From: Lawrence.V.Cipriani@att.com To: chan@shell.portal.com Date: Mon, 18 Dec 95 10:11:27 EST Subject: PROponent - December 1995 (PRO Newsletter) The PROponent Peoples Rights Organization 3953 Indianola Ave Columbus, OH 43214 (614) 268-0122 Volume 7 December, 1995 Number 12 [headline] Griffin Fired! NRA BASHING BACKFIRES ... The campaign for Columbus city council is over and appointed "Queen of the hot button," Lisa Griffin in spite of a massive effort went down in flames. Fisher garnered 49% of the vote in a three-way race with Griffin and Joe Motil. Griffin received 41% and Motil got 10% of the vote. On page 2, the November 9, 1996 Columbus Dispatch ran a three-column picture of Griffin being consoled by council members Les Wright and John Kennedy. Griffin is trying to smile and not cry at the same time. It is a beautiful picture for gun owners and the city of Columbus. After learning of her defeat, Griffin complained of the lack of support from Mayor Greg Lashutka in her bid to retain her appointed seat. Griffin spearheaded the successful effort of council to halt the growing menace of backyard auto repairers at the request of Lashutka. This issue, plus the banning of magic markers helped her lose her appointed seat. Her big mistake was thinking that NRA bashing would gain her support. (Governor Voinovich please take note!) It didn't. It only mobilized gun owners to join the opposition to get her defeated. Every time she played a TV ad indicating that Peggy Fisher was backed by some unnamed "local NRA affiliate", we cheered! It was free exposure. It in effect told all gun owners within viewing range to vote for and support the Fisher campaign. And best of all, it was done with more money than PRO could ever muster and it was all paid for by Griffin! What a hoot! Even The Peoples Rights Organization's name was prominently featured in the TV ads being listed as the source for the information that Peggy Fisher was NRA backed. When Ron Herman, our treasurer saw the ad he cheered. He said, "When I saw that ad I yelled, 'at last PRO has arrived as a political force to be reckoned with.'" Well, we would say "educational force", but you get the idea. We assume the ad was referring to the Citizens Against Crime endorsement of Fisher and like so much else in the Griffin methodology was simply fabrication. Neither PRO nor Citizens Against Crime is a "local NRA organization". And this is a person who operates a media consulting agency. What a blunder. In fact, the Griffin campaign was the dirtiest one we've seen since the primary when Otto Beatty's people went out in the middle of the night before the election to rip down the opponents signs and illegally ring the polling places with Beatty signs on the phone poles. A number of PRO members including this editor had Fisher signs disappear from their front yards. And the "wind" was very selective leaving the Preisse sign and only "blowing" away Peggy's. So desperate were Griffin people at the end that a massive telephone "boiler room" operation was put into high gear on election day. Several PRO members including this editor got one of these calls. After letting the woman on the phone go on and on (to waste the maximum amount of her time) reading her pro-Griffin pitch at warp speed, which ended with her asking me to vote for Lisa Griffin, I began to laugh. "Hey," I told the caller, "You're too late. I already voted for Fisher... and not only that, 'I'm the NRA!'" "Click!" That one call made freezing my butt stuffing Fisher flyers in German Village door handles all worth while! In a way, we were surprised that these tricks failed, since in our opinion, Peggy Fisher was VERY green politically. Early in the campaign Peggy came to meet with the PRO board to get our support, and she seemed to us like many of the inexperienced locals who the Republican Party often throws to the wolves. They are just there to be a name on the ballot. They are not intended to have any chance to win. Peggy seemed hardly able to answer questions she knew the answers to, let alone have the skills to use a lot of words to NOT answer a question. But we have to hand it too her, she just held her nose and jumped into the icy water. We presume after this knock-down drag-out campaign she is a LOT more experienced in politics. Interestingly enough, she told PRO back then that her political advisors told her NOT to seek the help of PRO and other gun owners. They told her that Griffin would use that against her. And, of course, they were right. But we have to hand it to Peggy, she figured out that such a campaign would help not hurt her campaign and she overruled them. We don't know if Peggy will become another Jennette Bradley who will be voting to oppose CCW or for banning still more legal activities of citizens in the years ahead, but we hope not. But the big point has been made to every gun-grabbing politician out there: Take on gun owners and the NRA head to head and you are history. With the BIG 1996 election coming up, there could be no better time to drive this point home. But never forget that for this to keep working, YOU have to be willing to make an effort. PRO want's to extend a heartfelt thanks to all the PRO members who volunteered to work on Peggy's behalf. If you are missed in this list, please notify us and we will put you in the next issue. Kevin Mays, Frank Jacoby, Dennis Walker, Jim Ramm, Jerry Smolak and Jerry Lee Smolak. These people gave up billable hours, work hours and free time to fire Griffin. Thank you. So long as the pro-gun community can keep turning out the people to blanket neighborhoods with literature, our views will continue to be noticed in political circles. So long as every PRO member and gun owner understands just how important his or her vote is and gets out and votes, we can continue to keep making a difference. Next year is the biggie. We need to start planning now. Start by making your New Year's resolution that you WILL be doing SOMETHING for a pro-gun candidate in '96. Don't think that you don't matter. When we see PRO's name big as life in our opponent's ads, you know we are making a difference. Just as the NRA noted during the recent media tirades against them, they don't bother trying to demonize you if you aren't being effective. And there is one more message that this election sent back to the incumbents who did get reelected: Start a big anti-gun crusade like Lisa Griffin and you might be next. IN OTHER RACES... In the recent election, Citizens Against Crime endorsed Bill Moss, Dana Preisse, Mike Wise and James Green. Of these candidates, Judge Green was the only one to win his seat. Citizens Against Crime also endorsed the passage of Issues 1 and 2 on the ballot. Both of these passed. The political pundits have stated that Mayor Greg Lashutka's win over Moss was a resounding win. Sorry. Lashutka out-spent Moss by a very wide margin and enjoyed the full support of the Republican party. Moss had neither the finances nor the full support of the Democratic party, and still garnered 31% of the vote. That was not a landslide victory for Lashutka as portrayed by the media. Preisse finished two points behind the top four vote-getters, and Wise finished six points back. It is hoped that both of these candidates run again in the near future. PROUD HUNTERS... A growing number of hunters are complaining about the permits the Ohio Division of Wildlife are handing out to farmers. The hunters are saying that the permits should go to those that buy hunting licenses and deer permits instead of being given to farmers. Farmers obtain permits to kill deer and other animals that destroy corn, sweet corn, grain and orchards. This is a matter of survival to the farmer. If they cannot harvest their crops, they cannot sell them, and we cannot eat bread, corn, cereal or fruit as cheaply as we do. Lee Baxter, Chillicothe, Ohio, complains that a farmer in Londonderry obtained 35 permits, while two of his neighbors received 15 permits each to kill deer to prevent crop damage. What Baxter is probably unaware of, is that the farmer can designate other people to fill his permits. The designated hunter has to pass a cursory background by the Ohio Division of Wildlife, usually just checking to see if the person has a violations from the Department of Wildlife. If not, then they are allowed to kill the crop destroying deer. Instead of bemoaning the fact that farmers can obtain so many permits to kill deer, Baxter should be nice to his farming neighbors and obtain permission from them to hunt problem deer. And speaking of farmers, there are many reasons to try to keep them on our pro-gun side. Every vote counts. I've talked to a number of farmers who complained about No Hunting signs being ignored and cows being shot. Safe hunters NEVER hunt posted land and ALWAYS make sure of their target before shooting. While there are always a few bad eggs that spoil it for us all, in closely questioning farmers I have noticed that their complaints are more the product of media propaganda than personal experience. You ask them if they personally lost a cow, the answer typically is "no," but they heard of someone who did. In other words a typical urban legend. Everybody seems to think that hunting gun-nuts are dangerous and spend their time spraying the woods with random bullets! The National Safety Council has just released the truth. But first, what do you think? Which is safer? Am I safer if I take to the field with all those dangerous guns and deer slugs whistling through the air or if I hop on my bicycle for a little exercise? How about if I just dangle a little bait in the water. Ought to be pretty safe. No? Or maybe a round of golf. That's a game safe enough for presidents (if Gerald Ford isn't playing!). If you think any of those sports are safer, you'd be wrong, wrong, wrong. Riding a bike is 113 times more dangerous than hunting with all those "gun-nuts"! The NSC reports that out of 100,000 bicyclists 905 had injuries requiring hospital treatment. Out of the same number of fisherman, 141 required treatment and of 100,000 golfers 104 were injured. Please compare that to the 8 hunters out of 100,000 who were injured in 1991 (last year for data). So the next time you hear someone parroting the media line about "dangerous" hunters, you set them straight. Tell them their time would be better spent banning bicycles than guns. Ask them if they are one of those "golf nuts" with a bag of deadly clubs. On the other hand, this excellent record does not mean that any of us hunters and shooters can let our guard down for a minute. It only takes a thoughtless second for an accident to happen. Even those of us who are NRA instructors have had that personally demonstrated. Be proud of your record, but never forget safety first! One accident is one too many. DIAL 911 AND WAIT... Page one of the Nov 6 Columbus Dispatch reported a case of poetic justice involving Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. The Prime Minister, as you will recall has been the force behind the new push to register and confiscate Canadian guns. He has supported the idea tried (and later rejected) in New South Wales Australia that self-defense is no reason to own a gun. Somehow standing there and letting some criminal kill you is supposed to make some kind of "statement" against violence. On November 5, at about 2:45 a.m. the gun-grabbing Prime Minister got a chance to make his own "statement". In spite of the official residence being on top of a cliff and surrounded by a wall, a 34 year old convenience store worker with a history of psychiatric problems managed to break a window and get in. Chretien's wife awoke at the noise and got up. When she came face to face with the man who was holding an open jackknife, she surprisingly didn't try to take time to understand how "society" might be responsible for his problems, but instead retreated back into the bedroom and locked the door. The slamming door awoke the Prime Minister. The couple then called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Federal police) who arrived some minutes later to arrest the man. PRO thinks this is the way all new laws should be tested. All the politicians ought to get to live under them for a while BEFORE the citizenry has to obey them. The Prime Minister's approach seems typical of many officials. Somehow they argue that defending yourself effectively is "violence" but if you call in some paid government employees to do the "violence" for you, THAT is OK. Mr. Chretien, how does it feel to have yourself and family at the mercy of an armed intruder? How does it feel to just have to dial 911 and wait? What if the man instead of being a disoriented mental case, had been a hardened criminal intent on doing you real bodily harm? Would you and your wife be alive today under your plan? Or, on the other hand, do your dreams of a Canadian police state supersede any personal danger you and your family might experience ... eh? MONEY ... "And nobody might be able to buy or sell except a person having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of it's name..." Revelation (13:17) We've noticed recently that the big push to a cashless, gunless society is in full swing. Particularly, the "cashless" part. Suddenly all over the media are advertisements for Visa "credit" cards which are in fact, debit cards. Many of you already have your debit card. It's that card you use to get money from an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). Obviously, the push is now on to force EVERYONE to have a debit card. Why this is, will take a little explaining. Many Christians, militia members and others have been doing a lot of worrying about the "mark of the beast" in Revelation in the bible. They fret that the mark may be a barcode tattoo on your forehead or maybe a microchip in your hand. PRO isn't going to speculate about what kind of "mark" Revelation 13:17 is talking about. But one thing is certain, the plan appears to be to eliminate all money and force all transactions into the debit card system whether you like it or not. So no matter what the "mark" is going to be, it is clear that eventually without "the number of its name", which is to say a debit card account number, you won't be able to buy or sell. Just a couple of days ago in amazing synchroneity with all the debit-Visa advertising on TV, my bank sent me a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and informed me that my Visa card is now a debit card without any request on my part. To understand why the debit card system is the wet dream of the totalitarian police state, you need to understand money and how it can be (and has been) used to control you and your government. People will often say that old man so and so is "wealthy" because he has a lot of money. This statement is completely false. Money is not wealth. Bill Clinton's Mentor, Professor Carroll Quigley in his huge tome "Tragedy and Hope" explained that money is actually the opposite of wealth. Professor Quigley said: "In this effort, goods went from places where they were less valuable to places where they were more valuable while money, moved in the opposite direction..." "Thus, clearly, money and goods are not the same thing but are, on the contrary, exactly opposite things. Most confusion in economic thinking arises from failure to recognize this fact. Goods are wealth which you have, while money is a claim on wealth which you do not have. Thus goods are an asset; money is a debt. If goods are wealth, money is not-wealth, or negative wealth, or even anti-wealth." Now take some time to understand this concept. If I own goods, I have wealth. It doesn't much matter what the goods are... gold, silver, land, guns. What matters is the material is something other humans find useful. Now when money is also goods, let's say gold or silver, there is a kind of equivalence between the two. In other words you can trade goods for goods. But gold is heavy and it costs to ship it around, so someone got the idea of using pieces of paper to transfer ownership of the gold between one another without having to actually ship the gold. The gold just stayed in some central safe place. Of course if you wanted to, you COULD go and haul your gold out of there, but most people just found it convenient to leave it sit. Now that title to your gold, that piece of paper which lets you lay claim to it, is called MONEY! So now do you see what Professor Quigley is talking about? That paper dollar is simply a claim upon a dollars worth of wealth. It is debt. It means the storage place OWES you a dollar's worth of gold! The paper dollar itself has no value at all except perhaps to build a fire to keep warm. The paper dollar is nothing more than a promise to pay. Now the story begins to get interesting. Once everyone got used to leaving their gold sit in central storage, it was no doubt inevitable with some humans thinking as they do, that someone would get the bright idea that since the central gold was just sitting there, someone might as well steal it since nobody was coming to claim their wealth anyway. It might be years or even forever, before anyone noticed that the central gold storehouse was empty. This is the situation in most countries of the world today. Money no longer has any backing. It is not even a CLAIM on anything! It has value only in the sense that some people with wealth think it has value and thus, are willing to exchange some wealth for it. In other words, money today is this major confidence game which relies solely upon the fiction that worthless pieces of paper are somehow a claim upon something! And now we come to the final move in this chess game: The debit card. The debit card is a wondrous invention for total tyranny. The final step recognizes that since unbacked paper money is essentially nothing more than an imaginary tally of imaginary wealth, one might as well dispense with the paper altogether and keep the tally of imaginary wealth in a computer. Having done that, it should be quite obvious that whoever controls the computer, controls EVERYBODY'S money! The computer can set the official ratio of imaginary dollars to a certain amount of real wealth. Even better, accounts can be monitored and controlled on an individual basis. Anyone not toeing the line, can be wiped out financially with only a keystroke. And better still, since every financial transaction passes through the computer, EVERY PERSON'S ACTIVITIES CAN BE MONITORED automatically and constantly. Each purchase or sale is a little story in the computer about what you are doing and where you were when you did it. The debit concept is a masterpiece of totalitarian total control. Do you think we are making this up? The World in Review newsletter has printed in their September 1995 issue excerpts from a memo written by a New World Order economist of the Committee of 300 which was prepared for British Parliament and Queen Elizabeth II. It is VERY revealing. It states in part: "As the Tavistock Institute has already stated, the primitive people of Africa, India and Asia (China) have no need of cash. In the New World Order, all such persons will become virtual wards of the state and the state can regulate their lives through the system of cashless credits already run as a pilot program in China." "The GSCAP [Editors: Global Structural Credits Adjustment Plan] will keep nations and individuals slaves in the economic sense. There will be no cash for them to buy themselves out of their situation, but the upside is that individual workers will have a better life in that their credits will buy more to start with and remain the same as long as their productivity remains constant. We will not maintain the system of heavy industry which has already been largely phased out in Russia and which is undergoing massive changes in the United States." "In African countries, the military will easily be disarmed and private citizens are already unarmed. The same holds true of Australia, New Zealand, Canada -- with South Africa on the way. The nations of Western Europe, except the Swiss have long disarmed their citizenry. The remaining problem, the United States, is being dealt with through government channels by agents of the Committee of 300 embedded at all levels of local, state, and federal government." "The intelligentsia will quickly realize that the New World Order is a robotic Global Government controlled society, but will be prevented from expounding their views by the method of withholding individual credits. Education curriculums will be based on the good of all rather than the good of individual nation states, which nation states will be phased out and disappear in due time." I can already hear the NWO assets screaming that this document is "pure hoax" the way they always do when some of their plans get leaked. We suggest you just take a good look around and make up your own mind. No one in this country has done more to bash cash and overthrow the 4th amendment than Trilateralist George Bush. Bush may have been more mild than Slick on guns, but he was tough on cash. He backed and later signed the "Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act" in October of 1992. In effect, it made anyone with cash suspect of being a criminal. This and all recent money laws shift the burden of proving you are innocent to the citizen. The Bush-backed act requires all banks to report "suspicious transactions" and further makes it a crime for the financial institutions to tell the customer that they are reporting on them. Even if you have several transactions under the $10,000 reporting limit, the bill defines the new "crime" of "structuring". You still might have your money taken and have to prove your innocence. The Bush law even includes "conspiring" to launder money...what ever that can be construed to mean. The whole purpose here is clear. It is a unified effort to outlaw even worthless paper money. It is an effort to move to the debit card system of control. And if you think that these New World Order folks do not understand the "problem" of our Constitution or of armed Americans, you are gravely mistaken. I again quote from the British memo: "Here, cooperation and coercion will go hand in hand; cooperation with those countries willing to play their role in a future cashless society, and coercion for those who seek to raise nationalistic objections." "The latter may well also come from highly industrialized nations like the United States, which has the added problem of armed citizenry and, as the American Revolution showed, might be prepared to oppose government action toward the new financial order with violence, but with opposition to gun ownership building, will eventually move the country, slowly, toward a gunless society." And you thought the British never understood what America is all about. They understand alright, they just don't agree with our philosophy of freedom. ____________________________________________________________ "I am honored to represent the outstanding men and women who compromise...ugh...comprise our bureau" Ohio's own John Magaw, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, making an opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Waco tragedy. [Editors: We'll ask Freud what he really meant to say...] ____________________________________________________________ GARY, IND.... With more than a month left in this year, Gary Indiana has surpassed its record homicide rate with 111 murders this year. The previous record was set in 1993 with 110 murders, when Gary was called the murder capitol of the nation. Detective John Jelks stated that: "People from all outside the city come to known drug areas...and they're robbed or shot." A simple solution would be to have President Clinton deploy some of those extra police officers funded in his "Crime" Bill at these known drug spots. Wouldn't that stop the drug related killings? It certainly would have to work better than his last idea...banning pistol grips, flash suppressors, and bayonet lugs. BOO TWO ... [Editors: You may remember Dr. Silberger (NRA life member) who took us to task back in the June 1995 issue for not answering his letters and for his perception that we supported the "war on drugs". In response to his assertion that he hadn't "heard boo" from us, we published his letter and the editors attempted to answer his questions about the PRO policy on the "drug war". We explained that while official PRO policy on drug legalization, like the question of abortion, is to have no policy and allow individual members to make their own choices. We also indicated that when it comes to the "War on Drugs" or any other abuse or excuse for abuse of constitutional rights we DO have a policy and that policy is to oppose that abuse. PRO noted and strongly agreed with Dr. Silberger's point that the "War on Drugs" like the war on guns isn't about crime, it's a war on constitutional rights. It isn't about a college kid with a marijuana plant on the window sill or the trucker with a pack of bennies. The drug war is about using drug laws as a lever to pry rights out of the hands of ordinary citizens. This by no means implies that drug abuse is to be condoned, but PRO is not blind to the underlying war on rights that lies just beneath the surface of the "War on Drugs." Now this have been said, we would like to print Dr. Silberger's latest letter:] Dear PRO: My enclosed check for $50 is to pay my membership dues in PRO, and also to help defray the expenses you incurred when you published my lengthy letter and your reply to it last summer in one issue -- under the heading BOO! -- and in the following issue, a reader's letter commenting both on my own and on your responding ideas. I was in the Caribbean and then in Florianpolis, Brazil, from 14 June until nearly 23 August, and so I did not know of the existence of the issues of PROponent carrying the items I mentioned, until a local friend mentioned it to me upon my return to the United States. This friend later mailed me the copies of the issues in question, and so I had the opportunity to reread not only my own letter, but also the commentary it evoked from yourselves and from another of your readers. I appreciate your willingness to publish my lengthy and controversial piece, and to give time and space to the matters I raised in it for discussion. Although we seem not yet to agree completely on the perniciousness of the War on Drugs, I believe your fairness and honesty merit my support. And, so, you are one of the few pro-RKBA organizations in which I have decided to maintain membership despite differences regarding the War on Drugs. At least you were willing to open the pages of the PROponent to the question. I seem in the jumble of my household to have misplaced the copies which my friend sent to me. If you have any copies of those two issues still in stock then I would like to purchase on of each of them from you at a reasonable price. Best wishes in our battle for individual liberty together with personal responsibility. This basic view of a citizen's rights and duties was the founding vision of the patriots who established our great country. Let us fight to restore the constitutional republic that was our birthright. Donald Silberger [Editors: Lost those PROponents? We never lose anything! We don't keep a big stock of back PROponent issues since the number of extra copies depends upon how many were given away at gun shows etc., but we will check for you. And we are sure you know that individual liberty together with personal responsibility is also our vision for America as well. What can we say? Except thank you very much. And to add that if there is anyone else out there who would like to write a letter to the editor and donate fifty bucks because we printed it, please feel free to send it in !] ____________________________________________________________ "The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some _will not_, _others dare not_ lay them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them;... the weak will become a prey to the strong." Thomas Paine, "Thoughts on Defensive War," 1775 ____________________________________________________________ UNLOAD YOUR GUN... Nicole Spencer, a 12-year-old girl was fatally shot with her own shotgun while hunting with her father and uncle. The trio was finished hunting in Lake Township when they began walking towards their vehicle. Nicole dropped her shotgun, which discharged, hitting her in the face. She died in St. Charles Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. Nicole had been a hunter for two years and participated in gun safety courses. In the Hunter Education program, instructors impress upon their students the importance of unloading their firearms when they are done hunting. Especially when walking across fields with uneven ground. If you are done hunting, unload your firearm. Senseless tragedies are what responsible hunters are supposed to prevent. TURKEY SWAP... Tim Martin, a 13 year-old Boy Scout, traded turkey dinners for guns in London, Ohio. London is a small rural community thirty miles from Columbus. Martin traded four turkey dinners for guns. The project helps Martin earn his Eagle rank by organizing a community service project. Martin said that he was hoping for at least one gun and ended up with four. "That's four guns that can't wind up on the street. We did pretty good, and I'm pretty happy." "I'm glad I did it. Getting a gun off the street might mean someone doesn't get killed" Martin said. All guns turned in will be destroyed by London Police Chief Michael Creamer. Krogers offered steep discounts on the turkeys; Teamsters Local 413 donated $250; and Martin's grandmother donated 20 cans of cranberry sauce. The remaining 16 dinners were donated to charity. PRO has a few ideas of it's own to help scouts earn an Eagle rank with "community service". Everybody knows that $50 and $100 dollar bills are widely used in the drug trade. We suggest a scout sponsored (and Kroger backed) "drug money turn-in". Trade turkeys for those evil $50 and $100 dollar bills. There are surely at least a few folks who believe everything they see on TV, who'll go along with it. Getting drug money "off the street" will mean a safer community. You'll be "glad you did it!" KILLING SPREE... A "gun" went on a shooting spree that killed four including a 5 month old child and injured two others. This is the kind of story we expected from the Columbus Dispatch, Governor Voinovich and all the others in the self-defense prohibitionist crowd. But instead the Dispatch printed the truth. Perhaps defending baby killers was just a little more than they could stomach. An alleged killer ran loose during the early evening hours of November 19, 1996 in Columbus, Ohio killing four people and wounding two others. The killing spree ended in Ashland, Ohio when the alleged perpetrator exchanged gunfire with an Ashland man protecting his wife and family shot him with a .45 semi-automatic pistol. He had been tipped that the man might be on the way to murder the family of four. Jerry Hessler is now in custody after being arrested in Ashland by alert police officers who noticed his car fit the description sent in a teletype sent by the Columbus Police Department at 9:27 pm. When stopped by the two officers, Hessler exited the car with his hands up and went immediately to the ground. He was arrested and transferred to Columbus and the Franklin County Jail. News reports state that Hessler was fired from BankOne last year for repeated reports of sexual abuse, and that he worked with, dated or knew his victims. Two interesting facts have appeared concerning these tragic events. The first is the opening paragraph in the November 21, 1996 Columbus Dispatch. It reads: A shooting spree that left four dead and two injured and stretched from Clintonville to Ashland, Ohio, ended when the alleged gunman finally picked a fair fight. This comment from writer Brent LaLonde is a departure from the Dispatch's stance against the carrying of concealed firearms. In fact, it is a complete turn-around for the paper. The second fact is that Hessler is not a member of the NRA, while Douglas Stanton is a Life Member of the NRA. Hessler was a former member of the army and transferred to the Ohio National Guard. Stanton, his wife Janet, and their children had been tipped that Hessler might be on his way to their home. They were in the process of leaving their home to go to a friends house when Hessler arrived. Hessler was told to go away, when he fired three shots with his 9mm pistol through the door. He then came through the door when Stanton fired several times, hitting him in the chest, knocking him into the backyard. Unknown to Stanton, Hessler was wearing a bullet-proof vest when he was shot, so was not seriously wounded. Hessler allegedly shot and murdered four people ranging from a 5-month-old girl to a 64-year-old man. It took a life member of the NRA to end his killing spree. Columbus police Sgt. James Longerbone said, "He would have killed them [the family in Ashland] and who knows where he would have gone from there." PRO can guess where he might have gone from there. Just suppose he was stopped by police without having been "softened up" with a .45 slug to his soft body armor. Suppose he was stopped after just killing the Stanton family as well as the others. We wonder if he would have given up so easily or if on the other hand he might have decided to go out shooting. How can Police leadership support public disarmament when this case clearly shows that, first of all the police couldn't be there to protect this family and secondly had this citizen not defended himself and his family it would have been very likely that a number of law enforcement officers might have been added to the deadly toll. Leaders like those of the Fraternal Order of Police (union) clearly just want your guns and this case proves they don't care how many children or how many of their own have to die to do it. Our condolences go out to the families suffering through this tragedy and our heart-felt thanks go to Mr. Stanton for having the courage and ability to defend his family from predatory attack. We also praise the Columbus Dispatch for having the courage to place the truth above their usual editorial political agenda. A final note is that Hessler knew or dated the female victims of his alleged night of terror. CLASSES... PRO, through its various classes of NRA certified firearms courses and Hunter Education classes, has instructed 400 people in the past year in the safe use of firearms. The editors wish to thank Ron Herman, chief NRA Instructor for PRO, and John Lydic, chief Hunter Education Instructor for their efforts in making this possible. These two individuals epitomize the true American gun owner in all of the various shooting sports. They each stress firearm safety above all else and encourage their fellow instructors to do the same. PRO owes these two gentleman a great deal of thanks for their many hours away from home, families and missed work to propagate the shooting sports and personal defense that Americans want and need. Another group of people that do the same is located at the Wyandotte Rod and Gun Club. They are led by Bruce Graver. 18218 Township Highway 94, Forest, Ohio 15843-9724. His phone number is: 419-273-2875. Graver has sent a list of his Instructors Classes for the first part of 1996. They are as follows: Jan. 27: The NRA Instructors Guide - A must to become an instructor for the NRA. Course starts at 8 am and lasts until 1 pm. The NRA Basic Pistol course begins at 2 pm and will end by 7 pm. Jan. 28: NRA Basic Pistol Course continues. Live fire and written test. Feb. 10: NRA Personal Protection Course begins at 8 am and will conclude the following day. It is a classroom and firing range course for the gun owner and prospective gun owner. Written test at the end. Feb 24: NRA Basic Rifle Shooting Course. Classroom and live fire course to teach the basics of rifles to beginning shooters. Feb. 25: NRA Basic Shotgun Course. Classroom and live fire course to teach basic shotgunning in trap, skeet and slug for beginners. Mar. 9: NRA Instructors Guide in the morning. Home Firearm Safety will begin around 1 pm. It is a general knowledge and safe gun-handling course. No live fire, but there is a hands-on portion for the students. All courses have a written test/instructor application. Each course will begin at 8 am and end by 6 or 7 pm. Muzzleloading classes have not been scheduled this year, however they will be offered if the interest is there. For more information, contact Bruce Graver at: 419-273-2875. The up-coming PRO Instructor Classes will be published as soon as it is available. THE NRA SHOW... The new NRA radio talk show with NRA Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre is quickly gaining acceptance across the nation. It is called (you guessed it) "The Wayne LaPierre Show". It airs on Sunday evenings from 8:00 - 10:00 pm Eastern Time on NBC Network stations. So far, no Central Ohio stations are carrying the show. If you would like to see this show available here in Columbus then take some time to lobby the managers of two local stations that may consider running the show. Write to: Greg Jordan WCOL-AM 2 Nationwide Pl. Columbus OH 43215 And hedge your bets by also writing to: Steve Cantrell WMNI-AM 1458 Dublin Rd. Columbus, OH 43213 We suggest you inform these stations of your enthusiastic support for this type of programming and indicate how much you and many of your friends would be regular listeners if a Columbus station would carry the program. This is no lie. Your editors would certainly be regular listeners if it were broadcast here and we are sure most PRO members would love it as well. GRASSROOTS CONFERENCE... The National Rifle Association Grassroots Division will be hosting a "Grassroots Election Seminar" in the Columbus area in January. Adam Kaufman one of the grassroots coordinator information specialists and Lauren (Rowley) Baldwin our ILA State Rep will be here to present the program. The particulars are as follows: Date: Thursday January 25, 1996 Time: 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm Place: Clarion Hotel 7007 N. High St. Worthington, Ohio 43085 (614) 436-0700 For further information call NRA Grassroots at (800) 672-3888 ext. 1171 Remember that the "big one" is coming up in '96 and the promotion of grassroots political action is what PRO is chartered to do. We would like to see a lot of PRO members at this conference to show our colors and set an example for sportsmen across the state. It would also be a good way for those PRO members involved in our spring sports club grassroots conference to get a few ideas to help us put ours on. If we can't hammer the large number of hunters and fishermen and other sporting enthusiasts together into a cohesive political force by the November election, we may not get the chance again for a long time. PRO's message is simple. Get involved in grassroots politics. Learn how it's done. And then go out and DO IT! Next year is when we will need you the most. Start getting ready now by attending this NRA how-to conference. STATE HOUSE UPDATE ... Status of S.B. 68 (Right to Carry) by: Jim Ramm, NRA Board Member THERE'S STILL A CHANCE!!! Slim as it may be. As of this writing (11/21/95) there has been no official action on S.B. 68 since its last committee hearing on October 31st. An unreleased version of a substitute bill I happened to see was almost worse than the current version. The NRA/ILA State & Local rep., Lauren (Rowley) Baldwin, had closed door meetings with house sponsor Joy Padgett (R-95) to let her know that the new version was totally unacceptable. Lauren, along with representatives of the Law Enforcement Alliance of America and the Wildlife Legislative Fund of America presented Representative Padgett with a list of "20 plus" items in need of drastic change. We were assured that every attempt would be made to correct those points of our concern. Since then it appears that house guidance of the bill has been assumed by Representative Bill Batchelder (R-81), the Speaker Pro Tem, who is a staunch supporter of our cause. Under Rep. Batchelder's watchful eye a new substitute bill has been drafted (although not yet introduced) which does a good job of addressing our concerns. My last conversation with state house "insiders" (about a week ago) indicated that work was continuing on the sub-bill to further remove government bureaucrats from the system as well as to place the application requirements in the actual statutory language in the hopes that Ohio will not have to go through the problems encountered by Virginia and other states when local law enforcement agencies tried to require things other than those called for in the law. I also recommended a change in the way the actual permit is issued which they felt would improve the system and take some of the burden off the sheriffs who already have enough to do. I expect the House to begin to consider the sub-bill in Committee when they return after the 1st of the year. I believe the measure will pass both houses (although there may be additional amendments prior to passage in either the full House or Senate) and find its way to the Governor's desk. It is still unknown whether it will be vetoed or allowed to become law without the Governor's signature. At this point it hard to even guess about that. The good news is that this delay has given us extra time to put pressure on the General Assembly to pass a good bill without amendments and to pressure the Governor to sign it or at least let it become law without his signature. It is safe to assume, however, that if it is vetoed; there, most likely, will not be an over-ride vote. That means the end of a decent law for Ohio until we have a new governor, I'll try to keep you updated as things pick up in January. I'd also like to clarify something I wrote in my update last month which, apparently, has been misinterpreted by some people. When I mentioned the "talk in some circles that NRA & the ILA Rep were selling out...." I only meant that some other people with slightly differing views felt that way (it's almost impossible to get gun owners to agree on much at all concerning legislation). It is my opinion that the NRA / ILA and its staff members are doing the best job they can with the limited funding and resources they have at their disposal. They are carrying out the mandate of the majority of Ohio's membership in pursuing a "carry permit" system. Keep in mind, also, that our state and local rep, Lauren (Rowley) Baldwin, has several other states that she's responsible for and is continually forced to "juggle" them so that she can be in each state when she can do the most good. This should also be taken into consideration if you attempt to speak with her and she can't make as much time for you as you'd like. She has a lot to do in the short time she's in Columbus on any given day. She has expressed to me, on more than one occasion, that she'd like to have more time to spend with members in each state, but asked me to relay her apologies for being strapped with a tight schedule. ____________________________________________________________ [CARTOON] {Shows woman being attacked by man with a large knife, defending herself with a handgun. Caption: How would you like a .38 Caliber vasectomy?} Governor Voinovich and the FOP leadership seem to think that if this woman doesn't just "lay back and enjoy it", her choice of self-defense is nothing more than "promotion" of violence. Write the governor's office and tell him you will never support anyone who supports turning women into helpless victims with such lame arguments. Tell him you support HR 68. (Many thanks to the Missouri Shooters Alliance for the use of their cartoon in our fight for a reasonable Ohio CCW law.) ____________________________________________________________ LEAA REPORT ... Up-date by: Jim Ramm, LEAA Area Rep. Many PRO members are also members of the Law Enforcement Alliance of America. For those of you who aren't familiar with the group it is the nation's largest coalition of Law Enforcement officers, crime victims and concerned citizens united for justice. They have a membership in excess of forty thousand and are based in Falls Church, VA. I drove out to Falls Church a few weeks ago to attend the Alliance's membership meeting and election of a new board of directors. The election results were announced on Saturday November 11 after the meeting of members. That evening approximately 60 - 90 guests and members enjoyed a banquet which featured G. Gordon Liddy as its "key-note speaker". It was a great evening overall and the "G-Man" was a "smash" with the crowd. Yours truly got hooked into being the "official photographer" for the event and I took photos of approximately 65 people who lined up to shake hands with G. Gordon one-by-one. If anyone is interested in the complete list of new board members feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to provide you the names. One person who was elected was Christine Long-Wagner. Christine is from the Columbus area and was the number one vote-getter. She was later elected to the position of 2nd Vice President of the organization. For the last several years Christine has worked long and hard at both the state and national levels fighting for the rights of crime victims, law officers and law-abiding citizens. Prior to the election she was the co-chair of the victims rights committee; a position she will continue to hold. As a survivor of a serial rapist, Christine has a powerful story to tell. It takes a great deal of courage to verbalize what she's gone through before legislative bodies time and time again. Christine does so whenever she's asked in the hopes that by telling her story again and again some other innocent person will be spared the agony of a similar ordeal. If you ever happen to hear Christine tell her story you'll know what I mean. If you do, take a moment to say Hi and thank her for all she's done for our cause. To make a long story short; the elections went well and I'm confident that the new board will work hard in the coming years to further the progress L.E.A.A. has already made in becoming the foremost champion of the rights and concerns of crime victims, concerned law-abiding citizens and the nations police officers. L.E.A.A. has worked very hard in Ohio and was one of the few law enforcement organizations to testify in favor of the citizen's right to carry a concealed firearm. They deserve our gratitude and everyone who isn't already a member should consider joining (dues are only $20.00 per year and their publication, The Advocate, is considered by many to be one of the best of its kind anywhere.) CANADIAN GUN COLLECTORS WAKE UP...TOO LATE! PRO founding member Bill Wentzel just returned from Canada and brought back the November 27 issue of the Edmonton Journal. In that paper there was a large article voicing the complaints of gun collectors over the new Canadian "gun control" laws. The paper starts off on the right foot by noting the effectiveness of the new laws in disarming criminals: "The federal government's [Canadian] new gun control laws are taking their first casualties, and they are not pistol-packing holdup artists." Big surprise! Right? According to the paper, the recent passage of Justice Minister Allan Rock's draconian gun bans and total registration laws are causing a flood of heirlooms to leave Canada. The new law only exempts muzzle-loaders as antiques, so firearms dating back to the mid-19th century are falling under the strict controls. As a result Canadian firearm treasures are pouring south. However we are sure Mr. Rock, like gun grabbers everywhere is not worried about the loss any more than our politicians were worried about the loss of millions due to their gun bans. They quite literally will do ANYTHING to get your guns. Mr. Corbett, who is the voice of several Alberta gun collecting groups notes that "Modern bullets often to not fit the old guns and do not work even if the calibers match." The paper added, "Ammunition for antiques is often rarer and more valuable than the firearms, a fact that has spawned a fraternity of collectors who keep only old cartridges and no guns." "'If I have to register this, it goes.' Corbett adds, cradling a beloved example of a rifle of a type used by the North West Mounted Police when the force was created in the 1870s. 'There are no serial numbers on it and I will not deface it by putting them on for registration. I will sell it in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa ... all the Commonwealth countries used those arms.'" Lionel Conn, another collector agrees, "They'll all go south, all the old RCMP artifacts and things like that." Conn has spotted a rising volume of Canadian antique gun sales at fairs and shows in the United States! Gun collectors who remained silent during the debate on the new gun bill, now are paying the price. They have to live with a silly stupid oppressive law. Corbett said, "I've never shot any of my weapons...I wouldn't. I don't get a kick out of it. I'm a collector, not a shooter. I shot enough in the army to last me a lifetime." Corbett in noting the ineffectiveness of the new law with respect to violent crime said, "My swords are far more violent than any of the guns here...A sword can be used immediately, the same as a butcher's knife. A gun that's not loaded is just a piece of metal and wood. And if you don't have the right bullet for it, it'll never shoot." Gosh, Mr. Corbett, those are great and logical thoughts, only they are too little, too late. Ya snooze, ya loose! And now for me and the rest of us yanks to start looking for some really good buys on historic RCMP rifles... And to all you American gun collectors: Are you going to learn anything from all of this? Or are you going to be like the old duffers I heard at the last OGCA show I attended who were saying in essence, "We had our fun, and now if we have to give up our guns, we'll just let the next generation worry about that." Come on guys, start dipping into that million dollar political fund you've got. Help us fund our lawsuit. Dig into the big election coming up. There is much more at stake here than just a few antiques. WAKE UP! THE ONE PERCENT SOLUTION ... Does anyone here remember the bill that "our" Republicans just fell all over themselves to pass, that ordered all telephone companies to install these giant plugs on the side of their systems to allow the government access to all telephone lines at the (potential) stroke of a key? PRO warned everyone about the abuse potential of such a connection, but it was approved anyway. Well, now the other shoe has dropped. The FBI has asked Congress for a HALF BILLION DOLLARS worth of equipment to tap into the aforementioned plugs. They want the ability to tap (are you ready for this?) up to one percent of all telephones in the country SIMULTANEOUSLY! This could be as many as 1.5 million phone lines at once! Compare this, if you will, to their real need which has been an average of 850 court ordered phone taps a year. This is a rate of 1 tap per 174,000 phones. Now they want 1 per 100 phones. And they also want an immediate implemented capacity of half that value. Now government apologists are already saying that the "one percent solution" is only for urban areas. They are "only" asking for a capacity of 1 in 200 phones simultaneously tapped in rural areas. I guess you aren't supposed to notice that most people in this country live in cities. Gosh, the FBI is "out phoned," they've GOT to have this Big Brother equipment. And do you know why the FBI is "out phoned"? It's all those "terrorist, anti-government, fanatical, ultra-right-wing" militia and Rights groups out there. It's easy to tap into the INTERNET. You just grab the stuff as it goes by. An INTERNET user did the command "traceroute" (trace the route the message followed) to trace two messages sent from Switzerland. One went to San Jose California and the other to Israel. He reported: "that both messages went through an unnamed site -- 134.222.9.1 and then a strangely-named site, "lp (134.222.35.2)" -- then through the same Vienna, Virginia (USA) site ... and thereafter, on to their destination. (i.e., the second message went through Virginia to get from Switzerland to Israel.) The whois servers [ed. keeping lists of information on all sites] at the InterNIC and at nic.ddn.mil for MILNET Information report, `No match for "134.222.9.1".' and `No match for "134.222.35.2".'" Gosh, we wonder who there might be in Virginia with an interest in sucking in all INTERNET traffic using mysterious un-named sites? Well, PRO has no doubt that somewhere down in the bowels of government computers, there is a humming disk drive with a complete archive of all PROponent back issues as well as every post or email our cybertroops have ever made. We only wish they would allow public access to this information so our loyal readers could use and benefit from it! But what has this got to do with phones? Just this. It's great to keep tabs on J.J. and Helen Johnson's militia email, but the "anti-government" pro-rights crowd has a new twist: Fax networks. These are just people who keep themselves informed by faxing information all over the country to each other. And it's getting "out of control" (no doubt, the government's opinion). Unlike the INTERNET where you can just tap in at one point and get it all, these telephone networks are out of reach ... unless, you go to the source. That's right, now you know the reason for the plug on the side of the phone company! This is why the FBI is "out phoned"! So what does Janet Reno's sidekick Deputy Attorney General, Jamie Gorelick have to say about this? At a November 2, press conference she said, "Let me make very clear that there is no intention to expand the number of wiretaps or the extent of wiretapping. The entire purpose of the digital telephony legislation was to leave law enforcement in the same position it is now with respect to wiretaps." Whoa! Same position? Let's see... formerly 1 in 174,000 now 1 in 100, sure sounds the "same" to us! THIS IS PURE BULL! BUT WAIT! It gets still worse. The proposed legislation doesn't just authorize the FBI to snoop. It says: "The term "government" means the government of the United States and any agency or instrumentality thereof, the District of Columbia, any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States, and any State or political subdivision thereof authorized by law to conduct electronic surveillance." This means that any federal agency (not just law enforcement) as well any State, county, city or "other" authorized agents. This gives Dewey Stokes access to the snooping system for crying out loud! And while government spokespeople are cooing how all this will only be done under court order the truth is quite different. The wording of the 1994 enabling legislation uses the words "pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization." (emphasis ours) Just what is an "other lawful authorization? Could that be perhaps secret taps in the interests of "national security" a la the Nixon Whitehouse? Could that be the decrees of our king under the "war powers" given by Congress and never revoked? Maybe some taps under the "war on drugs", the "war on poverty", the "war on crime", or the up-coming "war on guns" and "war on terrorism"? What do you think? The bottom line here is that this represents a massive increase in government and a massive unconstitutional loss of freedom for all Americans. Government has never before had the ability to wiretap with so little effort. Government has never before had the capability to wiretap FROM anyplace. Government has never before had the capability to wiretap AT A KEYSTROKE. For the most part, Government has never before the ability to tap UNDETECTABLY. "No intention to expand...the extent of wiretapping", our foot! Telling bald faced lies in the face of not only clear proof, but your own words to the contrary, just seems to be a way of life in Washington. NOW is the time for all those gun-hating, but free-speech-loving ultra-liberals out there to wake up. It's not just about GUNS, it's about FREEDOM. It's about YOU! The ACLU is already opposing this measure and it's time that every freedom-loving American, left or right, did too! WHAT IS PRO DOING... Often gun owners ask us, "What is PRO doing?" Of course, there are our gun shows and the continuing law suits against the city of Columbus, but what they really mean is what kind of special projects is PRO planning to further the fight for our Rights?" We are happy to report that PRO is "doing something". Our mandate is to educate the public with regard to the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as well as other Constitutional Rights and that also means educating gun owners about how to deal with politicians who swear to "protect and defend" our constitution one day and are voting to overthrow it the next. So we have asked ourselves the question how do we deal with these politicians who are constantly voting to enslave us all? The answer, of course, is to get rid of them and vote in some people with moral character. Sure you can buy votes with advertising and a ton of money, but that is out of the question for PRO. That leaves us with one option: Go out and get those votes one at a time. This is called grassroots activism. It is using the shoe leather of the many instead of the deep pockets of the few. With a past record of the Brady Bill, the "Crime" bill and new efforts to ban ammunition as an amendment to the hideous "terrorist" bill, the next election may be the one that changes this country for ever...for better or for worse. PRO wants it to be for the better. Our plan is to try to turn the large number of sporting clubs in this state into a major voting block and political powerhouse. To do this PRO and the Ohio Constitution Defense Council (OCDC) are planning to host an Ohio Outdoor Sports Enthusiast Political Seminar next March. We want to get every sporting club to send a representative. This will not just be about guns. It will be about the whole government mindset that is using agencies like the ATF, the EPA and the CDC to go after outdoor sports enthusiasts. Time was when I'd go out to my conservation club and nobody wanted to hear about politics. "They are only after those 'assault weapons,'" they'd say. But after "Brady" and the "crime" bill, times change. Now these same people crowd around and want to hear about pending legislation and ask what they can do. So we are going to tell you what to do! This conference is going to show you just how bad it is. Our speakers are going to detail the ways in which they are not only going after ALL guns, but how they are banning lead shot and lead sinkers and taking peoples property for filling in a puddle in their back yard that the Government calls a "wetland". We will detail how a few loud-mouth animal "rights" demonstrators are gaining public support by working with a sympathetic media and spreading lies about hunting and fishing and archery to vilify these pastimes in the public eye. And then once we have opened your eyes to this attack, then our speakers will give you chapter and verse on how to fight back. They will show you exactly how grassroots politics works. They will explain how YOU and YOUR CLUB can be a massive political force in this state which can end this assault on your sporting activities. Often sports enthusiasts are impressed with PRO and the way we can just pick up the phone and call national pro-gun leaders. Yes, it is impressive, but it is not an exclusive club. I'll let you all in on a little secret. When we all started, we were dazed and confused much the way many sporting club members are now. But we did something about it. We all attended one of the grassroots seminars that came to town. We got to meet Joe Tartaro, editor of Gun Week, and Peggy Tartaro, editor of Women and Guns, and many other national leaders. They were all very dedicated and yet down to earth and friendly people. "Call us," they said, and we have been doing it ever since and we have never been sorry. And the good news is that you can do this too. Your club can send a representative to this conference so that your club can also tap into the massive knowledge and help these national figures are more than willing to share with you. So go to your next sporting club meeting and start talking up the idea of your club sending a couple of representatives to this conference. Let's learn how to all pull together to keep outdoor sports alive and well in Ohio. Start planning now for this March meeting and afterward we will all be working to make November come out OUR way. The editors and trustees of PRO wish each and every member a heartfelt Happy Holidays! ____________________________________________________________ The PROponent is published by: Peoples Rights Organization; 3953 Indianola Ave.; Columbus, OH 43214; Tel (614) 268-0122 Fax (614) 261-9100 (note new fax number!) EMAIL: Compuserve ID: 73427,1615 INTERNET: 73427.1615@compuserve.com or dcarney@freenet.columbus.oh.us Back issues of the PROponent are available via the World Wide Web at: http://www.portal.com/~chan/orgs/pro/ Michael T. Regan, Chairman; Dennis Walker, Vice Chairman Todd Koehler, Secretary; Ron Herman, 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 your 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. Unlimited electronic distribution of all or part of this text file is permitted so long PRO is credited. PRO general meetings are held the third Tuesday of every month 8:00pm at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, W. Broad St. Columbus, Ohio. "That government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth" _________________________________________________________________