Printed in the USA.
The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report
Issue 044
August, 1998
SENATE ACTS ON GUN BILLS
We have seen more Senate votes on gun issues in the past few weeks than we normally see in a whole year:
S. 2260 (the $33.2 billion Commerce-State-Justice Appropriations bill). The biggest victory for gun owners was an amendment to this appropriations bill. Introduced by Sen. Robert C. Smith, Republican of New Hampshire, Amendment No. 3233 to the bill, S. 2260, struck a blow for gun rights against abuses of the National Instant Check System (NICS), the computerized background checking system that replaces the Brady waiting period, scheduled to become operational in November.
The SMITH Amendment will protect gun buyers in three ways:
First, the Amendment forbids funds from being used for any system "that does not require and result in the immediate destruction of all information, in any form whatsoever, submitted by or on behalf of any person who has been determined not to be prohibited from owning a firearm." As Sen. SMITH said, "Stated simply, my legislation will put a stop to the FBI’s plan to keep records of private identifying information on law-abiding citizens who buy guns. Why would be want the FBI to maintain a file on a law-abiding gun owner who did nothing [except] exercise his constitutional right to own a gun? They want 18 months to keep these files. I don’t want 18 seconds. I want these files destroyed immediately."
Second, Amendment No. 3233 prohibits any tax or fee for using the NICS system, thwarting FBI intentions to charge gun buyers for being checked.
Third, the SMITH Amendment allows "any person aggrieved by a violation of this provision" to sue the FBI in federal district court. Sen. SMITH said, "We have seen abuses by the FBI. We have seen files held in the White House. Do you want this to go on?"
The SMITH Amendment passed by a vote of 69 to 31. This veto-proof, filibuster-proof majority was won by appealing to Democrats on the privacy issue. "This is more than a gun issue," said Sen. SMITH. "This is a privacy issue."
The amendment will become law later this year if it is not stripped out by the House-Senate Conference Committee during reconciliation. The House has not yet passed its version of the Commerce-State-Justice Act.
The second decisive Senate victory for gun owners came on a 61 to 39 vote that tabled a proposal by Sen. BARBARA BOXER (D-CA) to require trigger locks on all handguns sold in the United States. Voting to kill her measure were 52 Republicans and 9 Democrats. The trigger locks would add $5 to $15 to the cost of a handgun.
Only minutes earlier, the Senate voted 72-28 for a better version that would require gun dealers to stock trigger locks but not require their sale along with a handgun.
The provision by Sen. LARRY CRAIG (R-ID) garnered 54 Republican votes and 18 Democrat votes, with 27 Democrats and one Republican opposing Senators RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL) and JOHN CHAFEE (R-RI) co-sponsored a measure to make people criminally liable if a gun that they did not keep locked away is used to shoot someone, a law many felt was aimed at parents, providing for a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $10,000 fine. Since firearms stolen through an illegal entry or break-in were exempted from this bill, there was no other conclusion about who it was aimed at.
Sen. DURBIN said the recent series of schoolyard shooting sprees across the country by children angry at teachers or other students showed "the urgent need for tougher laws to keep firearms away from children."
Sen. CHAFEE said, "If you leave a gun lying around that a child gets to and that child causes serious harm to himself or others, then you ought to be liable."
Sen. LARRY CRAIG (R-ID) objected to prosecuting parents for their children’s crimes, saying, "I don’t think we can make parents criminals." The Senate defeated the DURBIN-CHAFEE bill 69-31.
The Senate instead accepted Sen. CRAIG’s alternative bill, which would expand a test program to combat youth crime and allow more vigorous prosecution of people who illegally supply weapons to youths.
The CRAIG bill would use a Philadelphia program as the model for 50 cities or counties by October 2000, 75 by October 2002 and 150 by October 2003.
Sen. DIANE FEINSTEIN proposed an amendment to S. 2313, the 1999 Treasury Appropriations Act. Her amendment was titled, "Ban on Importing Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Devices," or the "Large Capacity Clip Ban of 1998."
"Large capacity" means more than 10 rounds.
Such ammo clips are already barred from general manufacture in the U.S., but are still made here for police and military use.
The Senate rejected the FEINSTEIN Amendment by a narrow 54-44 vote.
The Senate also approved an amendment proposed by Sen. RON WYDEN (D-OR) that would allow authorities to detain children who have brought firearms to school for at least 24 hours to assess their mental health.
An amendment by Sen. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ) titled "Firearm Violation Demonstration Project," providing $2.3 million funding for Philadelphia and Camden County attorneys to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, passed on a voice vote.
REP. SCHUMER TRIES TO IGNITE HIS SENATE BID WITH GUN CONTROL
The Brady Act’s 5-day waiting period for gun purchases is set to expire this November 30. That fact is just the political spark that Rep. CHARLES E. SCHUMER (D-NY) has been looking for.
SCHUMER wants the nomination to be Democratic candidate for the Senate seat of Sen. ALPHONSE D’AMATO, but he’s been polling third in a field of three. Both former Congresswoman and Vice-Presidential candidate GERALDINE FERRARO, the front runner, and MARK GREEN, New York City’s Public Advocate, are big on gun control, too.
But SCHUMER was an author and sponsor of the Brady Bill back in 1993, and its passage made him a national figure. With the Brady law about to expire, SCHUMER is pushing for "Brady 2," an extension of the waiting period recently announced by Handgun Control leader SARAH BRADY.
At the New York news conference announcing the new bill, Rep. SCHUMER stood behind SARAH BRADY while she said, "It is painful for all of us to refight a battle once won."
But SCHUMER wasn’t pained at all. He told an interviewer, "This is just a dynamite issue in the campaign." He’s hoping to relive past glories and set himself apart from Democratic rivals in the primary.
One of his campaign pledges is, "I can get things done," a response to charges that he has lost his effectiveness in Congress. He boasts, "I’m given credit for being the person who routed the N.R.A. for the first time in 30 years."
That was then; this is now. SCHUMER is still suffering from lack of name recognition in New York. Outside of his Brooklyn congressional district, he’s "Charles Who?", while GERALDINE FERRARO’s name is a household word nationwide.
Polls indicate gun control won’t be a factor in New York’s general election anyway, and whoever runs against him, Sen. D’AMATO will keep or lose his berth in the Senate on other issues.
GOD, GUNS AND GUTS IN KENTUCKY
"Jesus would puke," said the Rev. NANCY JO KEMPER, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches when she heard the recent news. It had just become legal for Kentucky ministers and church officers to tote guns inside a house of worship, as long as they have a concealed weapons permit.
With another view of Christianity, WILLIE RAMSEY, a preacher at the Somerset Church of Christ, campaigned to extend the right to men and women of the cloth, and other church officials.
"It’s a matter of equal rights and equal protection under this gun law," said RAMSEY. He argues that churches are robbery targets because of the offerings they collect.
He has a point. Last year a shotgun-toting robber interrupted a sermon at Liberty Mission Baptist Church in the eastern Kentucky town of Gray, taking $400 from worshippers. Two dozen burglaries, thefts and vandalism incidents at Lexington area churches in the past two years emphasize the point.
RAMSEY told reporters, "Obviously we do not want to lose the Lord’s money. Money is an allurement for thieves and the people who are around the money are endangered. Would we give the money rather than shoot someone? Yes, we would. The issue is that they’re willing to shoot us for the money. It’s the right of self defense."
Kentucky’s new law, passed this year by the General Assembly, is the only specific provision of its kind the G-T Report could certify. Of the 31 states with concealed weapons permit law, we could find 10 that specifically ban concealed weapons from houses of worship. The others are silent on the issue.
Kentucky’s 1996 concealed carry law bans guns from a number of places, including schools, government buildings and houses of worship.
The 1998 amendment allows only ministers and church officials to "pack heat" in church, and not the worshippers, who must still leave their guns at the door.
However, KEMPER believes the law is so vague that it allows virtually anyone with a permit to bring a gun into a church. She said her group will try to repeal the amendment during the next legislative session, which will convene in 2000.
REAL-LIFE TV COP SHOW GETS REAL-LIFE SHOTGUN BLAST
The TV show "Cops" was filming in Chesapeake, Virginia, when a police officer patrolling with the camera crew accidentally shot a cameraman in both legs, according to police spokesman DAVE HUGHES.
The incident began when the unnamed officer responded to a call of a gun being fired, and the visiting "Cops" crew went along.
When they arrived at the scene, a person told the police officer that the gun was in the trunk of a car. The officer got permission from the car’s owner to search the trunk, where he found a shotgun.
While the officer was removing the gun, it went off, spraying the ground with shot. The ricochet hit the cameraman in both shins, sending him to the hospital.
The cameraman was treated and released and the officer remains on duty. Neither was identified by the spokesman.
NO GUN FOR IOWA TOWN’S TOP COP
The police chief of Coggon, Iowa, is running his shop with an empty holster.
It seems that Linn County Sheriff DON ZELLER refused to issue Chief CHUCK LEWIS a permit to either obtain a handgun or carry one because of a 1995 assault conviction.
ZELLER said, "I just felt I couldn’t issue him one. I didn’t feel he met the criteria." State law grants the Sheriff that discretion.
The city could buy a handgun and issue it to LEWIS, but the lawman wants to challenge ZELLER’s decision and get the proper permit.
LEWIS said the conviction is not what it seems. It resulted from a fight with another man, and he pleaded guilty rather than contest the assault charge because it was costing him too much time and money.
While the Sheriff’s decision is being contested, Chief LEWIS has no handgun.
But Coggon crooks shouldn’t get too cocky.
"It’s not like I don’t have a gun," Chief LEWIS said. "I just can’t carry a concealed weapon. I have a shotgun."
THE JAILS OF MADISON COUNTY
No, it’s not a remake of the CLINT EASTWOOD / MERYL STREEP movie of infidelity on the farm. It’s more like poetic justice.
PAMELA PARTNEY, the wife of a Granite City, Illinois alderman came into the Madison County Courthouse one recent morning to appear at a civil suit she was involved in.
The security guard examined her handbag in the x-ray machine. There was a loaded handgun in it.
A Madison County Sheriff’s deputy stopped her, and she explained that she had forgotten that the weapon was still in her purse.
She carries the gun for safety reasons, she said. She works a night shift and travels on rural roads to St. Genevieve, Missouri, where she resides in the family’s second home.
The Sheriff’s Department was unimpressed. They took her to Madison County Jail and charged her with unlawful use of a weapon.
Her bail was set at $15,000.
Husband DAN PARTNEY, prominent in Democratic politics in Madison County, was upset at the way law officers handled the incident.
He said his wife was treated like a common criminal. "My wife tried to explain the situation. Her lawyer tried to explain and nobody listened, so my wife spent the entire day in the Madison County Jail."
He added, "She’s very upset. It’s been a very emotional and traumatic day."
It should be noted that the Democrat-dominated state legislature of Illinois has rejected bills allowing law-abiding citizens the right to carry concealed weapons. But even that wouldn‘t allow you to bring a gun into a courtroom.
ALERT: DENVER EXTENDS ANTI-GUN PUBLIC NUISANCE ORDINANCE
The Denver City Council recently made permanent a controversial public nuisance ordinance that gives police the right to impound vehicles in which guns are found, if they suspect a crime has been committed. It was set to expire August 1.
Gun rights defenders packed the chambers, speaking in an unsuccessful effort to convince the council to scrap ordinance 37-50, which they said unfairly threatened their right to keep and bear arms. The ACLU also argued to let it expire.
Proponents of the ordinance say it has made their neighborhoods safer by allowing police to close down crack houses and seize cars used for drive-by and other shootings.
The gun portion of the ordinance targets individuals suspected of unlawfully carrying a weapon in their vehicle and provides for the demolition of the automobile if necessary. Confiscated guns are never returned.
The council also added provisions covering transportation of controlled substances, possessions of handguns by juveniles and attempting to elude police to the list of public nuisances.
Denver has had a public nuisance law since the 1960s, but in 1977 added civil remedies that enabled police to seize and destroy cars.
Lt. DAVID BRICKER, head of the Denver Police Department’s Nuisance Abatement Unit, said they had handled 333 vehicle investigations since the ordinance was passed and destroyed as many as 15 cars deemed to have been involved in serious crimes.
However, the law has already been used against gun owners legally carrying guns: Lt. DAN YOUNT said one car was impounded belonging to a man going hunting and another belonging to a woman who had been severely assaulted and was in fear of her life. Both are supposed to be exempt from the ordinance. Police said the gun owners didn’t tell them their circumstances until several days after the arrest.
Even if you are within the law after such an arrest, your gun will not be returned and you likely won’t get your car back for 30 days or more -- after paying an $80 towing fee and $8 a day storage charge. You’ll have to go to court to get your gun back. If you’re buying your car on time payments, seizure in such an arrest is cause for immediate repossession.
Gun owners might consider avoiding Denver unless travel there is essential. Also finding another location from which to book hunting trips may be prudent.
COLT CHIEF WANTS FEDERAL GUN CONTROL
RONALD L. STEWART, president and chief executive officer of Colt’s Manufacturing Company since 1996, stands alone among the nation’s gunmakers.
The former Chrysler executive, who came to Colt 2 years ago, advocates a comprehensive federal firearms law, including the creation of a federal gun permit.
These views have made him a pariah in the gun community.
STEWART told the Philadelphia Inquirer that his views were based on the assumption that increased government regulation was inevitable. "I’m just searching for a middle-of-the-road position, and that’s why I’ve taken such a beating from others in the industry," he said.
Some of STEWART’s critics, including DAVE TINKER, a trade magazine publisher, and the Coalition of New Jersey Sportsmen, believe he is motivated more to promote Colt than to enhance public safety. They see him as trying to curry favor with police departments and federal regulators who are potential Colt customers.
STEWART denies such accusations.
STEWART, 56, came to Colt as an outsider when the company was purchased by a limited partnership headed by DONALD ZILKHA, a New York financier.
COLUMBUS OHIO’S "ASSAULT WEAPON" BAN RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
The "assault weapon" and high capacity magazine bans in Columbus, Ohio, have been declared unconstitutional by a federal appellate court. This decision nullifies similar bans with identical language, such as that in Cleveland and other cities.
Gun owners GERALD SMOLAK and DENNIS WALKER challenged the law with the Peoples Rights Organization. They asserted they had been threatened with prosecution under the ordinance, which, they said, singled them out because they had not "grandfathered" their firearms during a 30 day registration window in 1989.
The plaintiffs also argued that the definition of "assault weapon" was so vague that they had no reasonable way to know if their weapons met the definition.
The court agreed, declaring the ban unconstitutionally vague and a violation of equal protection of the law.
The ruling invalidated all five definitions of "assault weapon" in the city ordinance as unconstitutionally vague, saying that one of them was "little more than a trap for the unwary."
The court also held two grandfather clauses in violation of equal protection. The equal protection clause of the Constitution, said the Court, "keeps governmental decisionmakers from treating differently persons who are in all relevant aspects alike."
The court held that the grandfather clauses provided no distinction between the plaintiffs, who were threatened with prosecution for owning un-grandfathered firearms, and those who had registered their firearms and magazines under the grandfather clauses.
This is a major victory for gun owners. We will certainly see this approach used in future lawsuits challenging "assault weapons" bans.
ILLINOIS GOVERNOR’S RACE UNFOLDS A "TRADING PLACES" STORY
Illinois Republican candidate GEORGE RYAN hopes to beat rival Democratic candidate GLENN POSHARD for the seat of retiring Governor JIM EDGAR, who announced in August of 1997 that he would not be a candidate.
But Republican RYAN is campaigning to preserve the Brady Act’s five-day waiting period beyond its fall 1998 expiration date, and Democrat POSHARD, a five-term Member of Congress, opposed the waiting period when Congress passed it and favors the instant background check system instead.
The Republican position has long been in opposition to the provisions of the Brady Act, while Democrats wrote it and pushed it through Congress over the objections of gun rights advocates across the nation.
Rep. POSHARD, who promised he would leave Congress after five terms, said, "I support a waiting period for the purchase of handguns," but only until the instant check system is in place.
POSHARD said he opposed the waiting period to begin with because it would have forced police to perform background checks during the waiting period without providing the funds.
He cited a Supreme Court ruling last year that local police could not be forced to perform such background checks.
Illinois state law requires a waiting period of one day for shotguns and rifles and three days for handguns. In Illinois, state police, not local departments, perform such background checks.
RYAN said that would not be enough to protect Illinois residents without the Brady waiting period. He said that without the federal waiting period Illinoisans could cross the state line into neighboring Kentucky and buy guns over the counter without any wait.
President CLINTON and gun control groups say the waiting period should be extended because it is a more reliable way of screening out those who should not be allowed to buy guns.
Republican RYAN fits right in with the CLINTON crowd.
AROUND THE STATES
California: Three important bills that have passed the Assembly are so far without action in the Senate. AB 48 would grant immunity to law-abiding gun owners who were unjustly prosecuted for possessing an SKS when Attorney General DAN LUNGREN (R) did an about-face on the legality of the gun. AB 2022 would make significant improvement to California’s concealed carry law. AB 2560 is a ban on semi-automatic weapons.
A San Francisco superior court judge has ruled that Attorney General DAN LUNGREN has been violating the state’s assault weapons ban by allowing registration of 16,000 firearms after the March 22 deadline prescribed in the law. The improperly registered guns could be confiscated. The suit, brought by Handgun Control, Inc., is being appealed by LUNGREN, whose spokesman told firearms owners to wait until they hear from the Attorney General.
Georgia: Attorney General THURBERT BAKER released an unofficial opinion, solicited by the Columbus City Council, stating that it was unlawful for the council to enact a child negligence ordinance because of the state’s existing pre-emption law which prohibits counties and municipalities from doing so. Gun owners were relieved because the ordinance linked gun ownership with child negligence.Maryland: Governor PARRIS GLENDENNING signed an executive order directing state troopers to request BATF traces on ALL guns seized, complete with ballistic testing. He intends to construct a definitive picture of crime guns, but critics note that BATF’s methods will likely dilute the samples with non-crime guns and be unable to determine how crime guns were actually acquired. In addition, the high cost of ballistic testing will likely cause backlogs in the program.
Massachusetts: Acting Governor Paul Cellucci signed the sweeping new gun control bill into law. He called it the toughest in state history and one of the strongest in the nation.
JOHN ROSENTHAL, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, Inc., praised the law for setting quality standards for guns offered for sale. He told reporters, "The most significant aspect of this bill by far and the most unique aspect is that we regualte guns like all other consumer products.
The law bans gun dealers from selling inexepensive handguns called "Saturday night specials."
Also banned are guns made of "low-quality metals," those prone to firing when dropped, prone to firing unintentionally, or prone to explode upon repeated firing.
It also prohibits the possession of sale of assault weapons made after September 1994 and bans all mail order gun sales. It requires prospective gun owners to undergo firearms training and subjects all gun owners to more frequent kicensing and higher licensing fees.
Gun owners face new requirements to keep their weapons from falling into the hands of children. Penalties were also increased for a variety of gun-related crimes.
Oklahoma: Texas and Oklahoma authorities have signed a reciprocity agreement allowing residents of each state who hold concealed handgun license to carry their firearms in the other state. Texas has a similar reciprocity agreement with Arkansas.
The move is significant because Texas law originally allowed reciprocity only with states whose standards for obtaining a license to carry were at least as stringent as those of Texas.
In 1977, the Legislature changed the 1995 law, allowing reciprocity as long as the other state has laws that meet federal requirements for purchasing a handgun. Texas is working with several other states to establish reciprocity.
HYPOCRISY AND SYLVESTER STALLONE
The movie man who made a ton of money playing armed-to-the-teeth Rambo and not long ago told a London audience that America’s gun rights should be eradicated recently helped President CLINTON raise $800,000 for Democratic candidates.
SYLVESTER STALLONE opened his palatial Florida home to 150 guests who paid $5,000 each to help Democrats seeking to wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans.
STALLONE recently told a London audience about America’s Second Amendment: "It has to be stopped, and someone really has to go on the line, a certain dauntless political figure, and say, it’s ending, it’s over, all bets are off. It’s not 200 years ago, we don’t need this anymore, and the rest of the world doesn’t have it. Why should we?"
The Democrat donors got a dinner of sea bass terrine and filet mignon, along with a glimpse of the mansion and its grounds, which is on the market for $27.5 million with no takers yet.
The festivities were a real love match: CLINTON is the most anti-gun President this nation has seen in a long time, and STALLONE is the most outspoken anti-gun movie star.
STALLONE gave the President a pair of boxing gloves used in the movie Rocky that made him famous. President CLINTON said, "I can use them." He’s proven he can take the punches, he said, and now he wants to throw a few of his own. Throwing money at candidates looks like the closest he’ll come.
The guests and the President got a tour of the sprawling STALLONE property, which includes a ballroom, billiard room, 10,000-bottle wine cellar, movie theater, a fur storage vault -- and an indoor shooting range.
The hypocrisy of these two men is truly amazing. Anti-gun President CLINTON has the most heavily armed bodyguard of anyone in America and anti-gun SYLVESTER STALLONE has an indoor shooting range in his home.
They don’t mind having weapons themselves, but they don’t want anybody else to have them.
After all the money that guns have earned for STALLONE in the movies, you’d think he’d get the connection to the right to keep and bear arms. Evidently not.
Perhaps he should follow his own recommendation and never play again in a movie with guns.
Perhaps the rest of us should simply avoid STALLONE movies.
And anti-gun candidates.
The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report: An Insiders Guide for Gun Owners
$30 for a full year of 12 great issues
This publication is available to be ordered online! Find out how, and start your subscription today!
Printed in the USA.
The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report (ISSN 1079-6169) is published monthly by the:
Second Amendment Foundation
James Madison Building
12500 N.E. 10th Place
Bellevue, WA 98005
Phone (425) 454-7012. FAX (425) 451-3959Please call or write if you have a question regarding your subscription.
Subscriptions $30 per year anywhere in the USA, $35 elsewhere. Single issues $5.00.Send address changes to:
The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report
12500 N.E. 10th Place
Bellevue, WA 98005Publishers: Alan M. Gottlieb and Joseph P. Tartaro
Editor: Ron Arnold
Design: Northwoods Studio
Production: Janet Arnold
Subscriptions: Susan Elings
Published by: Second Amendment FoundationCopyright 1999-2002 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.