Just in case you don’t get these alerts in your email, a little dog and
pony show in Seattle tonight about how dangerous we crazy Americans are
with our guns and liberty. From: NRA-ILA Alerts
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 3:18 PM
Subject: Washington: Anti-Gun Group to Hold Panel and Take Public Questions
Washington: Anti-Gun Group to Hold Panel and Take Public
Questions Tonight, a state anti-gun group called
Washington Ceasefire will be holding a “gun reform” panel where the
public is invited to engage panelists in a conversation about gun rights
in Washington State. Currently, panelists consist of several anti-gun
individuals, including President of the Brady Campaign, Dan Gross.
This event will be held downstairs at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 Eighth
Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and there is an
entry fee of $5, which goes to Town Hall Seattle for production
costs. Initiative 594 is likely to be brought up tonight. As
previously reported, I-594 is a universal handgun registration scheme
being promoted by a very wealthy group of anti-gun elitists who have
already raised nearly $1.4 million to qualify this initiative. Although
they describe it as a “universal background check” measure, it is not
“universal” because criminals will never comply with its requirements.
It is, however, universal handgun registration. Under I-594, every time
a handgun is transferred, the person receiving the handgun will have
their name added to the government database being maintained by the
state Department of Licensing. Further, virtually every firearm transfer -
with very few and limited exceptions - would be required to go through a
licensed firearms dealer under the provisions of I-594. I-594 will
specifically regulate transfers, not sales. Under the language of
I-594, in virtually all cases, a person merely handing his or her
firearm to a family member or a friend cannot do so without brokering
the transfer through a gun dealer with the accompanying paperwork, fees,
taxes and in the case of handguns, state registration.
I-594 also
doubles the state waiting period on handgun sales from five to ten days
and extends it to every private transfer of any handgun! Initiative 594
stalled in the state Capitol as the Washington Legislature adjourned
their 2014 session. However, the fight is just beginning as the deeply
flawed I-594 will now go to the November Ballot. Members are urged to
attend this event and make inquiries of the panelists. Example
questions for members are provided below: Example Questions for
Washington Ceasefire Event On Universal Checks Failing to Deter Criminals. When the vast majority of criminals who use guns to commit violent
crimes defeat the background check system by acquiring their guns
through theft, from the black market, or from straw purchasers and other
family members and friends, and when only a small percentage of people
who try to buy guns illegally through the background check system are
dangerous enough to be prosecuted, what would be the benefit of
expanding the background check system to apply to firearm transfers that
are not already covered by the background check requirement? (Surveys
conducted in 1991, 1997 and 2004 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
found that most criminals put in state prison for gun crimes acquired
their guns through theft, the black market, and family members or
friends. The BATFE reported in its “Following the Gun” report that half
of all illegally trafficked firearms were purchased by straw
purchasers.)
On Universal Checks Leading to Registration: Mr. Gross, have you ever discussed with your colleagues at the Brady
Campaign, the idea that if background checks were expanded to apply to
all firearm transfers, your organization could then call for retention
of background checks records permanently, and/or that such records could
be required to include the make, model and serial number of the firearm
or firearms transferred? (In the 1970s, Gross’ organization openly
supported banning handguns and said that in its view, any law
prohibiting the possession of handguns would have to be preceded by a
handgun registration law. If the NICS requirement were expanded as
hypothesized above, it would create a registry of firearm
purchases, which over time would morph into a registry of firearms
possessed. Several years ago, the late Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.,
proposed retention of approved NICS check records for 180 days, which
obviously would have been a step in that direction.)
On “More Guns, Less
Crime”:
Mr. Gross, some years before you were hired by the Brady Campaign,
back when the American people owned between 40 and 50 million handguns,
your organization predicted that the number of handguns would double to
100 million and that crime would rise. Since then, the number of
handguns owned by the American people has indeed doubled to 100 million,
but the nation’s violent crime rate has dropped to a 42-year low, and
the murder rate is at a 49-year low. How do you explain your
organization’s fundamental error? (This prediction was made in propaganda
brochures published by the National Council to Control Handguns and
Handgun Control, Inc., the previous names of the Brady Campaign: “There
are now 40 million handguns owned by private individuals in the United
States—about one gun for every American family. At the present rate of
proliferation, the number could build to 100 million by the year 2000
(which isn’t as far off as you think). The consequences can be terrible
to imagine—unless something is done.” (NCCH, “There is now a nationwide,
full-time, professional organization to battle the gun lobby!”
pamphlet, no date, but circa 1975.) In 1979, when the Brady Campaign was
known as Handgun Control, Inc., it updated its prediction, saying,
“Right now over 50 million HANDGUNS flood the houses and streets of our
nation. . . . HANDGUN production and sales are out of control. . . . If
we continue at this pace, we will have equipped ourselves with more than
100 million HANDGUNS by the turn of the century. One hundred million
HANDGUNS. Will we be safer then?” (HCI pamphlet, “By this time tomorrow,
24 Americans will be murdered,” circa 1979 or 1980.))
On Brady Campaign
Exaggerations:
Your group characterizes firearm-related deaths as an “epidemic,”
but the definition of an “epidemic” is a “widespread occurrence of an
infectious disease.” While suicide might be considered prima facie
evidence of a mental health disease, half of all suicides are committed
without firearms, and studies have shown that reduced access to firearms
does not reduce suicides, but rather may only force suicide victims to
end their lives by other means. Japan, for example, has virtually no
privately owned firearms, but has a much higher suicide rate than the
United States. Murders and accidental deaths involving firearms obviously
are not diseases. And neither they, nor firearm-related suicides, are
widespread. Why do you and other gun control supporters feel that it is
necessary for you to misuse words in order to exaggerate negative
things associated with firearm ownership?
National Rifle Association -
Institute for Legislative Action * 11250 Waples Mill Road * Fairfax, VA
22030
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