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Dec. 6 Neal Knox Update (12/8/2001)
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Ashcroft Hammered In Hearings
Subject: Ashcroft Hammered In Hearings From: nealknox@nealknox.com (Neal Knox) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 22:07:08 EST
Dec. 6 Neal Knox Update -- During today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Attorney General John Ashcroft's anti- terrorism efforts, Democrats attempted to beat him up for supporting military tribunals overseas and his refusal to give the names of possible Al Queda members being held in the U.S. But their concerns for potential terrorists' rights reversed when they started demanding to know why the Justice Department refused to use NICS gun purchase records to determine if those held -- some of whom are undoubtedly innocent -- had bought guns. General Ashcroft said the law prohibited such uses because of privacy concerns, but said he was "considering" asking for a new law that allowed exceptions. Since 1968 *illegal* aliens have been prohibited from possessing guns and ammunition. If an illegal attempted to make a purchase through NICS it would be denied, and records of denials are kept for 10 years -- and can be, and are, used for criminal or terrorist investigations.
A Norfolk, Va., gun shop owner is suing the federal government over its demand that he turn over records of his store's used gun sales. Shop owner Robert Marcus contends BATF is trying to compile a database of gun owners, which the law forbids. BATF says it is trying only to stop handgun violence and the illegal trafficking of firearms, and says it can "collect gun sales data" as long as they don't create a prohibited database that includes "names and addresses" of buyers. BATF has demanded that the shop, and some 400 other mainly high-volume stores which had sold 10 guns traced by BATF, provide the make, model, caliber and serial number of each used gun it bought and sold. Surprisingly, the Norfolk Pilot newspaper, which is notoriously anti-gun, came out with an editorial saying registration is probably a good idea but that BATF has no business violating the law.
There's an interesting spat going on between American for Gun Safety and older groups like "Brady Campaign" (Handgun Control Inc.) and Violence Policy Center. The main bone of contention is the McCain-Lieberman gun show bill, backed by AGS, which Sens. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) told their colleagues last week that they intend to try to attach to the "first appropriate bill" after the Christmas recess. Join Together Online, a Joyce Foundation/Bohnett Foundation- funded project of Boston University School of Public Health, posted a detailed discussion of the rift at http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/features/reader/0,2061,546736,00.html The spat started when Monster.com billionaire Andrew McKelvey quit the Handgun Control Inc. board because of ineffectiveness. McKelvey argued that a "more-centrist image" would accomplish more, and established AGS to "offer a third way." However, his goals are indistinguishable from HCI's. NRA reports that AGS literature at their first meeting called for passage of national gun registration and licensing to be passed "in the next Congress." The AGS tactic of "recognizing" hunting and gun ownership as "legitimate activities" -- although designed to entice casual gun owners and hunters -- has caused the older groups to brand them as "pro-gun," which is a joke. Violence Policy Center, which wants to prohibit handgun ownership (at least), fumes that AGS "even" supports legislation like McCain-Lieberman (which isn't as draconian in some areas as the 1999 Senate-passed Lautenberg bill reintroduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), but would also destroy gun shows through impossible- to-meet requirements.) What the Join Together article doesn't mention is that a few months back McCain and Lieberman promised not to push their bill except as an alternative to Reed/Lautenberg. The article focuses on some gun control groups' preference to be known as "gun safety" groups, even the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, which the United Methodist Church started in 1974 as the honestly named National Coalition to Ban Handguns. (They still office in the UMC building on Capitol Hill.) Violence Policy Center, started by Josh Sugarmann after he left NCBH, advocates outright prohibitions. Joe Sudbay of VPC accuses AGS and McCain/Lieberman of "needless compromising," and says the AGS "crawling-to-the-middle approach" reinforces the Democrats' new perception that "gun control" is a political loser. What really hacks the other anti-gun groups is that AGS is providing funding for state anti-gun organizations that adopt their velvet glove rhetoric to hide their mailed fist.
The death yesterday of three Special Forces non-coms in a "friendly fire" accident brought a lot of Americans closer to the war in Afghanistan. I felt it a couple of weeks ago after early reports of an American named "Mike" being killed in the Mazar-e Sharif prison battle, and the military saying all their men were accounted for. My heart sank, for a friend of mine at the Maryland church we attended for years has a "spooky" background. His name is Mike and he has trained with outfits like the British SAS and the Israeli Massad; I don't know who he works for or what he does, and I know not to ask. The day the Afghan bombing started his wife told me he was out of the country, and I had a good idea where. I was relieved when I learned the CIA man killed was from Alabama. Then dismayed to learn that we had gone to the same church with Mike Spann in Virginia. Yesterday, my wife Jay sat up with Spann's former wife who is dying of cancer. Their daughters 3 and 9 are losing both parents almost simultaneously. It's another sad story like the thousands from the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the counter-attack in Afghanistan and who knows where next. I'm afraid we'll all feel it personally before this is over. http://www.nealknox.com/alerts/msg00070.html
Subject: Ashcroft Hammered In Hearings From: nealknox@nealknox.com (Neal Knox) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 22:07:08 EST
Dec. 6 Neal Knox Update -- During today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Attorney General John Ashcroft's anti- terrorism efforts, Democrats attempted to beat him up for supporting military tribunals overseas and his refusal to give the names of possible Al Queda members being held in the U.S. But their concerns for potential terrorists' rights reversed when they started demanding to know why the Justice Department refused to use NICS gun purchase records to determine if those held -- some of whom are undoubtedly innocent -- had bought guns. General Ashcroft said the law prohibited such uses because of privacy concerns, but said he was "considering" asking for a new law that allowed exceptions. Since 1968 *illegal* aliens have been prohibited from possessing guns and ammunition. If an illegal attempted to make a purchase through NICS it would be denied, and records of denials are kept for 10 years -- and can be, and are, used for criminal or terrorist investigations.
A Norfolk, Va., gun shop owner is suing the federal government over its demand that he turn over records of his store's used gun sales. Shop owner Robert Marcus contends BATF is trying to compile a database of gun owners, which the law forbids. BATF says it is trying only to stop handgun violence and the illegal trafficking of firearms, and says it can "collect gun sales data" as long as they don't create a prohibited database that includes "names and addresses" of buyers. BATF has demanded that the shop, and some 400 other mainly high-volume stores which had sold 10 guns traced by BATF, provide the make, model, caliber and serial number of each used gun it bought and sold. Surprisingly, the Norfolk Pilot newspaper, which is notoriously anti-gun, came out with an editorial saying registration is probably a good idea but that BATF has no business violating the law.
There's an interesting spat going on between American for Gun Safety and older groups like "Brady Campaign" (Handgun Control Inc.) and Violence Policy Center. The main bone of contention is the McCain-Lieberman gun show bill, backed by AGS, which Sens. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) told their colleagues last week that they intend to try to attach to the "first appropriate bill" after the Christmas recess. Join Together Online, a Joyce Foundation/Bohnett Foundation- funded project of Boston University School of Public Health, posted a detailed discussion of the rift at http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/features/reader/0,2061,546736,00.html The spat started when Monster.com billionaire Andrew McKelvey quit the Handgun Control Inc. board because of ineffectiveness. McKelvey argued that a "more-centrist image" would accomplish more, and established AGS to "offer a third way." However, his goals are indistinguishable from HCI's. NRA reports that AGS literature at their first meeting called for passage of national gun registration and licensing to be passed "in the next Congress." The AGS tactic of "recognizing" hunting and gun ownership as "legitimate activities" -- although designed to entice casual gun owners and hunters -- has caused the older groups to brand them as "pro-gun," which is a joke. Violence Policy Center, which wants to prohibit handgun ownership (at least), fumes that AGS "even" supports legislation like McCain-Lieberman (which isn't as draconian in some areas as the 1999 Senate-passed Lautenberg bill reintroduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), but would also destroy gun shows through impossible- to-meet requirements.) What the Join Together article doesn't mention is that a few months back McCain and Lieberman promised not to push their bill except as an alternative to Reed/Lautenberg. The article focuses on some gun control groups' preference to be known as "gun safety" groups, even the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, which the United Methodist Church started in 1974 as the honestly named National Coalition to Ban Handguns. (They still office in the UMC building on Capitol Hill.) Violence Policy Center, started by Josh Sugarmann after he left NCBH, advocates outright prohibitions. Joe Sudbay of VPC accuses AGS and McCain/Lieberman of "needless compromising," and says the AGS "crawling-to-the-middle approach" reinforces the Democrats' new perception that "gun control" is a political loser. What really hacks the other anti-gun groups is that AGS is providing funding for state anti-gun organizations that adopt their velvet glove rhetoric to hide their mailed fist.
The death yesterday of three Special Forces non-coms in a "friendly fire" accident brought a lot of Americans closer to the war in Afghanistan. I felt it a couple of weeks ago after early reports of an American named "Mike" being killed in the Mazar-e Sharif prison battle, and the military saying all their men were accounted for. My heart sank, for a friend of mine at the Maryland church we attended for years has a "spooky" background. His name is Mike and he has trained with outfits like the British SAS and the Israeli Massad; I don't know who he works for or what he does, and I know not to ask. The day the Afghan bombing started his wife told me he was out of the country, and I had a good idea where. I was relieved when I learned the CIA man killed was from Alabama. Then dismayed to learn that we had gone to the same church with Mike Spann in Virginia. Yesterday, my wife Jay sat up with Spann's former wife who is dying of cancer. Their daughters 3 and 9 are losing both parents almost simultaneously. It's another sad story like the thousands from the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the counter-attack in Afghanistan and who knows where next. I'm afraid we'll all feel it personally before this is over. http://www.nealknox.com/alerts/msg00070.html