Eric Webster simply couldn't believe this was happening to him again, but he was going to put a stop to it this time. Webster had just let his dog outside after finishing an evening card game with his friends. The dog began barking loudly, and Webster stepped outside to investigate. As he walked toward his driveway, a masked man put a gun to his head and announced, "Don't move or I'm gonna' kill you." Just four months previously, Webster and his wife had been held at gunpoint while their house was ransacked and their truck stolen. Webster thought of his wife and kids, now sleeping just inside, and took action. "I wasn't going to do it," he said. "I wasn't going to let it happen again. "Webster ran back into his house to get the rifle he'd purchased after the previous robbery and yelled for a friend inside to get his gun as well. They then ran back outside and discovered two masked men by the side of the house. Webster and his friend fired at the suspects, who jumped into their car and took off. Webster and his friend followed the would-be robbers in Webster's car and contacted police by cell phone. The chase ended when the suspects crashed their car and the men took off running. A bag containing several guns was recovered from the vehicle. Webster recognized one of the handguns as one taken from him during the previous robbery. The suspects were eventually caught and taken into custody. (The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, OH, 02/07/03)
A masked man armed with knives approached a pharmacist and demanded narcotics, but the pharmacist dispensed lead instead. The suspect entered Marcum's Pharmacy in Kingsport, Tenn., at 2:10 p.m. and approached pharmacy owner Carl Marcum, demanding the narcotic drugs OxyContin and Percocet. Marcum pulled his .38-cal. handgun and shot the suspect, who fled out the back door and drove off in a Buick. Police notified local hospitals to be on the lookout for a man suffering from a gunshot wound. Two hours later the suspect, Jeffery Jessee, was arrested at a local hospital, where he was treated and released. Jessee was charged with aggravated robbery. (Kingsport Times-News, Kingsport, TN, 0 1/20/03)
Two masked men entered the Michigan Market in St. Louis, Mo., just around lunchtime, and one man pointed a sawed-off shotgun at the head of storeowner Martin McLafferty. The owner responded by knocking away the gun in his face and grabbing his own pistol. He then shot one of the gunmen, and the suspects fled in a pickup truck. Police found gravely wounded suspect Charles Jackson shortly after the attempted robbery. His accomplice, Damon Hayes, was arrested, as well. Jackson died while in custody, and because he died during the commission of a felony, his accomplice, Hayes, was charged with murder in addition to the first-degree robbery charge. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, 01/16/03)
A Volant, Pa. man was having a bothersome morning because someone kept calling and hanging up. Then the man received a call from a neighbor telling him he'd seen six people get out of a car with hoods, scarves and latex gloves and were now sneaking around his house. The homeowner surprised the group of bandits when they broke in, and he held one of the intruders at gunpoint for police. The others fled the scene in a green Buick. Police made five arrests, and the homeowner recognized one of the suspects as a boy who attended his church and had spent time with his family in his house. "I felt terrible," he said when he recognized the suspect. "I treated the kid like a son. Everyone was right. They told me not to bring him home." (New Castle News, New Castle, PA, 01/23/03)
A "good Samaritan" came to the rescue of a woman who was the apparent victim of a sexual assault in downtown Tulsa, Okla. The man was surveying possible construction sites in the area when he saw two partially disrobed people struggling in an alley way. When the woman screamed for help, the man ran to assist her. The suspect then jumped into his vehicle, a Ford Taurus, and tried to hit his victim with the car. The Samaritan responded by drawing a .40-cal. handgun and firing several shots at the woman's assailant, who was killed. Sergeant Mike Huff said the woman tried to get a ride home from her attacker, when the man pulled into the alley and attempted to assault her. Referring to the woman's rescuer, Huff said, "It appears that this man really interrupted a bad situation." (Tulsa World, Tulsa, OK, 01/26/03)
Joseph McDaniel Duke heard a knock at his door early one morning, but decided not to answer it. When a man started to pry open his back door, he decided he should respond to that and held suspect Todd Suer at gunpoint until authorities could arrive. Suer was charged with felony burglary. (Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, GA, 01/28/03) |
Imagine an America where most federally licensed dealers are bankrupted by endless legal fees; where those few who remain must adhere to business practices totally controlled by trial lawyers and gun-control groups. Imagine gun-control schemes even registration and licensing - created under "privatized" gun control demanded by trial lawyers and big-city mayors. That is the end-game of a very real conspiracy to use the courts to ban now-legal firearm commerce. Beginning in 1998, with the active support of the Clinton Administration, one by one, urban political machines hired trial lawyers who began filing lawsuits against all facets of the lawful firearm industry. Today, some 30 major cases are pending against companies and individuals. Those legal assaults have been based upon truly bizarre theories: claims that firearms made and sold in the totally federally licensed chain of commerce were intentionally marketed to criminals - even though sales to criminals is a crime, and purchase and possession by criminals are crimes with harsh penalties. Actions where manufacturers are held civilly accountable for murders committed by violent criminals who used stolen guns. Why? Super trial lawyer John Coale told The New York Times, "what has happened is that the Congress is not doing the job (and) lawyers are picking up the slack." Walter K. Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, covers the insidious nature of these suits in a fine new book: THE RULE OF LAWYERS, How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law. He quotes Dennis Hennigan, the Brady Campaign lawyer representing two dozen cities: "What you really want is a diversity of cases in lots of different regions, lots of different courts to create the greatest liability." And Olson points out "the imbalance in financial resources ... on one side were thinly capitalized, often family-owned enterprises; on the other side, enormous municipal administrations like those of Chicago, Atlanta and Detroit represented by lawyers of extraordinary wealth .... As if that weren't enough, a number of extremely well-heeled foundations got into the act on the plaintiff's side ...." In virtually all cases, what emerged was a series of anti-gun losses - in which the courts have sometimes angrily rebuffed the lawyers. In fact, the only real "victory" came in 1999 when the Clinton-Gore Administration offered a Federal extortion plan when then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo and his chief of staff, Jonathan Cowan (now head of the anti-gun-rights group Americans for Gun Safety), threatened new suits to be filed by some 3,000 housing authorities in hundreds of courts, unless the firearm industry agreed to strangling regulation. Given that threat, a single company - Smith & Wesson, then owned by British interests - caved in. Olson describes it this way: "The settlement set out a blueprint for a five member oversight commission that would wield extensive power over industry practices in perpetuity." Among the commission's five members, a majority of three were to be picked by the anti-gun sides in the suits, a fourth named by BATF, and the fifth named by the firearm industry. Olsen called it a "permanently entrenched sovereignty." In reality, this would have created something that has no place in a free America: "gun-control commissars." The effect of the S&W capitulation was like spontaneous combustion: a total instant boycott. (In the end, S&W was ultimately sold to Americans who have restored the company's reputation as an institution worthy of consumer trust.) With the demise of the Clinton era and the election of President George W. Bush, this suicidal "settlement deal" was quickly abandoned. Yet, the threat of slow strangulation of an entire industry still exists. But we live in a democracy, and the tyranny of the trial lawyers can be stopped. With solid firearm-rights victories in the last Federal elections, we now have the opportunity to enact legislation that will end the sham lawsuits against the firearm industry once and for all. During the last session of Congress, legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Clifford B. Stearns (R-Fla.) garnered 231 co-sponsors, with a companion Senate bill introduced by U. S. Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) that picked up 46 co-sponsors. This session's bi-partisan support will be even stronger. This straightforward legislation prohibits all civil actions brought in any court under a legal theory that would hold dealers and manufacturers accountable for criminal acts of third parties. With solid bi-partisan support, I am certain we can stop the tyranny of the greedy trial lawyers and big-city mayors. Please write your congressman and senators today: and tell them to support the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act" by Reps. Stearns, Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), Chris John (D-La.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.), and the Senate version introduced by U. S. Sen. Larr1 Craig (R-ldaho) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Write, e-mail or call today. |
Imagine an America where no new firearms are manufactured - except by a few companies whose designs are literally dictated by the likes of the Brady Campaign and by fat-cat trial lawyers.
In New York City - where handguns were effectively outlawed by the Sullivan Act in 1911 and where crimes committed with handguns have skyrocketed since - two members of the city council want to stem the violence with, of all things, a ban on all toy guns. Forget the fact that committing a robbery or any crime with any gun - whether it's a water pistol or a Walther - is already abundantly illegal. And forget the fact that any toy gun not made of transparent or white plastic is already illegal in the Big Apple. No, because criminals are spray-painting their toy guns black to make them more realistic and then using them to commit crimes, these lawmakers would have you believe the answer is to outlaw toys. Why not just outlaw the spray paint that they use to disguise their plastic Super Soakers? For that matter, why not just outlaw armed robbery? Meanwhile, in Maryland, a new law took effect this year that bans the sale of any new handgun that doesn't have a built-in trigger lock. To some that might sound like a good idea, but there's just one catch: Only about six models of handguns on the market currently offer integrated trigger locks. Which means that every other handgun model, hundreds o f models in all, will be banned. And since Maryland represents such a small slice of their market share, few if any manufacturers are likely to redesign their guns, retool their factories and create state-specific marketing plans just to sell their products in a state that's sure to throw up higher hurdles as soon as this one is cleared. It's a nefarious scheme: Under supposed concern for gun safety, simply require technology that doesn't exist - and you have a de facto gun ban. They're using that same strategy in New Jersey today. Under a new law that just took effect there, three years after any firearm is available anywhere in the United States that incorporates so-called "smart gun" technology - which somehow recognizes the authorized owner and prevents unauthorized persons from firing the gun - no new firearm may be sold in the state unless it incorporates such technology. Even if such a gun costs $5,000 and even if it only functioned properly part of the time, once any such gun was available, no gun without such "smart" technology could be sold in the state thereafter. Unless, that is, it was purchased by police or government bureaucrats. Which shows how much faith Jersey's lawmakers have in their "smarts." Here's an idea: Why not just outlaw any firearm that could ever be involved in any crime or any accident? Then they could outlaw them all! That's what they did in England when they banned all handguns. Since then, crimes committed with handguns in England have increased with exponential fury. According to the London Daily Telegraph, police are seizing dozens of illegal guns every week in London alone, and the number of armed crimes has doubled in just the past year. Britain now has higher violent crime rates than 17 other industrialized nations, including the United States. Indeed you're about six times as likely to be mugged in London today as you are in New York. So, what's England's response? A so-called "gun amnesty" period planned for this spring, when those thousands of armed drug dealers and stick-up men are presumably expected to merrily surrender the tools of their terror. And, because some criminals are now committing armed robberies with replica guns - and because self-defense with a toy gun, real gun or anything else in England is illegal - now they want to ban toy guns, too. Just as in New York. Make no mistake: Such silly and cynical schemes might seem laughable if it weren't for the very real danger they represent. They're all the same kind of non-solutions to non- problems that blame the object, instead of its abuser, for the crimes he commits. Politicians can huff and puff and pass all the toy-gun bans, gun-lock mandates and "smart gun" requirements in the world. But they can't outlaw stupidity or recklessness. And they can't make murder, rape or robbery any more illegal than they already are. So when they try to outlaw Second Amendment freedom by pretending to outlaw irresponsibility and illegality, don't let them take you for a fool. |
For a glimpse of just how absurd and cynical the gun debate can become in the hands of the foolish and fraudulent, just look at what's happening in Maryland, New Jersey, New York City or England today.