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."