Second Amendment Project Newsletter. December 15, 2000

[dZ]

Second Amendment Project Newsletter. December 15, 2000.
The Second Amendment Project is based at the Independence
Institute, a free-market think tank in Golden, Colorado.
http://i2i.org

=========================================================
Table of Contents for this issue

1. New Kopel columns and articles. **Alert on fast-moving
bill in Congress to expand forfeiture and wiretapping.**
2. New Kopel book chapter and article
3. Links: The Politics of Gun Control, and other subjects.
House Dems. ditch gun control. Michigan CCW to become law.
4. What happens when people with guns get angry? Nothing.
By David Hunt

=========================================================
1. New Kopel columns.

a. "End-of-Session Robbery." Congress limits civil liberties before going
home for the holidays. National Review Online. Dec. 15, 2000. More
forfeiture, wiretapping, and federalization of juvenile justice. Likely to
pass unless citizens contact House leadership immediately.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel121500.shtml

b. "Dread the Dred Scott Reference." Don't toss this case around unless you
know what you're talking about. Dred Scott tells us a lot about the Second
Amendment, but not about recounts. National Review Online. Dec. 14, 2000.
[Note: The article's reference to "Jayhawkers" should instead read "Border
Ruffians.] http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel121400.shtml

c. "How Firearms Registration Works." It doesn't, in Canada. National Review
Online. Dec. 7, 2000. With Gary Mauser.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel120700.shtml

d. "The Recount Culture." The controversy about Florida isn't just about
politics. National Review Online. Dec. 2, 2000. With David Stolinksy.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel120700.shtml

e. "Second Amendment Ammo." Recommended reading. Reason magazine, Dec. 2000.
Kopel reviews More Guns, Less Crime; Guns: Who Should Have Them?; and The
Matchlock Gun (an award-winning children's book).
http://www.reason.com/0012/fe.feed.html#Kopel

f. "Solomon Says." The madness of civilian disarmament in the South Pacific.
National Review Online. Nov. 27, 2000. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel112700.shtml

g. "The Last Stolen Election." The story of Rutherfraud Hayes. National
Review Online. Nov. 24, 2000. With Jerry Kopel.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel112400.shtml
=========================================================
2. New Kopel article and book chapter

a. "Firearms Tracing Data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms:
An Occasionally Useful Law Enforcement Tool but a Poor Research Tool."
Criminal Justice Policy Review, volume 11, number 1, March 2000
(published in December 2000). Pages 44-62. With Paul Blackman.
Should be available in the criminology section of good academic libraries.

b. New Cato Institute book, "After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug
Policy in the 21st Century."
Kopel's chapter is "Militarized Law Enforcement: The Drug War's Deadly
Fruit."
A DRAFT copy of the chapter is available at
http://i2i.org/SuptDocs/Crime/Chapters/AfterProhibition.htm
The full book may be ordered at http://www.cato.org

=========================================================
3. Politics of Gun Control, and This Issue's Links.

a. Congressional Quarterly recently reported on the U.S. House race in the
6th CD in Kentucky. There, 18-year-old Missy Jenkins, paralyzed from the
chest down in the Paducah, Kentucky shooting, appeared in a commercial for
anti-gun
Democrat Scottie Baesler, running against pro-rights Republican incumbent
Ernie Fletcher. When the commercial began airing in mid-October, Baesler
was ten points down. At the same time, Baesler's wife appeared on the
the television program of America's most famous hate-monger, Rosie O'
Donnell.
Baesler's gruesome exploitation of a teenager in a wheelchair
sent his support plummeting, ending with an 18 point loss on election day.

b. National Journal, pundit William Schneider's recent article is
headlined. "It Was All About Sex." Chalking up the winners and losers,
Schneider (who has generally been pro-control), writes, "Bush now owes
a major debt Of gratitude to gun owners, whom the National Rifle
Association mobilized on his behalf. Among the nearly half of voters with
a gun in the household, Bush carried more than 60 percent of the vote.
He lost among non-gun owners."

c. "Conservative Democrats Urge Party to Leave Guns Alone"
CQ [Congressional Quarterly] Daily Monitor
By Peter Kaplan
December 11, 2000

"The conservative Democrats' 'Blue Dog' coalition will be an influential
group in the next Congress, given the GOP's narrow majority. So what's
on their minds these days?

In a word: Guns.

. . . the most frequent topic in the group's post-election
discussions is angst over gun control.

Many of the Blue Dog coalition's 30 members believe the party's advocacy
of gun control hurt candidates in many races and torpedoed their effort
to regain the majority in the House. 'As we analyzed what happened and
why we're not successful in some of these races, that just stands out,'
said Blue Dog Marion Berry, D-Ark.
. . . .

House Democratic leadership aides lay the responsibility on President
Clinton. . . .

'Democratic members had to defend Clinton's aggressivity on the issue,'
said one Democratic leadership aide. Blue Dogs said they want the
entire party to distance itself from gun control.

'We don't want it to be part of the Democratic agenda,' Berry said.
'What we're asking for, and I think what we will ultimately do, is let
each member take the position they want on it. We just don't think it's
a good issue for the party.'"

d. "House Democrats Seek a New Edge"
Washington Post, Dec. 7, 2000
"One Democrat who asked not to be identified said some
members believe the push for gun restrictions hurt Democrats
at the polls by leaving them exposed to attacks by the
National Rifle Association."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40996-2000Dec7.html

e. Shipp v. McMahon. Another case of outrageous police negligence
in failing to protect a woman from her criminal ex-husband. As is
typical in these cases, the court holds the police not liable for any
of the harms suffered by the victim.
http://www.user.shentel.net/jpatrick/firearms/shipp-v-mcmahon.html

f. The Newsmax.com website (www.newsmax.com) carries many fine
articles on the gun issue and on Waco. Just go the main Newsmax page,
and then click on the links in the navigation frame on the left
column.

***g. Michigan Passes Concealed Carry. Governor Will Sign.
Bi-partisan coalition overwhelmingly passes Shall Issue bill.
Gun prohibition lobby furious, criminals nervous.
Lots of information from the website for the Michigan Coalition
for Responsible Gun Owners.
Opponents will push for a ballot initiative to overturn the law. But
the vote won't occur until November 2002, and the law goes into
effect on July 1, 2001. Thus, Michigan voters will have practical
experience with the law's effects, and are likely to see that all the
hysterical predictions have failed to come true.
http://www.mcrgo.org/

=========================================================
4. What happens when people with guns get angry? Nothing.
By David Hunt

In Florida the tensions ran high, with opposing groups yelling "Sore
Loserman!" and "Count every dimple!"; emotions were at a fever pitch. Yet
in Florida, the so-called "Gunshine" state, where are the shootings?

Every time a carry concealed weapons law is proposed, opponents cite the
claim that there will be blood in the streets, with people shooting each
other over minor incidents and raised tempers. Anyone watching video from
Florida cannot deny tempers were raised, and ample opportunity existed for
shootings, as opposing sides were in close proximity. So where is the
carnage? With all the demonstrators and all the demonstrations, there has
not been one reported incident.

For those who oppose such a bill in Michigan, I would ask you: Are people
in Florida so much more responsible and mature? If the people in Palm Beach
County, who can't understand a ballot that second graders can, are able to
avoid the predicted carnage, why can't people in Michigan?

===========================================================
Some pages you may want to visit at the award-winning
Independence Institute website:

Criminal Justice and the Second Amendment:
http://i2i.org/crimjust.htm
Kopel short articles: http://i2i.org/kopel.htm.
The Columbine High School murders:
http://i2i.org/suptdocs/crime/columbine.htm
The Waco murders: http://i2i.org/Waco.htm
The Independence Institute's on-line bookstore. Start your
browsing at the Second Amendment section:
http://i2i.org/book.htm#Second

That's all folks!

 

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House Democrats Seek a New Edge

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 7, 2000 ; Page A28

Having fallen short in their quest to retake the House majority, Democrats have been questioning how they can better reach out to conservative, rural, white voters in 2002 in a series of meetings this
week with Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).

In what may amount to the most dramatic policy change, several lawmakers suggested that party leaders may be better off playing down their support for gun control legislation. Gephardt repeatedly
decried the House GOP's inaction on the gun control issue in the aftermath of the April 1999 Columbine High School shooting, but several conservative Democrats argued that this high-profile
approach backfired.

One Democrat who asked not to be identified said some members believe the push for gun restrictions hurt Democrats at the polls by leaving them exposed to attacks by the National Rifle
Association.

The closed-door sessions, each of which has featured a cross-section of the Democratic Caucus and excluded staff, signal what could be a major shift in the party's campaign strategy. While
rank-and-file lawmakers generally deferred to Gephardt over the past two years, for example, they are now demanding a greater voice in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's
decision-making.

Another concern being voiced at the meetings, said Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Calif.), is that the party made a mistake by campaigning on a limited menu of common issues such as Medicare prescription
drug coverage, managed-care reform and education.

"One message that's coming out of this is you can't really nationalize the election from the House of Representatives unless you get extremely lucky or extremely unlucky," he said, in a tacit
admission that the Republicans were able not only to negate the Democrats' advantage on these issues, but also to successfully localize the election.

"We concede the Republicans did a very good job at blurring the distinctions," said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). "There was a general grudging admiration at how they pretended to be in favor of
increased government roles."

Democrats headed into last month's election needing to pick up seven seats to capture the majority they lost in 1994. Instead, they made a net gain of two, leaving the Republicans with 221 seats to the
Democrats' 212, with two independents. The Democrats swept four vulnerable GOP seats in California. But the party was set back by the surprise defeat of two incumbents--Reps. Sam Gejdenson
(Conn.) and David Minge (Minn.)--and it failed to win several seats being vacated by retiring Republicans.

Democrats are particularly concerned with their losses in rural districts in Florida, Indiana and Kentucky, where they had high hopes of picking up seats.

"Clearly, dealing with rural America is a challenge. Dealing with white men is an issue," said Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.). "You have to look at the electorate as a
market where we're selling our ideas."

Gephardt has devoted most of the past three days to the meetings, which include 10 to 20 members and have lasted up to 2 1/2 hours. The discussions have allowed lawmakers to express their
disappointment at falling short despite raising an unprecedented $97 million and negating the GOP's traditional cash advantage.

Democrats continue to back Gephardt as their chief campaign strategist, said several members who participated in the sessions, but they now hope to exercise more oversight to ensure that future
decisions reflect the complexities of individual districts. Gephardt is considering creating a "member's council" that could advise the DCCC on a weekly basis, an aide said.

Gephardt has raised criticism of his strategy, according to one lawmaker, by asking whether the party should have spent so much of its money early as part of a pre-Labor Day advertising blitz. At the
time, DCCC officials argued they needed to go on the attack to prevent Republicans from masking their conservative records.

While Democrats mulled over how they can appeal to conservatives, some more liberal members warned that the party cannot afford to stray too far from its traditional allies.

"If Democrats continue down this path, [Ralph] Nader and the Green Party will gain," predicted Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.). "That is a losing strategy, it will play into the Republicans' hands, and
it must be avoided at all costs."

Lawmakers are not seeking radical changes in their leadership, with most members still hoping Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) stays on to head the party's campaign arm. Kennedy, an effective
fundraiser, has said he would like to give up the post, but Gephardt has pressed him to reenlist for another two years.

Kennedy said yesterday he would likely hold off deciding until the caucus reorganizes in February.

Kennedy defended his committee's performance yesterday, arguing that the Democrats had gained ground despite a massive independent expenditure from groups such as the pharmaceutical
industry. "Let's not lose sight of the fact we took on some pretty powerful interests and won several seats, and gained a couple of seats," Kennedy said.

Democrats such as Rep. Albert R. Wynn (Md.), moreover, said colleagues were prepared to fine-tune their campaign operation so they could win control of the House two years from now. "It is
moving into open trench warfare," Wynn said. "What we're saying is, 'Let's get ready for hand-to-hand combat in 2002.' "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40996-2000Dec7.html
© 2000 The Washington Post

 

[dZ]

RKBA!
anyone else see this as awesome news?

dZ