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The Conspiracy of Silence
February 5, 2003
by Nicki Fellenzer
nicki_f@worldnet.att.net
KeepAndBearArms.com -- Recently, a former NRA
lawyer and Second Amendment rights activist decided to drop a bomb in a
California court by
filing an affidavit claiming gun manufacturers knowingly created an ominous
conspiracy of silence concealing a flawed distribution system that allows
criminals and juveniles to get a hold of firearms, causing tragedy and death.
The revelation by Richard Ricker caused a gleeful uproar in the national media,
whose members are only too happy to tout anything negative about the gun
industry, and among gun control advocates, who are joyfully crowing about the
disclosure of the gun industry’s “dirty little secret.”
Ricker, a former executive director of the now defunct American Shooting Sports
Council, claims the gun industry has consistently failed to address the problem
of the “felons among us.” He asserts firearms manufacturers refuse to monitor
bulk sales by federally licensed gun dealers and that the gun makers had long
known that "the diversion of firearms from legal channels of commerce to the
black market" takes place "principally at the distributor/dealer level.”
Furthermore, Ricker claims "leaders in the industry have long known that greater
industry action to prevent illegal transactions is possible” by creating a
network of manufacturers’ representatives, who stay in close touch with dealers
and monitor their activities.
Gun makers fervently denied these allegations. Lawrence Keane, vice president of
the National Shooting Sports Foundation calls the accusations in Ricker's
16-page affidavit ludicrous. Indeed, it’s preposterous to hold legitimate
manufacturers of an in-demand product responsible for the actions of a minute
few. But logic and rational thought have never stopped the Brady Bunch from
plodding blindly toward the goal of rendering Americans completely defenseless
against the criminal element.
A
study performed three years ago by the office of Senator Chuck Schumer
revealed that a tiny percentage of gun retailers is responsible for putting the
majority of guns used in crimes on the streets. One hundred and forty gun
dealers, Schumer’s office found, were the major source of thousands of guns used
in crimes. This number represents one-tenth of one percent of the gun
dealers in the United States. It’s absolutely absurd to hold firearms
manufacturers accountable for the actions of a minuscule fraction of corrupt
dealers – dealers who are, by the way, licensed by the federal government.
Herein lies the problem in the anti-gunners’ hypocritical rhetoric. They’re more
than ready and willing to disarm law-abiding citizens, forcing them to rely on
the government to protect them, telling them they don’t need guns, since it’s
the police’s function to defend them. But when it comes to relying on the
government for accurate licensure of firearms dealers and the oversight they’ve
claimed as their own responsibility, the government can no longer be held
accountable for the licenses it issues. So, let’s get this straight: you must
rely on the government to protect your life, which nine times out of ten it is
unable to do, but you can’t rely on the government to issue licenses only to
scrupulous gun dealers through a licensing system created by the government
itself to weed out corrupt gun dealers. This is nonsensical twaddle and
hypocrisy only the Brady Bunch could spew forth with a straight face.
Gun manufacturers are required to follow the letter of the law. They sell their
product to federally licensed dealers. Should the gun industry be held
responsible because gun manufacturers aren’t clairvoyant and are unable to see
which of the federally licensed dealers are corrupt? Should they be prosecuted
because the BATF hasn’t done its job of ensuring that only qualified dealers get
licensed? Apparently Ricker and his newly found pals at the Brady Bunch believe
so. They apparently believe that gun manufacturers should spend thousands of
dollars to do check ups on every dealer with whom they conduct business, because
the federal government is too inept to effectively qualify the dealers it
licenses. Their agenda would also involve those same gun manufacturers passing
the costs of those thousands they spend in picking up the government’s slack on
to the dealer and subsequently the consumers. This would, of course, make
firearms even more prohibitively expensive for the average Joe, who can’t afford
a bodyguard or armed security at his gates.
Once they’ve ensured that only the rich can afford the most effective tool of
self-defense on the market, that’s when the real fun starts! We’ve seen what
unilateral disarmament has led to in England: increased crime, increased
victimizations, the prosecution of anyone who DARES to use a gun in self-defense
and the propagation of the criminal element’s reign over an unarmed population.
The BATF already complains that it doesn’t have enough resources to properly do
its job in ensuring that crooked dealers don’t get licensed, even though the
number of gun dealers has taken a dip, while their budgets have become even more
bloated. (BATF’s budget last year was over $850 Million.) State and local police
departments already complain about a lack of funding and staff shortages.
Combine this with the inability of the average citizen to defend himself with a
firearm, and you have a nasty little recipe for crime soup that will wreak havoc
on our society. Because, as the case of “Not-so-Great” Britain has shown, even a
total handgun ban will not stop criminals from obtaining guns, leaving everyone
else at their mercy.
But let’s assume for a moment that Ricker’s claims are true – that the gun
industry was in the position to somehow stem the flow of firearms to the one
tenth of one percent of gun dealers, who are corrupt in this country. Let’s
assume that as Ricker said, gun manufacturers remained silent for fear of
liability. Well, who could possibly blame them? This country and its
anti-rights, anti-freedom, anti-personal responsibility lobbying groups have
created an environment rich with fear of persecution. In a society where you can
be sued for practicing medicine without a license for helping a car crash
victim…
…in an overly litigious culture where state legislatures actually had to enact
“Good Samaritan” laws, because unscrupulous money-grubbers were bringing law
suits against those trying to help them…
…is it any shock that a pervasive atmosphere of apprehension exists? Is anyone
really surprised at the unwillingness to speak up for fear of being persecuted?
After all, a society, where an odious, anti-freedom outfit brings suit against a
firearm maker because the manufacturer’s product was used in “sniper” attacks –
and does so with a straight face, expecting to win in court, – can expect no
cooperation for fear of that same exact persecution.
When a society transforms legitimate businesses into criminals because their
product is misused by a criminal few, is it any surprise that the businesses
aren’t willing to speak up?
When gun manufacturers are consistently sued, harassed and abused by the Brady
Bunch and the government hoodlums whose leashes Brady tightly wields, how can
anyone blame them for keeping silent?
Brady and company have made a business out of harassment and intimidation. With
their rhetoric and lies, they have turned legitimate business owners into
criminals and law-abiding gun owners into potential villains. Is it
any wonder that “laying low” has become the status quo? Is it any wonder that
the beaten down victims of their demagoguery and propaganda “see no evil” for
fear that even more responsibility for the irresponsible and criminal acts of
others will be laid at their feet?
How much of Ricker’s 16-page condemnation of the gun industry is truth and how
much of it is retaliation for losing his executive director’s slot at the
American Shooting Sports Council we’ll probably never know. It’s not so hard to
imagine a disgruntled former employee, who was forced to resign from his
high-level position for bowing down to Bill Clinton’s attempts to disarm lawful
gun owners, placing the blame for his loss of rank and position on the NRA and
the gun industry.
But whether his allegations are true or simply the by-product of a disgruntled
malcontent, one thing remains clear – the anti-freedom maggots are still ready,
willing and able to continue feeding off the carcass of our freedom. They’re
ready to toss out personal responsibility, human rights and the US Constitution
in favor of control, power and complete prostration at the feet of the state.
They will continue blaming the gun industry for the misdeeds of the criminal
element and for the inability of the government to do its job. A return to
sanity and personal responsibility is in order. The only people responsible for
gun crime are criminals - not the manufacturers, whose only crime is producing a
consumer good that is in demand and not the gun lobby, whose goal is the
preservation of our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Any attempt to hold
the industry responsible for the misuse of its product is an absurd monument to
ineptitude, capriciousness and negligence.
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