From: [m c pherso] at [lumina.ucsd.edu] (John McPherson)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns,alt.politics.libertarian
Subject: SD Militia: forwarded Crime Bill editorial
Date: 3 Sep 1994 05:44:50 GMT
[Forwarded from the San Diego Militia <[m--i--a] at [tomlinson.com]>,
please respond to this address directly ... I'm only passing
this on. -- JM]
======================================================================
>Date: Fri, 2 Sep 94 14:32:11 PDT
>From: [j--ll--r] at [orincon.com] (John Wallner)
>Subject: SDM: forwarded editorial
Enclosed is a forwarded editorial regarding the recently passed crime bill.
It is well worth perusing. (Forwarded from rkba-alert. Details follow
article.)
John Wallner
[m--i--a] at [tomlinson.com]
*********************************************************
September 1, 1994
Washington Times Editorial
The Crime Bill Whodunit
by Mrs. Tanya K. Metaksa
We came close.
Both the crime bill and its chief salesman were pushed and shoved
nearly over the brink.
And now, as a politically wounded Bill Clinton and his crime of a
bill are wheeled into the Rose Garden, bandages and all, Americans
want to know: Whodunit?
Yes, 3.4 million NRA members pushed and pushed hard. But so did many
Democrat and Republican Members of Congress. Conservative
think-tanks and the New York Times editorial page. The Cato
Institute and USA Today. Americans for Tax Reform and the Wall
Street Journal. Also pushing hard were the professionals who make
up the entire spectrum of public servants who fight crime -- from
rank-and-file police officers to district attorneys and correctional
officers. Many hands pushed hard.
Politicians who want to give NRA full credit for the attack say the
reason is guns. Not so. The biggest shove came from the American
people, and the reason is simple: Americans love the open road, but
we hate being taken for a ride.
Americans knew the bill was fraud, and we haven't changed our minds.
Before the bill stumbled in the House August 11, a poll by Frank
Luntz demonstrated that the more Americans learned about the bill,
the more they disliked it. Just yesterday, the Washington Times
reported that area police still feel the same way. Referring to one
local chief, the Times wrote, "the more he learns about the
provisons of the crime bill, the less hopeful he becomes." In short,
Americans are still learning and still disliking. The bill's
political makeover was just that: cosmetics.
Even on gun control, Americans know the score. Deep down, Americans
sense what's been proven by criminologists, seen by street officers
and demonstrated by the bitter statistics of Washington, D.C.: gun
bans don't work. Constitutionally wrong, criminologically unsound,
this particular ban is also downright stupid. A firearm is no
longer a device that expels a projectile by rapidily burning
propellant. The crime of a bill now re-defines firearm to include a
magazine -- an inert piece of sheet metal, a couple of rivets and a
spring. This is not about 19 guns or the nearly 200 guns the bill
actually bans that are rarely used in crime. Americans know
precisely what this Orwellian newspeak is all about: it is about
their guns and their rights and their freedom.
It's also about their money and their safety. Americans know that
for every dollar spent on a prison bed, nearly two dollars in
victimization costs are averted. But the crime bill money-changers
have other ideas. In this bill, American crime victims still spend
nearly a dollar for experimental social projects for every dollar in
prisons. Yes, federal crime fighters are still committed to
reforming tomorrow's John Wayne Gacy by fitting him for a tutu.
But it's far worse than dance lessons. When the politicians settled
on the bill's makeover, they not only pulled Bill Clinton back from
the precipice but left crime victims teetering on the edge.
In "Alternative Sentencing: Selling It To The Public," a former
governor of Delaware wrote in 1991 that he put "an end to the
old-fashioned and inaccurate concept that criminal justice means
prisons and only prisons." To fight against prison-building, he
urged other politicians to use sound bites tailored not to crime
victims but to "a typical consumer, someone struggling to balance a
checkbook and make ends meet. Think about how ... your child's
teacher would react if you told them how much money is being taken
out of their pockets ... to take care of criminals."
The author is Michael Castle. That same champion of the anti-prison
movement is now the U.S. Representative who fought to save the
President and his crime of a bill. It's no surprise that the
makeover crime bill incorporates the worst the anti-prison movement
has to offer -- "alternatives to incarceration" -- alternatives that
look good, sound good and kill good.
Judge for yourself: The bill's so-called "prison provisions" for
young offenders specifically prohibit building new correctional
facilities for criminals up to age 22. Instead, the bill sentences
criminals in their most "productive" years to "innovative projects"
- in other words, anything other than the concrete and steel of
incapacitation. Indeed, the "compromise" doesn't require one cent of
the nearly $8 billion be spent on any new prison beds. All eight
billion dollars can be used to "improve" prison conditions, expand
square footage per inmate or generate more "alternatives to
incarceration."
What are these "alternatives to incarceration"? Whatever name
politicians put on them, they amount to the same thing: More
criminals back on our streets. How well do they "work"? Ask a
victim: Tried and convicted criminals on some form of release mu
rder 14 people, rape 48 women and rob 578 Americans every day. This
year, 60,000 criminals will be convicted of a violent crime, and see
"alternatives to incarceration," not prison.
NRA was proud to play a key role in opposing this dangerous fraud.
Unfortunately, as the president is fond of saying, it was a win for
the special interests -- this time, popularity and reelection, the
special interests of politicians. Next time, we expect the special
interests of Americans will prevail: justice and the constitution.
You can trust that NRA will play a key role that day, too.
Mrs. Metaksa is the executive director of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action.
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