I didn't realize until a week ago that Congressman Tom Lantos was a holocaust survivor. I then went to his web page, saw blurbs about "the evils of assault rifles".
And...I got pissed. Let's be honest. How in HELL could a holocaust survivor be in favor of the gov't being the sole armed party in society?
Sooooooo....I probably shouldn't have, but...I wrote this, and mailed him copies to his San Mateo and WashDC offices, along with a copy of that suit. It fit on two pages, and the stuff here that's "crossed out with x" was present in the Lantos version. No, I have no idea if it'll help.
COMMENT: this should NOT be seen as a "flood this guy with letters/EMails/faxes" type o' thing. On the contrary, let's take it slow, see how he digests this, I promise to print any response here. OK? Given what's in here I do NOT wanna piss him off
.
---------------------------------
The Honorable Tom Lantos
(address info)
Dear Sir,
I know this is a long letter but it's important and I hope you’ll bear with me.
While I am fairly current on California politics and literally grew up in your district (Pacifica, mostly) it previously escaped my notice that you survived Germany's bout of "temporary insanity" and the ensuing disaster. My father grew up in London during the bombing, and I’m as familiar as anyone can be with it without either being there or specializing in the history of those times.
I also grew up knowing other survivors with tattooed arms.
When I was around 12 or so, a newspaper column by Andy Rooney of all people caught my dad's eye, and he had me read it. It wasn't one of Mr. Rooney’s humor pieces. He described his days as a combat reporter/photographer following US troops towards the end of the war...and the day they liberated one of the "camps" and took a long peek into hell.
It's the sort of recollection that stays with you. Mr. Rooney eloquently contrasted the state of affairs in the quaint little German village less than half a mile or so from the camp, and how it had remained fully populated and barely touched by the entire war, mainly by deliberately ignoring the atrocity literally in their back yards. They'd been bystanders to the worst crime in history, and couldn't understand the furious hate on the part of the Americans, aimed at "the innocent bystanders" for ignoring it.
That was Mr. Rooney's point. It’s not enough not to be criminal in such matters, deliberately ignoring it is just as bad...and the question I personally asked then and later was "would I be a bystander?".
Well Congressman, about 20 years later I actually got a chance to answer that question.
During the last week of Dec. '97, I was witness to a beating on BART. Four angry lunatics enraged that a guy had dared ask them why they spit on his girlfriend had attacked the questioner. At the time I came through the doors at least eight people were standing around watching four individuals stomp on the downed and bleeding victim, and had previously been beating him with claw hammers one of which was visibly dripping blood. On entering the car at the point where the assault was happening I managed to push all four off of the victim while yelling "it’s over" repeatedly. Took 'em completely by surprise, the "startle effect" seemed to have "derailed their train" for a moment, long enough for the victim to stagger back into the next car (where he collapsed) and for me to back up and "plug the gap" between cars. Much angry shouting on the part of the assailants ensued, along with waving the hammers which I confess I hadn't noticed until that point.
A couple of the previous "bystanders" so beloved of Mr. Rooney (not!) finally at least spoke up to the effect of "hey, you know, mebbe killing somebody slowly right in the middle of a train is just MAYBE uncool" and the four jackarsses departed. Not for long, thank the deity of your choice, Lake Merrit BART is also a BART Police station. All four were rounded up plus a fifth who’d realized early in the mess that it was heading out of control and had split, they found him on a bus several blocks out.
I was questioned and released, and was later issued a subpoena as a witness. At the DA’s pre-trial conference the witness shook my hand...unfortunately it got pled to misdemeanors which is a subject for a whole 'nuther rant some other time.
What I didn't tell the DA staff or the witness or the cops or anybody else is why I was confident enough to step into a disaster like that. I'm physically large but not that strong and I was completely untrained in any sort of unarmed combat, something I've since taken steps to remedy. The reason I felt I could at least try and step in front of that "solitary inmate of a death camp with four SS" was my illegal carry of a small revolver. No, I didn't pull it - but without it, there'd have been nothing I could have done to prevent being victimized myself for objecting to the criminal behavior. Had they attacked me, I would have been justified in defending myself...but they realized I wasn't afraid, that in turn made THEM afraid - and the violence ended short of gunfire.
Right. Well, you're now thinking to yourself "oh, so NOW we get to the point".
Yep.
Congressman Lantos, my actions that day should not have rendered me a criminal. Not that I was after a reward, it was and remains more a matter of "why am I now terrified in talking to the cops"?
Not that I feel any particular guilt over packing. There are now 31 states that allow ordinary citizens to pack concealed, usually with required training, gun safety and handling tests plus a background check. All of which is fine by me. But California’s current system is NOT fine. It's badly, brutally broken. Permits are being handed out on the basis of political connections, social status (such as the various Hollywood stars and politicians with permits), racial basis and in some cases outright bribery and corruption. Race example: Contra Costa County, the Sheriff does issue permits fairly in cases of very extreme need, but he won’t even give people applications if they're from the cities of Richmond or Pittsburgh - the only two majority-black towns in the otherwise mostly-white county. Corruption: see also four scanned pages of a police report containing a confession of permit-related bribery (Colafrancesco papers) at the following website:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~jemonaly/hobby/ca_firearms/index.html
California's Constitution, Article 1, Section 7B says: "A citizen or class of citizens may not be granted privileges or immunities not granted on the same terms to all citizens." If the ways our current permit system is being "implemented" (for want of a cruder term) is NOT in violation of this, I’d sure as hell like to know how. If "discretionary gun permits" are as much in violation of A1S7B as I think they are, there isn't a police agency in California that issues legally.
Sir, I've seen your web page. I've seen your policy on "assault rifles" and I'm not at this time ready to disagree. I care a lot more about personal defense from criminals and making sure California's police don’t remain habitual civil rights violators as they are under the present gun permit system. I am asking for your help in reforming our gun permits to something along the lines of Texas/Utah/Florida/Arizona, where permits are handed out to those who qualify and there's fairly serious training and other qualifications involved, and the local police can still file a sworn statement to the effect of "this guy's a crook we just haven’t caught yet, don't give him a permit". Such power is available in these states and it's seldom abused because the permit applicant can challenge it in court if untrue - and it's a sworn statement, with perjury laws in full effect.
Sir, everyone who was victimized by the German Holocaust or directly saw the results says the same thing: don't sit passively by and witness monstrous evil. The problem is, universal disarmament of non-criminals creates an atmosphere where "the only ones who can object are the police". So if no cops are around, or worse if the cops happen to be part of the problem, well gee, social order comes apart at the seams instantly. Look up an old historical footnote known as the "Battle of Athens, Georgia" circa 1946 I believe for an example of how things should go. It might even affect your opinion on "sport utility rifles".
Please help fix the gun permit system. California is involved in a huge mess whereby 80% or more of our law-enforcement agencies have gotten used to violating citizen’s rights and rendering them helpless to criminal attack. I am no longer in your district, but I figure if anyone can understand the implications of all this it’d be you.
As to my personal incident: the defendants names were (deleted from online version but present in Lantos version - JM). They were charged out of the xxxxx xxxxxx County DA's office, the Deputy District Attorney was a Mr. xxxxx. Docket # was xxxxxx, case # was xxxxxx. Mention to the DA staffers that the assailants in this wacked case were cross-dressers (yep, weird but true) and they'll almost certainly recall it. They'll probably remember me, I’m 6'4" tall, somewhat hard to miss. My gun is a 10yr-old Freedom Arms "minirevolver", a 4shot .22Magnum little "pocket rocket" very similar to products currently produced by North American Arms (http://www.naaminis.com). If you want, I can show your staff in San Mateo the extremely well-worn pocket holster this little critter generally sits in, that’s the only proof I can offer that a gun actually saved a life in this incident by being present but undetected. As an aside, my worst previous personal criminal matter was traffic related, and no, not DUI.
One reckless driving six years ago, certainly nothing that would disqualify me from permit issuance if the law was sane.
I'm sorry to have to present you with a moral dilemma. You can choose to ignore this, and ignore wrongdoing on a massive scale. You can choose to see me as being in the wrong, and show this letter in it’s entirety to the DA staff in Oakland. Or you can investigate, realize that #1 this incident happened and #2, me having to risk criminal prosecution to save a life is totally insane and that therefore, California's gun laws are seriously, tragically broken. I feel that if you get to that point, you'll most likely take action to help and in that hope, I am writing this.
Worst case it gets me prosecuted...in which case this letter and the facts therein will make for a REAL interesting defense.
Thank you for listening,
James March
xxx xxxxxxxx x
Richmond, California xxxxx
Home: 510-xxx-xxxx Page: 510-xxx-xxxx
And...I got pissed. Let's be honest. How in HELL could a holocaust survivor be in favor of the gov't being the sole armed party in society?
Sooooooo....I probably shouldn't have, but...I wrote this, and mailed him copies to his San Mateo and WashDC offices, along with a copy of that suit. It fit on two pages, and the stuff here that's "crossed out with x" was present in the Lantos version. No, I have no idea if it'll help.
COMMENT: this should NOT be seen as a "flood this guy with letters/EMails/faxes" type o' thing. On the contrary, let's take it slow, see how he digests this, I promise to print any response here. OK? Given what's in here I do NOT wanna piss him off
.---------------------------------
The Honorable Tom Lantos
(address info)
Dear Sir,
I know this is a long letter but it's important and I hope you’ll bear with me.
While I am fairly current on California politics and literally grew up in your district (Pacifica, mostly) it previously escaped my notice that you survived Germany's bout of "temporary insanity" and the ensuing disaster. My father grew up in London during the bombing, and I’m as familiar as anyone can be with it without either being there or specializing in the history of those times.
I also grew up knowing other survivors with tattooed arms.
When I was around 12 or so, a newspaper column by Andy Rooney of all people caught my dad's eye, and he had me read it. It wasn't one of Mr. Rooney’s humor pieces. He described his days as a combat reporter/photographer following US troops towards the end of the war...and the day they liberated one of the "camps" and took a long peek into hell.
It's the sort of recollection that stays with you. Mr. Rooney eloquently contrasted the state of affairs in the quaint little German village less than half a mile or so from the camp, and how it had remained fully populated and barely touched by the entire war, mainly by deliberately ignoring the atrocity literally in their back yards. They'd been bystanders to the worst crime in history, and couldn't understand the furious hate on the part of the Americans, aimed at "the innocent bystanders" for ignoring it.
That was Mr. Rooney's point. It’s not enough not to be criminal in such matters, deliberately ignoring it is just as bad...and the question I personally asked then and later was "would I be a bystander?".
Well Congressman, about 20 years later I actually got a chance to answer that question.
During the last week of Dec. '97, I was witness to a beating on BART. Four angry lunatics enraged that a guy had dared ask them why they spit on his girlfriend had attacked the questioner. At the time I came through the doors at least eight people were standing around watching four individuals stomp on the downed and bleeding victim, and had previously been beating him with claw hammers one of which was visibly dripping blood. On entering the car at the point where the assault was happening I managed to push all four off of the victim while yelling "it’s over" repeatedly. Took 'em completely by surprise, the "startle effect" seemed to have "derailed their train" for a moment, long enough for the victim to stagger back into the next car (where he collapsed) and for me to back up and "plug the gap" between cars. Much angry shouting on the part of the assailants ensued, along with waving the hammers which I confess I hadn't noticed until that point.
A couple of the previous "bystanders" so beloved of Mr. Rooney (not!) finally at least spoke up to the effect of "hey, you know, mebbe killing somebody slowly right in the middle of a train is just MAYBE uncool" and the four jackarsses departed. Not for long, thank the deity of your choice, Lake Merrit BART is also a BART Police station. All four were rounded up plus a fifth who’d realized early in the mess that it was heading out of control and had split, they found him on a bus several blocks out.
I was questioned and released, and was later issued a subpoena as a witness. At the DA’s pre-trial conference the witness shook my hand...unfortunately it got pled to misdemeanors which is a subject for a whole 'nuther rant some other time.
What I didn't tell the DA staff or the witness or the cops or anybody else is why I was confident enough to step into a disaster like that. I'm physically large but not that strong and I was completely untrained in any sort of unarmed combat, something I've since taken steps to remedy. The reason I felt I could at least try and step in front of that "solitary inmate of a death camp with four SS" was my illegal carry of a small revolver. No, I didn't pull it - but without it, there'd have been nothing I could have done to prevent being victimized myself for objecting to the criminal behavior. Had they attacked me, I would have been justified in defending myself...but they realized I wasn't afraid, that in turn made THEM afraid - and the violence ended short of gunfire.
Right. Well, you're now thinking to yourself "oh, so NOW we get to the point".
Yep.
Congressman Lantos, my actions that day should not have rendered me a criminal. Not that I was after a reward, it was and remains more a matter of "why am I now terrified in talking to the cops"?
Not that I feel any particular guilt over packing. There are now 31 states that allow ordinary citizens to pack concealed, usually with required training, gun safety and handling tests plus a background check. All of which is fine by me. But California’s current system is NOT fine. It's badly, brutally broken. Permits are being handed out on the basis of political connections, social status (such as the various Hollywood stars and politicians with permits), racial basis and in some cases outright bribery and corruption. Race example: Contra Costa County, the Sheriff does issue permits fairly in cases of very extreme need, but he won’t even give people applications if they're from the cities of Richmond or Pittsburgh - the only two majority-black towns in the otherwise mostly-white county. Corruption: see also four scanned pages of a police report containing a confession of permit-related bribery (Colafrancesco papers) at the following website:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~jemonaly/hobby/ca_firearms/index.html
California's Constitution, Article 1, Section 7B says: "A citizen or class of citizens may not be granted privileges or immunities not granted on the same terms to all citizens." If the ways our current permit system is being "implemented" (for want of a cruder term) is NOT in violation of this, I’d sure as hell like to know how. If "discretionary gun permits" are as much in violation of A1S7B as I think they are, there isn't a police agency in California that issues legally.
Sir, I've seen your web page. I've seen your policy on "assault rifles" and I'm not at this time ready to disagree. I care a lot more about personal defense from criminals and making sure California's police don’t remain habitual civil rights violators as they are under the present gun permit system. I am asking for your help in reforming our gun permits to something along the lines of Texas/Utah/Florida/Arizona, where permits are handed out to those who qualify and there's fairly serious training and other qualifications involved, and the local police can still file a sworn statement to the effect of "this guy's a crook we just haven’t caught yet, don't give him a permit". Such power is available in these states and it's seldom abused because the permit applicant can challenge it in court if untrue - and it's a sworn statement, with perjury laws in full effect.
Sir, everyone who was victimized by the German Holocaust or directly saw the results says the same thing: don't sit passively by and witness monstrous evil. The problem is, universal disarmament of non-criminals creates an atmosphere where "the only ones who can object are the police". So if no cops are around, or worse if the cops happen to be part of the problem, well gee, social order comes apart at the seams instantly. Look up an old historical footnote known as the "Battle of Athens, Georgia" circa 1946 I believe for an example of how things should go. It might even affect your opinion on "sport utility rifles".
Please help fix the gun permit system. California is involved in a huge mess whereby 80% or more of our law-enforcement agencies have gotten used to violating citizen’s rights and rendering them helpless to criminal attack. I am no longer in your district, but I figure if anyone can understand the implications of all this it’d be you.
As to my personal incident: the defendants names were (deleted from online version but present in Lantos version - JM). They were charged out of the xxxxx xxxxxx County DA's office, the Deputy District Attorney was a Mr. xxxxx. Docket # was xxxxxx, case # was xxxxxx. Mention to the DA staffers that the assailants in this wacked case were cross-dressers (yep, weird but true) and they'll almost certainly recall it. They'll probably remember me, I’m 6'4" tall, somewhat hard to miss. My gun is a 10yr-old Freedom Arms "minirevolver", a 4shot .22Magnum little "pocket rocket" very similar to products currently produced by North American Arms (http://www.naaminis.com). If you want, I can show your staff in San Mateo the extremely well-worn pocket holster this little critter generally sits in, that’s the only proof I can offer that a gun actually saved a life in this incident by being present but undetected. As an aside, my worst previous personal criminal matter was traffic related, and no, not DUI.
One reckless driving six years ago, certainly nothing that would disqualify me from permit issuance if the law was sane.
I'm sorry to have to present you with a moral dilemma. You can choose to ignore this, and ignore wrongdoing on a massive scale. You can choose to see me as being in the wrong, and show this letter in it’s entirety to the DA staff in Oakland. Or you can investigate, realize that #1 this incident happened and #2, me having to risk criminal prosecution to save a life is totally insane and that therefore, California's gun laws are seriously, tragically broken. I feel that if you get to that point, you'll most likely take action to help and in that hope, I am writing this.
Worst case it gets me prosecuted...in which case this letter and the facts therein will make for a REAL interesting defense.
Thank you for listening,
James March
xxx xxxxxxxx x
Richmond, California xxxxx
Home: 510-xxx-xxxx Page: 510-xxx-xxxx