative hotline is operational. The number is 900-225- 3006. As announced earlier, the cost will be 89 cents per minute. That's the bad news. The good news is that we have 2,500 lines available, so there will be no busy signals when legislation begins to move in the House -- probably sometime next month. We are still working on a system that will allow monthly billing or an 800 system for regular contributors. But the details still aren't ironed out. If you would like more information, drop us a line at P.O. Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD. This service has been free since it began in 1988. I didn't want to have to begin charging but it couldn't be helped. The first update on 900-225-3006 concerns the $3.1 million settlement that the Justice Department has given Randy Weaver, the destruction of Kimber and Winchester 52D .22 target rifles and $300 million of M1's, M14's and 1911A1 .45 at Anniston, Alabama, and Fraternal Order of Police objections to the FBI's treatment of eight Maryland police officers charged with beating a suspect in a police killing. August 17 update Someone in the Clinton Administration should be charged with criminal destruction of government property. With the Civilian Marksmanship budget about to be zeroed out, NRA has proposed making it self-supporting by allowing the Director of Civilian Marksmanship to sell surplus guns, then train Junior competitors with the proceeds. The Defense Department has responded by an orgy of destruction at Anniston Arsenal in Alabama where, according to confidential sources they are cutting up recent manufacture commercial Kimber and Winchester 52-D target rifles turned in by DCM clubs. Those guns are worth several hundred dollars each. Confidential sources tell me Anniston is also in the process of torching 110,000 M1 Garand rifles, 390,000 M14's and 200,000 1911A1 .45 pistols with a current market value of around $300 million. Any World War II veteran would love to have a Garand or .45. The M14's could be permanently converted to semi-auto by grinding off an internal receiver lug at a cost of less than $20. BATF says once a machine gun, always a machine gun. But that's merely their rule, not law. --- That the Justice Department agreed to give the Randy Weaver family this week wasn't an admission that FBI and the U.S. Marshal service had behaved like "jackbooted thugs" at Ruby Ridge. But it came close. Rather than admit what had happened, the upper levels of FBI appear to have engaged in a classic Washington coverup, faking information and destroying documents. Because of the criminal investigation, Sen. Specter has agreed not to raise questions on the coverup, which Weaver's famed attorney Gerry Spence applauds because it will prevent the hearings from focussing on "shredding of papers instead of the shredding of human beings." Sen. Specter's staff is preparing for six to eight days of hearings. They might coincide with House action on H.R. 1488, the bill to repeal last year's ban on military-look semi-autos and over- 10-shot magazines. Speaker Newt Gingrich has promised the bill will be brought up in September or October. Try to meet with your Congressman while he's home on vacation. Ask him to support H.R. 1488, but change Section 3 so the enhanced punishment for gun misuse applies only to armed Federal crimes -- not state offenses. With the way BATF and the FBI has been acting, we sure don't want them able to prosecute all gun crimes. The FBI is drawing fire from the Fraternal Order of Police because 30 agents lured eight Prince Georges County Maryland police to a warehouse, where the agents stripped the policemen of their guns and uniforms, searched them, and left them standing in their underwear. The policemen are charged with beating a suspect in a police killing four months before, but they shouldn't be treated like someone suspected of violating a gun law. A veteran police officer told The Washington Times that the FBI used "the same scare tactics they used at Waco, but now they're busting cops." The local cop is right. That's the danger of abusing anyone's rights, whether it's a cop, a drug dealer or a preacher who thinks he's the Messiah. Once it starts, there's no stopping it. I stand with the Fraternal Order of Police. August 15 update It was a scorcher at the Camp Perry long range matches this weekend. I shot the 1000-yard Leech and Wimbledon matches, then the Palma at 800, 900 and 1,000 yards. The only thing cooking was me -- not my shooting. At least I didn't finish last. Yesterday I stopped by the Grand American trapshoot at Vandalia, Ohio, to see some old friends. I didn't shoot, except for a round on the practice trap. Here in Washington, things would have been quiet if four more FBI supervisors hadn't been suspended in an investigation into the Randy Weaver shootout at Ruby Ridge. Those suspended include FBI Deputy Director -- until last month -- Larry Potts, who managed both the Ruby Ridge and Waco outrages. Also suspended was Danny Coulson, in charge of the bureau's Dallas office, who also directed the hostage rescue team at Waco. Coulson was one of 11 agents who received wrist slaps for "inadequate performance, improper judgment, neglect of duty and failure to exert proper managerial oversight" at Ruby Ridge. Sen. Arlen Specter who will hold hearings into Ruby Ridge and possibly Waco beginning Sept. 6, met with Randy Weaver Saturday. Sen. Specter is a bulldog investigator, and isn't handicapped by being blind to potential FBI abuse, as Reps. McCollum and Zeliff were during the House Waco hearings. Even the Washington Post -- which has staunchly supported both FBI and BATF in those outrages -- has been stunned. They ran an editorial this morning entitled "A Ruby Ridge Coverup?" It concluded: "As of now, the picture looks terrible." What has Washington buzzing is the possibility that the cover-up goes all the way up to FBI Director Louis Freeh, who appointed his friend Potts to Deputy Director in May, in an in-your-face slap at those of us who were and are fuming about Waco and Ruby Ridge. Freeh demoted Potts just before the Waco hearings, trying to put some air between himself and Potts. Now, with Ruby Ridge hearings looming, he has suspended his former deputy, but that may not be enough air. Freeh is a masterful politician and he plays Congress like a fiddle. He has already met with his good friends and strong supporters Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Bill McCollum. Those who thought nothing would come from the Waco and Ruby Ridge hearings were mistaken. ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Copyright 1995 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 iQCVAwUBMEKbtSGz4I2lBJDFAQEW4QP/X5ZfheXESqL/j6udcC+6w7/KIIP5Jj1z QAHY+0QGHwE4fpru2/jj4ZeTy5KtsJZh99zP67KLpVm8e5cN26BkG2EpITAdJQvr sLe6Y5KviF6eFFSDIcykfqic638nR2tB0MjIWZkfml4brhuvimDQHv2bpjXbXoqG VXfUCAxtUGE= =URA5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To receive the Online Firearms Coalition Bulletin send mail to listproc@mainstream.com containing in the message body: subscribe fco