Fighting blind propaganda

[Marc <cram3813@uidaho.edu>]

--snip--

>ACTION ALERT:  JUVENILE JUSTICE BILL A DANGER TO CHILDREN

And exactly how is this so?

>On June 17, the House approved its version of juvenile crime
>legislation and at the same time, failed to pass meaningful
>gun control measures.  The Senate passed its own juvenile
>crime bill on May 20, 1999.  This week, the Senate and House
>appointed conferees to work out a final version of the
>juvenile justice legislation.  It is imperative that you urge
>Congress to protect children in the juvenile justice system,
>as well as include provisions to keep children safe from guns
>in the final juvenile justice legislation.

"Keep children safe from guns" sounds like the guns are wandering the
streets just looking for some kid to shoot.  

--snip--

>
>--- Common sense gun laws should not be delayed.  At a minimum, gun safety 
>provisions as approved by the Senate in S.254 should be included in the 
>final juvenile justice legislation.

There it is again--that phrase "common sense gun laws"!  I feel *SO* stupid
knowing that I must not have any common sense if I believe otherwise.  

Once again, I must ask, have you looked at S. 254 or are you just parroting
propaganda you are sent?

--snip--

>The goal of our juvenile justice system is to
>rehabilitate and protect our nation's children who have come
>into contact with the law.  

I agree.  If children even see some of the laws on the books, it would
stunt their growth.  And try to keep them out of the public--they may
actually come in contact with those evil law enforcement people.  After
all, if they are not a gang, what is?  (They wear colors, carry weapons, etc.)

Just joking!  Don't have a cow!  Some careful thought went into the wording
of the above sentence, i'm sure.

--snip--

>--- Includes the gun safety provisions as approved by the
>Senate in S. 254.  

Once again, I have read the bill in question.  I know that I am ruining the
emotional impact of my feverish response with facts, but that is my cross I
must bear.  Some of these sections of S254 concerning firears include:
Making it illegal to give/sell/transfer,etc. to a minor a firearm, knowing
that (s)he will use it in a violent felony.  Gee, I thought that would
already make you an accessory.  

It would create a voluntary special license for people who sell guns at a
gun show.  It would allowaccess to the background check for the seller.
Voluntary--it specifically states that it is not necessary and that people
can still sell at gun shows without it.  More useless verbage in the bill.

It does have some interesting forfeiture sections.  (On the subject of
forfeiture, I will say right now that the zero tolerance laws on the books
are stupid.  They assume guilt over innocence and they just invite
corruption and abuse by the government and law enforcement agencies.)
Section 1614 fo the bill states that forfeiture can apply to "real estate
where the offense was committed."  Not just a car (included in previous
section), but now someone can lose a whole house.

And if it passes, your ISP would have to supply you, at no charge to you,
filtering software to protect the children from the evils of the internet.
That will definitely save them.

It also bans imprtation of large capacity ammunition feeding devices, even
if they were legal to import under the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994.  But then a subtitle of this act is "The Juvenile
Assault Weapon Loophole Closure Act of 1999" implying that there were huge
loopholes in the previous act. 

And it increases the level of badness if a felon is wearing body armor.
This is like passing a law saying that it is a worse crime to drive the
getaway car if you are wearing your seatbelt.  

> On average, nearly 13 children die each day
>from gunfire in America, about one every 100 minutes or the
>equivalent of a classroom of children every two days.  

SHOW ME YOUR DATA!  I would love to see it.  Tell me you are not calling
anyone under 24 a child.  Show me the facts that dispute that accidental
firearm injury among children has been falling every year for about 20 years.

>Gun safety provisions such as requiring handgun safety locks,
>background checks at gun shows, imposing one gun a month
>purchasing restrictions, and requiring guns to be stored
>safely and out of reach of children will help to address the
>high death toll of our nation's children.  More American
>children have died as a result of gun violence since 1979 than the number 
>of soldiers killed in combat in Vietnam.  

Once again, show me the data.  

Say no to the NRA; it is time we protect children, not guns.

Ah, the evil NRA.  They are the scourge of our society.  According to the
findings in S254, sec 802, The administartion initiated an "innovative"
program in 1988 by aggressively prosecuting criminals with guns in order to
punish criminal misuse of weapons.  This program was pushed for--fought
for--by the NRA.  It believes that the person should be held accountable
for the tool, not the tool.  And the bill states "criminal misuse of
weapons."  I'm sure that's an oversight, but it does imply that they
criminal was using it in a "bad" way.  

The above program has been shown to reduce violent crime.  As far as I
know, nothing else has.  Many restrictive gun control laws have been passed
since 1988 and not one can be shown to reduce crime.  

--snip--

Don't get me wrong--there are some good things in the bill.  I know.  I
read it.  I just get irked at everyone following someone like cattle
because they were told to do it.  I like to decide for myself.  My stance
on the bill is neutral.  There are some good things, there are some bad
things.  And there is a lot of "feel good" stuff like above--useless from
any practical standpoint but it looks good to the voters.

Marc
Crusher of Illusions