Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 06:52:49 -0600
From: "The Old Blue Howler" <[l--oa--l] at [ICSI.Net]>
To: [r--c] at [xmission.com], [N--B--N] at [Mainstream.com]
Subject: speech by Tanya

------ Forwarded Message

                         RIGHTS, RISKS 
                    AND THE RESPONSIBILITIES 
                        OF A FREE PEOPLE

                           A Speech by
           Mrs. Tanya K. Metaksa, Executive Director 
   National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action
 before the 17th Annual National Conservative Student Conference
                   Young America's Foundation
                  Friday, July 28, at 4:00 pm.

As many of you know, my father was John Chamberlain, one of the
founding fathers of America's conservative movement.  This man,
someone who William F. Buckley, Jr., and Whittaker Chambers
called the dearest of friends, passed away this Spring ... but
not without leaving all of us a legacy.

It was in the 1940s when world events showed my father that
individual rights were increasingly important -- all important --
in a world dominated by statism and "political" solutions.  In a
book review, he wrote an aside about this new conviction of his:

     "I have simply lived to see at least four major brands of
     statism tried out," he wrote.  

He mentioned Stalinism, of course, and Nazism. But he also wrote,

     "I have also been a witness (sometimes on the spot) to the
     destruction of vitality and initiative forced by socialist
     statism in Britain.  And I have lived through eighteen years
     of New Deal and Fair Deal governments."

He described his central values -- his politics -- as a movement,
a constant struggle to, quote, rescue us from domination by the
state-worshipping intellectuals and restore decentralized rule by
the intelligent man.

That was written decades ago -- I'm sure today that he'd include
intelligent women! -- but that was his core sentiment -- his
legacy to the American conservative movement -- his legacy to all
of you.

You young conservatives are all part of this never-ending
movement, the constant swell of an ocean of people who want to
protect freedom, limit government, safeguard rights and advance
moral responsibility.

That is what the 3.5 million members of the National Rifle
Association of America are all about -- protecting freedom and
safeguarding rights.

But too many of your elders in the conservative movement are
forgetting the simple arithmetic of our rights, so take out your
mental pens to make an important mental note.
This is the simple arithmetic of our rights: 

     Rights plus responsibility always equal risks.

Let me state the formula again: Rights, even when coupled with
responsibility, always equal risks.  

NRA and gun owners nationwide exercised our rights last fall, and
we took responsibility for our country's future by changing the
face of our nation. 

NRA backed 276 U.S. Senate and House candidates.  Of 276, 221
won.  

Of all candidates elected to the U.S. House, 224 were A-rated by
the NRA. 

In over ten thousand races at the federal, state and local
levels, 82 percent of NRA-backed candidates won.  

Does the name "Foley" ring a bell?

Not anymore.

Thanks in large measure to NRA, the first U.S. Speaker of the
House to be unseated in 138 years lost.  And today, a new man
wields the gavel in the U.S. House of Representatives.  

On January 13th, one politician made it perfectly clear.  He told
the editorial board of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, and I quote,
the NRA is the reason the Republicans control the House, unquote. 


That was probably the first and the last time I will ever agree
with the man who uttered those words, President Bill Clinton.  

We exercised our rights.  We did so responsibly. 

So, where's the risk?  

The risk is that you don't incur the admiration of your
adversary, you incur his wrath.  The risk is that our association
-- and I hope that includes most of you -- have been under
constant, sustained attack by Clinton, his agencies, his clones
in Congress and his allies in the media elite.

By exercising our rights with responsibility, we have incurred
the wrath of what my father called "state-worshipping
intellectuals."

When you favor good government properly limited in power, you run
the risk of being labeled anti-government.  It happens to us, so
it will happen to you.

But the so-called anti-government charge is a dog that just won't
hunt.  And unlike Bill Clinton, I know, because I'm a real
hunter.  Consider:

*  NRA was involved in over ten thousand elections impacting
every single level of government!  That's not just pro-
government.  That is government!

*  Consider also that the majority of our members serve, have
served or have a family member serving in the U.S. Armed Forces! 
That's a record I'll compare with the members of the Democratic
Leadership Council any day.

Anti-police?  That's another non-sporting dog.  It was NRA who
invented police firearms training in 1916, and it's NRA whose ten
thousand certified law enforcement instructors today work with
over four hundred and fifty thousand law enforcement officers --
local, state and federal.
   
NRA also buys a $25,000 life insurance policy free of charge for
every law enforcement officer who joins.  Since 1992, we have
provided $450,000 in payments to the survivors of our law
enforcement members who lost their lives in the line of duty.

If you work out the figures, that means -- some law enforcement
agency loses an officer, an agent, a sheriff or deputy every
other month -- and so does NRA.

NRA is more than firearms safety training.  NRA is more than the
fight to safeguard our rights.  NRA is also about putting
criminals behind bars.  NRA is perhaps the only citizen
organization that has worked for tough criminal justice reform
and victims' rights in fifteen states in the first six months of
this year alone -- from "Three Strikes You're Out" in Vermont to
"Hard Time for Armed Crime" in Washington state.

But remember the arithmetic of our rights.  Even with
responsibility comes risk.  And the risk we've been running in
the last few months is the steady rush of ridicule, innuendo and
hatred pouring out of the White House and from the lips of
politicians who want our rights and want our power all to
themselves.

To the best of our ability, NRA will not let that happen, not
this year, and certainly not on election day in 1996.

Rights plus responsibility yields risk.  Have your elders learned
that simple arithmetic?  I'm afraid the answer is not all of them
-- not yet.  

We have seen the Republicans in the Government Oversight and the
Crime and Criminal Justice Subcommittees examine the tragedy near
Waco, Texas, in 1993 which claimed the lives of four federal
agents and more than eighty civilians.
There have been brilliant inquiries made by members of this
body -- by Bob Barr of Georgia, John Shadegg of Arizona, Ed
Bryant of Tennessee -- just to name a few.

Legally and ethically, independent of this panel, NRA conducted
its own fact-finding inquiry.  We were perfectly within our
rights to hire the nation's foremost engineering analysis firm to
look into the Waco disaster objectively.  That firm, Failure
Analysis Associates, is the team of Ph.D.s who uncovered the O-
ring problem in the Challenger spacecraft disaster -- and
discovered the ignitors placed on GM pick-up truck by NBC
Dateline.

Legally and ethically, through counsel, NRA asked the
Subcommittee that, if the opportunity presented itself, would a
firm, even if retained by an advocacy group, be permitted to x-
ray the fire-damaged guns retrieved from the ashes in Waco?  The
Subcommittee queried the House ethics panel, and that panel's
leading democrat, Jim McDermott, co-signed a return letter saying
there was no ethical or legal problem.

Failure Analysis made the trip to Austin -- but was denied access
to the guns by an on-scene personal assistant to Attorney General
Janet Reno.  Why?

This firm would have provided its scientific data for any other
expert to duplicate.  They would have explained their findings,
whether they found one illegal gun or one hundred illegal guns. 
X-rays employ photons.  Unlike politicians, photons move in a
straight line and never, ever lie.

Why was access denied?

When the credentials of the Failure Analysis team were explained
to Reno's aide, the aide visibly trembled.  Why?

The Democrats got away with murder in this hearing, allowing a
British expert to falsely claim that CS gas posed no problem. 
Not so.

Much of his testimony was linked with a British report that
responded to criticism of British use of CS gas in Northern
Ireland, and many believe that report itself was a political
whitewash intended to soft-peddle gas effects.

The fact is, the Congress didn't call the nation's premier
experts on failures of a scientific nature -- like the use of
ghastly amounts of a gas at levels that threaten health and life
itself.

Let me give you just a glimpse of what they found ... 

>From the Model Five delivery systems on the tanks alone, the CS
gas concentration in some rooms ranged from two to ninety times
that required to deter trained soldiers on the first assault
alone.  Anyone hit directly by spray from the Model Five system
would be affected immediately and potentially receive a dose
resulting in systemic shock and conceivably death.

In addition to tank delivery, a ferret round -- a gas grenade, if
you will -- was fired into every window of the center.

The methylene chloride used as a solvent in the gas reached 1.8
times the level immediately dangerous to life and health.  The
concentration level reached by firing just one ferret round was
sixteen times the level required to deter trained troops.

And all this was the scientifically calculated result of just the
first of four gas assaults.

And we taxpayers were attacking pregnant women and children, not
trained troops.  That gas led to incapacitation and death.

Why didn't Congress hear those facts?

Because Congress did not invite Failure Analysis to testify.

The reason: fear of risks.

These are our rights we're exercising; we're doing so
responsibly, and we accept the risks -- because we know that
America can keep score pretty darned well.

Even if we only provided information, the way every other
advocacy group provides information, we accepted the risk that we
would be falsely accused of running the hearings.

I'm here to tell you: If we really ran these hearings --if we
really orchestrated these hearings as White House spokesman
McCurry has accused, those hearings would be very, very
different.

What America had was an opportunity to put all the crazy
conspiracy theorists out of business with the results of this
hearing, but I'm afraid the crazy cottage industry will still be
in business.

What America had was an opportunity to discover that Waco was
never, repeat, never a problem with law enforcement officers, but
a problem of leadership -- and those leaders are still on the
job, still being paid with your tax dollars.

What America had was an opportunity on the order of Watergate --
only to end up with a tall glass of water. 

America wanted sustained questioning by the committee, if not
counsel.  But the five-minute rule was the best the majority
could do.  Indeed, the words from these hearings that might be
remembered the longest are: "I think my time has expired."

America wanted the truth, cut boldly from fragments of reports,
lies, and cover-ups, but while the Republicans were the majority,
the Democrats ruled.  If the Democrats had run the Iran-Contra
hearings like the Republicans ran the Waco hearings, Ollie North
would be president of the United States.

The problem was that the Republicans didn't understand the
arithmetic of our rights -- that rights plus responsibility
always yield risks.   Always.  So, when the risks started to
loom, too many buckled.  They appeared to want to be regarded
more as ladies and gentlemen than truth seekers.

If they think the press is going to hand out "fairness awards,"
they better not be holding their breaths.

According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, NBC Nightly
News three nights ago gave the Waco hearings a whopping fourteen
seconds of coverage.  Fourteen seconds for the greatest loss of
life in federal law enforcement history since Wounded Knee in the
19th century.

The night before last was no better -- a few more seconds to
cover the largest use of CS gas against a single target in the
history of mankind.

Let me close to talk about another father of Republicans, from
whom we should all draw inspiration.  Theodore Roosevelt was an
NRA member and a great Republican, a man with an unshakable sense
of ethics.

The NRA and the Republicans are accused of somehow undermining
law enforcement.  In fact, we're just learning from Roosevelt's
experience that the best law enforcement is always the best-led. 

Many of us think of Roosevelt as a great President, as a great
soldier, and even as a great sportsman.  But Roosevelt was also a
law enforcement officer and leader.  As a North Dakota rancher in
1886, Roosevelt served as a deputy sheriff and in arctic March
weather, led a legendary boat chase for a group of fleeing horse
thieves.

And, in 1895, Roosevelt became president of New York City's
Police Commission overseeing one of the most corrupt law
enforcement agencies in the country -- so corrupt that criminals
would return their booty to the Chief on request, because he
covered up most of their crimes for them.  So corrupt that a
State Senate committee estimated the department raised twice as
much money from graft as from tax dollars.  So corrupt that, as
Roosevelt said, "the New York police force was utterly
demoralized by the gangrene ... the ward politician, the liquor
seller, and the criminal alternately preyed on one another and
helped one another to prey on the general public."
Well, Roosevelt wouldn't take it.  With reporters watching, he
began an investigation.  Three weeks later, the Chief decided to
avoid the heat and light of Roosevelt's scrutiny.  He resigned.  

Have we had any resignations since the Waco hearings got
underway?  Not a one, not yet.

Roosevelt kept on going.  He shut down even more graft by
enforcing the city law that was supposed to keep the saloons
closed on Sundays.  The public outcry was intense.  And with
reporters in tow, he started prowling the streets at night,
throwing policemen out of saloons and waking them up from naps.

There were death threats, even letter bombs.  Lots of risk, but
this leader kept leading.

He raised the department's physical fitness standards and
marksmanship scores, built new police stations, even introduced a
mobile "Bicycle Squad."  In just two years, morale rose, and
crime rates plummeted until New York had arguably the best police
forces in the world.  The best, because they were led by the
best.

Roosevelt was hated for what he started and loved for what he
finished.

Times change.

Principles don't.

Limited government is best.  Freedom is worth protecting.  Values
are worth safeguarding.  Laws are worth enforcing.

And law enforcement deserves the best in leadership, so the
boss's wrongdoing never endangers the rank-and-file officers and
agents with a dangerous plan.

Law enforcement deserves the best in leadership, so the boss's
wrong-doing never tarnishes the badge of the rank-and-file
officers and agents as committed to constitution as they are to
the citizens they serve.

Remember what my father grieved over -- the destruction of
vitality and initiative by statism.

Let's rescue vitality, and rescue initiative by exercising our
rights and doing so responsibly.

When we do, all of us -- here in this room and on Capitol Hill --
all of us will begin to relish the risk that always comes with
the exercise our God-given rights.

Thank you.

------ End of Forwarded Message