LEG:Stop the Semi-auto gun ban

   If you're one of the 30 million law-abiding Americans who owns a
semi-automatic firearm, you must act now -- before you become a
criminal.

   Right now, nationwide semi-auto gun ban bills are up for votes in
Congress and the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio
(S.386) and Rep. Pete Stark of California (H.R.1190).

   Here's what their approach would do to you:

   1. You would pay a $200 government tax for each of your semi-auto
rifles, shotguns and handguns on their list.

   2. In order to keep them you would have to be fingerprinted and
submit to an FBI background check for each semi-auto you own.

   3. A government official would then decide if you're fit to keep and
operate your semi-auto firearm.

   4. If you don't meet their stringent and draconian standards, your
gun immediately becomes contraband and you become subject to federal
felony prosecution. Your only choices are to hire a lawyer or take your
guns out of the United States.

   5. Even if you were approved, you'd be required to get the
government's permission each time you wanted to transport your
semi-auto across state lines, even to hunt or target shoot. If you
didn't, you could get 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

   Think it's impossible for honest gun owners to become instant
criminals in America? It's already happening: They just banned
semi-autos in Los Angeles and Cleveland. Now they want a semi-auto ban
nationwide.

   WRITE YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN NOW!

   Call and write your U.S. senators and representatives now. Tell them
to stop the semi-auto gun ban bills S.386 and H.R. 1190. Because if
you're a law-abiding gun owner, they can make you a criminal. Of
course, if you're a criminal already, laws don't worry you anyway.

   MILITARY-STYLE SEMI-AUTOS AREN'T THE PROBLEM

   Despite nationwide hysteria, military-style semi-automatic firearms
are not the "weapon of choice" for drug traffickers and other violent
criminals, according to evidence from across the country.

   NATIONALLY: About 4 percent of the nation's homicides reportedly
involve rifles, a decline from 1980-87; less than 1 percent are
estimated to be of military caliber; roughly 0.5 percent are
military-style semi-autos.

   LOS ANGELES: Police testified less than 3 percent of firearms
examined were military-style; police never confiscated a semi-auto AK
or Uzi that had been converted to full-auto fire.

   SAN FRANCISCO: Only 2.2 percent of firearms seized in 1988 were
military-style semi-automatics.

   WASHINGTON, D.C.: While roughly 1,000 handguns were involved in
crime during the first eight months of 1987, only 0.5 percent of them
were military-style semi-automatics.

   REVOLVING DOOR JUSTICE IS THE PROBLEM

   -- Arrests are made for only one out of five reported crimes.

   -- For every 500 serious crimes reported, only 20 adults and 5
juveniles are sent to prison.

   -- The most active robbers and burglars average 85 and 232 crimes
per year, respectively, so reactive punishment would have future
benefits.

   -- Nearly 70 percent of young parolees are rearrested within 6 years
of their release from prison.

   -- Crime is nearly 30 percent more likely to pay now than in 1963,
when there was one prisoner for every 18.7 crimes. In 1986, there was
only one prisoner for every 24.2 crimes.

   -- In 1983, the average sentences served for violent crimes were:

   Murder: 7 years

   Rape: 4 years

   Robbery: 3 years

   Assault: 2 years

   -- In Washington, D.C., our nation's capital, there are 13,000
criminals on probation, 5,000 criminals on parole, 10,000 criminals in
prison and 10,000 persons awaiting trial.

   SLAM SHUT THIS REVOLVING DOOR

   Tough punishment WILL curb drug trafficking crime, since most of the
drug traffickers have lengthy criminal records. Because the most
serious criminals are the ones LEAST likely to be influenced by a gun
law, those criminals must be targeted for mandatory sentences ranging
from 5 years to life for using a gun in a crime.

   The way to cut crime is to put criminals behind bars and keep them
there.

   MEDIA MYTHS VERSUS SEMI-AUTO FIREARM FACTS

   MEDIA MYTH: Semi-automatic firearms are "assault weapons."

   FACT: A military "assault weapon" is a gun that can be fired on
full-automatic. Fully-automatic "machine guns" are already strictly
regulated by federal law. Semi-automatic firearms, mislabeled by the
media as "assault weapons," are only made to LOOK like military rifles.
Any resemblance between a semi-auto and full-auto is purely cosmetic --
nothing more.

   MEDIA MYTH: Semi-automatic rifles have more firepower than other
guns.

   FACT: Like any other non-automatic, semi-automatics fire only one
round with each trigger pull, oftentimes no faster than many bolt, pump
or lever-actions.

   MEDIA MYTH: Semi-automatic rifles can easily be converted to fire
fully automatic.

   FACT: Detective Jimmy Trahin, Los Angeles Police Department,
recently addressed the convertibility issue in testimony before the
California Legislature, where he stated semi-automatics are NOT easily
and readily convertible. Furthermore, no semi-autos can be imported or
sold domestically that are easily converted to full-auto under federal
law. It is already a federal felony to convert a semi-auto to full-auto
fire.

   MEDIA MYTH: Semi-automatics have no sporting purpose.

   FACT: Semi-automatic firearms are owned by upwards of 30 million
Americans for hunting, target shooting and self-defense. Many target
shooters use semi-automatics for competition. Semi-autos are even used
in U. S. Olympic competition.

   MEDIA MYTH: The framers of the Constitution didn't foresee citizens
owning semi-automatic weapons.

   FACT: Neither did the Founding Fathers foresee radio and television
reaching millions of people with one burst, but freedom of speech still
applies. And we punish those who misuse it. Similarly, the framers
didn't foresee revolvers, pump-actions, lever-actions, or semi-auto
actions either. The Second Amendment stands for free citizens owning
firearms for lawful purposes. Don't punish those who uphold Second
Amendment freedoms. Punish those who misuse them.

   MEDIA MYTH: So-called semi-automatic "assault weapons" are the
weapon of choice of drug dealers, street gangs and other criminals.

   FACT: Police testimony reveals that in the city of Los Angeles over
4,100 firearms were confiscated in 1987. Of those firearms, LESS THAN 3
PERCENT could fall into the class of "military style semi-automatics."

   MEDIA MYTH: Semi-automatic technology is a dangerous new development.

   FACT: Semi-automatic technology has been in existence since the turn
of the century. Your father and grandfather may very well have hunted
with one. Semi-autos are neither dangerous nor new. ALL firearms must
be handled safely and responsibly.

   MEDIA MYTH: A ban on semi-automatics will somehow affect criminals
and crime statistics.

   FACT: According to one of the U. S. Justice Department's leading
crime surveys, conducted by James Wright and Peter Rossi, the person
LEAST affected by gun control laws is the criminal.

   The semi-automatic ban craze is nothing more than another failed
attempt at natinal gun control offered by the same people who brought
you the "Saturday night special" panic a while back. And now they are
trying to make your semi-automatic handgun, rifle and shotgun the
"Saturday night specials" of today.

   It didn't make sense then and it doesn't make sense now.

   Gun control is a bankrupt concept that doesn't touch criminals. It
may grab headlines, but it doesn't do ANYTHING about the real problem:
violent criminals.

   IF YOU CHERISH YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICAN FREEDOM TO KEEP AND BEAR
ARMS YOU MUST ACT NOW!

   Call and write your U.S. senators and congressmen now and ask them
to oppose Howard Metzenbaum's S.386 and Pete Stark's H.R.1190.

   If you don't know who your U. S. senator or congressmen are you can
call the capitol switchboard at (202)224-3121 and tell the operator
what state and city you are calling from. The operator will give you
their names, addresses and phone numbers.

   Nothing short of a massive response from the gun-owning public will
stop this worst of all attacks to date on your constitutional right as
a law-abiding American citizen to keep and bear arms in a free nation.

   JOIN THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

   Anyone who owns a gun or is contemplating buying one at some future
date should be a member of the National Rifle Association of America.

   What is the NRA?

   The National Rifle Association, founded in 1871, is an independent,
nonprofit organization supported by membership fees. Its purposes are
to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially
with reference to the right of the citizen to acquire, possess,
transport, carry, transfer ownership of, and enjoy the right to use
arms.

   Its purposes also are to promote public safety, law and order and
the national defense; to train members and people of good repute in
marksmanship and safe handling of firearms; to foster and promote the
shooting sports and amateur competitions; to promote hunter safety and
promote and defend hunting as a wise use of our renewable wildlife
resources.

   Historically, the NRA and its state affiliates have been the front
line defenses against those individuals and organizations who would
trample over the law-abiding American citizen's constitutional right to
own the firearms of his or her choice.

   Who may join?

   Any citizen of the United States who is of good repute, and who
subscribes to the objectives and purposes of the NRA is welcome to
membership. Under most circumstances, citizens of other nations are
also welcome as non-citizen members.

   Regular membership is only $20 per year. This includes a
subscription of your choice to either The American Rifleman or The
American Hunter magazines.

   For membership information call toll-free 1-800-368-5714 or write:

   The National Rifle Association of America Membership Division 1600
Rhode Island Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036

   But whether or not you're interested in joining the NRA, if you want
to defend your constitutional right to keep and bear arms against those
misguided individuals and organizations WHOSE REAL GOAL IS TO DISARM
ALL AMERICANS -- you must register your protest against these latest
assaults from Metzenbaum and Stark.

   Happy hunting and shooting.

   P.S. Remember the recent citizen movement for greater human rights
and freedom in Russian Georgia?

   The very first move authorities made in quelling the demonstrations
was to immediately round up and confiscate some 60,000 privately owned
hunting weapons that were registered with the government.

   Could that happen in America?

   You bet your life it could. A government is a government is a
government -- and the only thing that keeps this one anywhere near the
desires of its people is the U. S. Constitution. But there are powerful
minority interests constantly and insidiously chipping away at that
constitution under the guise of protecting the public and fighting
crime.

   Michael Dukakis himself said: "I do not believe in people owning
guns, only police and military. I am going to do everything I can to
disarm this state."

   Can you imagine what your constitutional right under the Second
Amendment would be worth under a president driven by those thoughts?

   You'd better believe he spoke for all those politicians, individuals
and organizations who have vowed just as vehemently as he has to disarm
the citizens of this country.

   At no time in history has a people enjoyed so broad a range of
freedoms as we have, but our little 200-year experience with those
freedoms could disappear right under our noses if we don't fight to
keep each and every one our Constitution gives us.

   You could very well wake up one day to learn your neighborhood and
country has suddenly become an alien place.

   It's happened everywhere else on this earth. It can happen here.

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