from another excellent women’s shooter website!…

http://www.womenshooters.com/

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It’s The Criminals, Stupid
The Message Bill Clinton Needs to Hear

by Keeva Segal

In the wake of the histrionics displayed by anti-gun Senators on the Senate Floor and the defection of one of our industry organizations to the side of ever more restrictive gun control, an extremely impacting problem has been all but ignored by the Clinton Clan and the congress. That problem, simply put, is that too many criminals are on the streets and not enough are in prison. With all of the calls for new laws and new regulations, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) went virtually unnoticed when they revealed the dismal prosecution record of the Clinton/Gore/Reno regime. Needless to say, the mainstream media ignored this record, and in fact sought to obscure it with laudatory comments about Clinton’s new assault on youth violence.

Nothing could be less accurate. None of the laws that passed the Senate last month would prevent a single crime. None of them would save a single life. In fact, there is a very good chance, that even if they are signed into law, none of them will ever be enforced.

How can I say this so bluntly? The record speaks for itself. Let’s look at a couple of the administration’s assertions on firearms.

Both Hillary Clinton and Al Gore have been on the stump lately talking about 6,000 children expelled from school in the last two years for bringing a firearm to school. Let’s be generous and assume that this number is accurate (it is not, but that is another debate for another day – we already know that honesty is not part of this administration’s domestic policy). Each of those 6,000 clearly violated a federal law that Clinton and Reno pressed for as “absolutely necessary for the safety of our children and the security of our schools.” And of those 6,000 only 13 have been prosecuted under the “absolutely necessary” law. Less than one-quarter of a percent.

Let’s take a look at the Brady Law – the centerpiece of the gun-control movement’s successes under Clinton. According to the president and his propoganda spinners, 250,000 criminals have been denied access to guns under Brady. Again, let’s just accept that number (again inaccurate, but what else is new). In the last three years, of that quarter-million people who, by simply completing a 4473 and attemting to obtain a firearm violated a federal law the Department of Justice under Ms. Reno has only been able to prosecute one person. One. Out of 250,000. And in the other 249,999 cases (again accepting their numbers), a criminal violated the law, the authorities were obviously aware of it, and they were not brought to justice. In fact, they were largely ignored. There is absolutely no effort towards enforcement.

That is just the tip of this nasty iceberg in our justice system. Let me quote the Attorney General directly from her May 5 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, “The prosecution by Federal Government of small cases that can be better handled by the State court . . . doesn’t make such good sense.” This is in contrast to her opening remarks at that same hearing where she said, “The Department of Justice vigorously investigates and prosecutes criminal violations of the laws of the United States.” Which is true?

In effect, the Attorney General has told the criminals of this land not to worry, because she will not prosecute them. Apparently, there is lots of time and resources to go after successful corporations, but none to go after spies and criminals.

It is also in contrast to President Clinton’s March 20 statement when he said, “Today I am directing Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Attorney General Janet Reno to use every available tool to increase the prosecution of criminals.”

In fact, according to the Attorney General’s May 5 testimony, there was no such directive received by her. Again, which its true?

This means an end to plea bargaining. An end to slaps on the wrist. An end to easy deals to make for better statistics. It menas that the law will be prosecuted as intended by our founding fathers. Not in some whispered negotiation in the corridor of a courthouse, but in the courtroom, in the clear light of day. It means that our justice system can return to the seeking of truth that it is meant for and the the making of deals that it has become.

Well, I am sick of it. We lock ourselves in every night, instead of locking the criminals in for many nights.

So I started Lock ‘Em Up America with the goal of getting 1 million signatures gathered calling for full enforcement and prosecution of the law. All of them. I know it is a big goal, but I am willing to throw what I can at it, and hope other folks will join in. I don’t want money. I want folks to got to the web site – www.lockemup.org – and download the petition, get it filled up, and mail it in to me. That’s it.

And I am challenging every organization in America to join me in this. If they really are concerned about the epidemic of violent crime in our society, and they really do mean it, then they should have no problem joining this effort. I challenge Sarah Brady and the rest of her people to step up to the plate on this one. Is their concern really crime or do they have a deeper agenda? Are they able to set that aside to get our prosecutors prosecuting again? Are they willing to stop crying for more unenforced laws and try enforcing all the ones that are already on the books? Or will they just run off and ignore the truth?

And I make the same challenge to the rest of them – NOW, NAACP, ACLU – the whole alphabet soup of them. It is time for them to make a statement. Are they for or against criminals? And if they are for the criminals, then who needs them?

Oh, before this cmes up, let me address the issue of selective prosecutions – the statistical fact that prosecutions and sentences are unequal along racial and ethnic lines. We agree wholeheartedly. The solution is to prosecute all crimes equally – exactly what we are asking for. So, to those organiztions that are working to resolve this issue, I say join us, and together we can achieve equality in prosecution.

And, before we pass one more gun law or one more feel-good social engineering law, let’s use all of the tools at hand to get the criiminals off the streets. It has worked in Richmond, and in New York. It can work everywhere.

It comes down to one simple fact. Criminals are who commit the crimes. Fewer criminals on the street means fewer crimes. Fewer crimes mean a safer America. It really is that simple.

Keeva runs this web site and can be reached at [email protected]