Editors Always Find More Last Minute News to Report
August 20, 2002
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
The second or third August issue of Gun Week marks an anniversary for me as editor. While I was associated with the newspaper before August 1979, that’s when I became editor, and acquired the publication from the founding publisher, Amos Press of Sidney, OH.
Normally one likes to mark important anniversaries—I still have a new dictionary given to me by my daughter and Gun Week associate, Peggy, on the 10th anniversary, but in the heat of getting out a national newspaper every few days, special occasions are sometimes overlooked.
Throughout most of my 23 years as editor, I have written a column, usually as the last thing before an issue goes to the printer. Often it is being written as the printer waits unhappily, but that’s the nature of the newspaper business.
Usually, I have staked out a subject I want to cover in the Hindsight column, and have even saved references and resources material. But more often than not, I’m struck with the fact that so many stories are still breaking, or broke too late for us to find them a spot as each issue takes final shape. Frequently, these end up as very short items, or may get held over until the next issue, but in this issue, I want to use some of these stories as part of my column. After all, that’s an old editor’s prerogative.
UK as Crime Capital
One such story is a report from The Independent, a news organ in the United Kingdom (UK) about Britain being the “Crime Capital” of the Western world.
Gun ownership was virtually banned in Great Britain in the last decade, all done with the prediction and promise that it would make the country safer from crime, The Independent noted.
The verdict is in, and the Tony Blair government is wearing more than egg on its face, as Great Britain and Wales have earned the dubious title of “Crime Capital of the West.” People in England and Wales “experience more crime per head than people in the 17 other developed countries analyzed in the survey,” The Independent reported.
Blair’s government has been embarrassed about the rise in crime, but this latest (July) announcement made things even worse. Spurred by the March 13, 1996 massacre of school children at Dunblane, Scotland, by a deranged man armed with handguns the authorities had allowed him to possess and use, the British government enacted bans on virtually all types of firearms, and particularly handguns.
The result was an exploding black market in guns, and a sharp rise in gun violence.
A United Nations study found almost 55 crimes per 100 English residents, while the average is about 35 crimes per 100 residents of other countries.
England, said The Independent, also has the worst record for “very serious” offenses, with 18 per 100 residents, and another nation that has slapped rigorous restrictions on gun ownership—the island continent of Australia—reported 16 “very serious” offenses per 100 residents.
Gun Show Accident
Gwinnett, GA, police said they may never know who pulled the trigger of a gun that killed an Alabama boy at a crowded gun show on July 14, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Police Maj. Duane Kissel said both the boy’s father and a Florida holster vendor handled the gun just before it fired, striking Steven “Bray” King, 13, in an eye.
But Kissel said it’s still unclear who was in possession of the gun when it discharged.
“The two key witnesses were both extremely emotional over the issue,” Kissel told reporters. “The vendor himself collapsed at the scene.”
Kissel said they know this much: The boy’s father, Anthony Grant of Prattville, AL, was shopping for a particular holster and stopped at a Florida dealer’s table. After Grant questioned whether the holster would fit his gun, the dealer—who police say is not a former law enforcement officer, contrary to previous witness accounts—got out his own loaded .38-caliber handgun to demonstrate.
The vendor knew the gun was loaded, but the boy’s father apparently did not, Kissel said.
Sometime during the exchange of the handgun between the two men, the gun discharged, Kissel said. The men have differing accounts of exactly how the gun went off; they were the only witnesses, he said.
Compounding the contradicting stories, Kissel said, is the fact that some evidence was lost or destroyed at the crime scene, including the holster Grant was preparing to buy.
As July was ending, the Bucks County, PA, Courier Times reported that if the state Supreme Court rules on behalf of the Alleghany County Sportsmen’s League (ACSL), the case will be remanded back to Commonwealth Court to be argued via a full trial. ACSL will finally have their day in court.
In September 2002, the ACSL will be arguing their case against the Pennsylvania State Police’s handgun registration procedures before the state Supreme Court. You should remember last year that ACSL went before Commonwealth Court and requested that all handgun registration be halted per Pennsylvania Act 17 (1995) and Act 5 (1997).
In a 5 to 2 decision the court ruled that the state’s handgun registration procedures were legal because they constituted a partial registry and not a complete registry.
ACSL also wants former Gov. Tom Ridge—now Homeland Security czar—to be held responsible in the case. Violation of Act 17 carries a penalty of $250 and 2-5 years in prison for each registration transaction. In a questionnaire from ACSL, Ridge stated he wholeheartedly supports gun registration. He readily admits there are 8 million law-abiding gunowners in the state within the State Police database.
Recently, this case has taken on a whole, new, national meaning. Amicus curiae briefs have been filed by some of the heaviest hitting anti-gun organizations in the nation. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control Inc.), the “Million” Mom March and its Pennsylvania chapter, Cease Fire Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police have all come to the aid of the former governor and the State Police.
It is easy to see anti-gun forces don’t want to lose this one. They are attempting to make this a test case for registration schemes across the nation. The National Rifle Association has jumped into the fray on behalf of ACSL and law-abiding gunowners. Pennsylvania has become the focus of national attention.
Rumor says the legal fees to bring this case to court are going to top $100,000. ACSL is toying with establishment of a statewide legal defense fund.
Rumor says Ridge is under strong consideration for vice president in the 2004 Bush campaign. Why would he take positions contrary to Acts 17 and 5, which he signed into law? Is he getting bad advice? Is it pride or principle? Maybe, it is that all too common political affliction—simply abuse of power and political arrogance.
Jim Slinsky, the host and producer of the Sportsmen’s Connection, a statewide syndicated outdoor talk radio program, wrote the commentary in the Courier Times in which he urged clubs throughout the state to support the defense fund, and gave some background on the question of firearms registration. He began:
“The year was 1975 and his name was (Nelson T.) Pete Shields. He founded and became president of his brainchild, Handgun Control Inc. (HCI). By January 1976, Shields in an interview for a major national magazine laid out his plans.
“First, he advocated we must slow the manufacture of handguns. Secondly, we must institute national registration for all handguns. Lastly, we must make all handguns illegal.
“Needless to say, confiscation of any firearm cannot happen without complete registration and a database from which to collect the arms. This was Shields’ vision.”
It would seem that the anti-gunners still harbor that vision.
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