dave , hven’t seen your blood boil for a while This “bud” is for you

From: Bence Bokor
To: Pro-Second People
Subject: Anti-second opinion from the director of the
French Centre about the USA (CFE)

Dear Pro-Second Fellow,

an interview was printed in the Hungarian daily
N?pszabads?g (Jan 29th, 2002, page 6) with the title
“America sees danger in the outer world”. In this
interview Guillaume Parmentier, a French politologist
says the followings: “Maybe the most visible exemple
of this (read: American resistance) is the solid
standpoint the USA takes against the international
convention dedicated to ban small caliber arms. In my
opinion, the strict control over small caliber arms
could be one of the most succesful means against
terrorism and hijacking. The Bush administration -
mainly due to the pressure of the influent gun lobby -
maintains his refusing point of view. While referring
to the nation-founding traditions, they forget that
the world has changed a lot, and that the Wild West is
a part of the past.”

Guillaume Parmentier is currently the head of the
French Center about the USA (Centre Francais sur les
Etats-Unis, CFE). He also worked as a head of seminar,
as the head of the committe of the North Atlantic
Council (NATO), as a deputy director of infromation of
NATO, and as an advisor of the French ministry of
defense.

I know that there are anti-self-defense people in your
land you have to tackle, and it is possible that
nobody takes care of what appears in a Hungarian news
paper, but this man is in charge of an institute
dealing with your country. If you wanted to send him
your comments, write to:

Guillaume Parmentier
Centre Fraincais sur les Etats-Unis
Institut Francais des Relations Internationales
[email protected]

I attached the English version of my letter here I
sent him on my own.

Yours,
Bence Bokor
[email protected]

———————————–

Dear Mr. Parmentier,

there was an interview with you in the Hungarian daily
N?pszabads?g (Jan 29, 2002, page 6) in which you
exposed the followings: “Maybe the most visible
exemple of this (read: American resistance) is the
solid position the USA takes against the international
convention dedicated to ban small caliber arms. In my
opinion, the strict control over small caliber arms
could be one of the most succesful means against
terrorism and hijacking. The Bush administration -
mainly due to the pressure of the influent gun lobby -
maintains his refusing point of view. While referring
to the nation-founding traditions, they forget that
the world has changed a lot, and that the Wild West is
a part of the past.”

I think that you forgot the following important facts:

Would small arms control be a good barrier against
terrorism? How many cases can you mention in which
legal weapons were used for terrorist activity? I hope
you do not think that the terrorists enter the bureau
of gun permit to get a permit, and I also expect that
you do not think that the prohibition would bar
terrorists from getting arms. By the way, the cream of
the cream is when such states call for prohibition
which are dictatorships and considered to be sponsors
of terrorist groups. You also forgot that the
September 11th attacks were committed with knives, and
not with firearms; the terrorists took the opportunity
- just like school and workplace shooters – that they
could be sure that the pilots and the passangers had
been disarmed. The gun-free zone became a victim
disarmament zone. By the way, when a fool killed and
injured many people in a school in Japan with a knife,
nobody began to call for knife control.
It is the opinion of the UN that only governments
would have the right to possess arms, and the
non-governmental actors would not. Let us open up a
French history book and take a look at the period of
the Second World War. Lots of men and women
participated in the Resistance which was not a
governmental force. In my opinion, it is a scandal
that a former French university teacher and a former
minister of NATO would rip off the possibility of
self-defense from the maquisards (French resistance
fighters), but would accept that such governments as
the Vichy collaborating regime and the Nazi Empire
should have the right to possess arms. You also forget
the ghetto fighters in Warshaw, the freedom fighters
in North America, the Hungarian freedom fighters in
1848/49, and the other peoples who fought for their
liberty during the centuries.
You did not consider that the era of the Wild West
began in the 1860s, but the Bill of Rights had been
accepted in 1791. The Bill of Rights does not have a
relationship with the conquest of the West, because
this bill is much older, and it is originated in the
American experience: a government without
counter-balance can do anything, it can destroy the
private life of the people.

The gun lobby you reprove is not a limited group as
you refer to it, but it is supported by the wide
specter of the American people. 70-80 million American
men and women have firearms, and the NRA, the most
recognized organization by Europe alone has four
million members, and there are other national
organizations:

Gun Owners of America
Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership
Doctors For Responsible Gun Ownership
Second Amendment Sisters: Armed Informed Mothers March
Citizens Committee Right To Keep And Bear Arms
Law Enforcement Alliance of America
Keep And Bear Arms
Women Against Gun Control
GOAL Gun Owners Action League
Women`s Firearm Network
Firearms Coalition
Citizens of America
The Paul Revere Network
Second Amendment Police Department
Mothers Arms
The Vermont Project
Civil Liberties Defense Foundation
People`s Rights Organization
Black Man With A Gun
Concealed Carry, Inc.
Democrats for the Second Amendment
Tyranny Response Team
Law Enforcement for the Preservation of the Second
Amendment
National CCW Reciprocity Foundation
Sportmen`s Association for Firearms Education, Inc.
(SAFE)
Armed Females of America
Second Amendment Club of America
Americans for the Second Amendment
Guns Save Lives
Who Should We Blame for Crime in the USA?
Brassroots
Second Amendment Legal Studies Association (S.A.L.S.A)
Firearms Legal Defense Foundation

As it can be seen, there are organizations for
everybody, but there are also specialized
organizations for women and for minorities like blacks
and Jews. These two groups have learned the lesson of
history what will happen if only the government has
the right to keep arms.
And the opponent? The financial aid from the Clinton
administration was useless; the activity of some
influent and hypocrite senators – who are for the
prohibition if it is a case for the people, but they
keep arms with their good political relationships -
was also useless; the grand pressure on fair gun
owners was useless; the Million Mothers` March created
with great parade fell in ruins due to the lack of
support, and Handgun Control Inc. has lost its
positions, too.

The majority of the states of the United States
belongs to the zone with permits of objective criteria
(shall-issue), which means that if an applicant is of
the required age, he/she does not have a police record
and he/she has legal capacity, he/she must be given
the permit. When this system began to work, the
majority of the press launched a hysterical campaign
prophetizing river of blood on the streets and
gunfights without interruption. Time showed us that
there is no base for such fear: in those states where
the regulation is the one presented here, criminal
acts fell, and only a fraction of the permits had to
be recalled. It became true that gun owners are
responsible, and they have a deterrence effect on
criminals.

Closing my letter, I would recommend you to look at
the painting “Liberty leads the people” by Eugene
Delacroix. It is one of the most beautiful masterworks
of the world.

Bence Bokor
[email protected]