No One Has Endurance Like the Anti-Gun Crowd
March 10, 2005

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

There used to be an old, old song which claimed that “No one has endurance like the man who sells insurance.” But now the most aggressive and obnoxious hucksters in the world have been outdone by the anti-gun crowd.

Some think that they just sit and wait like vultures for the latest human tragedy involving a firearm. But when they don’t have a bleeding news story to exploit, they create their own news with distortions and misrepresentations.

For one example, when Robert Bonelli Jr. engaged in a shooting rampage on Feb. 14 at the Hudson Valley Mall in Ulster County, NY, the anti-gun vultures swooped immediately.

The random shooting spree immediately got gun control advocates renewing calls for a ban on all so-called assault weapons. Leading the pack with headlines, of course, was the state’s Democract Sen. Charles Schumer (see story on Page 2 of this issue). But he wasn’t alone.

Anti-gun leaders were quick in asking the governor and the state legislature to quickly pass an assault weapons ban on the state level. They said the gun that was used in the mall shooting was a Model 47, which is a copy-cat of an AK-47. Model 47s are legal, but antis said they are equivalent in strength to banned AK-47s.

Andy Pelosi of New Yorkers Against Guns said, “The shooter is reported having two 30-round magazines. New York law says that you’re limited to a 10-round magazine.”

According to some news service, statewide representatives from the National Rifle Association said they share the grief of the community over the shooting. However, they said trying to control criminal behavior by restricting the freedoms of citizens is not an effective way to control crime.

Actually, the New York legislature already has a bill to extend and expand existing law regarding semi-automatic military-style firearms and standard capacity magazines.

Others Linked
However, the antis moved quickly, even before the police had completed their investigation.

Following the shooting, two men were arrested after a videotape showing them detonating pipe bombs was found in Bonelli’s home, following his capture as the man accused of opening fire at a shopping mall, injuring two people.

The two men are friends of the shooting suspect, but there was no indication that Bonelli, 25, intended to use an explosive device at the mall, and the two friends are not accused of any involvement in the shooting, Town of Ulster Police Chief Paul Watzka said.

Police searching Bonelli’s home after the shooting found the videotape, depicting the manufacture and detonation of pipe bombs, authorities said.

“We actually have videotapes of them exploding explosive devices and firing weaponry, and that led us to the arrest of these two subjects,” Watzka said.

The friends, Kenneth Stine and Liborio Valguarnera, both 25—the same age as Bonelli—were arrested on charges of violating federal explosive laws, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents.

Nine long guns, a handgun, ammunition and a pipe bomb fuse were found at Stine’s house, the ATF said.

Bonelli is accused of spraying “assault weapon” fire through the mall, firing off about 60 rounds before surrendering. Prosecutors say Bonelli was fascinated by the Columbine school shootings and kept memorabilia about the 1999 killings.

One of the wounded, Thomas Haire, a 20-year-old National Guard member assigned to a recruiting booth in the mall, was in critical condition at Albany Medical Center the day after the shooting. The second victim was treated for hand and leg wounds and released.

Bonelli’s father, Robert Bonelli Sr., told The Daily Freeman of Kingston that his son had had emotional problems since his mother left when he was a boy.

“He was very lonely inside, always a feeling of inadequacy,” the father said. But he said he doesn’t believe his son was trying to kill anybody.

Second Example
The second example of anti-gun activism involved new attempts to pass the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act in the 109th Congress. This is the measure that would protect the firearms industry from frivolous lawsuits contrived to bleed the gun industry to death.

The measure passed the House in the last Congress, but was bled to death with amendments in the Senate last March and died there.

The anti-gunners are determined to defeat the bill and they will make any claim to succeed.

For example, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) put out what they claimed was an open letter to gunowners about their legal rights. The letter tried to get around the fact that gunowners don’t trust the anti-gun VPC by claiming that the measure reported in the Mar. 1 issue of Gun Week puts the interests of the gun industry ahead of the safety and economic interests of gunowners. The VPC claimed, incorrectly, that the measure would prevent gunowners from suing manufacturers if they were injured by a faulty firearm.

That’s not true. Manufacturers, dealers and retailers could still be sued for negligence or faulty products that caused injury. The proposed law only prevents lawsuits by cities, counties and individuals for acts committed by criminals using otherwise legal products.

Needless to say, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was taking a similar tack in a press release issued Feb. 16.

Untruths
Like the VPC, the Brady Campaign, which has aided and encouraged most of the 30 or so suits filled by anti-gun politicians and individuals because of losses or injuries caused by criminals, claimed in its press release that the measure, HR-800, would shield gun sellers from being held accountable for negligence. That’s not true.

The Brady Bunch and VPC claim the title of the bill is misleading when they are the ones pursuing a dishonest public policy course. They claim the measure would grant broad and unprecedented immunity from civil lawsuits to gun manufacturers and gun dealers. That’s not true.

If it were true, why would so many national business groups which have nothing to do with firearms manufacture or marketing be supporting the bill, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Chamber of Commerce.

In their frenzied efforts to kill the bill, they have claimed that it would create a “special class of citizens exempt from the law.” That’s not true.

“This legislation is a shameful giveaway to the worst actors in the gun business,” said Michael Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its vassal “Million” Mom March. “It must be defeated, in order to ensure that people who become gun violence victims because of reckless behavior by gun sellers can still seek justice in the courts.”

The justice that people seek is not justice so much as money. Like the old-time high-pressure salesmen of old, the anti-gun strategists are spreading lies and distortions. So far, they have had very limited success in getting justice for any of their clients, or the people they have advised. Instead, the victims they profess to want to help have been tortured by reliving crimes against loved ones while receiving little if any monetary compensation or satisfaction. The out-of-court settlement by Bushmaster and Bulls Eye Guns with the victims of the “Beltway snipers” notwithstanding, the courts have been tossing out the anti-gun broadside suits against the industry for lack of proof that the gun industry was doing anything illegal, irresponsible or liable.

It has cost of the industry over $100 million to fight these bogus suits, money that would have improved products and lowered consumer costs. Now it’s time for Congress to pass the measure, for the President to sign it and for the anti-gunners to find another dead horse to flog.
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