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55
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 55, September 15, 1999
Fire Still Burning
Letters to the Editor
by Our Readers
Send letters to [email protected]As a friend of mine noted once: In the dark, ALL helicopters are black. As you correctly pointed out, the issue is Government use/abuse of military or military style craft for unfounded/un-warrented observation of citizenry. On a note that would be amusing, if you could stop crying long enough: Ron Horiuchi (sp?) stated in his testimony that the reason he shot his sniper rifle at Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris is because he beleived they were *possibly* going to shoot at a government helicopeter that was above and behind him. There was no helicopter anywhere in that area. Horiuchi, though, is not a "nut" crying about non-existant helicopters; he's a "fine example of an FBI agent".
I personally believe (at about 65% or so) that the Davidians DID set the fire themselves. But I agree with Neal and John and others that the FBI has culpability for the deaths by their actions...
One small thing that bothers me a whole lot: The initiating statement that led to the need for an ATF warrent (which OBVIOUSLY needed to be served by commando raid) which led to the stand off and immolation came from a UPS driver who said he saw grenade parts and black powder. Think about that the next time Fed Ex or the boys in brown show up at your door...
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Remember: Always Eschew Obfuscation!"Captain Comic"
[email protected]Not long ago the news media was reporting on events having to do with the current slave trade in Africa. It seems that some school children heard about this quite a while ago and decided to free these slaves by raising money to buy them. Lemonade stands were erected and car washes organized etc. for obtaining the funds.
The most recent report says that economics has taken over. The slave traders have now found a market (surprise!!) and that business is booming.
Now think about Clinton's proposal to spend $15 million to buy back handguns. Any comparison says that we should be buying stock in Colt, Ruger and the like.
Philip Kearney
[email protected]John:
Regarding the following:
NOW YOU SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT TO THE SYSTEM
by Jonathan Taylor[snip]
Now, the fact that I am a Wiccan becomes important here. As a religion, we still remember the period of the inquisition with similar feelings as Jews thinking about Egypt. And, as you will recall, part of those burnings took place here, in a town called Salem.
[snip]
Here's a quote from a newsgroup item:
Point of order, [Fred] - that's actually an urban legend. Nobody burned in Salem, MA. All 19 people convicted of being witches were hanged. (There was one accused witch who was pressed to death, crushed under heavy stones because he wouldn't admit to his witchiness.
The burnings were all in Europe.
According to http://www.faqs.org/faqs/folklore-faq/part4/, this is true. Usually the Urban Legend crowd goes to great lengths to prove or disprove anything brought before them.
I realize this isn't the greatest cite in the world, but the UL folks are pretty fanatical about getting their facts straight.
Now, I also realize dead is dead, whether by hanging or burning, and that's the real point, but the undistorted truth, IMO, does a better job of making a point.
Thanks for your time...
Hank Blake
[email protected]Laissez Firearm said in TLE #55:
>If Gore or Bradley win the election and coattail-in even a slim
>Democratic majority, they will immediately slam through outright
>confiscation of handguns and nasty rifles and military-look
>shotguns, and require full registration on whatever remains. And
>then things might get real lively as ornery Americans react in
>wonderfully diverse ways.Dream on! Gov. Davis has already signed the equivalent into law here in Califas.
There are "public service announcements" on the radio right now telling owners of "sporterized" SKS's to be sure and turn them in by 1 Jan 2000. I swear, this is only a *slight* exageration of the PSA:
"Achtung! Achtung! You vill turn in your guns by January first - or else! Ve know who you are!"
And THE PEOPLE just turned around and spread'em... Total apathy. I don't expect anything but some limited resistance, maybe in Montana or Alaska.
You may be in hunker-down mode, but THE PEOPLE are in head-up-the-ass mode.
Marty Abrego
[email protected]Thanks for the great issue, and stop apologizing for slight inaccuracies, the media never does. Just wanted to share some thoughts with you.
I'm in Management, and as such I seldom have the occasion to dicuss politics with co-workers. However, I always keep an ear out for an opportunity to chime in with a dig or two. Such an occasion came up when the topic of East Timor was mentioned. The telley had the oppressed masses huddled against walls and seeking shelter from the BAD GUYS.
Some associates indicated we should save them, others that we should mind our own business. I pointed out that they might want to save themselves, and fight for their freedom.
I must be some kind of idiot! Those people don't have any guns! That the possession of guns could have anything to do with those poor folks winning their freedom was a novel concept to my co-workers. They felt that President Clinton should certainly send in OUR BOYS to "pacify" the soldiers oppressing "the free people of East Timor".
What a crock! Those people have never been free. The elections were allowed to give the illusion of democracy to the World. Finally, is that the spin machine cranking up again? Does the approaching free election of 2000 herald yet another armed conflict to lift sagging poll numbers? Will Al Gore use coat-tail politics to make it to the White House? I'm waiting with baited breath for this one.
Thanks TLE for the issues - late or otherwise, they're always looked forward to!
Jack Resch
[email protected][Note: I will continue to publicly correct my errors, as much because the Old Media do not as for any other reason. I fervently believe that my word is that which you know me by, which in kind instills in me a great sense of responsibility. Nonetheless, thanks for your support! - TLE]
Sir, below is a copy of the letter I wrote to the AJC on their new Gun Control program. Perhaps it belongs in letters to the editor area or such. I have enjoyed reading TLE for a few months now and it has certainly helped me to futher formulate my libertarian beliefs (from a libertarian Republican to libertarian period). If this letter is not suitable, any feedback/critique you might have would be most welcome. Thank you for your time, and for all your efforts in making The Libertarian Enterprise such an excellent compilation of libertarian ideas and thought.
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An Open Letter To: President of AJC Congress Jack Rosen; Phil Baum, Executive Director AJC; Belle Farber, Asst. Executive Director; Ron Kaplan, Coordinator for Press and Media Relations; Marc Stern, Lois Waldman, Co-Directors The Commission On Law & Social Action and Matthew Dorf, Director Office for Governmental & Public Affairs.
Gentlemen and Ladies of the AJC Executive,
As an American Jew and firearms owner, I read with distaste the announcement of your new gun control campaign. Your campaign will not stop gun violence, instead it will make Jews even more available targets.
Why did Furrow, the attacker at the Jewish Day Care Center in California pick that target? He himself states that he had decided not to attack the Wiesenthal center in LA because there was too much security. Instead he went to a place where he knew both that Jews would be unarmed and that the police would respond far too slowly to intervene in his nefarious acts.
There are four words that bring fear to Furrow and his Nazi, anti-Semitic brethren's hearts, the same four words that sent fear through the hearts of Jurgen Stroop's SS during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising: "The Jews have guns".
Your urging that the Federal government adopt laws mirroring those of the Weimar republic and the Nazi weapons laws requiring registration of firearms shows that you have learned little from our people's recent history. In Germany, after the firearms were registered, all Jews had to turn theirs in, making them easy targets. Do we want to provide a list of Jewish, or Black, or Latino gunowners to be prepared for the next bigot that may come to power? If you say it will never happen here, remember both what was done to the Japanese Americans in World War 2, and that "it will never happen here" was the swan song of the German Jewish community in the 30's.
Gun control in America has a long history of racist roots. Do you know for example that Michigan's firearm laws which were adopted in 1927 and in effect today were enthusiastically sponsored and supported by the KKK? Do we want racists to know which Jews do and do not have guns?
Understand that the racists, crazies, etc will always be able to obtain guns, or failing that, fertilizer and diesel fuel (which can be far deadlier). Our choice as Jews is whether we make ourselves easy targets, or that we protect our own.
How would Mark Furrow and other haters have carried out their crimes if we cared enough about our children to have armed supervisors at the day care center and other locations to protect them?
In Israel, as you undoubtedly know, children are protected in their schools and camps by armed teachers and counselors, the result is that there have been almost no successful attacks against Jewish children since this policy was adopted after the Ma'alot massacre. The attack on Jewish children visiting Jordan last year was made possible as the Jordanians insisted the Israeli teachers go unarmed.
In short I ask that you to reconsider going down the road to making our people easy victims by removing their means of effective defense against racists and killers, and instead announce that you care enough about Jewish children that they will be protected and that there are no more easy Jewish victims available. Only then will the second part of your slogan, "Protect Our Kids", ring true.
Sincerely b' Shalom
Aaron Kendal
[email protected]Member of Jews for Preservation of Firearms Ownership
www.jpfo.org
Member of the Reform Jewish MovementLetter to Scott Bieser:
What you are observing in your article WHO IS REALLY THE NRA? (TLE #55) is precisely the reason that the NRA dropped their most successful PR campaign ever ("I'm the NRA!") and that they even went so far as to threaten a former BoD member with prosecution if he continued to use the slogan (this in spite of the fact that they still offer the little stickers for sale by the bucketful - a clear case of inventory meeting policy head-on, and the bean-counters winning again)!
You see, the NRA doesn't represent its membership. Like any good Republican toadie group, it preaches free love (liberty) but practices B&D (control).
Member Councils vary, I hear, in their usefulness. Those run as grassroots organizations do some wonderful things. Those that are merely 'Larry' to Wayne's 'Mo' are run by petty bureaucrats whose greatest aspiration is usually a BoD seat on the Winning Team side of the table (and that table is, or soon will be, pretty much totally tilted to one side).
Your assessments of GOA and JPFO are, sadly, quite accurate. That same put-upon former BoD member from paragraph one refers to GOA as "Two guys, a gal, and a fax machine". Aaron Zelman may have more 'principle' than any other 'principal', but his organization was - at its peak - four guys (three of whom are now thoroughly disgruntled "former guys") and an answering/fax machine.
NRA membership is 10% "radical" - at most. And even those "radicals" have been decimated of that portion of their ranks who were trying to work "within the system". If Neal Knox is so "radical" that he must be purged, along with others like him, then imagine how much influence a John Taylor would have.
And I do not believe that anyone from our side can rally gunowners any more than anyone can rally libertarians (proof: if anyone could have, they would have - for profit, if for no other reason). Each group's members have in common an ingrained subborn streak of independence that makes organizing them much like the proverbial "herding cats". Paradoxically, it's the Schumers, Feinsteins, Lautenbergs, Chafees, Warners, Bennetts, Bushes, and Clintons of the world - not the Wayne LaPews - who keep gun owners hanging together and energized.
Our family has had at least one NRA member since the '30s (I think - definitely since the late '40s). But if I were not already a paid-up Life Member, I'd no longer be a member at all. I'll give them not one more dime - no matter what - until they fix what's wrong at the top.
Working locally is definitely the move to make. And even there, watch out for the "ulterior motivists".
Regards,
John Taylor
[email protected]John,
I have received a very positive response to my article, "Who Is Really The NRA?" in the last TLE. There have been some developments since then that I'd like to share, and I hope this gets to you in time to include in the letters column (or whatever) for the next issue.
1) As it turns out, the California affilliate of the NRA, the California Rifle and Pistol Association, is supporting the "Veto the Governor" petition against the new assault weapons ban. (There are only a couple of weeks left to turn in signatures, so those who haven't yet, please do now!) [see article #6 below - TLE]
At this point I don't know whether they've been supporting it from the beginning and I just discovered this, or this is a case of "leaders" seeing where the people are going and getting out in front of them. I do know that no one called me to task for not giving CRPA credit; I made this discovery myself just last Friday as I was surfing for gun sites and found theirs.
2) I received a very warm and gracious (and well-written) e-mail from the membership director of the Riverside NRA Members Council. He said my article was "balanced and remarkably insightful." He also invited me to take part in a youth rifle class the local group is holding this Saturday. I plan to attend - this will help me get better acquainted with the group and also give me some preparation for the fast-approaching days when I'll be teaching my young sons to shoot!
3) Last weekend I attended another gun show, this one in Anaheim, smack dab in the middle of Orange County, at the Edison Field where the Angels sometimes attempt to play baseball. The show was fairly typical in that there was the NRA table right next to the entry gate, and they still had the arrangement wherein the $7 admission fee to the show was waived if you joined the NRA at the event. What was new was the volume level. Previously, the NRA folks just sat or stood behind the table and spoke with whoever walked up. Now they had a couple of carnival-style barkers. "JOIN THE NRA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!! THEY'VE STOPPED GUN SHOWS IN L.A., ANAHEIM'S NEXT!"
I saw these guys again on my way out. Now, I had just spent three hours hauling my two young sons around 400 tables full of interesting merchandise, and I was loaded down with purchases, and a bit tired. This is my excuse for the following: As I walked by the table I heard the NRA barker declaim, "JOIN THE NRA TO DEFEND YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS!" and I called back, "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO START?" Kinda took the fella by surprise, and made my older son giggle. I just hustled us back to the van.
Well, if I weren't an incorrigible smart-ass, I likely wouldn't have become a libertarian.
regards,
--Scott Bieser, HMSH
[email protected]In the JPFO mail someone sent us this, I just checked the paper version which came in the mail Saturday, and that's what it sez:
November 1999 "Soldier of Fortune", page 10, 12:
Staffers at "SOF" have long-used the various reference books and periodicals put out by "Jane's" and considered them generally reliable. Indeed, there is a certain amount of cross-pollination between authors who write for both "SOF" and "Jane's". That practice is now under review here, in light of which organizations "Jane's Counter Terrorism", by author Christopher Kozlow, lists as terrorist organizations. Hard to say if it is PC-newspeak or just incredibly sloppy journalism, but included on the list are the Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Gun Owners of America - even Blue Trails Range, which is a public shooting range in Connecticut. "Jane's" Terroist web site lists Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership as a U.S. terrorist organization. Huh? Does "Jane's" not know the difference between a peaceable PAC and a terrorist organization, or do they not care, or did somebody lead them to believe U.S. libel laws had been repealed? Incredible!
Ken Holder
[email protected][Jane's has now removed the listing of JPFO as a terrorist organization from their web site.]
I'm Thinking BATF, FBI, SWAT ...
Seizure on Suspicion Conn. Police Can Seize Guns from Those Deemed to be a "Danger"
Source: www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/guns_connecticut990926.html
Pearl Harbor Regulations
"In 1980 the budgets for federal regulatory agencies in the U.S. totaled about $6.2 billion, but had grown threefold to $18.5 billion by 1999. This is a 57 percent increase in constant (1982) dollars. There are 10,000 more federal regulators today than there were in 1980." - Regulatory Sneak Attack, by Tom DiLorenzo; presentation prepared for the Mises Institute's conference, "Austrian Economics and the Financial Markets," Toronto, Canada, September 16-17, 1999
Source: http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?FS=Regulatory+Sneak+Attack
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