From: [g--o--s] at [nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov] (Walter Douglas Gross)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: LEAA (Law Enforcement gun-rights group) invites letters to newspaper!
Date: 29 Dec 1993 14:04 EDT
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What Is In This Message
1) Letter from Jim Fotis of the LEAA (Law Enforcement Alliance of America, a
gun-rights organization of law enforcement officers and interested civilians.)
This letter, originally paper-mail to LEAA members, is placed on the net
with permission, and invites all readers to send true "non-officer citizen
uses gun to prevent/stop a crime" stories to a Washington Post columnist
who has openly asked for them.
**** ----> PLEASE DO NOT e-mail any responses to me, the person who is
**** ----> posting this item to the e-news. Any responses go to the
**** ----> Washington Post (address given below.) Thank you.
**** ----> As Mr. Fotis adds at the end of his letter, if you would like
**** ----> to respond, time is of the essence.
2) Information on the LEAA; including their addresses (since they ask that
you send them copies of what you may send to Mr. Twomey) and in case you want
to join the LEAA.
Personal plug: this is a *_great_* gun-rights group. Their newsletter is
excellent. They are pro-active and they are straight arrows. They were
major players in the campaign to expose Time-Warner's hypocrisy, in regard
to Time-Warner's making money from Ice ("Cop Killer") T's pro-violence rap
at the same time as Time-Warner sanctimoniously wrings its corporate hands
over violent crime and propagandizes against the gun rights of honest
people. Jim Fotis was on the Larry King show.
======= ======= The Letter ==== ======= ======= =======
/* [begin quoted letter - any typos are mine - important addresses have been
reformatted by me to make them more prominent]
*/
December 23, 1993
[Address, Salutations deleted]
I would like to bring to your attention an article in a recent edition of
_The Washington Post_. On December 13, 1993, columnist Steve Twomey wrote the
enclosed article entitled "Gunfire and Brimstone." In the article, he calls
for the help of gun owners - asking law-abiding, gun-owning citizens to write
or call him with situations where they successfully deterred or stopped a
crime.
Please read the enclosed column, and if you have a story to tell, here is
your chance. Write to:
Steve Twomey
c/o The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071
or call Mr. Twomey and leave a voice mail message at (202) 334-6387.
If you are in law enforcement and know of incidents where a citizen used a
gun, or you used one off-duty, to prevent/stop a crime, please also let Mr.
Twomey know. Identify yourself as a law enforcement officer, and give your
department and rank. This will help build credibility and destroy the myth
that all law enforcement officers are in favor of stricter gun control.
Please pass this information along to any friends or relatives who may
have a story to tell as well. This is a tremendous opportunity to have the
positive side of lawful gun ownership aired in a traditionally anti-gun
newspaper that's read by national policy makers.
I would also like to ask that you send LEAA a copy of any stories which
are sent to Mr. Twomey for our media file, or if you leave a voice mail
message, please call and tell us. If he kills the story, we want to know.
Thank you in advance for helping us take advantage of this golden
opportunity to show Washington that not all guns are linked to this country's
rising crime rate. That guns - in the right hands - can be an effective and
powerful deterrent to crime.
Sincerely,
[signature]
Jim Fotis
Executive Director
JF/al
Enclosure
P.S. If you have a story to tell please write or call now - time is of the
essence. We want Mr. Twomey to be able to hear from you before he writes his
nexy article on guns.
/* [end quoted letter]
*/
The article, "Gunfire and Brimstone", is too long for me to type in - and
besides, I don't have the permission. It basically takes off from a recent
news story in which a priest in Annandale (a Virginia suburb of Washington,
DC) used a pistol to drive off a burglar who was attempting a pre-dawn break-
in at the rectory of a Catholic church. I believe I may quote this small
portion, which may be useful enough here:
Okay, so you don't trust me. But I'm absolutely serious. If guns are
the answer, let's hear the answers. The deterrent can be a handgun, a
rifle, or a shotgun, and it doesn't have to have been fired in the
incident. It merely has to have had a role. I ask only that the event
really happened. The best cases would be those reported afterward to the
police, so I can verify them. Please provide as many details as possible
... [gives the addresses and phone numbers already given above].
Come on, gun owners, this is your chance. I'll share the best
stories. But the winner will have to go a long way to beat the priest
with the 9mm.
======= ======= LEAA Information ======= ======= =======
LEAA - Law Enforcement Alliance Of America, Inc.
LEAA
7700 Leesburg Pike, Suite 421
Falls Church, VA 22043
(703) 847-COPS or (800) 766-8578
2677
LEAA is also on "Safety Net"
LEAA is on Compuserve: 73323,1715
And (maybe they can only
receive, not send) on Internet: [73323 1715] at [compuserve.com]
Membership:
$10/year - Sworn officers with power of arrest, or retired from same
($100 Life Membership)
$10/year - Associate membership, all non-sworn officers. ($100 Life)
$15/year - Private Professional (e.g., Private Investigators.) ($150 Life)
$15/year - Civilian law-enforcement (e.g., Security guards) ($150 Life)
$20/year - Civilian non-law-enforcement ($200 Life)