From: [j g rasty] at [pts.mot.com] (Joey Grasty)
Newsgroups: rec.guns,talk.politics.guns
Subject: [FLORIDA]Gun Controllers Blink
Date: 10 Feb 1994 10:13:24 -0500
Hello all:
The following article appeared on page 11C in the Sunday, February
6, 1994 issue of the Fort Lauderdale _Sun Sentinel_. It is printed
without permission.
This article appeared in the Sports section on page 11C, even though
it is clearly a political piece. The _Sun Sentinel_ is a typical
schizophrenic Florida newspaper. The editorial section is the
traditional statist utopian liberal mouthpiece and the Sports writers
are mostly pro-rights. You figure it out. Here's one from the good
guys.
Maybe it's good that it appears in the Sports section. Maybe it will
wake up the sleeping beauties -- hunters, trap & skeet shooters, and
the rest.
Regards,
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Joey Grasty |"Seeing Al Gore trying to talk sense to Ross |
| Staff Engineer | Perot was like watching Meathead spar with |
| Motorola Paging | Archie Bunker. The debate I'd pay $19.95 to |
| Products Group | watch on pay-per-view would be Hillary |
| Boynton Beach, | Clinton vs. Rush Limbaugh on health care (or |
| Florida | anything else)." -- Tom Jicha, Sun-Sentinel |
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Steve Waters
On the Outdoors
Klein to alter bill restricting rapid-fire guns
To most owners of guns, any anti-gun bill is a bad one. But
a particularly evil bill will be significantly amended, according to
its sponsor.
The bill in question is CS/HB 241, introduced in the Legisla-
ture by Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. The bill is designed to
restrict the possession of certain semiautomatic firearms.
As written, the bill would have restricted ownership of 37
types of semiautomatic weapons, such as the Colt AR-15 and AK-47, and
any "substantially similar copy thereof."
Klein said "substantially similar" was included to prevent
manufacturers from slightly altering a model and giving it a new
name.
But "substantially similar" in the case of CS/HB 241 also
means any semiautomatic firearm, such as the Remington 1100, one of
the most popular hunting guns, would be restricted.
Well-meaning politicians never seem to be told these things,
so they happily approve "anti-crime" bills that only handcuff law-
abiding citizens. Take Gov. Lawton Chiles. he responded to a letter
expressing concerns about CS/HB 241 from K. Bond Pace of Sunrise with
a letter stating that the bill "does not place any limitations or
restrictions on most rifles, shotguns, handguns, and other types of
weapons."
Wrong.
The bill also defined semiautomatic as "capable of firing a
series of rounds by a successive depression of the trigger without
additional slide, bolt or other manual action." That means that
over-and-under shotguns and double-action revolvers would be semi-
automatics.
The uproar over the bill from shooters, hunters, gun
collectors, gun dealers and upholders of the Bill of Rights was
immediate. To his credit, Klein listened.
He said his intention was to target weapons frequently used
by drug dealers, youth gangs, drive-by shooters and the like. He
didn't want to restrict ownership for protection or recreation.
When drafting the bill, Klein apparently received misleading
information from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and people
whose goal is to ban all firearms -- people like Sarah Brady of
Handgun Control, Inc. and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has
introduced a semiautomatic- and magazine-ban bill that's worse than
Klein's original.
"I'm not a weapons expert," Klein said. "That bill was orig-
inally written by FDLE in conjuction with ATF [Federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms]. we also looked at Sen. Feinstein's
bill."
Klein said banning guns used for target shooting, hunting
and protection "is not the intention of what we're trying to do.
We're going to come out on Monday with a proposed amendment. Clearly
the intention is to only deal with the 37 weapons in the bill.
Everything else [in the bill] will be stripped away."
Klein also said that a $200 license per weapon will be
changed to a one-time $50 license that covers all applicable firearms
owned by that person.
Even with the promised changes, the bill raises concerns.
Many believe that banning any gun is the first step to
banning more guns. Just look at the backers of the Brady Bill. For
years they argued it was drastically needed. As soon as it passed,
they admitted it won't work and are calling for further gun-control
laws.
Then there's the question of just how much crime the semi-
automatic weapons in the bill are a part of. Klein has statistics
from ATF that indicate such weapons were used in 9 percent of crimes
in the United States between 1986 and 1992. The National Rifle
Association cites FBI statistics: Rifles, semiautomatic or not,
are involved in less than 1 percent of all serious crimes.
Marion Hammer, executive director of Tallahassee-based
Unified Sportsmen of Florida and the NRA's second vice president,
obtained figures from the Metro-Dade. She figured since Miami is
riddled with violence and drug dealers, Metro-Dade would know if
semiautos are a problem. Of 3,591 firearms seized in 1993, 115
were on Klein's list. That's 3.2 percent, and not all were used in
crimes.
Klein admitted that his bill "is not going to end crime."
It will have to be part of a comprehensive anti-crime package that
includes boot camps for juvenile criminals, more prisons and such.
Klein also said he welcomes input. The bill must be
approved by the House Finance and Taxation Committee and then the
Appropriations Committee before it goes to the floor for a vote.
A demonstration against Klein's bill is set for Saturday at
the Capitol in Tallahassee. Bus transportation from Fort Lauderdale
is available for $35. Call Bob Anderson at 1-305-974-7412 or Jon
Gutmacher at 1-305-760-7505.