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The conscious act this week by President Clinton to dance in the blood of six-year-old Kayla Rolland who was tragically killed this week by fellow classmate in Michigan is sickening to say the least. The fact that the young perpetrator of this terrible tragedy was forced to live in a drug house surrounded by drugs, filth and criminals seems to be conveniently overlooked by Mr. Clinton. Well, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (D&C) has joined President Clinton in exploiting the death of Kayla Rolland. Some how, Mr. Clinton and now the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle want us to believe that had a mandatory trigger lock law been passed by Congress last year, the occupants and proprietors of the drug house in Michigan would have complied and placed a trigger lock on an illegal gun found in the drug house.
Read the D&C editorial below and contact
the D&C to express your outrage. The Editorial Page Editor is, James F.
Lawrence, phone (716) 258-2415. You can also submit letters for publication.
They must be limited to 175 words or less, you may send them by fax (716) 258-2356,
email dceditpage@DemocratandChronicle.com or opinions by phone (716) 258-2401.
The D&C's snail mail address is 55 Exchange Blvd., Rochester, NY 14614.
Trigger safety
Rochester Democrat
& Chronicle, March 3, 2000
It's shameful that a child had to die before congressional leaders resumed gun control talks.
Gun control opponents like to point to calls for tighter laws in the aftermath of horrifying gun violence as knee-jerk. They're wrong again as new gun control laws get over due attention in the wake of this week's shooting of a 6-year-old by another first-grader in Michigan.
President Clinton didn't flinch in reminding Congress that Tuesday's shooting underscored the need for a law that would require guns to be sold with childproof trigger locks. The proposed law has languished on Capitol Hill since last year, when the Senate adopted it as part of a juvenile justice bill. That proposal, remember, also would have closed a loophole allowing gun show dealers to sell weapons without checking the buyers' background. Because House Republicans oppose the gun show provision, no action has been taken on the bill since last August. Meantime, who knows how many lives may have been saved had there been a law requiring trigger locks on guns?
It took the shooting death of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland to convince congressional leaders this week to separate portions of the juvenile justice bill to break the stalemate. That's almost as tragic as Kayla's shooting death.
The problem is that lawmakers remain too willing to kowtow to the powerful National Rifle Association, which throws its considerable weight around Capitol Hill in direct proportion to its hefty campaign donations.
Never mind that 12 children are killed by guns each day in this country. For the most part, the NRA refuses to budge from its Neanderthal position: Gun control of any kind is an abridgment of Second Amendment rights.
The NRA's solution? Increased prosecution for violations of existing gun laws. The lobbying group conveniently overlooks the fact that stepped-up prosecutions are already under way across the United States in cities like Rochester. And while more people are in US. prisons on gun charges than any other advanced country in the world, the nation still has the highest gun death rate.
With Congress' spring break scheduled soon,
its members shouldn't think of leaving the Capitol until they've at least adopted
a trigger locks law.
City of Rochester Orders Gun
Shop To Close it's Doors
Thursday, February 24, 2000
City of Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson has ordered Jerry's Guns & Ammo, located at 3977 Lake Avenue in Rochester, New York to close their doors March 1st. Jerry Casserino and his wife Connie opened Jerry's Guns & Ammo in 1972 and have been at that same location for 28 years.
The city's Zoning Board under the direction of Mayor Johnson alleges that Jerry's Guns & Ammo never obtained a variance to establish his store at the Lake Avenue location. Some in the legal community have questioned why his shop would need a variance since it is located in the middle of various commercial businesses, which include a bar and restaurant, laundry, bank, auto repair shop and a tailor among others.
Jerry, a long time supporter of SCOPE and the gun rights movement in general, was offered no explanation by city officials as to why it has taken them 28 years to discover that he needed a variance. It seems obvious that this is just part of the city's ongoing effort to remove gun shops from the city. Just three years ago the city passed new ordinances making it difficult if not impossible for new gun shops to open up in the city.
Many in the Charlotte area where Jerry's is located have acknowledged what a good neighbor Jerry has been. Jerry's property is immaculate and easily one of the best kept properties in the Charlotte neighborhood. Many of Jerry's customers are people from the law enforcement community and even some who hold public office in Monroe County. This action by Mayor Johnson is contemptible. While vacant lots and boarded up houses, many of them storefronts for the drug trade, continue to multiply Mayor Johnson's answer is to drive law-abiding tax paying businesses out of the city of Rochester.
The City of Rochester's actions are precedent setting. If the mayor of Rochester is successful it opens the door for municipalities everywhere to proceed with similar actions, which ultimately restrict our Second Amendment rights and freedoms. Please call, write, email or fax the mayor today and urge him to focus on the City of Rochester's real problems and not law abiding productive and taxpaying community businesses like Jerry's Guns and Ammo.
You can reach Mayor William A. Johnson at:
City of Rochester
City Hall
30 Church St.
Rochester, NY 14614
Phone (716) 428-7045
Fax (716) 428-6059
Email, crmayor@www.rochester.lib.ny.us
NYS Assembly passes mandatory gun storage and ban
on semiautomatic firearms
Albany - Monday, (5-5-99) the New York State Assembly
passed A.6899-A, the "Safe School Act." The vote was 113 yeas, 33 nays.
This bill in it's original form was not an anti-gun bill. It contained some very
good provisions dealing with school violence, nothing having to do with gun control.
However, Assembly Democrats lead by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver amended the
proposal to include a semi auto ban and mandatory storage of firearms.
A. 6899-A was amended to include A.1407-A the mandatory storage bill, and A.7668
the semi-automatic ban. (SCOPE recently emailed you alerts on both these bills.)
The Democrats amended the bill in an attempt to get weak-kneed pro-gun legislators
to support the bill. Unfortunately they were very successful.
Thirty-two Assembly representatives who in the past have passed themselves off
as friends of the Second Amendment sold it and you down the river last night.
This must stop! However, it won't stop until gun owners take action. Quite frankly,
many gun owners are as much a part of the problem as the 32 assembly reps who
abandon us yesterday.
The reason those Assembly reps abandoned us yesterday was because they know that
gun owners will not hold them accountable. THIS MUST CHANGE!
Please forgive my bluntness. I know that most of you on our Email alert list are
not the problem. You're the activist who are doing something. Unfortunately, the
overwhelming majority of gun owners do nothing. They're not members of SCOPE,
the NRA or any pro-gun organization and they have a 101 reasons why they're not.
I won't bore you with all their excuses here because I know you've heard them
all before. Bottom line, there is no excuse for standing on the sidelines while
our gun rights are stripped away.
These gun owners are as much a part of the problem as Chuck Schumer and Bill Clinton.
By doing nothing, these do nothing gun owners serve the anti-gun agenda better
then Sarah Brady. If we don't find a way to turn this thing around we're in trouble.
With that said here is the list of Assembly reps who voted for a ban on semi-automatic
firearms and legislation giving government the authority to tell you how you will
store your firearms in your home:
Patricia Acampora, Thomas Alfano, Thomas
Barraga, Philip Boyle, Pat Casale, Robert D'Andrea, James Darcy Jay Dinga, John
Faso, John Flanagan, Alexander Gromack, James Hayes, Marc Herbst, Steven Labriola,
Elizabeth Little, Debra Mazzarelli, Kathleen Murray, Maureen O'Connell, Robert
Prentiss, Joseph Robach, Anthony Seminerio, Michael Spano, Willis Stephens, Jr.,
Robert Straniere, Robert Sweeney, James Tedisco, Fred Thiele, Ronald Tocci, Paul
Tokasz, Paul Tonko, David Townsend, Robert Wertz
(Please note, all of the above Assembly members with
the exception of Mazzarelli, Stephens, Sweeney, Thiele and Tonko were elected
with the support of the Conservative Party. Contact the Conservative Party and
voice your concern.)
The following Assembly reps had the courage to do
what was right and voted against A. 6899-A. These legislators deserve your support:
James Bacalles, Michael Bragman, Harold
Brown, Daniel Burling, Marc Butler, Nancy Calhoun, James Conte, Clifford Crouch,
Robert Daly, Craig Doran, Daniel Fessenden, Jacob Gunther III, Brian Higgins,
Jerry Johnson ,Thomas Kirwan, William Magee, Patrick Manning, Joel Miller, Howard
Mills, Charles Nesbitt, H. Robert Nortz, Robert Oaks, William Parment, Robin Schimminger,
Dierde Scozzafava, David Seaman, Richard Smith, Ms. Frances Sullivan, Eric Vitaliano,
Robert Warner, George Winner Jr., Sandra Lee Wirth, Catherine Young
All the Assembly members
saw this!
Below is SCOPE's memorandum in opposition which was
sent to all.
A.7668 Memo in Opposition.doc
What kind of people are pushing
unconstitutional garbage into law?
The source we obtained this from thinks it's funny
- we don't!
Can you imagine working at the following Company? It has a little over 500 employees with the following statistics:
Can you guess which organization this is? Give up? It's the 535 members of your United States Congress. The same group that perpetually cranks out hundreds upon hundreds of new laws designed to keep the rest of us in line...
Source: The Smokers Club (via NetDummy Humor) 6/20/2000
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