Hindsight from The New Gun Week November 10, 1995 Goblins, Curses and Anti-Gunners by Joseph P. Tartaro Executive Editor This column is being written during the afternoon of Halloween, a traditional time of goblins, witches, curses and masquerades. By the time it is printed, sometime between midnight tonight and 7 a.m. tomorrow, All Saints Day, a hundred goblins or more will have visited our house for "tricks or treats," and my thoughts may have switched to another subject. But for the moment, I can't think of a better opportunity to reflect on the linkage between Halloween and the darkness and evil of the anti-gunners, and All Saints Day and its representation of goodness, honesty and the pro-gunners. Would that the anti-gunners would be gone tomorrow morning like the goblins and witches who will roam the streets tonight. This kind of metaphysical rumination about the public policy debate over guns owned by good guys always reminds me of an article by pro-gun attorney David T. Hardy which was first published in Gun Week back in the Nov. 27, 1981 issue. It was originally titled "Curious Chain of Events Reveals the Curse of the Gunnies." (So popular was Hardy's piece that it was republished several years later.) Many long-time readers of Gun Week still recall the "Curse of the Gunnies," and we occasionally get requests from them for updates on the curse. "Of the many tales of the supernatural, few concern our Capitol, and even fewer the legislation enacted there," Hardy began. "Yet recently rumors of a sinister curse -- some say laid by Jefferson, or Madison, even perhaps stemming from the Deity himself -- have been heard. While we cannot say that these rumors are correct, we cannot deny the simple fact that the successful sponsors of gun legislation have been struck with political ruin or tragic ends, struck as though by a supernatural hand, soon after their success." Hardy begins his review of the awful things that have befallen anti-gunners with a brief story of Big Tim Sullivan, the sponsor of the horrible New York handgun law that bears his name. In 1911, Sullivan, a leader of the infamous Tammany Hall Democrats, "piloted the first major handgun law through the state legislature in Albany. A week before the bill reaches the floor, Sullivan, a previously prominent politician and major state power, is implicated in a race track scandal. Within weeks after its passage, he becomes totally insane and is committed to a mental institution. He escapes, and is struck fatally by a locomotive within months of the bill's being signed into law." The next two examples come from Washington, DC. Hardy records that in 1938, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Royal S. Copeland attempted to impose a national Sullivan Law on all Americans, but settled instead on what became the National Firearms Act. "As its provisions are being debated on the Senate flakier, Copeland falls victim to a stroke. He is carried out of the chamber and dies within days of passage of the Act," Hardy recalls. Hardy then turns to 1966, when Sen. Thomas Dodd (D-CT) changes his previously mild restrictions on mail-order firearms sales into a much stricter form which would become the Gun Control Act of 1968. Within months of Dodd's major revision of his proposal, two of his staffers revealed that he had embezzled or misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds and sold his influence on appointments and legislation. While his bill was in the midst of the hearing process, Dodd becomes the first Senator censured for financial misconduct. His career ruined, he dies a few years later. Coincidence or not, one must then remember, as Hardy does, what befell Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) shortly after he became the champion of the gun control movement. A powerful political figure, a leader of the liberal movement, a potential presidential candidate, coincidence caught up with Kennedy as well. Only weeks after his most powerful blast at gunowners, Kennedy was involved in the death of a female acquaintance that dogged him ever after. The specter of Chappaquidick and his open antipathy to law-abiding gunowners also cost him the Iowa caucus vote in 1980 and blocked his challenge to President Jimmy Carter. (Carter, himself a milder proponent of restrictive gun laws, suffered a milder coincidence when he was relegated to one term by his defeat in November of that year by a more pro-gun Ronald Reagan.) Over the years since Hardy first wrote of the "Curse of the Gunnies," there have been any number of avid anti-gunners who have suffered through what often may appear to be supernatural events. In some cases, the anti-gunners who receive their just desserts are people whose cavalier attitude to power and corruption has eventually caused them to receive civil punishment. Former New York Rep. Mario Biaggi is an example. Much decorated while a member of the New York City Police, Biaggi became a leader of the anti-gun movement and was the chief sponsor of many bills, including the ban on so-called armor-piercing ammunition. Shortly after the bill became law, Biaggi was convicted of influence peddling and corruption in the Wedtech scandal and was sent to prison. His cohort in the Senate, Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio, became embroiled in lawsuits over the smelly sale of a restaurant chain and, when he retired in 1994, the voters in Ohio rejected his son-in-law, Joel Hyatt, as a successor. There are many others that show there is indeed a powerful force which exacts retribution from those who would deny the law abiding their right to keep and bear arms. Curiously, there is frequently a relationship between the dishonesty and corruptness of a politician and his or her commitment to the anti-gun cause. Perhaps that is because of the inherent dark side to so many of these advocates. Being dishonest themselves, they assume that everyone else is, or perhaps they fear the righteous armed citizen. Recently, we had another example of an anti-gun congressman who was suddenly brought down. Former Rep. Mel Reynolds of Illinois, who led or helped lead the charge on a number of anti-gun proposals and vilified decent gunowners, was convicted of obstruction of justice and illegal sex with an underage campaign worker. He was forced to resign from the House after being sentenced to jail. But perhaps one of the most spectacular recent examples of the "Curse of the Gunnies" involves a non-politician: Robert Brennan. Brennan is/was a multimillionaire stockbroker who championed the anti-gun cause on several fronts. He was the man behind the "Death Clock" in New York City's Times Square. He was the philanthropist who gave money to Seton Hall and Catholic University to promote legal seminars and internships focusing on new ways to use the courts to sue guns out of existence. Brennan claimed that his innocent brother had been killed by a handgun, but New Jersey newspapers reported that while his brother was indeed shot, it was by a police officer while the man was running away from the scene of a crime. Brennan (remember the dark side of all these people) was the president of First Jersey Securities, a nationwide firm which trafficked in "penny stocks" which became the subject of so many investor complaints that the Security and Exchange Commission investigated, prosecuted and eventually convicted Brennan. He was fined $75 million, but filed for bankruptcy protection so he wouldn't have to pay up. As reported recently in Gun Week, when Brennan filed for bankruptcy he listed among his assets a shooting range in Ireland valued at $650,000. But that is not the end of the curse's impact on Brennan. New Jersey newspapers are now reporting that Brennan's Dehere Foundation was a noble gun control scheme that is now mired in financial scandal. The Foundation was reportedly organized by Brennan with the help and guidance of Terry Dehere, a former star basketball player at Seton Hall University. Ending violence in the inner cities was the stated objective of the foundation that Brennan bankrolled. But now, New Jersey prosecutors are charging that Brennan used the tax-exempt foundation to help finance a broad stock-manipulation scheme in which worthless securities were bid up and then dumped on unsuspecting investors. The stock transactions were handled by another company, L. C. Wegard & Co., a brokerage firm Brennan secretly controlled. Linked to the board of the Dehere Foundation are such anti-gunners as former Gov. James Florio and former Rep. Peter Rodino. The smell rising from New Jersey's anti-gunners these days seems just another indication that their dark side cannot escape the "Course of the Gunnies." The events and people reported in this column are real. Anti-gun leaders, please read carefully. ********************************************************* The New Gun Week is a weekly publication of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, EDP manager - 75143,3674.