The PROponent Peoples Rights Organization 5 E. Long St., Suite 412; Columbus, OH 43215; (614) 268-0122 Volume 5 July, 1993 Number 7 Con-Con Again! NEW OHIO CON-CON CALL A RAZOR IN A HALLOWEEN APPLE ... They just keep coming at you. They never give up. You knock them down and they get up and just keep punching harder than ever. No, I'm not talking about pro-gunners, although that is they way they should act. I'm talking about the other side. I'm talking about all the radical politicians here in Columbus, Ohio, the "Berkeley" of the Midwest. You doubt that? Then just listen to this: The so-called National Taxpayers Union has got its ducks in a row this time and has climbed in bed with Columbus area State Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Columbus who proposed legislation, H.J.R. 5, for Ohio to petition Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment. Well, what's wrong with this nice wiggly worm all you poor fish are asking. Well nothing, except that this nice meal has a big shiny barbed hook hanging underneath it. They say this resolution becomes Ohio's automatic request for a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) only if Congress fails to consider a balanced budget amendment. That is a lie. This resolution is a request for a Con-Con! And here is another surprise. Who appeared at the press conference announcing this one more try at making American government more "European" but a man I consider to be one of Americas great patriots and rights defenders, U.S. Rep. John R. Kasich, R-Westerville. You know John has from time to time written me letters that sounded like they were written by the Founding Fathers themselves. He virtually always voted pro-gun and pro-rights. So what is he doing here supporting another try at getting Ohio to help get a run-away Convention going? We think that perhaps Mr. Kasich, who has been deeply involved in stopping the President's plans to greatly increase our "contributions" to Washington without reducing spending, is so worried about the destruction of the economy in this country (a real concern) that he has not noticed that this is just clever scheme to put us on the road to retiring our form of government. But this balanced budget amendment resolution Halloween apple has a Con-Con razor blade hidden inside. Look before you bite. I think it's important to write Mr. Kasich praising him for the wonderful job he did putting together his alternative budget plan that would have reduced the deficit without raising taxes. BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT: You write Mr. Kasich as well as your Ohio State Representative and tell them that IN NO WAY DO YOU WANT TO SEE OHIO BECOME ONE OF THE LAST STATES THAT PUTS THE CONVENTION CALL OVER THE TOP. Tell them that the American style of government you grew up with suits you just fine. Tell them you don't want to see anyone taking chances with losing it forever. Tell them the language to limit a convention to just one topic doesn't mean squat! Remember that we are hanging on by a thread. We are just two states away from a constitutional convention. Remember that everyone agrees that such a convention can NEVER be limited to just a balanced budget Amendment. I don't care what this resolution says about rescinding Ohio's call or limiting the convention. All this talk is just con-men running their scam. Remember that already several states have withdrawn their calls for a convention. Lawyers have already prepared the arguments that a such calls can NEVER be nullified EXCEPT by holding the convention. I can tell you that there are many more people out there than you might think, who will never let our form of government be radically changed by some convention while they are still alive and able to stop it. In my opinion it is virtually certain that any attempt by a Con-Con to go beyond a balanced budget amendment will plunge this country into revolution. Quite frankly, I simply can't imagine any politician taking a chance with a disaster of this magnitude. The current effort in the Ohio State House is trying to appear bi-partisan with Rep. Ronald J. Suster, D-Cleveland, as a co-sponsor, but the bill has 22 Rep and only 2 Dem co-sponsors. The Dispatch says Suster "believes the opposition is not to the idea of a balanced budget, but to a Constitutional Convention." AMEN Brother! This Resolution should be chopped off at the knees. Chopped off at the Con-Con. It should be chopped off right at line 3.32 with everything thereafter thrown away! Ask your State Representative to support chopping the Con-Con out of H.J.R. 5 or to vote the whole thing down if the Con-Con call is not removed. CLEVELAND COURT CASE... As most PRO members know we dropped our Ohio Supreme Court appeal of the Columbus Gun ordinance and switched to another approach of legal attack so that the Cleveland ban would be the first to hit the Ohio Supreme Court. Since that ordinance is a far greater assault upon the Ohio Constitution than the Columbus ban, it has a much better chance of setting a favorable precedent for gun owners. In April justices of the high court finally heard arguments in that case. Anti-gunners streamed to the court in an effort to get the court to overturn the Second Amendment and Ohio's constitution. HCI Board member and Ohio Attorney General, Lee Fisher filed a memo with the court saying, "The right to bear arms is a very limited right and the state and political subdivisions have the authority to regulate the possession and use of assault weapons." [ed. of course he really meant "assault weapons" in quotes] Lee Fisher also told the press he thinks it's "outrageous" that criminals can buy a gun, "as quickly as a law-abiding citizen can buy a quart of milk at the local convenience store." Of course, PRO remembers that when Mr. Fisher tried to demonstrate this in Cleveland with the part of the criminal being played by himself, naturally, he found that buying a gun was not so easy. In fact, he was not able to buy one for the TV cameras and ended up being castigated by the gunstore owner. But the antics of the anti-gunners in the Cleveland appeal get even more bizarre. A brief filed by the Handgun Control Federation of Cleveland (the group that came to Dublin to support the effort to "Strip" those citizens of their rights) and the American Academy of Pediatrics made the following argument: They said that even if the ordinance "impinges upon the right to bear arms (under Ohio Const. Art. I s.4) or the right of self-defense (under Ohio Const. Art. I s.1) it is constitutional if it even arguably serves its stated purpose of protecting 'the health, safety, welfare, and security of the citizens of Cleveland.'" [ed. emphasis theirs] In other words, any of our Rights or provisions of the Ohio constitution can be legally thrown out if someone can just argue (NOT prove!) that such changes serve the purpose of "protecting" the people! Have you ever seen such a clear statement of what Lee Fisher and his minions are really after? By their thinking, turning Ohio into a police state under the dictatorship of the Governor is completely legal just so long as someone can argue that the public interest is served by such changes! As PRO understands it, the brief went downhill from there, making arguments based on cases that actually had been decided the opposite of what the brief claimed. Pro-gun lawyers filed a rebuttal brief that, interestingly enough, only cited the cases brought up by HCF in their Amici Curiae to refute their wild claims by simply pointing out the true decisions handed town in these cases. Having heard all arguments the court will render a decision in the coming months. _____________________________________________________________ "Congress have(sic) no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American ... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people" Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788 __________________________________________________________________ AMBUSH IN THE MEDIA... The New World Order of the future as envisioned by George Orwell in his novel "1984" had a slogan: "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Or as Hitler put it, history is written by the victors. All of these slogans kept coming to mind as I watched the NBC made-for-TV movie: In the line of duty; Ambush in Waco. It was a masterpiece of the techniques Major General John Rawlings Reese of the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations called "Inner Direction Conditioning." These are the same techniques the KGB used and simply called mass brainwashing. Understand the purpose of this program. You know that the facts are not nearly all in on an investigation into the events in Waco. Why, the ashes out there are hardly cold. But now the American people can have no doubts as to what happened there because they saw it all with their own eyes. Fact and fiction are skillfully blended in the public's mind gently leading them to the conclusions offered by the ATF side of the story. What happened in Waco? Now we all know. David Koresh (Vernon Howell) amassed great numbers of "machine guns" and hand grenades. He abused and had sex with children. He mentally controlled his followers and handed them his "automatic" pistol and demanded they swear they would kill for him. How do we know these things? Simple. We all saw it with our own eyes on television. Naturally it was all brought to you by the same anti-gun network who let you see "with your own eyes" how dangerous Chevrolet pickup trucks are in a (faked) crash. Never mind that virtually every semi-tractor on the road has fuel tanks outside the frame! Even this whitewash movie had twinges of moral conscience. When showing the "hand grenades" they were clearly de-miled hulls that had the bottoms drilled out. Never mind though, the movie still showed a hand grenade (one) exploding during the "ambush". History shows the ATF doesn't care much about being reasonable either. In the past they have actually got a conviction for owning grenade hulls by using the argument that anyone with an extensive machine shop could plug the holes. Of course the jury didn't seem to notice that anyone with an extensive machine shop could make the whole grenade and wouldn't have to try to put a patch on a hole that probably wouldn't hold anyway. The June 1993 American Rifleman reports that NBC employees tried to buy NRA stickers to decorate their mock-up of the Davidian Compound. The NRA says there is no evidence any cult member ever belonged to the NRA. They threatened to sue and I didn't notice any NRA signs or stickers in the movie. Another cute ploy was to show "good old boy" ATF agents arresting criminals with M16's and then later showing the Davidians with AR15's so the public could make the connection that the group had "hundreds" of machine guns. (it's the old HCI "assault weapon" trick...if it looks like a machine gun the public will think it is a machine gun.) There in NO evidence from any credible witnesses that machine gun fire EVER came from the Waco compound. You should note that it is pretty clear from the Waco search warrant that they did NOT expect to find working machine guns or destructive devices, but rather were looking for "collections of parts" which when assembled would make these and thus the parts would be also classified as illegal. The warrant noted that David Koresh also knew such parts "collections" were illegal. It is also clear from the warrant that the ATF intended to clean out the compound of any firearms, ammunition, chemicals, computer equipment and all records, machine tools such as lathes and milling machines as well as books containing instructions on how to do machine gun conversions and making bombs. Note that none of this stuff is illegal to own, but would have made great TV pictures when spread out in front of an "ATF" banner. While the government in the warrant affidavit and elsewhere has tried to make the case that the Davidians had "large quantities" of firearms, primarily AR15's, in fact they could only show the purchase of parts to make about 50 or 60 rifles. This seems a big pile of guns, but in fact it is only about enough to give each adult member a rifle. The government made a big deal of the approximately $40,000 spent on these parts but you know that is about the current price of AR 15's and ammunition these days. Getting back to the TV movie, another comparison that kept running through my mind was between John Wayne in the "Green Berets" and the Oliver Stone Movie "Platoon". The portrayal here was John Wayne all the way. You know, how the ATF is a great bunch of back-slapping good old boys, out there fighting criminals and taking guns away from anyone "evil" enough to think they might need one. Crime-fighters in the great American tradition of setting up 800 numbers for the public to squeal on any neighbor who they might see with some kind of "weapon"...hunting or otherwise. What you didn't get was the "Platoon" treatment showing a bunch of honest foot-soldiers trying to stop crime and make a living but getting slowly demoralized by incompetent leadership in one of the worst agencies in government. An agency with rampant proved illegalities. Abuse of power. Sexual harassment on the job with demotions and harassment of whistle-blowers. In the end, the Waco incident was just one more village that had to be burned to the ground to "save" it. To my mind there is no greater sin either in the military or in Waco than good men losing their lives because of the incompetence and self-serving political machinations of their leaders. The icing on this made-for-TV propaganda cake came from channel 4 news here in Columbus. Right after the movie the 11:00pm news came on and what do they do but "cover" that all-important news event: NBC showed a movie about Waco. Now here's the slick part: They cleverly intercut scenes from the movie with real footage from Waco. The whole effect was to cleverly blur reality in the minds of the public. Fact and fiction just all blends together into an eye-witness belief of the government version of events. And if nearly 100 (the official body count is now 96) mostly innocent people have to die because of an ATF attempt to make a "big TV splash" possibly designed to help pass gun control laws designed to overthrow the constitution ... well, no matter. Other local media has also joined in to promote the idea that the Davidians had to die. Editor Irv Oslin of Columbus' cartoon Newspaper, Hoot, in the May 27 issue called the killing of the women and children in Waco "the best thing that has happened to this country's gene pool in ages." He said that we should not grieve the killing of children because they were all defective. Defective because they were "children of adults lame enough to believe some ill-tempered, gun-toting, pedophile was the lamb of God." The children had to be destroyed before another generation grew up because then, "Instead of 100 violence-prone imbeciles, you'd be dealing with a whole race of inbred, violence-prone imbeciles." Mr. Oslin says that conservatives are upset with the events in Waco because "they lost a lot of potential voters." I'm sure ole "liberal" Irv thinks he is being cute, but we have heard all these arguments before: Just substitute the word "Jews" for "Davidians". We have all heard the media all telling us about the "independent" arson investigator's report. Every media story I heard used the word "independent." But just how independent is an ATF consultant who's wife is employed by the ATF. What a shameful example of media spin. It's clear the media is just as willing to help the bureaucrats cover their butts now that things went wrong as they would have been to use pictures of the "cult's" guns to promote a government monopoly on firearms had things gone "right." WIPE OUT... I'll tell you two things that always seem to amaze me. One is the ability of politicians to generate unending lies and schemes in their quest to gain absolute power at the expense of your rights, and the other is the seemingly limitless pool of talent of PRO members. While many outsiders regard PRO as little more than a bunch of gun-toting rednecks, those of us inside the organization have seen countless examples of skill and expertise ranging from lawyers and politicians to writers and artists to gunsmiths and computer experts. If you read in the June PROponent about the latest push by Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden to legalize the confiscation of the computer files of various politically oriented organizations under the guise of "terrorism" you are aware of the need for an organization to wipe its files clean as the black-shirted national police are breaking down the door looking for the names of gun owners. PRO's technical research department can tell you just how to do it. First of all, understand that telling your computer to "erase" or "delete" a file does not work. This command only removes a header. The actual data remains on the disk until it is over-written. This is true for both hard disks and ordinary diskettes. A better method is to use one of the "wipe" commands available from various software packages like Norton Desktop or PC tools. These commands actually over-write the file data. These are actually better than a simple disk format since they over-write several times. We are told the Government has equipment that can pull data off a disk that has simply been formatted to erase it. Anyway, the major problem with these "format" type of programs is they take a considerable amount of time to do the job. If you really want to blast all the data off your disks in a hurry, what you need is a giant bulk eraser of the type used on audio tapes. This is essentially a giant magnet with a rapidly alternating field that flip-flops the magnetization on the disks many times a second to wipe them clean. A reasonable sized hand-held unit can clean a stack of floppies in nothing flat. If your club can't afford this equipment the following page from PRO's "terrorist cookbook" will tell you how to build one for free: Begin with an old junk power transformer that operates on regular house current and is about 4 to 5 inches in each of its dimensions. Transformers from old junk stereos or tube-type TV's are excellent. Begin by finding the two wires that connect to the power line. You can do this by tracing from the appliance line cord through the on-off switch and fuse to the transformer. These wires are often colored black. Mark these two wires. Cut all the wires and remove the transformer. (Be sure to leave the two power wires as long as possible.) What you are going to do is take this transformer apart. This is the hard work part of the job. The transformer consists of copper wire coils wound with paper on an iron core made up of a stack of sheet metal parts called laminations. It is these laminations that you must disassemble. After taking the bolts out of the transformer you need to loosen the iron pieces to take them out of the coil. They are often covered with varnish so you may need to use a knife blade and lots of pounding to get them apart. Be careful not to damage the wire coils when prying the iron parts apart. The laminations consist of two kinds: big ones shaped like an "E" and straight cross-pieces called "I"s. They all must be removed from the coil. Note that "E"s are inserted from alternating sides as they are stacked up. What you are going to do is throw the "I" pieces away and re-assemble the "E" pieces so they all point the same way in the coil. Once all the "E"s are back in the coil put two of the bolts back in the iron laminations to hold them. [If you can't fit them all back in don't worry about it.] Now wire a line cord to the two marked wires and tape up all the other wires so they can't touch each other. Put a layer of tape over the outside of the modified transformer to keep it from vibrating when it runs and you are done. To properly erase a stack of diskettes, plug in the coil with the disks about 3 feet away. Now with the unit on, bring the disks to the open ends of the "E"s and rub them around there a few seconds and then remove them to about three feet and turn the unit off. They will be clean. It is not known if this kind of unit will erase a hard disk through its metal case. Note that this modified unit draws more current than the original transformer and cannot be left on for long periods of time or it will overheat and smoke. It can be connected to a footswitch for convenience. Remember never to have the disks near the coil when you step on the switch because then you can possibly put a magnetic impulse on the disks that can only be removed with a much larger unit. [The above information was provided for entertainment purposes only and neither PRO nor its editors or authors assumes any responsibility or liability for the use or misuse of this information.] AMERICAN BARBARIANS... Unless you live in a cave in the hills of southern Ohio, you have doubtless heard all the uproar over the accidental shooting of the Japanese exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori in Louisiana and the acquittal of Rodney Peairs for the shooting. This time anti-gunners on both sides of the Pacific are having a ball once again dancing in the blood of innocent victims. Make no mistake about it, in this case both the student and Mr. Peairs are victims. PRO has constantly made the point that criminals are not like you and me. When a criminal mind kills a person they think nothing more of it than stepping on a bug. They bust into your house, gun you down, raid your refrigerator for a snack, and then eat it with their feet propped up on your corpse. No guilt. No remorse. When an honest citizen is involved in a shooting. It is a tremendous trauma. Even if you are a trained law officer, you just keep playing that fateful scene over and over in your mind, wondering if you could have done something different. When you close your eyes at night those same pictures just keep playing. It drives you nuts. Of course if you shot some scumbag in self-defense, you answer yourself with the assurance that you had no choice in what you did. But when the shooting is an accident of circumstance, that's when the torture of your own thoughts is worst. As you re-live those awful moments you keep searching for things you could have done differently to avoid the tragedy. Maybe there were some, maybe not, but the real suffering here for the shooter, like that of a rape victim, is often not in the act itself, but rather in the mental anguish that follows. It is typical of these situations that Mr. Peairs did not want his gun back after he was acquitted. Sarah Brady, Senators Metzenbaum and Kennedy as well as their anti-gun Japanese counterparts have no feelings for victims. As usual they have moved swiftly to take advantage of the suffering of all those involved in this incident to promote their plans to restrict firearm ownership to just the government. You should note, however, that the government of Japan DID NOT join in the anti-gun up-roar over the trial verdict. They essentially viewed the trial and verdict as in internal U.S. matter. Needless to say, such was not the case with the Japanese and American media. The Washington Post writers and other anti-gun American media were screaming how this case "proved" that honest citizens must be disarmed if we are to have a society as crime-free as Japan's. Japanese writers were confirming everyone's fears that America is a society of sicko gun-toters. Said TV commentator Takashi Wada, "The idea that you protect people by shooting guns is barbarian." Let me answer this by pointing out an idea that is REALLY barbarian. This is the idea that both rights and guns for protection are privileges reserved to a ruling class. And this is the idea that governs modern (as well as historic) Japan. American pro-gun writer, David Kopel explains, "Many Americans would not be surprised that when Hid yoshi disarmed Japan in 1588 with the Sword Hunt, he did so because, as he put it, the possession of weapons by peasants "makes difficult the collection of taxes and tends to foment uprisings." "And once the peasantry had been disarmed, they became increasingly oppressed. American historian Stephen Turnbull notes that after the Sword Hunt was completed, 'The growing social mobility of peasants was thus flung suddenly into reverse. Having once enjoyed the freedom to chose jobs as they pleased, the disarmed peasants were forbidden to leave their land without their superior's permission.'" "Indeed, many Americans would argue that the Japanese historical experience validates the importance of an armed populace. As the Japanese historian Hidehiro Sonada explains, the military was able to dominate Japan in the 1920s, '30s, and early '40s partly because 'The army and the navy were vast organizations with a monopoly on physical violence. There was no force in Japan that could offer any resistance.'" Of course, today's Japan has a constitution written by American conquerors that is brimming far more "rights" than our own, but like the high-toned constitution of the former Soviet Union, little of it is ever enforced or supported by the courts. For example, the Japanese Constitution unlike our own has strong provisions guaranteeing equal rights for women. Snort. If you have had any dealings with Japanese men, you know that is the laugh of the century! In Japan today ownership of all "weapons" including swords, daggers, handguns and most firearms is reserved to the state and it's agents. Even possession of a starter's pistol is only allowed under careful scrutiny. A few hunting guns are allowed and it is reported that a shotgun license takes 10 years to get and a rifle license another 10 years after that. Police even check hunter's ammunition to make sure they can account for every shell and cartridge. As you might guess these tightly regulated hunting guns play virtually no role in crime. But the low crime rate in Japan today has much more to do with the control of "rights" than "gun control." In Japan a suspect is simply detained until he "confesses." Bail is denied if it might interfere with interrogation. Suspects's meetings with his lawyer are strictly regulated. The confession rate is 95%. For those few who go to trial they are short and sweet affairs. There is no jury. Police can search almost anyone anywhere anytime. Court rarely exclude evidence even if illegally seized. Conviction rate for violent crime is 99.5%. So although it is a country's culture and not guns that really set the crime rate, anti-gunners are nevertheless screaming that guns are the problem. But if you look closely even at their arguments, you can see what they really want is to impose Japanese-style conformity upon America. If the people of Japan are at home with an authoritarian philosophy of government, fine. I am not. I think most Americans would not knowingly choose to eliminate the "easy availability" of rights in this country despite high crime and gun accidents. Anyway, if Japanese "weapon control" is the reason for low crime, then why do Japanese-Americans who can freely own guns have an even lower violent crime rate than you find in Japan itself? Lastly I think the question of who is more "barbarian", gun-owning Americans or the "peaceful" authoritarian conformist nation of Japan, has already been adequately answered by history. Don't take my word for it, just ask some of their fellow Asians, like the Chinese or Koreans what they think about the actions of the "civilized" Japanese. So legendary were the atrocities of this nation where arms and violence are a monopoly of those in power, that even centuries later the subject still raises great anger and emotion. Also, everyone seems to have missed the role Halloween played in this affair. In many ways this holiday may have been the real culprit. On the one hand the Japanese student understood the dress up and party side of Halloween and was doubtless expecting Mr. Peairs' gun to be part of a costume. What he did not understand was the American Halloween tradition of dumping over the outhouse. He didn't know about the increasing sick violence of Halloween vandalism and the fear of harm that caused many Americans to seek to protect themselves from it. These were the cultural misunderstandings that ended in tragedy as Yoshihiro danced toward the home owner with a camera in his hand. To the boys father, Mr. Hatori, we would express our sorrow and condolences. No one is more sorry to see these kind of accidents happen than gun owners. But as to his call for America to become a police state, we prefer to keep our traditional form of government, thank you. KENNEDY... During the last week of May, Channel 6 aired an expose on Columbus Councilman John P. Kennedy. In their 5 pm broadcast, they said that Kennedy did not live in Columbus, but in Dublin, Ohio. If these allegations are true, would that nullify all of the legislation that he introduced and cast a deciding vote on? Interesting question. Channel 6 showed a bare-bones apartment in Columbus that Kennedy is supposed to be living in, even though there was no food in the refrigerator and no pictures on the wall. They also showed a high-price house in Dublin that he supposedly built for his mother, and a car lease in his name that used the Dublin address. It is also rumored that Kennedy's new wife is registered to vote in Dublin. The above story was supposed to air on the 5, 6 and 11 pm newscasts. The powers-that-be pulled the story after one airing, and Columbus' City Council has done no public follow-up on the allegations. Neither has the Columbus Dispatch made an investigation into the matter, as they have in situations in the past. The most notable being the intensive investigation into republican Palmer McNeal. Write a letter to the Dispatch asking why, and contact Columbus City Council about what they are doing about these allegations. City Council's number is 645-7380. The editor of the Dispatch can be reached at: 34 S. Third St., Columbus, Ohio 43215. On a similar note about duping the public, Cindy Lazarus' name is being bandied about as a possible candidate for State Treasurer in the '94 elections. She is also a candidate for city council in November. If she wins, and decides to run for treasurer, the council will have to appoint another councilperson. Someone that you have not voted for. "EASY AVAILABILITY"... While the media goes on and on about the problem of the "easy availability" of rights in America, the problem of illegal guns in criminal hands continues. The real issues involved in gun crime clearly came to light in an article in the May 6, Columbus Dispatch. It seems that just like Ohio Attorney General Lee Fisher keeps predicting, four criminals walked into Vance's gun shop and walked out with 34 "automatic" handguns ready to be sold on the street. No background check. No waiting period. No nothing. "as quickly as a law-abiding citizen can buy a quart of milk at the local convenience store." At least two of the men were convicted felons with records dating back to 1983. Dispatch reporter Cadwallader asked some agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and one of them told him "As convicted felons, neither man is permitted to own or possess a firearm." Well surprise. And reporter Cadwallader always thought only honest citizens should be prevented from owning firearms. And here's another surprise: The four men didn't enter the store through the door but through a hole in the roof at 12:20am ... just the kind of behavior you would expect from felons. And an even greater surprise: a tripped alarm and the spotting of the hole in the roof by a police helicopter resulted in the arrest of Devonne W. Hale Jr., 27, who confessed and one of his accomplices, Carl C. Tinnery, 25, of McGuffy Rd. Two bags of guns with Vance's price tags still on them were found by Sheriff's deputies on the roof. It is abundantly clear from this heist and the recent one at the Powder Room where the stolen guns immediately began appearing on the street in local housing projects, that the real problems here are of "criminal control" rather than "gun control." When criminals are caught, convicted and then turned loose, it is little wonder that you find them out obtaining the tools of their trade. It is also little wonder that they tend to do it the way they know best ... by stealing them. "CIRCULATE" A PETITION... One thing you may have heard about the case of the shooting of the Japanese exchange student is that almost instantly the Japanese were said to have gathered more than 700,000 names on a petition asking Americans to accept "gun control." All my warning bells went off when I heard an anti-gun Washington Post reporter proudly proclaiming on TV that the number of signatures "are now up to 1.2 million." If you wonder why that is the magic number, let me give you a little American history. The year was January 1968 and Mayor Daley of Chicago had just lost a large battle in the Illinois State Legislature to pass a law requiring the registration of all firearms in the state. Undaunted, he then began a push to register all firearms in Chicago. Remember that in those days of the big Daley party machine, there was never a question that the ordinance would pass. Nevertheless, an effort was made to keep up the appearance of democratic government. The Mayor called for signatures on a petition supporting firearm registration and in less than a week 1,200,000 signatures in a city with a population of 3,550,000 were trotted out before the press. Only there was one little problem. The story of how these signatures were obtained began to leak out. Chicago Daily News reporter Mike Royko told of a southside woman who said her son's eight-grade class was used to copy voters names onto the petition. In another incident a precinct captain was caught copying voter registration lists onto the petition. He explained that with the three days given everyone to fill their quota of signatures, there was no other way to get the names. In other words, this "magic" petition of 1.2 million names generated in less than a week was a massive fake like so much within the "gun Control" movement. But the story does not end there. The anti-gunners constantly try to use the "herd" instincts of the American public by telling them that a "majority" of Americans support strict anti-gun controls. The recent Harris poll that has all the media crowing about it being the first time "a majority" of Americans favor banning ALL handguns and 82% favor handgun registration shows how this works. (In my opinion the survey is clearly fake, as Rush Limbaugh says, who did they poll, the NBC newsroom?) The fake poll ploy that was used so successfully to proclaim Clinton ahead until it actually PUT him ahead is little different from your high school buddies getting you do try something you strongly suspect is not in your own best interests. Go ahead they say, "everybody does it!" So when in 1968 hearings were held on gun registration in the subcommittee of the anti-gun Senator Dodd, James V. Bennett of the National Council for Responsible Firearms Policy proclaims they are going to "secure ten million signatures in 10 days." But what do they deliver to Senator Dodd's subcommittee but an estimated one and one quarter million names. You guessed it, according to Robert J. Kukla in his book Gun Control, it was those same spurious petitions from Chicago. Now that you know how the other side works, other things seem to fall into place. We heard of a newspaper in Australia gathering 1.2 million signatures demanding gun control. And most recently we hear of first 700,000 and finally a grand total of 1.2 million signatures in Japan demanding that the U.S. ban firearms because of the accidental death of the exchange student. I don't know what you think, but when I hear the number 1.2 million names, I want to check these "Japanese signatures" myself, because they just might belong to some people living in Chicago who don't remember signing anything. _____________________________________________________________ "Rayner said he would like to see all guns taken out of the hands of citizens. 'If people want to hunt,' Rayner said, 'they could rent guns from the state and if they just want target practice, they could use realistic toy ranges." [A. A. Rayner Jr. was a Chicago alderman in 1968 during Mayor Daley's unsuccessful big push to register all firearms in Illinois and his successful passage of an ordinance to register all firearms in the city of Chicago. The above quote appeared in the January 3, 1968 Chicago's American.] _____________________________________________________________ OHIO GAME FAIR... An Ohio Game Fair is to be held from September 9 through the 12th at Camp Lazarus, north of Columbus. It is billed as a gathering of outdoor enthusiasts with exhibits featuring archery, firearms, blackpowder, AKC field and water dogs, wildlife artists, decoy carvers, seminars, demonstrations and accessories to go with all categories. PRO will have a booth at the Ohio Game Fair to distribute literature and conduct a firearm raffle. It is possible that PRO will help man the NRA table at the entrance to the Fair. Volunteers will be needed to man the booths, and it will be a PRO endorsed activity, so that you can earn raffle tickets for the November 27 drawing. The Department of Natural Resources will be there and is estimating that 27,000 outdoors people will attend. Tickets are $5.00 at the gate. Advance ticket sales through PRO will be $4.00. H. B. 356, IT'S BAAAACK... Remember Jane Campbell's bill last year that died in the General Assembly to make it a crime to store your guns in such a manner that you "reasonably should know" that a person under 16 years old could obtain the firearm without their parents permission. It's baaaack. Well, on the face of it that seems reasonable. After all, who isn't for firearm safety and responsible ownership. I'm sure you know that PRO has worked harder than anyone promoting responsible firearm ownership. But when you notice that Ray Miller is a co-sponsor and that the bill exempts all government agents and employees from being covered by it, you can guess it is trouble for gun owners. It is. [E. J. Thomas who led the fight against the Dove Hunting bill is also a co-sponsor of this fooler bill.] First of all, notice that this bill mandates punishment where none might be warranted. In the eyes of the law we are all responsible for harm our acts may cause others. If you leave your gun on the porch, go have supper and a kid gets hold of it, you have been negligent and are thus responsible for damages and could (and probably should) be charged with some kind of reckless endangerment of the child if not those nearby. H.B. 356, on the other hand mandates punishment solely on the basis of whether or not a child got hold of your gun rather than on the basis of negligence. Think about this: There are many dangerous things in the average home. Power tools, electricity, and that great killer of children, the chemicals stored under your sink. Poisonings are much more common than firearm accidents. Letting kids eat lye is terrible negligence but I see nobody proposing mandatory locks on sinks. And there is certainly much less likelihood of you ever needing to desperately grab a jug of chemicals in a hurry to save your life. I see no lawmaker proposing mandatory punishment if a child gets into the chemicals under your sink when you "reasonably should know" he might. I see no lawmaker proposing that they and all other State and Federal employees be exempted from the responsibility for keeping kids out of their dangerous chemicals. But these days it seems gun owners have a special place on the lawmakers list of "people to get." With all the recent incidents and even deaths resulting from kids getting hold of service firearms we wonder why law enforcement is exempted. Even worse H.B 356 exempts all "agents, officers, or employees" of Ohio or any other state, or the Federal Government from the law if their firearm (this could be a private gun and not just an officially issued service firearm) is obtained by a child "incidental to" their "official duties" ... whatever that means. No doubt all the anti-gun state legislators can probably be assumed to be packing pieces for protection because of their public exposure "incidental to" their jobs. But if they negligently let a kid grab their gun and kill someone, well, sorry, because as Jane Fonda put it, gun laws are for other people not for them. I'd say the fact that they exempted themselves is a pretty good sign these elected officials do not expect this law to be enforced reasonably or fairly. If storing your guns in a manner such that a kid gets his hands on it is to be an automatic crime, then it CERTAINLY should also be a crime for those state and federal employee's MOST LIKELY to have guns lying around the house. There is a simple "out" included in the bill. If you use a trigger lock or locked storage container you are also exempt. In other words if you are willing to give a 10 or 20 second advantage to some of Mr. Miller's drug-using constituents who are out in your neighborhood trying to steal enough of your property to get the $500 or $600 they need that day for their habit, then he won't insist that you be prosecuted. Of course this might mean that they get to kill you before they go back to their favorite crack house in his district. But the real jiu jitsu of this bill is the attempt to use primary and secondary education's insatiable lust for greenbacks to drain gun owners dry. Again, PRO has put a major effort into trying to get firearms safety education into schools. Most gun owners probably would support a gun tax to provide REAL firearms safety courses in schools. You know, like Eddie Eagle. But no one knows what the safety course specified in H.B. 356 is. They may be asking gun owners to pay for Handgun Control Inc. propaganda teaching that the Second Amendment only means that government has the right to keep a standing army to kill citizens with, if that becomes necessary. Note too, that a firearms tax is really discriminatory to poor people (black?) seeking a little protection from crime. That this bill is just another anti-gun scam perpetrated by disingenuous lawmakers with no real interest in the safety of children is evidenced both by the fact that they make no mention of free NRA materials and programs and by the fact that the bill allows just 90 days to come up with a safety course and the taxes to pay for it. I say this can only mean the course of study and the firearms taxes have ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN ... BY THEM. This looks to me like it may be a sneaky two step approach to getting HCI courses in the schools and a heavy tax on guns, neither of which would fly in the legislature if introduced directly. DUBLIN COURT CASE... The court case filed in federal court by Susan K. Davis owner of Davis Guns of Dublin, Ohio hit its first snag as U.S. District Court Judge John D. Holschuh refused to grant an injunction against implementation of the Dublin gun ordinance which recently went into effect. Long-time PRO members know that judges virtually never grant temporary restraining orders stopping the implementation of city ordinances now matter how unconstitutional they appear. Our request for an injunction in the Columbus suit was also denied as a matter of course. Judges tend to start from the assumption that city fathers are acting in good faith. According to an unsigned article in the June 4, Columbus Dispatch Judge Holschuh found nothing unconstitutional enough to grant the injunction and that being put out of business "wouldn't cause irreparable harm to Susan K. Davis." The problem with the article, however, was that it made it sound as if the whole case had already been decided against Davis Guns rather than it just being the question of the restraining order. I am sure this is a case of wishful thinking on the part of Dispatch staff writers. Sue Davis said she went ape when she saw the story and called the Dispatch demanding a retraction. They promised to print one although nobody seemed to be able to find it. It must have been back among the car ads if it appeared at all. In truth the Davis case goes on and the courts are yet to decide if a city council can pass laws designed to run a certain business person out of town. CHAFEE BILL: S. 892... PRO has seen the Chafee (R-RI) Bill, S. 892 which was reported in the last PROponent. It is a dandy. The crime for which you are fined $5000 and get five years displacing real violent criminals in the slammer is "to manufacture, import, export, sell, buy, transfer, receive, own, possess, transport, or use a handgun or handgun ammunition." [emphasis ours] Knowing the way our current Justice Department likes to twist the law to "get" honest gun owners if you are caught with your handgun in your car you are guilty of buying, receiving, owning, possessing, transporting and possibly "using" ... or 30 years in some Gulag. A single 9mm round left rolling around your car trunk means big jail time. About the only thing missing here is the crime of "thinking" about handguns or handgun ammunition. Exempted from the law of, course, are military, police and any government agents authorized to carry. Also exempted are licensed security guards [remember the case where a security guard was charged for using his service revolver in self-defense because he wasn't on duty?] and licensed handgun clubs and it's members. But before you think joining a shooting club gets you off the hook listen to this: "Sec. 943. Licensing of handgun clubs "(a) Handgun Clubs. - Pursuant to regulations issued by the Secretary, the Secretary may issue a license to a handgun club if- (emphasis ours) "(6) the handgun club - (A) has a permanent premises from which it operates; (B) maintains possession and control of the handguns used by its members; (C)(i) has procedures and has facilities on its premises for keeping such handguns in a secure place, under control of a designated officer of the club; or (ii) has made arrangements for the storage of the members' handguns in a facility of the local police department or other law enforcement agency, at all times when they are not being used for target shooting; and (D) meets all operational, safety , security, training and other requirements that the Secretary may prescribe by regulation." Another nifty feature of this bill is section 947 which deals with the voluntary surrender of your handguns. Many cities (not Columbus) are paying $50 for each gun you turn in to "stop the tears", but 180 days after this bill takes effect you will be required to pay to the Secretary of the Treasury a "civil penalty" of up to $500. The good news is that you won't be subject to criminal prosecution. Mr. Chafee obviously has the "courage" not only violate his oath of office with regard to the Second Amendment but the Fifth as well. The brass of this man is beyond measure. Not only did he forget about the prohibition of government taking private property "without just compensation" but he turns it around so that you must actually pay the BATF so they will take your property off your hands! And you thought that all anti-gunners were liberal Democrats. Note that the Secretary of the Treasury MAY issue a license to a club. He isn't required to and doesn't need to license ANY club if he so chooses. Notice too that this dictatorial power is to be granted to an appointed NOT and elected official. Talk about your oppression without representation. Of course it goes without saying that the Secretary of the Treasury is almost always [Bentsen like Bush is a former member] a member of the American arm of the British Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA). The American group is known as the Council on Foreign relations (CFR) and is a semi-secret organization that tries (usually successfully) to rule from the shadows. CFR members are peppered throughout government. Ohio's own (super anti-gun) Louis Stokes is a CFR member. Most of the "cabinet that looks like America" are CFR members. (Sounds to me more like "Amerika" than "America".) Bill Clinton, himself, belongs to the CFR as well as to Rockefeller's America-Europe-Japan, Trilateral Commission (TC) and the internationalist "Bilderberg" group. It should also be no surprise that John H. Chafee is also CFR and TC. It is also no surprise that he is proposing to over-throw our constitution and grant dictatorial powers to one of his own. RECEPTION... The reception that PRO hosted for Joseph and Peggy Tartaro on June 12 was a reasonable success. Half a hundred people attended and enjoyed one-on-one conversations with the Tartaros. Ron Boylan, member of PRO and the American Rifle & Pistol Association, met and talked with the Tartaros. As did Karen Stewart-Linkhart of the Southwest Chapter of Putting People First. Many members of PRO were impressed with the openness and friendliness of Joe and Peggy. Those that attended enjoyed a rare opportunity to speak with two of the foremost leaders of our nation in the fight to keep and bear arms. NRA... Several lifetime members of the NRA have said that they do not have the little plastic card that the NRA sends out to it's yearly members. This card has all the important numbers of the NRA and it's several departments. For your convenience, here they are. Competitions........................(202) 828-6153 Education & Training................(202) 828-6281 Field Services......................(202) 828-6126 General Counsel.....................(202) 828-6300 Hunter Services.....................(202) 828-6246 ILA & Governmental Information Services...(202) 828-6330 Publications........................(703) 481-3340 Memberships(Toll Free)...............800-368-5714 Range Development..................(202) 828-6190 Insurance(Life/Health)..............1-800-247-7989 Insurance(Property/Liability)......1-800-544-9820 Sales(Toll-Free Except VA)..........1-800-336-7402 Sales VA Residents..................1-800-535-9982 FRANKLIN COUNTY FAIR... There are still several slots left in the shifts to be filled at the Franklin County Fair. The dates for the fair are from July 17 until July 24, 1993. Hours are from 11 am til 5 pm, and 5 pm til 11 pm. Call 268-0122 to volunteer for a shift. We need a volunteer for the July 17th shift from 5 pm til 11 pm. This is the night of the PRO meeting. RAFFLE... This one won't cost you any money, just your time and effort. At our June meeting, we passed a resolution creating prize money of $1,000.00. First prize is a gift certificate of $500.00. Second and third prize is a gift certificate of $250.00 each. Winners will be drawn at the November Gun Show on Saturday, November 27, 1993. Tickets can only be earned by volunteering for PRO endorsed activities between June 15 and November 16, 1993. For each hour volunteered, you will receive one raffle ticket. How many raffle tickets you earn, is up to you. Gift certificates are good only at the gun show. Any dealer at the November show will be reimbursed for up to the amount of the winning raffle tickets. If there is something that you wish to purchase for $750 and you won the $500 gift certificate, PRO will pay for $500 and you pay the rest. Guns, ammo, accessories, Amway, knives, swords, cots, blankets, reloading equipment. Your choice. But you must volunteer to work in PRO endorsed activities. REMINDER... The September 24-26 Gun Rights Policy Conference, hosted by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is in Arlington, Virginia, just outside the beltway of Washington. It is being held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, 1-800-228-9290. Price per night is $79.00 plus tax, single or double occupancy. For those in the central Ohio area, it is about an eight-hour drive. Not too bad for a car pooling effort. For those that want to fly, United Air Lines is offering a discount on the flight. It is hoped that attendees at the Conference can stay over on the following Monday to go to the Capitol and speak with their respective legislators. That would make quite an impression on them, that you went to Washington to talk with them. WYANDOTTE LAKE... Come one, come all. July 11, 1993 is the scheduled day for the PRO picnic at Wyandotte Lake Park. It's across the road from the Columbus Zoo. Rides, water, sand and sun!!! Plus all-you-can-eat for one low price of $14.55. We realize that this is twice the amount of PRO's first picnic, but there are a lot of attractions at Wyandotte Lake and you also get a dinner of unlimited hot dogs, hamburgers and chips. Dinner will be from 5 til 6 pm, with cold pop served from 4:30 til 6:30 pm. Reservations must be made by July 3rd. Send check, or verbal commitment to the PRO office, or the PRO Hotline by 6 pm on July 3rd, 1993. Those that commit to attending will be billed whether they attend or not. All tickets must be paid by July 11, 1993 at the time of the picnic. PRO is spending no money of it's own on hosting this outing at Wyandotte Lake and we are making no money on it either. We are providing an inexpensive day of fun and food for the members of PRO. A time to relax and have fun before the fall campaigns kick-off. Come one, come all. THE DEAN OF HIS PROFESSION... "There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, [ed. 1953] in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." In 1953 John Swinton was asked to give a toast before the New York Press Club. John, the former chief of staff of the New York Times, was called "The Dean of his Profession" by other newspapermen. He was much loved and admired. His integrity is seen in his truth revealed in the above toast. We often point out where the media are whores, but far more important is giving great credit to those few journalists (and there are some) who still work for truth. [Swinton quote taken from Jack McLamb's Operation Vampire Killer report.] _________________________________________________________________ The PROponent is published by: Peoples Rights Organization; 5 E. Long St., Suite 412; Columbus, OH 43215; Tel (614) 268-0122 Fax (614) 275-0092 EMAIL: 73427.1615@compuserve.com Richard Hale, Chairman; Ron Herman, Vice Chairman Dennis Walker, Secretary; Bill Johnson, Treasurer Editors: Dennis Walker and Frank Jacoby Contributions, either written or financial are gladly accepted. Anyone wishing to reprint all or part of an article from the PROponent may do so. Please mention the PROponent and the issue that the article was in, and send a copy of the publication to our PRO office. (We like to know what your organization is doing too.) Also, PRO will exchange newsletters with any pro-gun, pro-rights, pro-hunting, etc. group to further grass-roots communication. Put us on your newsletter mailing list and we will put your club on ours. PRO general meetings are held the third Tuesday of every month at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, W. Broad St. Columbus, Ohio.