I am upset about the recent "agreement" between the Clinton administration and Smith and Wesson. I am not upset just because I am a gun owner. I am not upset just because the Bill of Rights states that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. I am not upset just because it has been proven that guns in the hands of responsible, law-abiding citizens are the most cost-effective way to reduce crime. I am also upset because of the way that the deal came about.
Bill Clinton needs an issue to rally the people around. He has decided to use guns as his issue. While it is true that guns kill and injure far too many innocent people (but not nearly as many as Bill Clinton claims), it is also true that guns are used about 2 million times every year to prevent a criminal from killing or injuring someone-usually without the gun ever being fired.
So, Bill Clinton has chosen his target: the gun manufacturers. Never mind that they have no control over how the product is used once in the hands of a criminal. (Could you imagine General Motors being sued because of what drunk drivers do with their cars?) Bill Clinton, the HUD and several cities have decided that the gun manufacturers must be put out of business one way or another. They got together to launch a series of lawsuits that have no merit, but the cost of defending the lawsuits would bankrupt the gun industry. Then they gave Smith and Wesson an out. If they would agree to a list of concessions designed to ruin their business, the lawsuits would be dropped. This is nothing more than legislation by extortion. It subverts the Constitution. Regulation of this sort, if it were even necessary, is the job of Congress, not of the executive branch. If any non-government entity tried using the same methods to persuade a business to enter into this type of a deal, that entity would be guilty of violating RICO laws.
I want to know what Congress plans to do to stop this blatantly unconstitutional abuse of power by the Clinton administration. If Bill Clinton can do this to the gun industry, he can do this to any other unpopular industry that he chooses to destroy. Last year Congress debated whether perjury and obstruction of justice rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. Perhaps Congress should debate whether extortion and racketeering rise to that level.
The American gun industry brought about this experiment in Democracy. It settled the West. It rescued Europe from Hitler's grasp, and the Pacific islands from Hirohito's. It kept North Korean communism out of South Korea. It pushed Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard back into Iraq. It guarantees our on-going freedoms. Now Bill Clinton and the HUD want to destroy it for their own political gain.
This abuse of power needs to be stopped. The power to legislate needs to remain with Congress, where the Constitution says it belongs. Please, will you take a stand against Bill Clinton and the HUD?
Respectfully,
Scott Bryce
Taylorsville, Utah
2nd Congressional District
------------------
Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.
Nehemiah 4:17,18
[This message has been edited by sbryce (edited March 22, 2000).]
Bill Clinton needs an issue to rally the people around. He has decided to use guns as his issue. While it is true that guns kill and injure far too many innocent people (but not nearly as many as Bill Clinton claims), it is also true that guns are used about 2 million times every year to prevent a criminal from killing or injuring someone-usually without the gun ever being fired.
So, Bill Clinton has chosen his target: the gun manufacturers. Never mind that they have no control over how the product is used once in the hands of a criminal. (Could you imagine General Motors being sued because of what drunk drivers do with their cars?) Bill Clinton, the HUD and several cities have decided that the gun manufacturers must be put out of business one way or another. They got together to launch a series of lawsuits that have no merit, but the cost of defending the lawsuits would bankrupt the gun industry. Then they gave Smith and Wesson an out. If they would agree to a list of concessions designed to ruin their business, the lawsuits would be dropped. This is nothing more than legislation by extortion. It subverts the Constitution. Regulation of this sort, if it were even necessary, is the job of Congress, not of the executive branch. If any non-government entity tried using the same methods to persuade a business to enter into this type of a deal, that entity would be guilty of violating RICO laws.
I want to know what Congress plans to do to stop this blatantly unconstitutional abuse of power by the Clinton administration. If Bill Clinton can do this to the gun industry, he can do this to any other unpopular industry that he chooses to destroy. Last year Congress debated whether perjury and obstruction of justice rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. Perhaps Congress should debate whether extortion and racketeering rise to that level.
The American gun industry brought about this experiment in Democracy. It settled the West. It rescued Europe from Hitler's grasp, and the Pacific islands from Hirohito's. It kept North Korean communism out of South Korea. It pushed Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard back into Iraq. It guarantees our on-going freedoms. Now Bill Clinton and the HUD want to destroy it for their own political gain.
This abuse of power needs to be stopped. The power to legislate needs to remain with Congress, where the Constitution says it belongs. Please, will you take a stand against Bill Clinton and the HUD?
Respectfully,
Scott Bryce
Taylorsville, Utah
2nd Congressional District
------------------
Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.
Nehemiah 4:17,18
[This message has been edited by sbryce (edited March 22, 2000).]
