MicroBalrog
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----- Original Message -----
From: Boris Karpa
To: hthomas@hearstdc.com
Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 6:26 PM
Subject: A letter from Israel re: Miami Herald article
Dear Mrs. Thomas!
I am a civil rights activist from Israel. I have read with a certain sense of alarm your article in the Miami Herald entitled 'Death Back on The Street'. I would like to use this opporunity to correct certain errors in your article. Please do not consider the matter a personal affront.
In your article you have written that sunsetting the ban would supposedly negatively affect the 'safety of the American people'. I would like to point you to the following facts:
a)The ban was mostly about cosmetic and ergonomic features (certain combinations of features like pistol grips, bayonet lugs and folding stocks were prohibited) Even with the ban's strange definition of 'assault weapon', the weapons in the definition were used in about %2.8 of all crime in 1990 - before the ban was passed. For murders, the numbers are even more ominous for the supporters of the ban. Less than four percent of all homicides in the United States involve any type of rifle. No more than .8% of homicides are perpetrated with rifles using military calibers. (And not all rifles using such calibers are usually considered "assault weapons.") Overall, the number of persons killed with rifles of any type in 1990 was lower than the number in any year in the 1980s. In fact, more people are killed in America by knives than by rifles of any kind. ( FBI, "Crime in the United States," 1994, p. 18. Matt L. Rodriguez, Superintendent of Police for the City of Chicago, 1993 Murder Analysis at 12, 13.).
b)The ban did, however, affect negatively the safety of those Americans who legally carry handguns for self-defense. Ask yourself, why do Beretta handguns come from the factory with 15-round magazines and not ten-round magazines? That's right, because ordinary citizens are not Rambo clones - and in a defensive encounter, there's no such thing as having too much ammunition. In fact, the people most affected by this bill where women and the elderly - those in the biggest need of quality defensive firearm.
Further, you claimed that the 'assault weapons' described in the ban were the same type as used by the military. As someone who completed an armourer's course in the Israel Defense Force, I am probably qualified enough to tell you that the IDF does not issue it's infantry units (at least, the majority of them) by semi-auto AR-15's, Sporter Uzis or civvie Galils. No need - we use fully-automatic firearms.
Moreover the NRA-ILA is at least partially a representative of the opinion of it's members. The Representatives and Senators who voted against the ban were elected by people who knew they were pro-gun - and still voted for them. On September, 13th, the real voice of the American people was heard. And, like it or not, they put in a vote for freedom.
For that very freedom that your Founding Fathers thought of when they wrote the 2nd Amendment (guaranteeing each and every adult citizen in America the right to own defensive firearms) and the 10th (limiting the authority of the Federal Government). For that very freedom that people don't have where I live. For that very freedom that makes America - America.
Mrs. Helent Thomas, as a citizen of the State of Israel - on September 13th, 2004, I envied you. I still do.
Yours,
Boris Karpa,
Ashdod, Israel
From: Boris Karpa
To: hthomas@hearstdc.com
Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 6:26 PM
Subject: A letter from Israel re: Miami Herald article
Dear Mrs. Thomas!
I am a civil rights activist from Israel. I have read with a certain sense of alarm your article in the Miami Herald entitled 'Death Back on The Street'. I would like to use this opporunity to correct certain errors in your article. Please do not consider the matter a personal affront.
In your article you have written that sunsetting the ban would supposedly negatively affect the 'safety of the American people'. I would like to point you to the following facts:
a)The ban was mostly about cosmetic and ergonomic features (certain combinations of features like pistol grips, bayonet lugs and folding stocks were prohibited) Even with the ban's strange definition of 'assault weapon', the weapons in the definition were used in about %2.8 of all crime in 1990 - before the ban was passed. For murders, the numbers are even more ominous for the supporters of the ban. Less than four percent of all homicides in the United States involve any type of rifle. No more than .8% of homicides are perpetrated with rifles using military calibers. (And not all rifles using such calibers are usually considered "assault weapons.") Overall, the number of persons killed with rifles of any type in 1990 was lower than the number in any year in the 1980s. In fact, more people are killed in America by knives than by rifles of any kind. ( FBI, "Crime in the United States," 1994, p. 18. Matt L. Rodriguez, Superintendent of Police for the City of Chicago, 1993 Murder Analysis at 12, 13.).
b)The ban did, however, affect negatively the safety of those Americans who legally carry handguns for self-defense. Ask yourself, why do Beretta handguns come from the factory with 15-round magazines and not ten-round magazines? That's right, because ordinary citizens are not Rambo clones - and in a defensive encounter, there's no such thing as having too much ammunition. In fact, the people most affected by this bill where women and the elderly - those in the biggest need of quality defensive firearm.
Further, you claimed that the 'assault weapons' described in the ban were the same type as used by the military. As someone who completed an armourer's course in the Israel Defense Force, I am probably qualified enough to tell you that the IDF does not issue it's infantry units (at least, the majority of them) by semi-auto AR-15's, Sporter Uzis or civvie Galils. No need - we use fully-automatic firearms.
Moreover the NRA-ILA is at least partially a representative of the opinion of it's members. The Representatives and Senators who voted against the ban were elected by people who knew they were pro-gun - and still voted for them. On September, 13th, the real voice of the American people was heard. And, like it or not, they put in a vote for freedom.
For that very freedom that your Founding Fathers thought of when they wrote the 2nd Amendment (guaranteeing each and every adult citizen in America the right to own defensive firearms) and the 10th (limiting the authority of the Federal Government). For that very freedom that people don't have where I live. For that very freedom that makes America - America.
Mrs. Helent Thomas, as a citizen of the State of Israel - on September 13th, 2004, I envied you. I still do.
Yours,
Boris Karpa,
Ashdod, Israel