ALERT: The Maryland-DC Shootings

IT’S A DANGEROUS SITUATION — AND NOT JUST FOR THE HELPLESS
VICTIMS IN MARYLAND, DC, AND VIRGINIA

What could be more terrifying? An unknown shooter is on the
loose, striking apparently at random in broad daylight from
no fixed location. Women, children, men, whites, blacks,
Asians, professionals, working people — no one is safe.

For ordinary people, the ongoing murders in Maryland,
Virginia, and Washington, DC, are a nightmare. For the
nation’s media, they are high drama. For those who hate
firearms … these murders are the best thing that’s
happened since Columbine. The horror is tailor-made to
further their agenda. And it WILL further their agenda if
the public remains ignorant and gun owners remain too
trusting of politicians.

PERFECT TIMING FOR TERROR

Our sympathies go out to the victims and their families and
to the tens of thousands who suddenly wonder if they’re
carrying invisible targets on their own backs. Our hearts
are with the police who are charged with solving a type of
deadly crime no one has ever seen before.

But to anyone who cares about rights and freedom, we say,
“Watch out.” This situation is dangerous to tens of
millions — and to freedom itself — and not just to the
thousands who are directly at risk.

The timing is too “good” for the victim-disarmament crowd.
And without yielding to paranoia, let us count some of the
ways:

* The 1994 “assault weapons” ban will sunset in 2004 unless
Congress re-authorizes it. All those firearms that were
banned because of their appearance (and because they didn’t
meet arbitrary, bureaucratically defined, and highly
changeable “sporting purpose” criteria) are scheduled to
become legal to manufacture again. All those magazines that
can hold more than 10 rounds will be legal to manufacture
again. It will once again be legal to import the group of
shotguns administratively banned by Ronald Reagan and the
group of semi-automatic rifles similarly banned by the first
President Bush. (Both of these executive bans were codified
in the 1994 law.)

* Now — just at this crucial time — comes the horror.
Suddenly a skilled shooter (described by a police
“profiler” — or stereotyper — as someone who probably
reads Soldier of Fortune ) begins attacking people,
apparently with the popular .223 caliber of firearm. Almost
immediately after the shootings began, and long before
anyone knew the exact type of weapon used, police turned up
in the national media holding up black, “scary-looking”
carbines. We wonder why they participated in this speculative
and highly dubious display, at a time when they were releasing
few facts about the case. But even more important, we wonder
why (when, remember, they didn’t know the weapon being used)
they choose to display or the media chose only to show, the
formidable-looking banned versions of the .223 and not its
more benign-looking (and unbanned) cousins like the Ruger
Mini-14 or any bolt-action .223 from any number of
manufacturers.

* A little more than a week before the shootings began, a
group of law-enforcement association representatives, speaking
at a Brady Campaign/Million Mom March news conference,
announced support for re-authorization of the ban
( http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.asp?Record=425 ).
Just two days before the shootings began in Maryland, the
Brady Campaign and the Million Mom March announced their
intention to start a TV ad and leafletting campaign
condemning one Maryland gubernatorial candidate’s voting
record on firearms
( http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.asp?Record=427 ).

* Even while waving military-looking firearms before the TV
cameras, police spokespeople in Maryland were also stating,
repeatedly, that the weapon used could be “a hunting rifle.”
Don’t forget that, ever since 1963 when John F. Kennedy was
reportedly shot with a bolt-action rifle, there have been
efforts to ban such rifles, as well. As early as the hearings
on the 1968 Gun Control Act, the suggestion was made to
outlaw scopes on rifles. More recently, gun-prohibitionists
have begun referring to scoped hunting guns as “long-range
sniper rifles.” Until now, all attempts to ban these guns
have failed because millions recognize that these are the
ordinary deer rifles or varmint guns used by men and women
everywhere. But the drive is on to ban them, and as we’ve
already seen, the drive to ban guns is a gradual, decades-
long process. The enemies of freedom are patient.

So either way — “assault weapon” or “long-range sniper
rifle” — there’s something perfect in these horrible
shootings for people like Sarah Brady, Josh Sugarman, or
the handful of well-funded people who call themselves the
Million Moms.

The more helpless terror there is on the streets of the
nation’s capital and its surrounding suburbs, the better
for them.

“BUT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WILL PROTECT OUR RIGHTS!”

Ignoring the prominent role Republicans have played in “gun
control” from the Brady Law (pushed through by Bob Dole) to
the horribly abusive enforcement programs Project Safe
Neighborhoods and Project Exile (See the Cato Institute
Policy Analysis, “There Goes the Neighborhood”
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-440es.html ), many gun
owners are still snoozing, figuring George W. Bush and
John Ashcroft will protect their rights.

But why should we expect that? Remember:

* Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and Sen. Charles Schumer have
made virtually identical statements of their views on the
Second Amendment. Ashcroft has voiced support for, and
pledged enforcement of, every single one of the
restrictive firearms laws Mr. Schumer foisted upon this
nation. (See “Second Amendment Setup: What they Say Isn’t
What You Get,” http://www.jpfo.org/2nd-setup.htm ).

* In his widely cheered May 2002 brief to the U.S. Supreme
Court, Bush administration Solicitor General Theodore Olson
wrote that the Second Amendment was, “… subject to
reasonable restrictions designed to prevent possession by
unfit persons or to restrict the possession of types of
firearms that are particularly suited to crime.” (See the
JPFO alert “Bush Administration Stance on the Second
Amendment: Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?”
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20020510.htm .) Ask yourself the
question: Is there any firearm that anti-gun politicians
and their supporters do not consider “particularly suited
to crime?”

* George W. Bush never even sent a courtesy answer, let alone
gave honest consideration to, JPFO’s letter pointing out that
the best “homeland security” is an armed citizenry. (See “An
Open Letter to President George W. Bush: A Dangerous Gap in
Homeland Security” http://www.jpfo.org/alert20020208.htm .)

* The Bush administration has stated its support for even
more extensive and invasive “gun control” legislation
( http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/05/20010514-2.html ).
They use the language of the gun-prohibitionists: “gun
violence,” “closing the gun show loophole” — the whole package.

And anti-gun activists like the Bradys and the Million Moms
recognize weasel words when they hear them. They may dis the
Bush administration publicly, but privately they know that
Bush, Ashcroft, and the vast majority of other politicians
will not oppose them — especially when they can point to
horrors like the current east-coast shootings. In the emotion
of the moment, anyone who points out that “gun control” doesn’t
stop criminals, or that it’s unconstitutional, or that it only
creates more victims, is shouted down as a cold, uncaring,
crime-loving monster.

This is how freedom is lost: Pressure groups push, using
emotion to overcome facts and logic. Politicians — who don’t
have any principles to ground them, anyway — cave in. And as
the song says, they take just “A Little Bit More”
( http://www.jpfo.org/livefree.htm ).

WHAT CAN WE DO?

We grant that this type of run-and-hide murder, where victims
are picked off by a nearly invisible shooter, is very difficult
even for a well-armed, well-trained citizenry to combat. But
with firearms, we have a chance to protect ourselves. Without
them, we’re just waiting to be victims.

And what if these shootings are acts of terrorism, and not
merely some twisted new form of freelance crime? What a
horrible time to want Americans to be even more helpless
then they already are! If these criminals are also terrorists
(and certainly they are inflicting terror, whether for
political reasons or otherwise), they must be laughing at
anyone who believes we can help ourselves by giving up even
more of our self-defense tools.

As individuals in this dangerous moment, there may be little
we can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones except to
be extra alert to what’s going on in our environment — to
be watchful for threatening circumstances.

But as citizens with a long-term view of our rights and
freedoms, there’s a lot we can do.

We can keep ourselves educated and continue to educate those
around us to recognize how horrors like the current shootings
are cynically used by control-minded politicians to turn a
once-free country into a fiefdom. Go back and read the articles
linked from this alert. Stay aware of the tactics and the
weasel words the anti-freedom crowd are using. Send the best
articles to your friends and neighbors. Keep reminding yourself
and everyone else who cares how freedom is lost and how it can
be regained.

Potential victims of a long-range killer need to keep an
extra watchful eye out for this villain. But we all need
to keep a perpetually watchful eye on those far more dangerous
individuals — those who want us to be disarmed and helpless
before every kind of killer and thug in the world.

The Liberty Crew

================================================================
ARE YOU A DUES-PAYING MEMBER?
DO YOU BUY JPFO PRO-FREEDOM MATERIALS?
================================================================
JPFO’s website was given the “Heritage of Freedom Award for
Internet Excellence” from Students for the Second Amendment for
July 2002. See the award logo at http://www.jpfo.org/ bottom of
the page.
================================================================
Original Material in JPFO ALERTS is Copyright 2002 JPFO, Inc.
Permission is granted to reproduce this alert in full, so long
as the following JPFO contact information is included:

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
PO Box 270143
Hartford, Wisconsin 53027

Phone: 1-262-673-9745
Order line: 1-800-869-1884 (toll-free!)
Fax: 1-262-673-9746
Web: http://www.jpfo.org/