Date: Wed, 17 May 95 01:15:00 UTC
From: [s--ts--v] at [genie.geis.com]
To: [gr conf] at [mainstream.com], [n--b--n] at [mainstream.com]
Subject: KNX editorial reply on Dole

 
                       KNX EDITORIAL REPLY
 
                       by J. Neil Schulman
 
                  Broadcast Date: May 20, 1995
 
 
     KNX thinks that Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole was merely
playing presidential politics when he promised the NRA to repeal
the federal ban against so-called assault weapons.  KNX thinks
the National Rifle Association is at odds with the will of the
American people, who supposedly support the ban.
 
     Never mind that President Clinton acknowledged that the gun
ban cost the Democratic Party control of Congress.  We can set
aside the question of what the American people think until next
year's elections.
 
     What we \can't\ set aside is that Bob Dole's opposition to
the federal gun ban is based on a solid understanding of the U.S.
Constitution.
 
     No, not just the Second Amendment; also the Tenth Amendment
-- the amendment that Bob Dole carries around in his pocket.
 
     It reads, "The Powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
 
     The Tenth Amendment is usually cited as reserving powers to
the individual states -- but it also reserves powers to the
\people\.
 
     Founding Father James Madison explained it well in
Federalist Paper Number 46: "[T]he ultimate authority ... resides
in the people alone ... ambitious encroachments of the federal
government on the authority of the State governments ... would be
signals of general alarm. ... Let a regular army, fully equal to
the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely
at the devotion of the federal government ...  To these would be
opposed a militia ... of citizens with arms in their hands,
officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their
common liberties ..."
 
     Was James Madison an extremist gun-nut in recommending that
the people of the United States be armed and formed into militias
as a check on the power of the federal government?
 
     Because the words of those who wrote the Constitution -- not
Bob Dole and \not\ the NRA -- is where all these dangerous ideas
about people having guns to keep the federal government in check
\came from\.
 
                                #
 
 
 J. NEIL SCHULMAN is the author of two Prometheus award-
 winning novels, Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza,
 short fiction, nonfiction, and screenwritings, including the
 CBS Twilight Zone episode "Profile in Silver."  His latest
 book is STOPPING POWER: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns.
 Schulman has been published in the Los Angeles Times and
 other national newspapers, as well as National Review,
 Reason, Liberty, and other magazines.  His LA Times article
 "If Gun Laws Work, Why Are We Afraid?" won the James Madison
 Award from the Second Amendment Foundation.  Schulman's books
 have been praised by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, Anthony
 Burgess, Robert A. Heinlein, Colin Wilson, and many other
 prominent individuals.  Charlton Heston said of STOPPING POWER:
 "Mr. Schulman's book is the most cogent explanation of the gun
 issue I have yet read.  He presents the assault on the Second
 Amendment in frighteningly clear terms. Even the extremists who
 would ban firearms will learn from his lucid prose."
 
    Reply to:
 J. Neil Schulman
 Mail:                 P.O. Box 94, Long Beach, CA 90801-0094
 Voice Mail & Fax:     (500) 44-JNEIL
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 Internet:             [s--ts--v] at [genie.geis.com]
 
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