From the C&R mailing list. No source was given.
Cliff
---------
Renouncing Sam Colt
On a very, very hot humid day in August 1969 the Hall of the House at the
Capitol in Hartford, Conn., was packed with hundreds of citizens. The issue
was gun control and the main act was Sen. Thomas Dodd, the father of the 1968
Gun Control Act.
The GCA, the first federal gun control legislation in over 30 years, had
passed after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther
King, and Senator Bobby Kennedy during the turbulent '60s. Tom Dodd, who was
chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency had become the
prime gun control proponent in the U.S. Senate and had used the issue to go
around the country holding public hearings to further his cause. Even after
the passage of GCA he kept hammering away for more and more restrictive gun
legislation. Whether the unusual summer hearing was his idea or the idea of
one of the members of the Connecticut legislature was irrelevant; proponents
and opponents showed up and many signed up to speak.
A blond young man took to the floor and announced that he was from New Haven
representing the Bobby Kennedy Youth Corps. He gave an impassioned speech for
more gun control. The speech, of course, used the deaths of the Kennedys and
King to illustrate why we needed state gun control legislation. It included
the usual misstatements concerning current federal and state law and ended on
a plea for more restrictions. The speaker was very earnest and quite
effective. His name was Joseph I. Lieberman.
Since that time 30 years ago Joseph I. Lieberman has risen to the top of
Connecticut politics and during all these years he has been involved with Bill
and Hillary Clinton. When Bill and Hillary were students at Yale Law School
they were volunteers in Lieberman's first political campaign for the
Connecticut State Senate in 1970. Now the Democrats will try and position
Lieberman as someone who took Clinton to task during his impeachment hearings,
yet when it came time to vote on removing his fellow Yale Law School alumnus
from office, Joe Lieberman voted no.
After Lieberman's impassioned speech on gun control in 1969 he didn't mention
his support for gun control for many years. It was the politically smart thing
to do. After the statewide elections of 1970 when sportsmen were instrumental
in throwing out Sen. Tom Dodd and both electing Lowell Weicker as their U.S.
senator and former representative, Tom Meskill, as governor, the gun issue
became a non-issue in Connecticut for over a decade.
Lieberman served six years in the State Senate rising to become majority
leader. In 1976 he made an unsuccessful attempt to become a congressman and
left public service for several years reappearing as a candidate for attorney
general. He was successful in that race in 1982 and was re-elected in 1986. He
took the plunge into national politics by challenging and beating the
incumbent, Sen. Lowell Weicker, in 1988.
In the U.S. Senate, Lieberman has not, like Al Gore, voted on both sides of
the gun control issue. His record is clear. Although he comes from the state
which gave us the Colt .45, the gun that won the West, he casts his vote in
lockstep with Schumer, Feinstein, Boxer, and Vice President Gore. Expect a
Gore-Lieberman administration to continue and build upon the anti-Second
Amendment bias of the Clinton-Gore administration.
The Clinton-Gore administration is utilizing every opportunity to push their
anti-gun agenda. They don't miss a beat; even at events that one would think
to have nothing to do with gun control, they push it. This week the Department
of Housing and Urban Development held a conference in Washington, D.C., on
"Building a Better Tomorrow: Best Practices." At the opening session they
played a video featuring Clinton, Gore, and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo's assault of the firearms' industry was prominently featured in this
blatantly political video.
In addition the agenda of the HUD conference included a workshop session on
Cuomo's gun initiative on each day of the conference. Every other workshop
appeared only once on the schedule. Additionally, most other sessions featured
success stories presented by local participants; Deputy General Counsel Max
Stier was the only presenter at the gun seminar. The description read as
follows:
The workshop will provide an overview of the comprehensive program HUD is
sponsoring to promote community safety and reduce gun violence in all the
communities HUD services. In particular, the workshop will discuss HUD's
successful work encouraging gun manufacturers to take responsible steps to
reduce gun violence, HUD's BuyBack American initiative, the Public Housing
Drug Elimination Program, the Communities for Safer Guns Coalition and other
efforts.
Anyway you cut it, a Gore-Lieberman administration will continue the gun
control efforts of Clinton-Gore. And, if elected, they won't have to waste any
time reinventing programs, they just will continue and build on those started
under Bill Clinton and Al Gore. For gun owners this election is about whether
they get to take back their rights or watch as the federal government
renounces Sam Colt, abandons Winchester, and rejects an industry that has kept
this country free for over 150 years.
Cliff
---------
Renouncing Sam Colt
On a very, very hot humid day in August 1969 the Hall of the House at the
Capitol in Hartford, Conn., was packed with hundreds of citizens. The issue
was gun control and the main act was Sen. Thomas Dodd, the father of the 1968
Gun Control Act.
The GCA, the first federal gun control legislation in over 30 years, had
passed after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther
King, and Senator Bobby Kennedy during the turbulent '60s. Tom Dodd, who was
chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency had become the
prime gun control proponent in the U.S. Senate and had used the issue to go
around the country holding public hearings to further his cause. Even after
the passage of GCA he kept hammering away for more and more restrictive gun
legislation. Whether the unusual summer hearing was his idea or the idea of
one of the members of the Connecticut legislature was irrelevant; proponents
and opponents showed up and many signed up to speak.
A blond young man took to the floor and announced that he was from New Haven
representing the Bobby Kennedy Youth Corps. He gave an impassioned speech for
more gun control. The speech, of course, used the deaths of the Kennedys and
King to illustrate why we needed state gun control legislation. It included
the usual misstatements concerning current federal and state law and ended on
a plea for more restrictions. The speaker was very earnest and quite
effective. His name was Joseph I. Lieberman.
Since that time 30 years ago Joseph I. Lieberman has risen to the top of
Connecticut politics and during all these years he has been involved with Bill
and Hillary Clinton. When Bill and Hillary were students at Yale Law School
they were volunteers in Lieberman's first political campaign for the
Connecticut State Senate in 1970. Now the Democrats will try and position
Lieberman as someone who took Clinton to task during his impeachment hearings,
yet when it came time to vote on removing his fellow Yale Law School alumnus
from office, Joe Lieberman voted no.
After Lieberman's impassioned speech on gun control in 1969 he didn't mention
his support for gun control for many years. It was the politically smart thing
to do. After the statewide elections of 1970 when sportsmen were instrumental
in throwing out Sen. Tom Dodd and both electing Lowell Weicker as their U.S.
senator and former representative, Tom Meskill, as governor, the gun issue
became a non-issue in Connecticut for over a decade.
Lieberman served six years in the State Senate rising to become majority
leader. In 1976 he made an unsuccessful attempt to become a congressman and
left public service for several years reappearing as a candidate for attorney
general. He was successful in that race in 1982 and was re-elected in 1986. He
took the plunge into national politics by challenging and beating the
incumbent, Sen. Lowell Weicker, in 1988.
In the U.S. Senate, Lieberman has not, like Al Gore, voted on both sides of
the gun control issue. His record is clear. Although he comes from the state
which gave us the Colt .45, the gun that won the West, he casts his vote in
lockstep with Schumer, Feinstein, Boxer, and Vice President Gore. Expect a
Gore-Lieberman administration to continue and build upon the anti-Second
Amendment bias of the Clinton-Gore administration.
The Clinton-Gore administration is utilizing every opportunity to push their
anti-gun agenda. They don't miss a beat; even at events that one would think
to have nothing to do with gun control, they push it. This week the Department
of Housing and Urban Development held a conference in Washington, D.C., on
"Building a Better Tomorrow: Best Practices." At the opening session they
played a video featuring Clinton, Gore, and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo's assault of the firearms' industry was prominently featured in this
blatantly political video.
In addition the agenda of the HUD conference included a workshop session on
Cuomo's gun initiative on each day of the conference. Every other workshop
appeared only once on the schedule. Additionally, most other sessions featured
success stories presented by local participants; Deputy General Counsel Max
Stier was the only presenter at the gun seminar. The description read as
follows:
The workshop will provide an overview of the comprehensive program HUD is
sponsoring to promote community safety and reduce gun violence in all the
communities HUD services. In particular, the workshop will discuss HUD's
successful work encouraging gun manufacturers to take responsible steps to
reduce gun violence, HUD's BuyBack American initiative, the Public Housing
Drug Elimination Program, the Communities for Safer Guns Coalition and other
efforts.
Anyway you cut it, a Gore-Lieberman administration will continue the gun
control efforts of Clinton-Gore. And, if elected, they won't have to waste any
time reinventing programs, they just will continue and build on those started
under Bill Clinton and Al Gore. For gun owners this election is about whether
they get to take back their rights or watch as the federal government
renounces Sam Colt, abandons Winchester, and rejects an industry that has kept
this country free for over 150 years.