Second Amendment Foundation ISSN 1079-6169 The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report An Insiders Guide for Gun Owners Issue 002 February, 1995 Subscribe Electronically to the printed edition of the report, and receive the news when its most current! The URL is: http://www.saf.org/GT-SUBSCRIPTION.html In this issue: Big Money Study = Applied to Private Guns? = Toy Guns Boycott = Concealed Weapons Chart = Horror Stories = Washington Watch = Around America = Two Reports on Gun Seizures in Airports = Our Page Eight "Parting Shot" contains an eloquent defense of gun rights that will inspire GOTTLIEB-TARTARO REPORT readers. The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report is brought to you electronically about one month after publication. To help support the Report, and to receive it when it is current, subscribe by calling 206-454-7012 (and make sure you mention that you heard about it on the Internet!). More information on how to subscribe is available at the end of this report. To receive the electronic edition of this newsletter send: subscribe gt-report Your Name (where Your Name is replaced by your name) as the body of a message to listproc@saf.org When you subscribe the current electronic edition of the report will be automatically sent to you. Dear Subscriber, Now the feds are researching "Smart Guns." What are Smart Guns? They're not like the Smart Bombs we sent to SADDAM HUSSEIN that seek out exact targets. They're guns that recognize their owners and only work for an authorized individual. All others are locked out. Smart Guns are supposed to prevent police officers from being shot with their own sidearms during a resisted arrest. And, no, they aren't at the gun dealers yet. Big Money Study But the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is spending $620,000 on a Smart Gun study to see if it's possible. The research arm of the US Justice Department has farmed out the actual work to the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is run by the US Department of Energy. DOUG WEISS, Smart Gun technology program manager, said that NIJ had asked his team to examine the feasibility of a "use-control" technology which could be applied to a firearm. WEISS told us, "The focus of what NIJ has asked us to look at applies to law enforcement officers, so we have developed the requirements mainly for police guns." His study will take three steps: 1) understand and document the requirements; 2) evaluate a wide range of technologies to see how they fit the requirements; and 3) put together some prototypes. WEISS said, "We are currently in the second stage, which is evaluating technologies to see how they fit against the requirements. When this work is completed, we will then begin producing some breadboard-type prototypes. We expect to get to the final stage around April this year." Technologies under study range from TERMINATOR II-style high tech biometric gizmos that secretly read fingerprints or palm prints, all the way down to clunky low-tech mechanical gimmicks such as trigger lock or lanyard-type combinations. Somewhere in the middle are electronic tags in the firearm that read a frequency from a transmitter on the officer's person, and finger ring controlled-type firing safety devices. Applied to Private Guns? Monitoring the Smart Gun study is visiting scientist DR. RAY DOWNS, on loan to NIJ. DOWNS said, "A possible spin-off is that this technology could also be applied for use by civilians." If the idea works, NIJ might enourage industry to pick it up. "But we are a long way from being there," DOWNS emphasized. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) held hearings last Dec. 12 which included testimony on technology "for controlling the inadvertent use of handguns." However, the hearings had a distinctly anti-gun bias, studying methods for tracking ammunition use and sale as part of the OTA's research _ provisions requested in writing by a trio of anti-gun Senators, MOYNIHAN (D-NY), CHAFEE (R-RI) and KENNEDY (D-MA). Firearms industry representatives at the hearings felt they were nothing more than a sophisticated trap designed to trick manufacturers into making admissions on the record that their products were unsafe. Of the more practical Smart Gun prototypes, one now in actual development allows a specially-outfitted gun to be fired only by a handler who wears a special ring. Such a gun must always be grasped exactly the same way, with the finger ring in alignment with the firearm's internal "smart" components to complete the circuit, allowing the gun to be fired. The technology would add an estimated $1,000 to the price of a basic gun. PRO-GUN BOYCOTT HITS TOYS R US EARNINGS Multinational retailer TOYS R US last year adopted a policy of refusing to sell toy guns in its outlets. Gun owners informally started a boycott: We won't buy any of our Christmas toys from TOYS R US. Shortly after Christmas, Wertheim Schroder analyst Robert Schweich told traders he was considering lowering his year-end earnings estimates on Toys R Us from $1.95 a share in $1 to $1.85 a share. He was concerned that U. S. Christmas revenue might miss his projected gain of 4% over last year. Toys R Us shares plummeted 3 to a 52-week low $301/8. Other Wall Street analysts sliced estimates. Toys R Us Chairman Charles Lazarus will not comment on his company's holiday performance. Schweich was baffled by the market's reaction. "The stock market has overdone this very significantly," he says. "This is a company with a fantastic future. It's one of those days where I pound the table, it's so frustrating." Gun lobbyist John Snyder said, "It shouldn't be too hard to understand. If you irritate your customers enough by refusing to sell certain types of toys because they are politically incorrect, those who disagree may express their purchase preferences by voting with their feet." Toys R Us exemplified the holiday hangover plaguing retail stocks, said the national newspaper USA TODAY. Retailers ended the holiday season up about 5% over last year. But to lure shoppers, most cut prices so much that net income has suffered. It's hard to measure how much loss was caused by the boycott. We think the numbers tell the story by themselves. TOYS R US has suffered a serious downturn in its stock price because of reduced earnings expectations. A pro-gun boycott was going on at the time of the downturn. What's your conclusion? Perhaps MR. LAZARUS should rethink his toy gun sales strategy. CONCEALED CARRY LAWS, STATE-BY-STATE Here's a revealing chart that shows we have our work cut out for us on the concealed weapons issue. STATES WITH NO PERMIT REQUIRED Vermont STATES WITH GOOD CONCEALED CARRY LAWS Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. STATES WITH CARRY LAWS NEEDING IMPROVEMENT Alabama, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Lousiana, Maryland, Massachussetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, District of Columbia. STATES NOT PERMITTING CONCEALED CARRY Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin. Good Laws: You do not have to show a "need." Laws Needing Improvement: Highly restrictive, must show "compelling need;" issuing authority may withhold permit at their discretion. FRESNO WILL VOTE TO ALLOW MORE CONCEALED GUNS A new Fresno, California, city ordinance will make it easier to get a concealed gun permit, and only one councilman is set to vote against it. Michael Erin Woody said he thinks the ordinance set for late January vote "a very poorly crafted and poorly written piece of legislation." Mayor Jim Patterson has endorsed it after amendments were added to meet his objections. The ordinance's chief sponsor, Councilman Robert Lung, said it now has the support of five of Fresno's seven city council members. Lung and Patterson have said the police chief should follow the policy, if adopted, to issue more gun permits. No concealed weapons permits have been issued in Fresno since the late 1980s. Police chief Ed Winchester said the "current policy is too restrictive." Under the proposed measure, anyone applying for a concealed weapons permit _ meaning handguns, not knives _ would have to undergo a police background check. If the applicant passed, he or she would have to take formal training in how to use a gun safely. Members of the citizens' committee behind the proposal said police chiefs in rural communities generally give more permits than chiefs in metropolitan areas such as Fresno, which has 400,000 residents. TEXAS READY TO TAKE AIM AT LEGALIZING CONCEALED GUNS Houston Democrat Ron Wilson is sponsoring Texas' new concealed weapons law, after Democrat Gov. Ann Richards vetoed an earlier, watered-down version in 1993. With Republican George W. Bush replacing Richards, the law is expected to finally pass. Wilson says whether the law lowers crime is beside the point. "What matters is that law-abiding citizens have the right to defend themselves." Texas law enforcement officials have opposed concealed weapons. But new safeguards, barring felons and requiring a license and training, changed minds. "They've put in many of the protections we wanted," says Ron DeLord of the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas. "This session we're going to be neutral." Fort Worth Police Chief Thomas Windham agrees. Two of his officers, both out of uniform, managed to save themselves because they had weapons. "Private citizens would not have had the privilege of self-defense the officers had," Windham says now. "They should not be denied that privilege." CONGRESSMAN CAUGHT IN THE ACT, PART I Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) said in a press conference on December 28, 1995, "Today, I'm announcing the introduction of legislation that will ban all cop killer (sic) bullets. These bullets, such as the Black Rhino, have only one purpose in mind, and that is to kill policemen." The next evening, after the Black Rhino hoax brought a storm of protest from gun owners, Rep. Schumer said on ABC News Nightline, "I never called for banning this particular bullet [the Black Rhino]." Both statements were immortalized in living color on network news videotape. CONGRESSMAN CAUGHT IN THE ACT, PART II Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) pleaded no contest Jan. 5 to a charge of carrying a loaded handgun in his baggage at Washington National Airport and was given a "suspended imposition of sentence." Hinchey's lawyer, David Lenefsky, said, "We did not plead guilty to anything because we had no intent to violate any statute." Lenefsky said that by his plea Hinchey acknowledged the handgun was his and that he had a license to carry it in New York, but not in Virginia. "The handgun was inadvertently in a piece of luggage I took from my upstate New York home when I drove back to Washington for the late-November congressional session, and it was still in that piece of unopened luggage on Dec. 1 when I decided to fly back to New York," Hinchey said in a statement. Hinchey, who voted for the anti-gun Brady Bill, appeared before Judge Joseph Gwaltney in a county district court. The judge's slap-on-the-wrist ruling means sentencing was suspended and will be lifted automatically in a year. You know what would have happened if it had been you instead of a Congressman_you'd get out of prison some time in the Twenty-Third Century. More Police Died in Suicides Than in Line of Duty More than twice as many police officers committed suicide in 1994 than those who were killed in the line of duty by guns or other causes, the National Assn. of Chiefs of Police reported in early January. The Association said 300 police officers _ of more than 700,000 law enforcement people nationwide _ committed suicide according to preliminary 1994 tallies. Twelve suicides occurred in New York City, which the group said was a record. The organization said there were 137 line-of-duty deaths among police officers in 1994, and 75 of them, or 54.7%, were caused by shootings. Morton Feldman, the organization's executive vice president, said the association has not been keeping track of suicides as closely as deaths by other means but generally the suicide rate is double the number of police deaths on the job. Preliminary figures on non-suicide deaths in the line of duty are expected to increase by 10% when final tallies are filed by the 21,000 law enforcement agencies for the year, Feldman said. Other causes of deaths in 1994 included traffic accidents, aircraft accidents, drownings and assaults. Total police deaths have been declining in recent years, but the percentage of those killed by firearms has been increasing. In 1993, guns were used to kill 78 police officers, or 51.3% of 152 deaths. In 1992, 74 officers were killed by guns, 44% of the death toll of 166. California had the most 1994 non-suicide deaths, 16 compared to 14 last year. Texas had 12 deaths this year, the same as 1993. There were seven deaths each in Alabama, Georgia and Virginia, six in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, and five deaths each in Massachusetts, Missouri and New York. Pistol-packing movie star Christian Slater gets grounded in New York D. Joy Faber, a spokeswoman with the Port Authority of New York, which runs the police force at Kennedy International Airport, had a statement for the media. "Mr. Christian Slater was headed to sunny L.A., but he had to take a little detour." She was talking about the 8 hours the screen celebrity spent in a holding cell two nights before Christmas. The 25-year old star of Interview with the Vampire allegedly committed his crime in the boarding area of the posh all-first class airline, MGM Grand, awaiting a 6:30 p.m. flight home to Los Angeles for the holidays. Slater was in New York City to shoot Amelia and the King of Plants, a romantic film costarring Mary Stuart Masterton. A security checker examined Slater's stylish black nylon carry-on bag through the screening machine, and discovered a 6.5mm. Beretta handgun and six rounds of ammunition. The gun was unregistered, and Slater had no federal permit to travel with it interstate. He was instantly arrested and held overnight at the Queens Criminal Court. The next morning, he was arraigned on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, a federal offense. He was then released on his own recognizance. Slater is already on five years' probation for a 1990 drunk driving incident in Los Angeles. Carrying a weapon constitutes a violation of probation, regardless of state. FABER said, "I scratch my head when celebrities try to bring firearms through the airport," recalling singer Harry Connick Jr.'s arrest for the same offense at the same airport two years ago. "Maybe they think they have immunity." SLATER had no comment, but his mother, casting agent Mary Jo Slater, spoke with her son briefly and said, "I guess he feels he needs the protection." Gee, in New York City? Slater was due back in court for a hearing in late January. Maybe he should run for Congress _ he might get off with a suspended sentence. Honors for Gun Lobbyist JOHN SNYDER John M. Snyder of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was recently honored in Crystal City for being a champion of the right to self-defense. The Washington Times said that no one, perhaps, deserves the title more than Mr. Snyder, who also is a vice president of the American Federation of Police and the National Association of Chiefs of Police. When he's not busy with those organizations, Mr. Snyder is chairman of the interdenominational St. Gabriel Possenti Society, named for the Italian seminarian who in 1859, rescued the village of Isola from a band of 20 terrorists with a striking one-shot, lizard-slaying demonstration of handgun marksmanship. The society named after Possenti, who died in 1862 and was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict VX, promotes the study and exposition of the theological, philosophical and historical basis for the doctrine of legitimate self-defense. Esquire Magazine Gives JOHN SNYDER Dubious Achievement Award of 1994 Under the banner headline, IF YOU SEE ONE OF THOSE ON A GUY'S DASHBOARD, THINK TWICE ABOUT GIVING HIM THE FINGER, Esquire Magazine gave out one of its tongue-in-cheek end-of-the-year Dubious Achievement awards for the following: John Snyder, a Washington gun lobbyist, asked the Vatican to name a patron saint for handgun owners. Washington Watch Pro-gun activists' top priority for the 104th Congress is to turn our ballot box gains into pro-gun legislation. The major targets? Repeal and reform of both the '94 crime bill and the Brady Act. The Republican leadership has pledged to introduce a new crime bill within the first 100 days of the new Congress to rectify the numerous shortcomings of Clinton's crime bill, which included both a gun and magazine ban. As for the Brady Act, Congress will attempt to speed up the process by which states will be required to be on-line with an instant check system. Sportsmen are pushing to protect hunters from attacks by "animal rights" extremists, and protect public access to national wildlife refuges. A coalition of pro-gun organizations is pushing for oversight hearings on federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since tax dollars fund CDC studies, gun owners want some answers about why, on almost every occasion, the CDC promotes an anti-gun agenda. As for the BATF, in light of the Waco and Ruby Ridge attacks, hearings would help shed some light on the abuses of power the BATF has perpetrated, and rein in this rogue agency. Heard on the Hill: Changes in Congress and in the Clinton Administration will continue long after the November 8th revolution. In the U. S. Congress, blatantly anti-gun Senator Paul Simon (D-IL) will not seek re-election in 1996, nor will Senator Hank Brown (R-CO). Cleaning Clinton's Cabinets: First on the "hit-list" of gone gun grabbers was gun-ban advocate Joycelyn Elders, who was discharged as Surgeon General and may be replaced by former U. S. Representative Roy Rowland (D-GA), who retired at the close of the 103rd Congress. At the Treasury Department (which oversees the BATF) Secretary Lloyd Bentsen announced his retirement. The leading candidate to fill this vacancy is Robert Rubin, who currently heads Clinton's National Economic Council. Finally, at the Department of Agriculture, Clinton nominated former U. S. Representative Dan Glickman (D-KS) to replace outgoing Secretary Mike Espy. Anti-gun Glickman lost his re-election bid to pro-gun challenger Todd Tiahrt. Around America 1995 will be an important year not only on Capitol Hill, but in state legislatures as well. A new wave of pro-gun legislators took office, but local governments remain a problem. Pro-gun activists will be working on: o Passing reform legislation to allow law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for self-defense. o Passing firearms preemption laws to prevent local governments from enacting their own "gun control" ordinances. Preemption laws guarantee statewide uniformity in gun laws and eliminate a web of local regulations. St. Paul, Minnesota - the City Council will soon consider an ordinance giving firearm dealers the same zoning classification as pornographic bookstores. It would virtually ban firearm sales in the city by radically restricting where firearm dealers could lawfully operate their businesses. Shorewood, Wisconsin - the Village Board retreated from a vote on a proposed handgun ban, which would have required gun owners to render their firearms inoperable and register them with the police or remove them from the village entirely! Newark, California - The City Planning Commission will consider an ordinance that would outlaw the sale and repair of firearms in the home by licensed dealers. The ordinance also blocks the establishment within the city of any new businesses engaged in retail gun sales. Broad coalition takes Justice Department to task A coalition of conservative and liberal organizations in early January expressed "deep disappointment" with the Justice Department for failing to address federal law enforcement abuses such as the assault at Waco, Texas, and the Randy Weaver case. Groups as diverse as the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union said the Justice Department "fails to recognize there is a problem" with federal agents using aggressive tactics against private citizens. The coalition was put together last January by the ACLU's Gene Guerrero. It has spent the past year urging the Justice Department to appoint a blue-ribbon commission to investigate several cases, including the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, which left 86 civilians dead in April 1993, and the shooting death of white separatist Randy Weaver's wife, killed by an FBI sharpshooter in Idaho in August 1992. "There is a growing belief that the government is not being seen as the representative of the people, but as the enemy of the people," said John Snyder of the Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Ten representatives of private groups, after spending a year petitioning the Justice Department, met with Associate Attorney General John Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt listened but refused to make any commitments, other than to report the meeting to Attorney General Janet Reno. "There has been a failure to take action in a number of cases." said Mr. Guerrero, field director for the ACLU's Washington office. "We are deeply disappointed." Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, said, "When we tried to look at specific incidents, we got answers that didn't take our questions seriously." Mr. Sterling said, "When Janet Reno says I take responsibility for Waco, she doesn't take responsibility and resign, she takes responsibility and that is the end of it." Mr. Guerrero said he hopes that the Republican Congress will hold hearings on the Waco and Weaver cases. He said that some GOP congressmen have expressed interest in the hearings. Last year, efforts to get the Democratic Congress to hold hearings failed for fear that they would become an indictment of the Clinton administration. Ordinance targets firearms licensees The Los Angeles City Council adopted an ordinance in January requiring federal firearms licensees to obtain an LAPD permit that would subject them to local regulations including a requirement to have $1 million in insurance. Councilman Marvin Braude introduced a motion to study the feasibility of setting up special teams of Los Angeles Police Department officers to patrol high-crime areas with the primary job of seizing guns likely to be used in crimes. Scary? MOYNIHAN still bullish on bullet ban Exploiting the furor surrounding the Black Rhino ammo hoax, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan renewed his call for increased restriction on ammunition. In the Washington Post in early January, Moynihan laid out his agenda for 1995 when he called for "an energetic regime of licensure, taxing and accounting" of ammunition. The Senator even went so far as to suggest this issue should serve as a litmus test by calling upon the electorate to vote out of office any lawmaker who does not support this proposal. PARTING SHOT For those who missed the USA TODAY OPPOSING VIEW article by Alan M. Gottlieb (his second is as many months), here it is. Alan just happens to be a nuclear engineering graduate from the University of Tennessee. It doesn't take a nuclear engineer to know that the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, our Bill of Rights, were enacted to protect individual freedom from government infringement. In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of Arms." At ratification, Samuel Adams said, "The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." James Madison, the author of the Second Amendment, said it best. The Constitution preserves "the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." And let's not forget George Mason, who at ratification added, "I ask, sir, what is the Militia? It is the whole people ... to disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." These are our Founding Fathers, not paid lobbyists of the National Rifle Association. The Supreme Court in the 1876 Cruikshank case recognized that the people's right to keep and bear arms existed prior to the Constitution. It stated the right is not "in any manner dependent upon the instrument for its existence," holding that the Second Amendment guaranteed only that the right could not be infringed by Congress. But in 1876, the court also said that about the First Amendment. In the 1886 Presser case, the Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment only protected gun rights from infringement by Congress but added, "The states cannot ... prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms ... for maintaining the public security and disable the people from performing their duty." In the 1939 Miller case, the high court made clear that militia consisted of "all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense." And in the 1990 Verdugo-Urquirdez case, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the term "the people" in the Second Amendment had the same meaning as in the Preamble to the Constitution and the First, Fourth and Ninth amendments. This case left no doubt that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right. Don't let USA TODAY rewrite history to shred your gun rights. The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report, $30/12 issues, 12500 N.E. 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005 The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report (ISSN 1079-6169) is published monthly by the Second Amendment Foundation, Liberty Park, 12500 N.E. 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005. Phone (206)454-7012. FAX (206)451-3959. Please call or write if you have a question regarding your subscription. Publishers: Alan M. Gottlieb and Joseph P. Tartaro Editor: Ron Arnold Design: Northwoods Studio Production: Janet Arnold Subscriptions: Susan Elings Published by: Second Amendment Foundation Subscriptions $30 per year USA, $35 elsewhere. Single issues $5.00. Copyright c 1995 by Alan M. Gottlieb and Joseph P. Tartaro. Photocopying, reproduction or quotation strictly prohibited without written permission of the publishers. Bulk rates on request. Postage paid at Bellevue, WA. POSTMASTER: send address changes to The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report, 12500 N.E. 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005. Printed in the USA. An Insiders Guide for Gun Owners Yes, I want to stay informed! Send me the next twelve issues of The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report! (Make out checks to: Second Amendment Foundation.) Here's my $30 for twelve information-packed issues of The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report! (Indicate payment type) VISA MasterCard Check Money Order Card Number ________________________________________ Expires ___________________________ Send my Gottlieb-Tartaro Report to: Name ___________________________________ Street _________________________________ City____________________________________ State ________ Zip Code ______________ Phone __________________________________ Your can telephone or FAX your order for the Gottlieb-Tartaro Report. Telephone orders: 206-454-7012 FAX 206-451-3959