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President George W. Bush’s nomination of former U.S. Senator JOHN ASHCROFT for U.S. Attorney General was a strong pro-gun signal sent to the anti-gun crowd: JOHN ASHCROFT is a strong supporter of the entire Constitution, including your Second Amendment rights.

However, the frenzy of gun control organizations in their national smear campaign to sabotage the ASHCROFT nomination was a strong anti-gun signal sent to gun rights defenders: We can expect nothing but attacks on the Second Amendment for the foreseeable future.

The full Senate must confirm nominees for U.S. Attorney General, and the confirmation hearings can be grueling - so far they have shown ASHCROFT to possess grace under pressure.

He has continually deflected outrageous insults and character assassinations from his former colleagues. At press time the Democrats had still not finished grilling the nominee, coming up with more questions and more accusations.

If it’s true that you can judge a man as much by his foes as by his friends, Senator JOHN ASHCROFT is the right nominee to be the nation’s top cop.

Look who his foes are: Handgun Control Inc., the “Million” Mom March, Violence Policy Center, and other radical anti-gun groups.

Handgun Control Inc. President MIKE BARNES went so far recently as to compare JOHN ASHCROFT’s views on the Second Amendment to those of Oklahoma City terrorist TIMOTHY McVEIGH. That’s more than a stretch, it’s a slander of all law-abiding citizens who believe in the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The Million Mom March ran an advertising and Internet campaign trying to block the ASHCROFT nomination. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence announced its opposition to the ASHCROFT nomination. So did the Violence Policy Center.

Many regard JOHN ASHCROFT as the most qualified candidate for Attorney General in America’s history. In addition to his service in the U.S. Senate as chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee, JOHN ASHCROFT was a two-term Governor and a two-term Attorney General in Missouri. He is experienced, competent, honest, and principled.

During his service as Governor of Missouri, his fellow governors elected him to be their Chairman of the bipartisan National Governors Association. While serving as Attorney General in Missouri, his colleagues elected him to be their Chairman of the bipartisan National Association of Attorneys General.

JOHN ASHCROFT has consistently fought to toughen penalties and enforce the law against violent criminals and drug dealers who misuse firearms.

However, since anti-gun groups vehemently oppose JOHN ASHCROFT’s positions on public policy issues, and desperately do not want him to serve as Attorney General, they will do whatever is necessary to stop his confirmation. They’re even calling for a filibuster, although ASHCROFT has the votes for confirmation.

Observers are nearly unanimous in feeling that ASCHROFT will be confirmed. But they are just as unanimous is believing that once in office, he will certainly not see the end of vociferous opposition from the gun control crowd.

“Rights” groups PUSH GLOBAL GUN CONTROL FOR LEGAL FIREARMS

Here’s another reason to mistrust the United Nations: Human rights and anti-gun groups have accused the major world powers of trying to gut an upcoming U.N. conference on small arms trafficking by targeting only illegal sales while ignoring legal arms deals.

The groups urged the conference, scheduled for July, to adopt a global system of gun control on government and commercial trade in small arms as well as illegal weapons trade. They want a treaty against legal gun sales!

But they predicted the meeting would fall short of that goal because some of the most powerful U.N. member states were “more worried about protecting their profits from legal arms sales than preventing gun deaths and injuries.”

“Virtually all illegal small arms in the world began at one point as legal weapons, either in the possession of states or police forces or civilians,” said Wendy Cukier of Canada’s Coalition for Gun Control.

“It is critically important, therefore, that any effective strategy control the movement of legal small arms, in order to prevent diversion to illegal markets, because gunrunners don’t differentiate between conflict zones and gangs in inner cities,” Cukier told a news conference.

Joost Hiltermann of New York-based Human Rights Watch said the five permanent Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — were among those flooding the world with small arms.

Russia and China, he said, were completely opposed to controls on legal sales because they profit from light weapons sales while France “seems to be asserting its neocolonial interests” by slipping weapons to allies in Africa.

“I would not be surprised if Washington were counting on Russia and China to torpedo this process for it,” Hiltermann said.

According to observers and diplomats attending the meeting, African delegations are pushing for a strong treaty, while the arms-producing nations, including the United States and other permanent Security Council members, are cautious.

Conference Chairman Carlos Dos Santos of Mozambique has recommended in a working paper that the meeting focus on conflict zones and areas where arms proliferation needed urgent attention. The paper is silent on legal arms deals.

Conmany Wesseh, Director of the Center for Democratic Empowerment in Liberia, said he hoped the conference would look closely at Sierra Leone, Guinea and his own country Liberia in West Africa, where small arms are “the weapon of choice.”

The assassination of Democratic Republic of Congo President LAURENT KABILA gave the conference new momentum. KABILA’s death and the long history of conflict in his central African nation “show the link between small arms and conflict,” said Nigerian envoy SOLA OGUNBANWO.

The GT Report will monitor this conference closely.

U.S. Supports Gun Rights at U.N. Summit

During the United Nations meeting, U.S. officials said one of their main priorities is to protect legitimate gun owners from international disarmament efforts.

“We have a couple of key redlines,” said one State Department official. “Number one, for obvious reasons, whatever comes out of this conference should in no way impose controls on who owns firearms, or what types of firearms. We don’t feel that anything that imposes on domestic private ownership is something we will sign on to.”

City Can’t Sue Dealers for Gun Use

Gary, Indiana, has lost its lawsuit blaming the handgun industry for crimes committed with guns. Instead, the judge advised, go after the criminals.

Gun rights supporters contend the vast majority of dealers was being penalized for the acts of a small number.

Scot Thomasson, a resident agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said 1.2 percent of all licensed gun dealers supply 57 percent of all firearms recovered from criminals.

In August of last year, Gary sued 21 gun manufacturers and distributors, five local dealers and three trade associations, accusing them of selling weapons to gang members and others not entitled to own them.

Mayor Scott King said the idea was to try to dry up the marketing of weapons to inner-city gangs.

Attorneys for the industry argued successfully that this was an unconstitutional intrusion on interstate commerce.

In dismissing Gary’s suit, Superior Court Judge James Richards advised the city it could more usefully spend its time apprehending criminals and others who misuse handguns.

HANDS OFF MY GUN GROUP MEMBERSHIP LISTS

When Second Amendment advocates, the United Sportsmen of Florida, sued the City of South Miami for enacting a trigger lock ordinance in violation of Florida law, they didn’t expect to win a First Amendment victory.

But they did anyway. The USF sued under Florida’s preemption law, which prohibits local governments from passing any ordinances concerning firearms or ammunition.

The City of South Miami filed for discovery and demanded a list of the names and addresses of all USF members who reside in South Miami; a list of all members who are taxpayers in South Miami; a list of all members in the city who own firearms; lists disclosing how members store their firearms; and a list of all members who have children living in their homes, in addition to other specific and private information.

USF refused to provide any membership information and filed a motion for a protective order. The lower court held that USF must disclose at least ten members, so the group appealed.

The District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District, located in Miami, issued an opinion in favor of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida ruling that the identities of members of these organizations are private and need not be disclosed in a lawsuit.

The Court of Appeals held: “We are not convinced that simply because the Associations filed the action as plaintiffs, they have waived their privacy rights concerning the members’ names. The discovery of the names should not have been ordered. We therefore quash the order.” The Court based its decision on NAACP v. Alabama (1958), in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that the First Amendment protects the right of advocacy groups to associational privacy. The right to free speech includes the right to keep ones membership in an association private.

The primary case to stop South Miami from enforcing the illegal ordinance is still pending in the lower court.

GUNMAKERS DROP LAWSUIT AGAINST HUD

Seven gun makers and a firearms group have dropped their lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development and 29 other government officials and municipalities over a program favoring manufacturer Smith & Wesson.

The gun makers dropped their suit since the BUSH administration is unlikely to support the program. The suit opposed a plan to give Smith & Wesson preferential treatment when buying guns because the company had agreed to install locks on its firearms and to block gun show sales without background checks.

Chicago Lawmakers Reconsider Handgun Ban

Some Chicago City Council members are calling a 1983 handgun ban a farce and are calling for its repeal.

“JANE BYRNE got a bug up her nose when the pope got shot, and that’s what we’re living with today,” said Alderman Edward M. Burke, former chairman of the City Council’s Police Committee and a co-sponsor of the 1983 handgun ban.

Under the ban, new and existing handguns have to be registered every year. The ban was put in place after assassination attempts on former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.

Since the ban, the number of registered handguns in Chicago has dropped to 164,030 from 750,000. BURKE said the decline indicates that most gun owners have decided it was too much trouble to re-register their weapons every year.

“I regret to say I presided over most of the changes to this ordinance. It went from being a very good, comprehensive registration ordinance that Mayor Richard J. Daley inaugurated in the ’50s to being an ordinance that nobody pays attention to. There’s no doubt about it. This ordinance ought to be re-evaluated,” BURKE said.

Arlington reverses ordinance, now permits guns in parks

In an unexpected reversal, the Arlington, Washington city council decided recently to allow guns in city parks.

The city has come under fire since the council adopted rules in December that prohibited firearms in parks.

Critics quickly shot holes in the new regulations, saying state law protects the rights of people with concealed weapons permits to carry firearms.

“This is illegal,” councilman Dan Anderson said of the city’s ban.

He asked the council to rewrite the rules and remove the restriction.

A standing-room-only crowd packed the council’s chambers to hear discussion of the issue; interruptions were frequent as audience members sounded off. Many said the ban unfairly targeted people with valid weapons permits.

Others were even more direct. Jay Hood of Arlington asked police chief Steve Robinson how long it takes for officers to arrive when help is needed.

When told Arlington police can respond to a call within four minutes, HOOD asked, “How long does it take to pull a trigger on me and my 2-year-old in your Terrace Park?”

“Seconds,” ROBINSON answered.

“Believe you me, he can’t get there to protect my family,” HOOD told the council. You can’t get there to protect my family. But by God, when it comes to protecting my small children, that’s it. I’m packing for ’em.”

Mayor Bob Kraski said the gun ban was included in the new rules because council members wanted to make sure children who used city parks would be safe.

“It looked like a good idea,” KRASKI said.

Although some council members still did not want guns in city parks, they said they would vote so the parks code would not conflict with state law.

After a long discussion, the council voted unanimously to have the city attorney rewrite the park rules and remove any language on firearms.

Blind Man Gets CONCEALED Weapons Permit

Carey McWilliams has a concealed weapons permit from the state of North Dakota and isn’t afraid to use a gun - even though he’s blind.

McWilliams, a 27-year-old North Dakota State University graduate student, says the permit, issued in September, is for protection.

“If you choose this blind victim, you might end up dead,” McWilliams said.

He passed state written and firing range tests after being allowed to get his bearings on the target, said PAT HEALEY, the Cass County sheriff’s deputy who administers permit tests. “He completed the background check, so the county and city were comfortable with him getting the permit,” HEALEY said.

IS LOS ANGELES GUILTY OF “HATE CRIME” AGAINST GUN OWNERS?

Some members of the Los Angeles City Council are prepared to vote for a measure that would require gun buyers to provide fingerprints before they could purchase a firearm.

A City Council panel recently approved the proposal, which now goes to the entire 15-member council for consideration. Councilman MIKE FEUER is the measure’s author and says that it would be an effective tool for local prosecutors to use when building cases against people who try to illegally purchase guns.

“This provision paves the way for tough enforcement when prohibited persons attempt to buy guns, and it also will deter many from trying in the first place,” FEUER said.

Under his proposal, anybody trying to purchase a gun inside city limits would have to agree to be fingerprinted first. The prints apparently would be used by prosecutors to help identify ex-cons trying to procure firearms. According to FEUER’s office, there have been 5,000 such instances statewide in the last year, but prosecutors have failed to bring solid cases against the suspects because of questions about their identities.

SAM PAREDES, Executive Director of Gun Owners of California, says that FEUER and those sympathetic to his proposal have a lot to learn about state law and citizens’ rights.

“In California, we have what’s called a preemption law. Under its provisions, the whole area of regulation of firearms ownership is usurped by the state.

“This is not the purview of local communities. And that’s so we don’t have a checkerboard of laws on firearms from one locality to another. The state is the guiding light in these matters.”

According to PAREDES, the state attorney general has an obligation to step in and stop the city of Los Angeles from trying to enforce a measure like the one proposed by FEUER. If Sacramento doesn’t get involved, PAREDES said that his organization and other pro-self-defense groups will challenge fingerprinting.

“We’ll go to court ourselves,” he said.

CALIFORNIA GUNS GO INTO HIDING AS NEW LAW TAKES EFFECT

Hundreds of California gun owners are taking their firearms out of state or putting them in hiding to avoid a new “assault weapon” registration law.

Just 10,000 “assault weapon” owners have signed state forms and paid the $20 fee, reported the California Department of Justice.

“No one knows exactly how many of these types of guns are in private hands, but we estimate the number is far higher than what has been registered,” said state Attorney General BILL LOCKYER, a Democrat.

The new law defines outlawed weapons by feature, banning new sales of semiautomatic centerfire rifles. Owners of such guns can keep them but risk a fine of $500 and jail time if the weapons are not registered.

Meanwhile, hundreds of gun owners are sending guns to friends and relatives in other states or paying to keep them close by, where they still can be used for recreational shooting.

More than 400 California gun buffs so far have placed weapons at the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute outside Las Vegas, where a $500 fee covers storage and weapons training and maintenance of a gun for up to two years.

“I sent one gun to my cousin in Texas,” said LEO PANGROSS, a building contractor in the Los Angeles suburb of Corona. “I can’t take it out and shoot it, but at least I still have it and I can go get it if I feel like I need it.”

State officials maintain they passed the law because no one needs such weapons. “The only use they have is to kill a large number of people in a short time,” said NATHAN BARANKIN, a top aide to Mr. LOCKYER. “No one’s using them to protect themselves or their family or their home. These are not the weapons of choice for that purpose. We’re not trying to disarm the public; we’re just trying to have a safer society.” We’ve heard that before.

Michigan gun foes race to prepare petition drive

Opponents of the new law that makes it easier to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon in most Michigan communities are preparing a petition drive to block the law’s implementation.

Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan is one of the organizers of an anti-gun outfit called “People Who Care About Kids” which is pushing the petition.

The concealed-weapons bill, long sought by local and national gun-rights organizations, was approved by the Legislature in December and signed by Gov. John Engler on New Year’s Day.

If it goes into effect as expected on July 1, the law will make Michigan the 32nd state where residents are generally presumed to have the right to carry a concealed weapon.

Michigan’s law, which Engler described as “much tougher than any other state,” raises the age for obtaining a permit from 18 to 21, and forbids felons, mentally ill people and a long list of misdemeanants from carrying weapons. The law also bans weapons from an array of public places, such as bars, sports arenas and schools.

But it removes much of the discretion from county gun boards, many of which routinely denied CCW permits to almost anyone other than off-duty law-enforcement officials. The gun control crowd does not like that.

Duggan said he does not anticipate any difficulty in obtaining the 151,000 signatures needed to suspend the law’s implementation and place the issue before voters in 2002.

“People are pretty outraged that their Legislature and Gov. Engler didn’t listen to them,” he said. “We’re going to be collecting signatures in every store, ice rink and movie theater in the state.”

Gun rights backers of the measure, however, contend that the petition drive itself will be short-circuited because the law includes a $1 million appropriation which, in theory, means it cannot be blocked by referendum.

The issue of whether the law can be blocked appears likely to be decided in court, if the law’s opponents submit signatures to state elections officials. They have until March 28 to collect the signatures.

Brad Foster, president of the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners (MCRGO), a group that promoted the legislation, said he is disappointed but not surprised by the challenge.

“It’s just remarkable to me that people are willing to spend so much time and effort and money to keep other people from exercising a fundamental right,” he said. FOSTER said he is confident the law will go into effect.

NEW YORK GOVERNOR TO “REINFORCE” GUN CONTROL

Republican Governor George Pataki seemed bent on alienating himself from gun owners, hunters, and conservatives — a significant voting bloc that contributed to his 1998 election - as he announced his latest proposal to “reinforce gun laws” in his recent State of the State Address.

Pataki claimed his newest proposal will “reinforce gun laws” already among the strictest in the nation, and he will also propose an increase in penalties for anyone caught “trafficking in illegal weapons.”

While it may sound like the Governor is attempting to seize on gun owners’ message of enforcing existing laws, and getting tough on real criminals, this latest scheme probably won’t do that.

This is the same Governor who vetoed legislation that would have encouraged schools to teach life-saving firearm safety courses, and then rammed his anti-gun legislative package through the New York legislature.

Pataki described last year’s legislation - which included language similar to the federal ban on so-called assault weapons and a “ballistic fingerprinting” requirement - as “common sense laws that protect the rights of honest gun owners.”

One wonders how banning guns and registration schemes protect honest gun owners, but we can see things coming that are not good.

GUN NEWS TICKER: SHORT TAKES ON GUNS

• Utah: Life hasn’t been the same since Virgin, Utah passed a law last June that requires almost every household to keep a gun. Widespread media attention didn’t catch up until November. Town officials have been inundated in telephone calls and letters from people around the world, some asking for a copy of the law and others saying they may move to Virgin. Mayor Jay Lee has given 43 interviews to the media. Of the hundreds of letters received by the town, only two stand out in opposition to the law, Lee said. The law makes exceptions for the mentally ill, convicted felons, conscientious objectors and people who cannot afford to own a gun.

• Arkansas: Days after the House approved a measure allowing guns in public parks and restaurants, an even more controversial measure is on the table: allowing guns on school property. Both bills were offered by Rep. Randy Minton, R-Ward. He says people with concealed-weapons permits have proved to be the “most responsible” residents.

• Michigan: South Lyon’s police chief says he’s willing to store - for free and with few questions asked - any guns his city’s residents don’t want to keep at home. So, in a voluntary program, any South Lyon resident may take guns to the department and safely keep firearms out of the reach of children to prevent accidental gun deaths or injuries. Police will check identification proving residency. “I am trying to stay away from anything that could smack of Big Brother or gun control,” Police Chief Lloyd Collins said. “The sole motivation behind what we are doing is to prevent one child from getting injured.” Chief Collins did not say how you got your guns back. Presumably, anyone being robbed or assaulted can come to the station and retrieve his guns after filling out a stack of paperwork. Maybe.

• London, England: Gangs who smuggle high powered guns into Britain for use in London are to be targeted in a joint police and Customs initiative. The move comes amid growing concern over the number of shootings in the British capital and “the increasing use of weapons such as sub-machine guns and powerful handguns,” said a reporter. Senior police officers deny London is awash with guns, but others admit there is now a shooting or a firearms incident almost every night. England’s total gun ban appears to be working as expected.

• Denver: A federal judge, raising concerns about whether an anti-gun project might be a bit too zealous, has ordered prosecutors to reconsider the case of a woman who could be sentenced to a minimum of 63 months in prison for merely posing nude with a weapon in her hands. Katica Crippen, 33, of Colorado Springs was arrested by federal agents last fall after they learned she had posed nude with weapons for her boyfriend, who then put the photographs on the Internet. In the photos, Crippen was wearing an ankle bracelet because she was still serving a sentence for distributing methamphetamine. After she was arrested, her prison term was reinstated. She is currently serving the remaining 10 months in a state prison.

• Salt Lake City: America Online will have to face wrongful termination charges in court, as a district judge in Utah ruled against the company’s attempts to dismiss the case and avert the suit of three employees fired for storing weapons in their vehicles. Luke Hansen, Paul Carlson, and Jason Melling sued AOL after their employment was terminated in September 2000, four days after they were recorded on videotape transferring weapons between vehicles parked in the company’s lot. The men were reportedly either off-duty or on break and preparing for a trip to a nearby firing range. While Utah law allows for its residents to transport and carry unloaded weapons without a permit, AOL policies prohibit guns on corporate property, said one plaintiff’s attorney, James “Mitch” Vilos, a sole practitioner in Salt Lake City. At issue in the case is whether AOL’s company policies can supersede the state’s right-to-carry laws.

anti-gunners hate it, but SELF-DEFENSE IS GETTING POPULAR

Nothing causes the gun control crowd to bend over in pain like hearing about a law-abiding person defending himself or herself with a gun. It tells them their campaign to repeal the Second Amendment is failing.

Well, let the anti-gunners wring their hands:

• A 50-year-old Norfolk, Virginia man who has been mugged twice, came home last summer and fatally shot an intruder in his bathroom.

• An armed 15-year-old boy who broke into a Portsmouth, Virginia home last June was shot in the chest by the homeowner who chased him off.

• Another Portsmouth, Virginia man, a customer in an Alcoholic Beverage Control Store, shot and killed an 18-year-old robber, and prosecutors ruled that the killing was in self-defense.

Throughout the country, hundreds of law-abiding citizens are taking up arms and refusing to be victims.

In Virginia, where the rise in concealed carry permits has made headlines, the number of residents with permits to carry concealed weapons is approaching 100,000.

One newspaper’s online survey found that 92.7 percent of nearly 2,000 who responded felt the liquor store customer acted properly. The newspaper asked, “But is an armed community necessarily a safe one?”

“Yes,” answered Maria Heil, a spokeswoman for Second Amendment Sisters, Inc., a grass-roots, pro-gun group based in Texas.

“For the most part,” Heil said, “people are getting absolutely fed up, especially in high-crime areas. They know police won’t come, and if they do come, if’s after the fact. People know now that they have to do something to protect themselves.”

In Indianapolis, Indiana, Thomas N. Williams knew he had to do something to protect himself.

He fired a shot at two teens who tried to rob him at his beauty supply store. The shot did not hit anyone. Both teens were arrested and charged.

One of the two teens was carrying a handgun -- and was 13 years old. He will face trial as a juvenile and was not identified.

Williams said, “When I found he was 13 years old, I was glad I didn’t kill him, but you have to do what you have to do.”

The other robber, Aaron Pendergrass, 18, faces felony charges of attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit a robbery.