Originally published on this website June 12, 2000

To Senator Michael A. L. Balboni
803 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247

Dear Senator Balboni:

I am sure that by now you have probably received countless letters/phone calls, etc. requesting that you do NOT propose any additional gun control. These people have probably told you time after time that it is enforcement of the existing laws that will reduce crime.

Telling a law MAKER not to make any additional laws to protect his/her constituents is essentially the same thing as telling he / she to do nothing - to simply let the "enforcers" take care of the problem.

It is the purpose of this letter to let you know that there is actually one more piece of legislation that you could introduce, and subsequently have written into law, that will save more lives than any other.

Simply put: keep the criminals off of my / our streets for as long as possible by immediately placing a BAN on all of the following: 1- parole 2- probation 3- leniency in sentencing 4- concurrent sentencing and the greatest insult to law abiding tax payers: 5- "time off for good behavior".

Your fellow legislators have placed numerous restrictions on inanimate objects (firearms), yet simply stand silent every time yet another convicted criminal walks out of prison long before his/her original sentence has been fully served -- this is an outrage. Please do not tell us that the courts / criminal "justice" system are/is working - the victims of the recent slaughter at that Wendy's restaurant are all proof positive that the "system" needs to be changed. I cringe each and every time I read of yet another parolee committing yet another PREVENTABLE murder, rape, robbery, assault, car-jacking, break-in, etc. AS SHOULD YOU!!

Enclosed you will find a copy of a web page detailing the results of the legislative efforts in Australia - efforts to make the citizens "safer" by banning / confiscating firearms. (Granted, this approach has yet been brought to the legislative forefront here in the U.S. - but you must agree that this is the "ultimate" approach.)

The "ultimate" anti-gun program has failed miserably in Australia (because the criminals, true to form, are simply ignoring the additional legislation) thereby nullifying any reason to attempt/propose any lesser and/or additional "Anti-gun" legislation here in the U.S. (especially in New York)

The solution is simple: allow law-abiding citizens to keep their guns and keep lawbreakers in jail for as long as possible. The DECREASE in crime will be the direct result of YOUR hard work.

*** If the above ban on parole, probation, etc. is NOT possible, please call me to let me know why not - I would be very interested to know why....as would my fellow citizens.

Please keep all of the above in mind when Governor Pataki begins to push his proposals for new gun laws - particularly the ban on "assault weapons".

Sincerely,