August 28, 2001
Several
major media organizations, including The St. Paul
Pioneer Press recently published a remarkably
misleading and inaccurate editorial by Tom Diaz, the leader of the extremist
anti-gun organization, Violence Policy Center.
Tom’s radical agenda for banning guns, pushed by scare tactics and lies is
one of the primary reasons that national Democrat leaders are moving away from
the liberal left’s war against gun ownership.
The Pioneer Press editorial incorrectly asserts that firearms manufacture and
sales are exempt from government regulation. Nothing could be further from the
truth. The federal government requires a maker of a firearm to have a license
before they can begin producing. They can only sell their products to
distributors who are also licensed by the federal government. The distributors
who sell to the public are required to have each and every sale of their product
approved by an FBI background check and are required to keep documentation on
each buyer and product sold and make that documentation available to government
inspectors. The government also regulates the function of their products and
prohibits mail order or interstate sales between anyone not possessing a license
from the federal government.
Tom Diaz’s latest scare tactic target is the .50 caliber rifle, which he
stereotypes as a "military sniper rifle". He suggests the gun is
selling like hot cakes all across the country, the newest innovation of the evil
gun manufacturers. In fact, the gun and cartridge are nearly 100 years old and
such rifles have been produced and purchased by American collectors and
enthusiasts for the past two decades. Before the U.S. military began using the
rifle, there was a national club for people who pursued the sport of long range
.50 caliber target shooting. Never in that time in America has such a gun been
used to "take down an armored limousine, shoot down a helicopter, or
destroy physical infrastructure". In fact, the number of times terrorists
in the U.S. have used this "perfect weapon for assassination and
terrorism" is the same as the number of times Bigfoot has been photographed
walking down Main Street with the Loch Ness monster – absolutely zero.
But the facts have never been an obstacle to the most hard-core anti-gun
groups and the people who make a living demonizing guns like Tom Diaz.
Fortunately, leaders of both political parties have begun to realize that the
radical anti-gun agenda of Tom Diaz has nothing to do with crime control.
John Burtt
Detective-Riverside Police Dept. (ret)
Chairman, Fifty Caliber Shooters’ Policy Institute
jb50bmg@earthlink.net
