The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report
Issue 045
September, 1998

GUN GRABBERS ASSAULT FEDERAL CARRY BILL

Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI), has mounted an all-out campaign to defeat H.R. 218, the federal concealed carry reciprocity measure, calling it the "Have Gun, Will Travel" Amendment.

The amendment, introduced by Rep. BILL McCOLLUM (R-FL), was approved by the House Judiciary Committee by voice vote in early August, and the full House of Representatives is expected to vote on the entire bill when Congress reconvenes this month.

The legislation would permit gun owners licensed to carry concealed weapons in their state to carry them across state lines in many cases. It would also exempt off-duty law enforcement officers from state laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed firearms, giving them the opportunity to defend themselves and their families, said McCOLLUM.

"Cops are targets even when they are off duty," McCOLLUM said. "Under current law, police officers must disarm themselves when they cross state lines."

Handgun Control, Inc. and other gun grabber groups oppose the bill, hauling out the usual claims that it will increase the likelihood of street violence.

The Violence Policy Center issued a written statement that said, "Making it easier for people to carry concealed handguns will only increase the number of incidents that end in a funeral rather than a fist fight."

HCI, trying a scare tactic, collected data about the number of licenses to carry concealed weapons that have been issued in 40 states. Seven states prohibit the carrying of concealed handguns, and statewide data were not available for Georgia, New Hampshire and Vermont, which allow the carrying of concealed weapons.

HCI estimated that a total of 2,903,502 licenses to carry concealed handguns have been issued in the 40 states they checked. HCI made up a table of concealed weapons licensees by state (See Page 2). This was supposed to frighten people.

Gun owners were far from being scared by the numbers, knowing that concealed carry permit holders are not only among the most law abiding citizens in America, but are also responsible for preventing gun incidents through deterrence.

Thus, by accident, HCI gathered some information that actually interests gun owners: HCI found that H.R. 218 could supercede state laws in 14 states that have strict standards and police discretion in issuing concealed-carry licenses. Governors in these 14 states could sign a waiver to allow out-of-state licensees to carry a concealed gun in their state, even if the standards for granting licenses are weaker in the licensee’s home state. Reciprocity would also apply to Vermont, which does not require a license to carry a concealed gun.

Sixteen of the 29 states that would fall into the full-reciprocity category have no training requirements. Two states, Montana and West Virginia, do not require a specific background check. Some states, like Florida, do not require an applicant to have experience firing a gun. No state allows certain classes of disqualified persons to carry concealed weapons, such as convicted felons.

HCI’s tabulation of concealed carry permits by state (see opposite page) is of interest to gun owners everywhere. It shows us which states need work to facilitate concealed carry by law abiding citizens.

The states not shown on the table either prohibit concealed carry or they grant licenses through counties or localities so that accurate state estimates cannot be made.

HCI is doing its best to stop the reciprocity amendment with headlines such as, "3 million people will be able to carry concealed handguns across state lines" if Congress passes the measure. Sounds good to gun owners.

 

Handgun Control Inc.’s Table of Concealed Weapons Licensees By State

STATE	NUMBER OF LICENSEES	SOURCE
Alabama	105,869 (estimate) *	Baldwin/Calhoun/Jefferson/Madison/Morgan/Shelby/Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Departments, 8/12/98
Alaska	7,288	AK State Police, 12/10/97
Arizona	55,601	AZ Department of Public Safety, 12/15/97
Arkansas	15,190	AR State Police, 12/9/97
California	40,000 (estimate)	CA Department of Justice Firearms Program, 12/15/97
Colorado	6,300 (estimate)	Rocky Mountain News, 4/20/97
Connecticut	140,000 (estimate)	CT State Police, 12/11/97
Delaware	1,100 (estimate)	DE State Police, 12/16/97
Florida	221,446	Office of the FL Secretary of State, 6/30/98
Hawaii	1	Honolulu Police Department, 8/12/98
Idaho	35,505	ID State Police, 8/11/98
Indiana	67,597	IN State Police, 12/15/97
Iowa	25,756	IA Department of Public Safety, 8/11/98
Kentucky	32,569	KY State Police, 12/10/97
Louisiana	7,207 **	LA Department of Public Safety, 12/9/97
Maine	24,000 (estimate)	ME State Police, 12/11/97
Maryland	14,000 (estimate)	MD State Police, 12/11/97
Massachusetts	175,000 (estimate)	MA State Police, 8/12/98
Michigan	10,000	MI Association of Chiefs of Police, 8/13/98
Minnesota	3,660 **	MN Association of Chiefs of Police, 8/13/98
Mississippi	12,750	MS Department of Public Safety, 12/9/97
Montana	5,100	MT Department of Justice 12/16/97
Nevada	9,108 *	Washoe/Clark County Sheriff’s Departments, 8/11/98
New Jersey	4,300 ***	NJ State Police, 8/12/98
New York	530,000 (estimate)	NY State Police, 8/11/97
North Carolina	28,198	Charlotte Observer, 11/23/97
North Dakota	4,872	ND Bureau of Criminal Investigation, 7/31/98
Oklahoma	22,092	OK Bureau of Investigation, 12/12/97
Oregon	89,328	OR State Police, 8/1/98
Pennsylvania	575,000	Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/20/98
Rhode Island	4,300 (estimate) **	Office of the Rl Attorney General, 8/12/98
South Carolina	16,486	SC State Law Enforcement Division, 8/10/98
South Dakota	47,853	Office of the SD Secretary of State, 8/7/98
Tennessee	33,000 (estimate)	Richmond Times-Dispatch, 9/12/97
Texas	161,433	TX Department of Public Safety, 12/12/97
Utah	18,806	UT Department of Public Safety, 12/9/97
Virginia	72,730	VA State Police, 12/12/97
Washington	249,649	WA State Police, 12/11/97
West Virginia	25,807	WV State Police, 8/10/98
Wyoming	4,601	WY Division of Criminal Investigation, 8/11/98

U.S. TOTAL	2,903,502 Concealed Carry Licenses Nationwide

Note: States that are not included either prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons, or they grant licenses through counties or localities and an accurate estimate of licensees for the state is not available. * As state-wide records are not kept, number represents only concealed weapons licenses from specific jurisdictions. ** Number represents state regulated permits. Local law enforcement can also issue permits. *** Approximately 48% are armored car guards and 47% are retired law enforcement officers

 CLINTON BRINGS JIM BRADY TO PROMOTE EXTENSION OF BRADY ACT

President CLINTON recently invited former Reagan administration Press Secretary JAMES BRADY to a White House Rose Garden appearance urging Congress to extend the BRADY gun law - again.

President CLINTON early this summer made the same plea with SARAH BRADY, wife of JAMES BRADY and head of Handgun Control, Inc.

Standing alongside a row of police officers and JIM BRADY, the former presidential spokesman for whom the law is named, President CLINTON said, "Too many crimes are committed within hours of a handgun purchase. The waiting period gives tempers time to cool. It gives potential criminals the time to consider the consequences."

The BRADY law, which established a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, expires November 30, when the national instant background check system takes over.

The intent of the five-day waiting period was to give law enforcement officers time to perform background checks to screen for disqualified buyers, not to give criminals time to "cool off." Now that the computerized instant screening system is ready to do the job, the gun control crowd is changing their tune.

We need to keep the five-day waiting period, they say, for reasons that have nothing to do with background checks. Now the reason is "temper tantrum time."

Realizing that its argument is weak, the CLINTON administration has released claims that the BRADY law stopped 69,000 gun purchases last year. This number is outrageously inflated.

The Brady’s Act’s proponents have continuously inflated the number of stopped sales since the law went into effect in 1994, according to University of Chicago law professor JOHN LOTT, whose book on the Brady Act, More Guns, Less Crime, has added a reality factor to the debate.

Prof. LOTT says that estimates of Brady Act gun permit stops range from as few as 1,000 to more than 100,000. However, the Government Accounting Office, the watchdog of Congress, counted 60,000 stopped purchases in an early year of the Brady Act, but only 3,000 were due to a violent crime record. The rest were filing errors, failure to fill out the application correctly or other non-crime reasons.

JIM BRADY, who was shot and wounded in the head during the 1981 assassination attempt on President REAGAN, said his namesake law was "not broken so Congress shouldn’t try to fix it." BRADY said, "My advice to Congress is simple: Don’t mess with success." A nice slogan, but not much else.

Does America really need a five-day waiting period now that the much-touted National Instant Check System (NICS) is gearing up? And if so, what was the NICS system made for anyway?

POLICE SUICIDE IS COMMON - AND SO ARE COVER-UPS

A recent Boston newspaper report opened with a dramatic lead: "Just after midnight on Oct. 29, 1994, 28-year-old state trooper CATHERINE GALVIN was found dead in her apartment in the city’s South Boston section."

Boston police, said the story, told reporters Galvin accidentally shot herself while cleaning her gun. Foul play and suicide were ruled out, the department said.

Not so, said the medical examiner’s report just a week later. Galvin had deliberately shot herself in the head. Suicide.

Officers at the scene had told reporters it was a clear case of suicide, but the department decided to say it was an accident.

The Boston Globe looked into the issue of police suicide and cover-ups, and reported that all over the country, it is a common but little-discussed occurrence.

The National Association of Police Chiefs in Miami says officers nationwide are twice as likely to kill themselves as they are to be killed. In Buffalo, N.Y., officers were more than 8 times as likely to kill themselves as to be slain in the line of duty.

Experts studying the problem say the high-stress, often grim nature of police work can lead to despondency.

Alcohol and drugs add to the problem.

Police often fight to keep officer suicides out of the public eye, usually motivated by the urge to protect survivors from financial hardship.

Families of officers who commit suicide often receive less than the maximum benefit package and lose the $100,000 federal payment that goes to the family of officers killed on the job. Life-insurance payouts are also likely to be forfeited by suicide.

JOHN VIOLANTI, a former New York state trooper who has studied police suicide for a decade, said, "I was talking to a New York City cop, and when his dad went through the police academy, they told him that if you ever have the urge to eat your own gun, lay out gun-cleaning equipment so it looks like an accident."

Police insiders say that staging accidents by placing gun-cleaning equipment near the body of an officer suicide is not uncommon.

JOHN CARR, a former Rhode Island police officer who runs the Rhode Island Centurion Program for officers under stress, says such cover-ups deliver a potentially harmful message to surviving officers to keep their problems to themselves.

Carr said that about one-third of police departments nationwide don’t have formal programs to help officers deal with pressure.

 

POLICE UNION LAWSUIT REINSTATED BY APPEALS COURT

The Fraternal Order of Police recently won a round in its lawsuit challenging a gun-control law that forbids anyone convicted of domestic violence, including police officers, to own a gun.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed a lower court dismissal of the suit.

The lawsuit deals with an amendment to the 1968 Gun Control Act. In 1996, Congress extended the prohibition against gun ownership or possession by convicted felons to anyone convicted of domestic violence.

The law made no exception for police, and the result was officers in some cities being fired after they were stripped of their guns.

Domestic violence victim advocates were pleased with the amendment, but police organizations said its retroactive provisions were unconstitutional and unfair.

Several lawsuits to block enforcement of the law were filed, including this one by the Fraternal Order of Police.

A federal district court ruled that the FOP lacked legal standing to bring the suit, but the appellate court disagreed.

 

NATIONAL ID CARD PLAN PUT ON HOLD

Federal regulations that would create national standards for state identification cards have been postponed, thanks to pressure from pro-gun champion Rep. BOB BARR (R-GA).

BARR also received a commitment from the Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs to hold hearings on the controversial proposal this month.

Rep. BARR said, "While delaying these regulations is only a first step toward ending the drive for a national identification card, it is an important first step. I am pleased the Administration listened to our concerns and extended the public comment period on these regulations until October 2, 1998."

BARR has the support of many groups on this issue, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Christian Coalition, the Libertarian Party, the CATO Institute, and others.

BARR said, "I am eager to bring this entire matter to the public’s attention in Congressional hearings. I do not believe Americans are interested in giving the federal government unprecedented power to track and identify them. Hopefully, these hearings will be the beginning of the end of efforts to create a national identification system."

 

PENNSYLVANIA CANDIDATE GETS GUNS BACK

JON S. MIROWITZ, Republican candidate for Pennsylvania’s Second District State Senate seat, can resume carrying two handguns on city streets.

His guns had been seized by federal authorities in June after MIROWITZ was arrested by a U.S. District Court security officer for allegedly trying to sneak one of two loaded guns into the courthouse.

The case was dismissed by U.S. Magistrate Judge DIANE M. WELSH at the request of federal prosecutors who said there was insufficient evidence to go to trial.

MIROWITZ said he was relieved that the case had been dropped. His attorney, ARI MOLDOVSKY, had contended all along that the arrest had been "an honest mistake" on the court security officer’s part.

Once a victim of a mugging, MIROWITZ, 48, who wears a cowboy hat to keep the sun off his head, said he carries two guns for self-defense. "It’s quicker to draw a second gun than to reload."

 

RENO CALLS FOR "KID GUN CONTROL"

U.S. Attorney General JANET RENO recently told the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates that more must be done to keep guns away from children and held end a national "culture of violence."

RENO said, "States must enact and enforce laws requiring gun owners to store their weapons securely so that children cannot get access to them."

In July, the Senate rejected a bill to require all handguns sold in the United States include safety locks designed to prevent accidents.

RENO’s talent for mixing issues showed clearly: she pointed to the recent fatal shootings inside the U.S. Capitol to make the point that gun-related violence is a major threat to Americans’ safety, but made no effort to explain what that had to do with kid gun control.

"We need to teach these young people that guns kill and maim for life," RENO said. "There can be very few people in the United States who disagree with the proposition that no one should possess a gun unless they know how to safely and lawfully use it, and evidence a willingness and capacity to do so."

The Attorney General made her remarks at a meeting in Toronto. The ABA House of Delegates passed a resolution supporting kid gun control.

 

GUN RATIONING IDEA REJECTED

The effort of Philadelphia Mayor EDWARD G. RENDELL to impose a "one gun a month" restriction on the purchase of handguns nationwide has been rebuffed by the American Shooting Sports Council.

ASSC, in a letter to Mayor RENDELL early this month, refused to support S. 466, the "One Gun A Month" bill proposed by Sen. FRANK R. LAUTENBERG (D-NJ). The refusal came after months of negotiation to create a comprehensive action plan to prevent gun-related violence.

Calling S. 466 "a slogan without a solution," ASSC pointed out that illegal traffickers would get around the limit by simply recruiting many straw buyers to funnel guns to them. ASSC also noted that enforcing the one-gun-a-month plan would require a national computerized registration system of handgun buyers, which is emphatically opposed by legitimate law-abiding gun owners.

The rebuff appears to raise the odds that Mayor RENDELL will sue the firearms industry, contending that unfettered gun sales have cost city taxpayers millions of dollars in court, prison and social-welfare costs. RENDELL has repeatedly threatened to sue if the industry does not take substantive steps to fight gun violence.

Mayor RENDELL had been meeting with the chief executive of Colt’s Manufacturing Co., who outraged his industry colleagues by urging passage of a federal gun-control law. Ronald Stewart said a national law would be better than a hodgepodge of local laws. See the following story for latest developments.

 

COLT CEO RESIGNS AFTER SUPPORTING FEDERAL GUN CONTROL

RONALD L. STEWART, president and chief executive officer of Colt’s Manufacturing Company since 1996, has resigned from the firm.

The former Chrysler executive, who came to Colt 2 years ago, advocated a comprehensive federal firearms law, including the creation of a federal gun permit.

Stewart will be replaced by Steven Sliwa.

 

JOURNAL REPORTS CHIEF NRA LOBBYIST UNDER FIRE

A recent issue of the National Journal, a Washington insider periodical, claimed that the National Rifle Association’s top lobbyist is in trouble. Quoting anonymous sources, the Journal wrote that NRA executive WAYNE R. LaPIERRE has been quietly looking for a replacement for TANYA K. METAKSA, the group’s "controversial" chief lobbyist.

The Journal said, "Over the years, she’s ruffled important Capitol Hill feathers with her .357 Magnum style."

To bolster their story, the Journal cited insiders who said METAKSA was nowhere to be seen in the halls of Congress during a recent flurry of NRA lobbying over mandatory trigger locks.

 

NEW ZEALAND LAW MONITORS GUN OWNERS

The government of New Zealand recently imposed requirements for all gun owners to register their firearms and authorized police to monitor "high-risk" gun owners.

The country’s 93,000 unlicensed gun owners have six months to register their weapons. Police estimate there are at least 700,000 firearms among New Zealand’s 3.4 million population.

The new measure was unrelated to recent pressures to ban semiautomatic weapons. New Zealand Police Minister Jack Elder told reporters that the government had deferred a decision on banning semiautomatic weapons. Gun control advocates have called for such a ban after a number of highly-publicized shootings. There are an estimated 15,000 semiautomatic weapons owned in New Zealand.

 

NRA’s new firearms museum draws bravos and brickbats

The National Rifle Association has opened its $3.1 million firearms museum, a high-tech tribute to American firepower housed in the NRA’s headquarters in Fairfax, Va., a Washington suburb.

Nearly 2,000 guns line the walls of the National Firearms Museum, from Napoleon’s own rifle to an ordinary M16 used in the Persian Gulf war. One of the most remarkable weapons is a tiny flintlock pistol that weighs less than an ounce and fires a .08-inch ball.

The museum boasts climate-control display cases, life-size dioramas showing a Colonial hunter in action, a St. Louis gunsmith’s shop in the 1800s, and scenes from World War I and World War II. The exhibits are backed up by computers that give additional information on display items.

DOUG WICKLAND, the museum curator, said "Firearms and American history are intertwined. We like to think of the National Firearms Museum as being the story of Americans and their guns."

The museum is laid out in sections. A "For the Fun of It" gallery contains a boy’s bedroom from the 1950s, complete with a rack for BB guns. One newspaper noted that "the floor is covered with an authentic Hopalong Cassidy rug that was salvaged from a New Jersey home."

There’s another relic, a turn-of-the-century Coney Island shooting gallery where fairgoers fired real .22-caliber rifles at moving metal ducks.

"We had one fellow who drove six hours to see the museum’s Wall of Winchesters, a collection of 72 Winchester rifles," said WICKLAND. "He spent two days looking at it, and he left here a very, very happy individual."

The gun grabber crowd, however, was not pleased with the museum. JOSH SUGARMANN, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, told reporters, "They’re looking back on a sepia-tone past when the theme in a kid’s room wasn’t sports, but guns. It is, to them, a vision of a sort of lost Valhalla. Most people have a very different view of American youth’s gun culture. What they’re doing is fighting against what people see in the newspapers every day."

SUGARMANN evidently won’t be one of the visitors in the gift shop stocking up on NRA pens, stuffed animals, lighters, flags, pins, belt buckles, caps, mugs and T-shirts.

The museum is free and open to the public daily.

 

PROJECT EXILE: GETTING TOUGH ON CRIMINALS INSTEAD OF GUNS?

Richmond, Virginia, used to be one of the country’s most violent cities, but that’s changing. The reason is Assistant U.S. Attorney DAVID SCHILLER, who has zealously pursued anyone caught violating even the most obscure federal gun law and sent 200 people to prison.

Mandatory federal sentences are stiffer than those generally given in state courts, so making a federal case of any gun violation covered by federal law is good legal strategy. Federal prosecutors have had the authority for years, but SCHILLER has turned it into a mission.

It may have made a difference in Richmond: So far this year there have been 39 gun-related homicides, 49 fewer than the same time last year.

But there’s politics in the background. SCHILLER and his boss, U.S. Attorney HELEN FAHEY, a CLINTON appointee, have gotten the cold shoulder from the Justice Department when asking for more money and people to get tough on crime.

KENT MARKUS, Attorney General JANET RENO’s top aide on gun violence, doubts that Project Exile is related to Richmond’s falling crime rate.

But the CLINTON administration has reason to ignore Project Exile: it would divert money and attention from its own anti-gun initiatives with a get-tough solution on one of Mr. CLINTON’s pet issues.

 

 DOCTORS DON’T FOLLOW FIREARMS SAFETY COUNSELING GUIDELINES

A study conducted in Los Angeles County shows that family clinicians generally do not follow guidelines on firearm safety counseling.

That can be either good news or bad news for gun owners. The guidelines recommend simply that medical practitioners counsel their patients about firearms safety, which is good news.

However, two medical associations recommend that the "safety counseling" consist only of telling families with children to remove guns from their home, which is bad news.

Dr. SHARI BARKIN at the University of California, Los Angeles, with colleagues there and elsewhere, mailed 465 questionnaires on firearm counseling practices to primary care physicians, pediatricians, and pediatric nurse practitioners who serve families with young children. They drew 325 responses.

In a recent issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, the researchers reported the results:

While 80% of respondents acknowledged that they ought to counsel families on firearm safety, only 38% actually do so, and only 20% of those counsel more than 10% of families.

Clinician specialty and neighborhood crime rates had no effect on counseling rates, according to the researchers. Clinicians aged younger than 49 years were more likely to provide firearm safety counseling, however, as were clinicians who owned guns themselves. In addition, clinicians who owned guns were more likely to advise parents to teach children how to handle firearms safely, but less likely to advise that firearms be removed from the home.

The authors point out that the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners recommend that firearms be removed from homes with children and that if a family does not already have a gun, clinicians should encourage them not to purchase one. Thus, the researchers write, "[C]linicians [with] a handgun in their home are more likely...to counsel their patients on topics that are inconsistent with the...recommendations of these medical associations.’.

Perhaps the nonconformist doctors recognize that the recommendations of these medical associations are wrong. But one thing is for sure: this is an issue gun owners should discuss with the family doctor.