From cknox@crl.com Sun Apr 24 01:02:33 1994 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.5) with ESMTP id BAA23927 for ; Sun, 24 Apr 1994 01:02:31 -0700 Received: from crl.crl.com (crl.com [165.113.1.12]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.7/8.6.5) with SMTP id BAA03501 for ; Sun, 24 Apr 1994 01:02:28 -0700 Received: by crl.crl.com id AA01115 (5.65c/IDA-1.5 for chan@shell.portal.com); Sun, 24 Apr 1994 00:52:31 -0700 From: "Christopher W. Knox" Message-Id: <199404240752.AA01115@crl.crl.com> Subject: FCO 4-23-94 To: cknox@crl.com (Blind CC sent to the Firearms Coalition Online) Date: Sun, 24 Apr 1994 00:52:31 -0700 (MST) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 15271 Status: RO -----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 ======================================================================== April 23, 1994 Release 1.9 ======================================================================== In this issue: * Crime Bill Games -- Get on the phone. * Roberti survives -- A fine shot across the bow. ======================================================================== A note from Chris There has been considerable media fallout from the Wall Street Journal profile las October, including People (what an enquiring story that was!), and the recently discussed Fresh Air segment. Neal and Jay Knox will appear on ABC's Day One on Monday, May 2. The interview takes place in their home. It was unusual for Dad to allow newsies into his living room, but he wanted Mom to be able to say her piece and she was stuck at home taking care of her mother (who passed away this weekend). None of us has any idea what our friends at ABC have in store, though I wait with some trepidation after seeing some of their recent work. They were in the house for over two hours. Dad declined to open his gun safe for their cameras, or even to show the room, however he did show them three selected pieces. They were a Saturday Night Special and two assault weapons (according to currently proposed legislation). The Saturday Night Special is a pristine Colt Single Action in .32-20 that once belonged to the town marshall of Prescott, Arizona. The first of the assault weapons is a post-WWI broomhandle Mauser. He pointed out in the interview that the design is over 90 years old. He does not have a stock for this piece; it's a shame, because it looks awfully threatening with it. The second assault weapon is a 20 gauge Remington Model 1100 Lightweight. This one is unusual because it is, as Dad likes to say, the fanciest Model 1100 in captivity. The action was engraved about twenty years ago for Dad by Austrian master engraver Franz Marktl. Mr. Marktl was at the time in his twenties and just past the starving student stage of engraving. Even then, his work was some of the best around. I get this overpowering urge to rob a liquor store every time I see it. ======================================================================== And now a word from our sponsor I now send this bulletin to over 400 direct subscribers and who knows how many people see it as it floats about the Net. It appears to be well-received, so I suppose it can be called a success. But to be a success by my definition, it needs to both inform and motivate. If you believe in the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home, and country, then I hope you're doing more with this information than clucking your tongue, shaking your head, and deleting it. This information can only have an effect if you make it have an effect. Get in touch with your elected servants in Washington, particularly as the Feinstein gun ban crawls through Congress. That's the most important thing you can do in the fight for your rights. If you do that, then this effort is a success. I also hope to motivate you to part with a contribution, however modest it may be. Be sure to include your e-mail address or, if you receive the Bulletin indirectly mention that you read it. ======================================================================== NEAL KNOX REPORT Crime Bill Games By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 21) -- The House passed its crime bill 285-141 this afternoon, vastly increasing funding for prison construction and (in an incredible display of legislative legerdemain) increasing the number of Federal death penalty offenses while simultaneously making it less likely that either Federal or State murderers and rapists would actually be executed. The bill has no firearms restrictions, causing NBC News to label it "incomplete" and to report that a standalone ban on so- called semi-auto "assault weapons" would be voted on "within the next few weeks" with heavy personal arm-twisting from Bill Clinton. What's happening is some furious back-room wheeling and dealing by Crime Subcommittee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to slow down a floor vote on his version of the Senate-passed Feinstein amendment banning 19 (actually 184) military-look guns and over-10-round magazines until an already-underway television blitz and Clinton's horse-trading can break over enough votes to pass it. Because there are huge differences between the House and Senate bills, there will be a House-Senate crime conference which will work out a compromise bill that would then be voted on by each house. Schumer is trying to get two bites of the apple. If the House-Senate conference committee is held before there's a House vote, a majority of the conferees would probably accept the Senate gun provisions, allowing House wafflers to vote for final passage of a gun ban under the cover of supposedly tougher treatment of criminals in the rest of the crime bill. But if that ploy fails, he wants to get another shot with a standalone bill. That might be more difficult, even if it has passed the House, for it would then go to the Senate which would have to pass it again -- where it might be filibustered. On April 17 Schumer said on "Meet the Press" that his side was 15 or 20 votes shy of banning so-called "assault weapons." So he would prefer to avoid a separate House vote on the gun and magazine ban, at least until after the wafflers have felt more heat from Clinton and the news media. Of course, those Congressmen are also taking quite a pounding from growing numbers of gun owners. Congressional staffers are telling me they're hearing from people who never before have written to complain about a gun bill. Good. With all the pushing and pulling going on, timing may mean everything. House Judiciary Chairman Jack Brooks, who opposes the semi-auto ban, has told Schumer to get a standalone bill to the full committee next week. Schumer doesn't want to miss an opportunity for some publicity on the bill, so he scheduled hearings Monday, after formally agreeing with Ranking Minority Member Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) to have them Tuesday, when Sensenbrenner could attend. The panels are, as usual, overwhelmingly loaded with pro-ban witness. Incredibly, pro-gun victims like Jacquie Miller (permanently disabled by four AK-47 rounds in the Louisville printing plant massacre) and Dr. Suzanna Gratia (who lost both parents in the Killeen horror) are labeled as "special interest opponents." If everything goes as presently scheduled -- hearings and committee votes the week of April 25, and a House vote the week of May 2 -- it will all be over by the time most of you read this. But this may give you some idea of the wrangling that goes on behind the scenes. Interestingly, back in January CBS Senior Vice President Jay Kreigel told the U.S. Conference of Mayors that CBS was attempting to arrange a simulcast with other networks the same week of April 25 to push their "gun control" agenda. He said Fox Network had agreed to simulcast a CBS "Kids Killing Kids" program, and negotiations were still underway with NBC and ABC. What fortuitous timing! Simply a lucky guess as to when an extra push would be needed. Sure. ======================================================================== NEAL KNOX REPORT Roberti Survives By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 13) -- With the U.S. House likely to vote in a few days on an "assault weapon" bill, the Godfather of such legislation -- former California Senate President pro tem David Roberti -- yesterday survived a recall election forced by a coalition of grass roots firearms groups. An obviously relieved, but still profusely sweating Roberti -- figuratively and literally -- declared early this morning that the 59-41 percent vote against his recall showed politicians that they could safely challenge and beat the gun lobby. That's not what Roberti -- co-sponsor of California's 1989 Roberti-Roos ban -- had told CBS Evening News the previous week. "The (gun lobby is) just never going to give up. Another legislator seeing this would say, 'Even if Roberti wins, why should I go through what he's gone through?'" He added: "They want to send a message to any politician who dares fight them that they're going to make it so costly and so expensive that they're not going to fight the gun lobby." Mr. Roberti understands exactly. That was the intention of the California grass roots groups headed by Russ Howard and Rick Carone (of Citizens Against Corruption, which organized the 46,000-signature petition drive), Bill Dominguez, T.J. Johnston, Manny Fernandez, Paul Payne and many others. The recall, the first in 80 years, was brought under a provision of the California Constitution (unfortunately, no recall is allowed under the U.S. or most other state constitutions). Handgun Control Inc. Chair Sarah Brady declared the recall election a referendum on "assault weapons" -- though if that had been the intent, the gun groups would never have called it in a 65 percent Democrat district dominated by the gun-hating Los Angeles Times. In fact, as Law Enforcement Lobby President Leroy Pyle gleefully told the PBS McNeil-Lehrer Report, it was about, "In one word, Revenge." The non-gun groups had their own reasons for seeking revenge against Roberti: 26 years of ever-bigger government, ever-higher taxes, ever-gentler treatment of criminals and amazing ability to avoid the fate of three of his closest allies who wound up jailed for corruption. With all that in his background, it was obvious from the first that Roberti would try to -- once again -- divert attention from crime and corruption by waving around evil-appearing military-pattern guns. If he could make the NRA the issue, rather than his record, it would aid and abet his diversionary strategy; so NRA stayed in the woodwork. These columns tried to help with fundraising and lining up volunteers for "chain letter" political mailings. John Stoos of Gun Owners of California provided a great deal of support to the campaign, particularly after the recall qualified. When Sarah Brady succeeded in making the campaign a national issue -- after an L.A. Times poll predicted an 80 percent blowout for Roberti -- NRA surfaced by running their "Laughing Criminal" ad and making major expenditures for phone banks. It wasn't enough. The recall was lost when the political establishments -- from both parties -- did everything they could to strangle it in the crib. After all, recall elections are dangerous to incumbents. California provides for a two-part ballot. The first question was, approximately, "Should David Roberti be recalled." The second was: "If so, who should replace him." The key to winning would have been if there were a host of candidates, of all political stripes, each working to get Roberti out so they could be elected. The establishment leaned on heavy- weight candidates not to run, and candidates were given only four days to get the necessary signatures. So there were only five candidates instead of the expected dozen. Gov. Pete Wilson, GOP leader Ken Maddy and Attorney General Dan Lungren stifled Republican support -- specifically an absentee ballot campaign. Roberti got 68 percent of the absentee votes, which were 30 percent of the total cast. So Roberti won, after spending, he said, $750,000. But the gun groups didn't lose. House Speaker Willie Brown told the L.A. Times that no "gun control" legislation would pass this year because of the recall. The politicians got the message. None wants to be next. ======================================================================== -##- Retain Neal Knox Associates as your lobbyist and begin receiving the bi-monthly "Hard Corps Report" by contributing to the Firearms Coalition, Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD 20916. For legislative updates call (301) 871-3006 [automated voice] Email: nealknox@genie.geis.com To subscribe to the Firearms Coalition Online Report send email to cknox@crl.com with "subscribe" as the subject line. ======================================================================== Copyright 1994 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. ======================================================================== - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.3 mQCPAi1tPEUAAAEEALs5MUajMVKA9QQkiibPXDLzUOzXvgIkTY5/pU4iczGolC/T JjBcUuzFXXVSAeJkoJTJNbI/OKVGJrAeoqNdCpHkKXaWg6J3dCxZikkHHSoO2tRW GeVsJHT9+q5KozqqVGxisIoyQvF6MmfGalJY7jnfwacxi2SY3Q5t55+a10qVABEB AAG0J0NocmlzdG9waGVyIFdhcnJlbiBLbm94IDxja25veEBjcmwuY29tPg== =rsvv - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- We recommend encryption of sensitive data such as credit card numbers. ======================================================================== Dear Neal, Enclosed is my retainer for your services as my Capitol Hill lobbyist: $500 [ ] $250 [ ] $50 [ ] $25 [ ] Other:____ [ ] Bill my MasterCard [ ] Visa [ ] Quarterly [ ]; Monthly [ ]; Once [ ] Card No. ______________________ Expiration Date _____ Mr. [ ] Mrs.[ ]______________________________ Signature ______________________ Ms. [ ] Address __________________________________________ Phone _______________ City _____________________________________________ State ____ Zip_______ Email Address ______________________ Print and mail, or send via Email to nealknox@genie.geis.com Firearms Coalition Box 6537 Silver Spring, MD 20916 ======================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLbmr5A5t55+a10qVAQEIYAP+L3aqvpLTWl9yXi8FdaEd3MjBrgLqLuuo HaQFTtbYfLrim66MH0raY/FsjAugxsdgunSheegCHXG3FnQs/GqsGKklQx1y++KJ WS1nxUwY9SEm28gavZIAI4avkdME1CRNeVfzN+/8cxdmSNU3bxAcGBoexqH70LHM kJQlssbb5BQ= =NhJu -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- "If you want to have a large population and to provide it with arms so as to establish a great empire, you will have made your population such that you cannot handle it as you please." -- Machiavelli _The Discourses_ To receive the Online Firearms Coalition Bulletin send mail to cknox@crl.com with "subscribe" as the subject. 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