Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 20:05:30 -0500 (EST) From: "Lew, Stephen" <[Stephen Lew] at [wellsfargo.com]> To: Multiple recipients of list <[n--b--n] at [mainstream.net]> Subject: The NRA impact on a vulnerable mind Warning: possession of a copy of The American Rifleman can be used against you in a court of law! Complete text of a most offensive anti-NRA article copied from the Examiner's on-line service follows: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1996 ? Page A 15 ? 1996 San Francisco Examiner The NRA impact on a vulnerable mind SCOTT WINOKUR Scott Winokur is an Examiner reporter. SAN FRANCISCO Public Defender Jeff Brown said he wanted to discuss a murder case he'd lost - last year's slaying of gay-baiting panhandler Harold Cummings. The killer, Scott Fredette, was a staunch member of the National Rifle Association. Brown's probably got a good insanity defense - for himself, I thought. Public officials never call reporters to rehash major defeats. On July 5, 1995, Brown reminded me, Fredette, a security guard and an avowed homosexual, nailed Cummings on the 400 block of Taylor Street with four rounds from his .357 magnum. The first and second were unpremeditated, while the third may or may not have been, the jury found. But the fourth, the panel decided, was a deliberate coup de grace - a marksman-like shot taken with braced hands, from the trained shooter's "cup-and-saucer" position, aimed at the rear of the target's head from 45 feet away. After the slaying, the killer went home to bed. The cops got him up. Under the bed they found a Ruger handgun, live ammunition, four empty shells, an NRA certificate in Fredette's name and a copy of American Rifleman magazine. Fredette made noises to the effect that Cummings, 31, supposedly had looked like he was reaching for his own weapon. Jurors didn't believe him. Thirty-three years old and burdened with an IQ falling significantly short of three figures, Fredette is now in San Quentin State Prison, serving 28 years to life. He was sent there by Assistant District Attorney Peter Cling, who beat Brown at trial in September. The case will be appealed. "Cling's argument was very good," Brown recalled. "He said my client was motivated by an NRA mentality that says you can plug anyone who gets in your face." Jeff Brown, nephew and cousin of two California governors, is not your garden-variety, pre-Copernican government official, harboring the belief that the political universe somehow revolves around him. "Like District Attorney Terence Hallinan, I wanted to get closer to the court system because I felt I was out of rhythm," Brown said, explaining his decision to defend Fredette himself. "There it was in the newspaper. I thought it would be interesting to see what a real fascist looked like. But he was a nice person. Friendly, nice looking. Absolutely clean record." To Brown's dismay, his client continued to be an upright, forthcoming citizen on the witness stand - too forthcoming. Fredette said he'd known it was illegal to carry a concealed weapon, but didn't care. He believed that, regardless of what the law said, he was within his rights to carry the weapon and to send Cummings to Kingdom Come in his own alleged self-defense. "He believed from the get-go that was his Second Amendment right and it transcended state law. That was as important to him as the indignity he suffered as a gay man. Talking to this guy sometimes was like talking to a wall. "Over my vociferous objection, Cling got out in the course of trial that Fredette had this NRA magazine and in the middle of the magazine was a section where readers write in about incidents in which they're confronted by muggers and they take them on. "This was very cogently expressed to the jury by Cling - that Scott was looking for somebody, that the murder was a kind of overdetermined event. "I didn't agree. But it was clear to me that the NRA affects certain kinds of people, that its b.s. really resonates with some people. "What the NRA did was play on this guy, on his frustrations, on his fear of miscreants in this city. What the NRA was saying was, "Don't take guff from anybody. You got a right to pack. Somebody gets in your face, you let them have it.' " Brown paused, as if to digest his disbelief - or was it disgust? "People have to take responsibility for themselves," he said. "But I blame the NRA for disseminating propaganda and encouraging people to carry and use guns. There are plenty of people like Scott Fredette."