From: msmith01@flash.net
Subject: SNET: AOL's anti-gun policy
Date: 25 Aug 2000 14:19:34 -0400
To: Mark 

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Secret Web Behind AOL's Anti-Gun Policy (REVOLT-DO NOT SUSBSCRIBE TO
AOL)
by Bob Lesmeister
Published in The New Gun Week, Aug. 20, 2000
Used by Permission
Visit Gun Week online at http://www.gunweek.com

"Hello, this is Jonathan. May I help you?"
"Can I speak to someone about America Online's policy of not allowing
individuals to buy or sell guns and ammunition through its web site?"
"That's our policy."
"So, you equate guns and ammo with explicit sexual material and
illegal narcotics?"
"Yes."
"But guns and ammo are legal to sell. There's no law against them."
"The problem is we don't know who's selling and who's buying. It
could be anybody. We wouldn't know if they were dealers or not."
"So, you will allow dealers to sell to other dealers?"
"No, we don't allow that."
"Who can I speak to about this matter?"
"There is no one."
"Well, who came up with this policy?"
"That would probably be our legal department."
"Let me talk to them."
"You can't. They only talk to other lawyers."
"You mean I can't talk to them?"
"I can switch you to the operator and you can see what happens."
"You mean she can connect me with the legal department?"
"No, you'll get a voice mail where you can leave a message."
"Who's in charge of this area of AOL?"
"Keith Jenkins."
"May I speak to him?"
"No, I answer his calls."
"Is there any way I can talk to him? Do you have a number for him?"
"He has a direct line, but you can't use it."
"Why?"
"Because you have to talk to me."
"So, there's no way I can talk to him at all?"
"No."
"What about Gateway and Compuserve? As AOL partners, do they have the
same policy of not allowing guns and ammo for sale on their sites?"
"Yes, they all follow AOL."
"They can't independently decide for themselves what they can and
can't offer on their sites as far as guns and ammo go?"
"No."
"Can I speak to Mr. Jenkins?"
"No!"

No, this is not an Abbott & Costello routine. The above conversation
was the result of an attempt to get a clarification from America
Online concerning their policy of not allowing anyone to buy or sell
firearms and ammunition on their site and the sites they own. If you
advertise firearms or ammunition on a site served by AOL, you will
eventually get a message from the company that states you are
violating AOL's community standards. Unfortunately, AOL classifies
firearms and ammo in the same category as pornography, hate speech,
illegal drugs, and unlawful activities.

The same is true for AOL-owned Compuserve and service partner
Gateway.net. None of them, however, make that clear when you log onto
their homepage or sign up to use them as your Internet Service
Provider (ISP). If you look hard enough and dig through all of the
do's and don't's, you will find that only Gateway.net actually lists
firearms and ammunition as prohibited products. AOL and Compuserve
send out nasty e-mails when they find someone buying or selling
firearms through their sites. And if you don't cease and desist, they
cut you off-permanently.

Curiously enough, there is never a mention of liability from any of
the above-mentioned ISPs. One would think that would be the driving
force behind the ban on firearms and ammo sales, but evidently that
is not the case. To get a definitive answer from AOL and its
subsidiaries is nearly impossible. No one from AOL will answer any
questions on why they won't allow the legal advertisements of
firearms and ammunition. This mysterious wall of silence, or
obstinance, is frustrating to firearms owners and firearms industry
people alike. But the mystery clears once you look at several factors
that have shaped AOL's anti-rights stand.

About a year ago, AOL made a big deal about its alliance with CBS. An
AOL/CBS joint announcement proclaimed, "CBS News will be guaranteed a
major and ongoing presence throughout AOL . . . America Online has
also committed to showcase the talents of CBS News corespondents,
producers and editors."

CBS pledged to hype AOL on its news programs such as "48 Hours"
and "60 Minutes." These programs have been notorious over the years
for demonizing honest gunowners and the firearms industry. It didn't
take long for that prejudice to work its way into AOL's policies.

Now, the big news is the Time-Warner/AOL merger. Let's not forget
that CNN is part of Time-Warner and Ted Turner is one of the most
fanatical of Clinton supporters. He also hands over large bucks to
the Democratic National Committee to pursue their anti-rights agenda.

With over 22 million users on AOL, what kind of damage can the anti-
rights corporations like CBS and CNN do? Lots. Both CBS and CNN are
not above fabricating stories, or breaking the law for that matter.
Remember the infamous "48 Hours" segment when the network hired a
goober to illegally convert an AK-47 from semi- to full-auto? Robert
W. Pittman, president and chief operating officer of American Online,
was once the CEO of Century 21, one of the sponsors of that
notorious "48 Hours" program.

'Free Flow'

The Internet is the only medium left that really allows the free flow
of expression and goods, not only nationally, but worldwide. With a
powerful monopoly such as AOL, that free flow of ideas becomes so
much narrower and eventually it could collapse into "information"
that only AOL thinks you should have. AOL claims it supports a free
market, yet it has been buying out its competition, while crying to
the government to intervene to keep its competitors from threatening
the company's profits. It is now threatening to sue to keep its
exclusionary power over its messaging software. Microsoft and Yahoo
have been attempting to allow its members to "message" their friends
on AOL, but AOL is blocking this free flow of information. One can't
really expect a fair deal from AOL on the subject of firearms when
you consider the hypocrisy. As it was cheering the government's
assault on Microsoft for squashing its competition, AOL was busy
completing its acquisition of Compuserve, its chief rival in the ISP
arena. It then acquired Netscape, Microsoft's major competitor in the
land of browsers.

Firearms and ammunition sales and advertisements, AOL claims, doesn't
meet their community standards. The company claims to preserve a
safe "net" and the privacy of subscribers. That's publicly, of
course. Privately, the company lobbies otherwise. With 22 million
subscribers, AOL collects an enormous amount of information on
individuals, which is one of the reasons it has joined the financial
industry in its attempts to erode consumer privacy.Last year,
Congress passed the Financial Services Modernization Act. This allows
banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies to share personal
records of consumers without first obtaining their permission. A
provision in the law, however, stipulated that if a state law
provided more stringent privacy protection, it would supercede the
federal law. Here's where AOL shows its true colors. Sheila Kuehl, an
assemblywoman in California, introduced legislation to provide much
more privacy protection than the federal law allowed. AOL and its
newly acquired subsidiary, Netscape, lobbied against it. They don't
want consumers to be able to give their consent before their private
financial information is bandied about between AOL entities.

In a section they call Online Democracy, AOL has partnered with the
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in a campaign they
call BeAVoter.org. This is supposed to be a nonpartisan campaign to
get people to register to vote, but AARP is well-known to pro-rights
lovers as anti-firearms as any "nonpartisan" organization can get.
Also, in its Online Democracy compartment, AOL has something they
call Government Guide. According to AOL, "Government Guide archives
and indexes data from thousands of government web sites into one
practical portal, organizing content by category and making it
searchable based on consumer needs."

Pretty scary, huh? They gather the information, sort it, organize it,
categorize it and then feed it to you through "one practical portal."
Instead of searching through the world wide web as a free bird, you
are coerced by AOL into using their "one portal" to get what they
want to give you.

'PACT'

Another program AOL pushes in its Online Democracy section is PACT
(Parents And Children Together), To Stop Violence. AOL encourages
adults, teens and children to sign non-violence pledges and these
pledges can be printed out in certificate form. Since we've already
determined that AOL equates the sale of guns and ammo with violence
and hate, PACT becomes a program to further poison the minds of
children and adults against the wholesome sport of recreational
shooting and hunting. AOL also co-chairs GetNetWise, an industry-wide
resource that features online tools, including software, to filter
explicit and violent content. Here again, since AOL rates firearms
and ammo in the same category as explicit sexual graphics and
violence, GetNetWise is perfect for filtering out pro-rights issues
and products.

AOL's programs, policies and operating ethics are probably best
explained by learning something of the people behind the AOL logo.
This may enlighten as to why AOL wants all of its subscribers to use
its "one portal" to get their information and exchange ideas, so long
as they adhere to AOL's community standards. Those standards may not
even include the beliefs expressed in our Bill of Rights. According
to Time-Warner chief executive Gerald Levin, it may be time for media
corporations to take over the responsibilities of government!

Levin warns against American cultural imperialism because there's
no "countervailing force," and he sees this as a "significant
problem." Levin has a very eerie vision for the future of the
Internet."We're going to need to have these corporations redefined as
instruments of public service because they have the resources, they
have the reach, they have the skill base, and maybe there's a new
generation coming up that wants to achieve meaning in that context
and have an impact, and that may be a more efficient way to deal with
society's problems than governments," Levin said on CNN in January.

In a cyber letter sent to AOL subscribers recently, AOL's chief
executive, Steve Case, claimed, "The next century will be defined by
the integration of the Internet into people's lives, into society and
into our global economy."

Anti-Gun Links

What about the other principal players at AOL? How may they be
directing AOL's policies concerning firearms and ammunition?
- Robert Pittman, president & COO, created MTV and served as a
director for MTV Networks. Note that MTV has always had an anti-
firearms bias and is now promoting their own anti-firearms agenda
masquerading as an anti-violence program.
- Jonathan Sacks, senior vice president and general manager, AOL
Service, founded VirtualCity magazine, a joint venture with Newsweek
(long known for its anti-firearms slant). He also served as a
reporter for the Miami Herald and associate business editor for the
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, both virulent anti-firearms newspapers.
- Marshall Cohen, senior vice president, Brand Development; prior to
joining AOL, he was president of his own media research and
consulting company whose clients included such anti-gun organizations
as Disney, ABC cable networks, CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS. He also spent
12 years at MTV Networks.

- George Vradenburg III, senior vice president, Global & Strategic
Policy, previously served as senior vice president and general
counsel of CBS Inc.

- Kathy Bushkin, senior vice president and chief communications
officer, from 1976 through 1984 served as Sen. Gary Hart's (D-CO)
press secretary. In 1984, she served on the senator's presidential
campaign. Hart has always pursued the anti-firearms agenda and some
of it may have rubbed off on Bushkin.

- Mayo S. Stuntz Jr., COO, Interactive Services Group, previously
served as senior vice president, business management and development
of MTV Networks. Also served as director, operational planning for
NBC.

- Janice Brandt, president, Marketing, has been involved in campaigns
for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Greenpeace,
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MD), Sen. John Glenn (D-OH), Rep. Ron Dellums (D-
CA) and the California Democratic Party. We all know of Glenn's and
Kennedy's anti-rights stands, but consider the other groups Brandt
has supported. Greenpeace is a sworn enemy of firearms owners and
hunters, and its members will gladly break the law to press their
agenda.

PETA was born out of the writings of Peter Singer, the founder of the
animal rights movement. Singer advocates infanticide for babies born
with imperfections. He believes that medically defenseless people
should be killed if it will enhance the lives of their families and
society as a whole. He also peddles the piddle that a person's life
is no more important than that of a rat or a rattlesnake. He's also
the guy who helped form The Great Ape Project, which is attempting to
extend personhood and legal rights to the great apes.

Dellums addressed the opening session of the World Peace Council's
World Conference on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The WPC has been
classified by the FBI as the former Soviet Union's largest and most
active propaganda front organization. He also demanded Nuremburg-type
war crime trials for US soldiers.

In 1980, Dellums addressed a Berkeley symposium declaring, "We should
totally dismantle every intelligence agency in this country piece by
piece, brick by brick, nail by nail." In 1982, he voted against
legislation that would make it a felony to publicly expose the
identities of US intelligence officers, agents and sources, the
result of which, would have been the death warrant for all of them.
In 1983, Dellums called the liberation of Grenada "nothing less than
a crime against humanity, planned and executed by people who deserve
to be condemned as war criminals."

During the liberation of Grenada from Marxist dictator Maurice
Bishop, US forces came across a letter sent to Bishop written by
Dellums' aide Carlottia Scott. In part the letter stated, ". . .
(Dellums) is really hooked on you and Grenada and doesn't want
anything to happen to building the Revolution and making it strong.
He really admires you as a person and even more so as a leader. . .
That only other person I know of that he expresses such admiration
for is Fidel." Dellums is dedicated to the abolishment of privately
owned firearms.

Once you strip away AOL's corporate double talk and bright shine,
they try to put on their reasons for controlling the Internet the way
they do, and you see a different story. Revealed are the corporate
partners with lifelong anti-firearms agendas and company officials
with backgrounds seeded in gun control.

So far, there is no evidence that AOL has restricted or interfered
with the exchange of gun-related political communications. Anyone
concerned about AOL can switch to another ISPs, many of them free.
=======================================================================
HAY! AOL, WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST AMENDMENT? PLEASE SWITCH ISP! LIVE FREE!
=======================================================================
Dan Miller

Only a Free People Have Guns
An Armed Society is a Polite Society
A firearm kept in the home is at least 167 times more likely to deter
criminal attack than to harm a person in the home.

Ohioans, support your 2nd amendment rights by visiting Ohioans For
Concealed Carry at or www.ohioCCW.org

The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and
security - Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4


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