Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 23:38:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Richard L Hartman <[r l h] at [on-ramp.ior.com]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[n--b--n] at [mainstream.net]>
Subject: Re: NBC Fax

A friend in the NYC media did some digging on that NBC letter (she actually
has a copy, and faxed it to me). Here's what she found out; my comments to
her appear at the beginning.

RLH
-----
>Unbelievable. I'm tempted to call this a "hoax" because it's so childish.
>"Please bring Saturday Night Specials, sawed off shotguns, and cop killer
>bullets." C'mon, don't these people do ANY background research before they
>write memos?

I don't think it's a hoax. Today I called the NBC researcher who wrote the
letter. She was very uptight and didn't want to say anything. I told her that I
was only trying to help, as a fellow media member who is also a licensed and
knowledgeable target shooter. I informed her that her request to the gun store
was a proposition to commit a federal firearms violation, that she obviously
was not aware that NYC gun stores abide strictly by federal, state and local
laws, that they would be shut down in a second if they didn't, and that
EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT!!!! I could just feel her seething, but she didn't say
anything. 

I don't think these people have the intelligence to use this as some kind of
trap. I think this is typical of the way today they will let some junior
researcher write a letter that used to be written by a someone of a much higher
level with some background in the subject matter. I am surprised, however, that
they are so sloppy that they will leave a paper trail with proof that they
still *stage* things. You would think they'd go to great pains to hide this
after what they went through with the General Motors fiasco.

Feel free to forward this....