Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,talk.politics.guns From: [m g r] at [anhep2.hep.anl.gov] (Dr. mike) Subject: Thanks for NRA membership Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 13:52:13 GMT -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I'm thinking of sending the following to the magazine "American Rifleman". I have donned my asbestos suit and am ready for flames! e-mail guarantees I'll read it. Hope you have as much fun reading it as I've had writing it. - ------------------------------------------------------------------ The following article started out as a thank you note but the August issue of American Rifleman has too many subjects for me to ignore. After explaining how I became an NRA member for free (the thank you part) I will cover gun control ["Kids & Guns", page 42], the police state agenda [page 58], and our over crowded prisons [Criminals" page 59]. In the marijuana movement I go by the name "Dr. mike" (small m on purpose). The doctor comes from my Ph.D. in nuclear engineering. I regularly visit "the net" and saw an anonymous posting for free membership in the NRA - all I had to do was send in a 200 word essay and bingo - I'd be a member on somebody elses tab. I've never owned a gun but as I watch our freedoms rapidly disappear I've always admired and respected what the NRA has accomplished in maintaining what I consider the last resort against oppresive government - armed revolution. I've never worried about outside invasion because I know how to build thermonuclear warheads as well as particle beam weapons [a.k.a. "Star Wars"]. I sent my essay electronically and received my membership card and hat a couple of months later. I've had nothing but positive comments from friends. Complete strangers have walked up to me and said "I'm really glad to see you wear that hat in public. I wish more people did." It's amazing! What's even more amazing is the similarity of the "War on Drugs" to the attempt to eliminate semi-automatic weapons. For example, in the "Kids & Guns" article it states "All the scholarly research has found that laws like the Brady bill have no statistically significant impact on crime. But the whole idea of asking people to 'do it for our kids' is to avoid such analysis." All the scholarly research on marijuana shows it is less harmful than any other drug, it has medical uses, and the laws which prohibit it are more dangerous than the drug itself. Even the DEA's own judge ruled in 1988 "marijuana, in its natural form, is the safest therapeutically active substance known to man." But we keep it illegal because we don't want to "send the message to our kids." Invoking children allows us to ignore facts. It worked on drugs, it will work on guns too. People in the marijuana movement have been talking about our present police state for a long time. The Bill of Rights does not exist for drug cases. Property can be confiscated without arrest much less a trial. You are assumed guilty of drug use and must piss into a bottle to prove your innocence on many jobs. Like the former Soviet Union, our children are being trained to turn in their parents. Once handguns are outlawed this same technique will be used to ensure that nobody is hiding any guns. An eight year old won't understand why your house was taken away, simply because he told a friendly teacher that you had protection against thieves. Our prisons are over crowded with drug cases. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin "Prisoners in 1992" there are more people in prison for drug offenses than for any other crime. And in "Federal Criminal Case Processing, 1980-90" they clearly show that rapists do less time behind bars than drug offenders. In 1991 the average time behind bars for rape was 70.8 months, for drug trafficking it was 86.1 months. Here in Illinois our prisons are operating at 150% of capacity and it is estimated that by 1994 there will have to be a revolving door policy - you can't put any more in unless you let some out. The Illinois legislature has decided to let people get out in 1/3 the time instead of 1/2 the time that they normally get for good behavior. Since drug cases have mandatory minimums they don't get time off. So people caught smoking pot do more time than rapists and we can't afford to build more prisons because our taxes are too high already. Passing the "three strikes and you're out" law might feel good, but it won't cure the problem. If the "War on Drugs" is any indication of what's in store for gun owners, you can say goodbye to factual information and logic. There are a few irresponsible drug users just as there are a few irresponsible gun owners. People who have no regard for public safety should be locked up. But just as the vast majority of gun owners are responsible and safety conscious, the vast majority of marijuana users also behave responsibly and protect public safety. 25 years ago Richard Nixon coined the phrase "War on Drugs". He was worried about marijuana. Today, we chase crack cocaine and few police worry about marijuana. When we make semi-automatic weapons illegal, the people who own them will hide them. But as time goes on, the availability of more powerful weapons will appear in larger numbers. After all, fully automatic weapons are illegal today, and a few criminals own one. If you want to buy an illegal gun, of any kind, you'll go for the most bang for your buck. And we'll see lots more fully automatic weapons in the hands of responsible citizens. Just like we see marijuana in the hands of responsible citizens. To whoever is paying for my NRA membership, thank you. At present all "hempsters" ARE criminals - all 30 to 50 million of us. If Handgun Control Inc. is successful, I'll still be a criminal. Will you? Patience, persistence, truth, work: [d--ad--r] at [hemp-imi.hep.anl.gov] Dr. mike home: [m--s--g] at [igc.org] IMI, P.O. Box 2242, Darien IL 60559, 708-859-0499 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.2 iQBVAgUBLGJObq3mm/E84rLHAQFSJwH/Z8BJ20wF2cynOsa74ZutFmkfD15zU+T/ Zd0NBLAuplLwW/nRf3RcBVONXWpRgeS9bAdVy1eot16AiAZ5wp8NwQ== =35ra -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----