Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 18:15:12 EST
From: [email protected] (Neal Knox)

Nov. 4 Knox Report – Vice President Al Gore will be up on the Hill
today with House and Senate leaders pushing for Congress to pass
the Juvenile Justice Bill — and particularly the gun provisions.

It’s a charade, for those same folks are doing their best to
prevent any gun bill from being enacted. They’re convinced that
“gun control” is a great political issue — and never mind that, as
the Washington Post has acknowledged, the Virginia election results
showed it wasn’t so, even in the D.C. suburbs, where Democrats
tried to make guns a major issue.

House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde — with support from
Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch –
has been pushing a “compromise” gun show bill, trigger locks, a ban
on importing high-capacity magazines and other provisions.

Yesterday, Rep. Hyde released a letter to Rep. John Conyers
which says “each time that you and I come close to such a
bipartisan solution and you meet with your Democratic Leadership,
you would come back to the table with new and novel demands.”

I talked with four Congressmen and several staffers yesterday;
all are convinced that there will be no vote before Congress
adjourns for the year, probably late next week.

—————-

Chairman Hyde’s press release included the Judiciary
Committee’s web address: http://www.house.gov/judiciary

—————-

Yesterday’s shooting of four boatyard employees in Seattle is
causing the anti-gun forces to beat their drums even louder, but
this one appears much different than other “workplace killings.”

The survivor who could talk said he had never seen the killer
before. And the killer seemed to be wearing a disguise:
sunglasses, dark coat over a camouflage garment and a low-billed
baseball cap.

—————-

There was a broad mix of attendees at yesterday’s Capitol
Hill invitation-only premier of a near-final version of “Waco: A New
Revelation.” Rep. Cliff Stearnes (R-Fla.) spoke to the press
about the importance of investigating the facts presented by the
film — which has forced FBI to admit to earlier lies, cough up
stacks of information withheld from Congress, and triggered three
new investigations.

It was a far-more-powerful and professional version than the
rough-cut I saw last summer. It should be available for sale as a
video tape by the end of the month, Producer Mike McNulty said –
but Mike has been saying that for months.

Several of those who appeared in the film attended, including
Attorney David T. Hardy, author Dick Reavis, film narrator and former
FBI agent Dr. Frederick Whitehurst (who blew the whistle on the FBI
criminal laboratory), and a retired Delta Force sergeant with
knowledge about Delta’s involvement at Waco.
—————–

In this morning’s New York Times Josh Sugarmann, who has long
criticized other anti-gunners for not pressing for a British or
Japanese-type ban on handguns, does an excellent job of pointing
out the flaws of what he calls “half-way” gun control measures.

He wrote that gun control groups “find themselves increasingly
defending the ineffective: Why, the pro-gun faction reasonably
asks, didn’t some of the nation’s toughest laws on gun licensing
and registration prevent the carnage in Hawaii?”

Handgun Control Inc. gives Hawaii’s laws an “A-” for bans on
“Saturday Night Specials,” “Assault Weapons,” and high-capacity
magazines; registration and licensing, permits to purchase after a
15-day wait and a state background check; storage requirements,
prohibiting private transfers, handgun possession by minors, and a
string of other gun laws.

I wonder what it would take to get an A-Plus rating from HCI.