From: [t z s] at [u.washington.edu] (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: Doesn't anyone read the Wall Street Journal?
Date: 8 May 1994 06:06:23 GMT


Someone sent me email telling me that their page A11B had an ad for a credit
card, which could explain the lack of comment here.  Here's what was in
my Wall Street Journal (formatting information is in []'s):

[Big bold text] Does the 2nd Amendment Mean We Must Tolerate This?

[In box with drop shadow, slightly rotated, slightly overlaying
part of above text] "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the
security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed."

[Photo of gun that looks like it would be quite effective in defending
one's home against a dozen or so burglars]

[Medium bold text on left] Former Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger called the
gun lobby's distortion of the Second Amendment a "fraud on the American
public."  We agree.

[Regular text on right] While gun violence claims 105 men, women and children
every day in America, the National Rifle Association continues to pretend that
the Second Amendment stands in the way of sensible gun control laws that will
help stem this random violence.
  The claim that gun control laws violate the Second Amendment has no legal
or historical basis.  As teachers of constitutional law, we believe the
American people need to understand that they are being misled by the
National Rifle Association.

[Bold larger text] We want Americans to know:
[Regular text again.  Bullet list.  I'll use * for bullets]
* that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled over fifty years ago in [italic] U.S. v.
Miller [end italic] that the only purpose of the Second Amendment's "right
to keep and bear arms" is to assure the effectiveness of state milititas.
* that since the [italic] Miller [end italic] decision, courts have
consistently held that the Second Amendment guarantees the people the
right to be armed only as part of an organized state militia, i.e., the
National Gaurd.
* that no federal court has ever struck down a gun control law of any kind as
a violation of the Second Amendment.

[27 names.  Someone else can type them in.  Very Very Nick at Nite is
on--time to go!]

[Big Bold] Find the Fraud.  Gun Control Laws Do Not Violate the Second
Amendment.

[Checkbox] I'd like more information about the Second Amendment and the
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.

[Space for your name, etc.]

Return to: CPHV, 1225 Eye Street, N.W., Suite 1100, Washington, D.C. 20005

[Checkbox] I'd like to help stop the NRA's Second Amendment Fraud.  I've
enclosed a check so you can run this ad in newspapers nationwide.  [italics]
Contributions to the Center are tax-deductible. [end italics]

[Space for your name, etc.]

[Same "Return to" instructions]

[Mysterious number in lower left corner--probably something to do with the
New World Order...: 2A943]

[White text on black at bottom of ad] Brought to you by the Legal Action
Project of the Center to Prevent Handle Violence, [address given].