Project Exile hits the mark
By Diane Carman
Denver Post Columnist
Sept. 9, 2000 - The Colorado Freedom Report calls it "Project Gestapo." GunTruths.com calls it "Project Gulag."
And nothing makes these gun-rights activists angrier than the fact that National Rifle Association director Wayne LaPierre has endorsed Project Exile with the statement: "We don't support the rights of criminals to bear arms." But, zealots aside, in the feverish debate over gun control, few programs are as widely popular as Project Exile.
U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland this week offered a few examples of the 147 people charged under the yearlong campaign to enforce existing gun control laws.
There was Christopher Duke, who had a prior domestic violence conviction. He showed up at the home of a former lover and was pounding on the door. Police arrived and discovered that Duke had an Uzi and a sawed-off shotgun in his possession.
Instead of a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, Duke is facing charges of illegal possession of firearms, which carry a lengthy prison sentence if he's convicted.
Terry Whitaker's case offers another cautionary tale. He was carelessly operating a Jet Ski at Chatfield Reservoir and attracted the attention of park rangers. When the rangers tried to talk to him, Whitaker fled, making them even more interested in him. The rangers searched his car and found an SKS assault rifle with a laser scope.
A jury found Whitaker, a convicted felon, guilty of illegal possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In the past year there also were several folks arrested for lying in their Brady background checks while attempting to buy guns; several others pinched for illegally selling guns; and one licensed dealer arrested for selling firearms at a gun show without doing the background checks. Instead he just submitted phony approval numbers as if they passed the Colorado Bureau of Investigation process.
None of these cases is nearly as dramatic as charging someone with murder, armed robbery or assault with a deadly weapon. And the gun-rights activists are the first to ridicule the arrests under Project Exile as mere "paper crimes" and "technicalities." But Strickland insists the whole point of gun-control laws is to prevent violent crimes.
The majority of people arrested under Project Exile are felons illegally in possession of firearms, most of them people who've already demonstrated a propensity for violence. They don't elicit much sympathy.
"Convicted felons forfeit their right to have a weapon of any sort," Strickland said. "This is not a casual decision by some vague committee; this is federal law." Strickland, who was sworn in as U.S. attorney in Colorado on the day after the Columbine High School shootings, said the culture changed forever that day.
"The public response to Columbine was historic. We will never go back. Virtually everyone agrees that we must send a message that breaking gun laws will not be tolerated anymore."
Zealots aside, it makes you wonder why we ever did.
dcarman@denverpost.com
Copyright 2000 The Denver Post.
By Diane Carman
Denver Post Columnist
Sept. 9, 2000 - The Colorado Freedom Report calls it "Project Gestapo." GunTruths.com calls it "Project Gulag."
And nothing makes these gun-rights activists angrier than the fact that National Rifle Association director Wayne LaPierre has endorsed Project Exile with the statement: "We don't support the rights of criminals to bear arms." But, zealots aside, in the feverish debate over gun control, few programs are as widely popular as Project Exile.
U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland this week offered a few examples of the 147 people charged under the yearlong campaign to enforce existing gun control laws.
There was Christopher Duke, who had a prior domestic violence conviction. He showed up at the home of a former lover and was pounding on the door. Police arrived and discovered that Duke had an Uzi and a sawed-off shotgun in his possession.
Instead of a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, Duke is facing charges of illegal possession of firearms, which carry a lengthy prison sentence if he's convicted.
Terry Whitaker's case offers another cautionary tale. He was carelessly operating a Jet Ski at Chatfield Reservoir and attracted the attention of park rangers. When the rangers tried to talk to him, Whitaker fled, making them even more interested in him. The rangers searched his car and found an SKS assault rifle with a laser scope.
A jury found Whitaker, a convicted felon, guilty of illegal possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In the past year there also were several folks arrested for lying in their Brady background checks while attempting to buy guns; several others pinched for illegally selling guns; and one licensed dealer arrested for selling firearms at a gun show without doing the background checks. Instead he just submitted phony approval numbers as if they passed the Colorado Bureau of Investigation process.
None of these cases is nearly as dramatic as charging someone with murder, armed robbery or assault with a deadly weapon. And the gun-rights activists are the first to ridicule the arrests under Project Exile as mere "paper crimes" and "technicalities." But Strickland insists the whole point of gun-control laws is to prevent violent crimes.
The majority of people arrested under Project Exile are felons illegally in possession of firearms, most of them people who've already demonstrated a propensity for violence. They don't elicit much sympathy.
"Convicted felons forfeit their right to have a weapon of any sort," Strickland said. "This is not a casual decision by some vague committee; this is federal law." Strickland, who was sworn in as U.S. attorney in Colorado on the day after the Columbine High School shootings, said the culture changed forever that day.
"The public response to Columbine was historic. We will never go back. Virtually everyone agrees that we must send a message that breaking gun laws will not be tolerated anymore."
Zealots aside, it makes you wonder why we ever did.
dcarman@denverpost.com
Copyright 2000 The Denver Post.