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    FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
    EDITORS: THIS IS 800-WORD VERSION -- A LONGER VERSION ALSO MOVES.
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED FEB. 15, 1999
    THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
    Between the Moon and New York City
    Brooklyn jury sodomizes Second Amendment


    New York is the city where Bernard Goetz -- though acquitted on grounds
of self-defense for actually shooting the muggers who used a sharpened
screwdriver to solicit his cash on a city subway -- was nonetheless
punished by authorities for "carrying a concealed weapon without a permit,"
on the absurd presumption that the average law-abiding New Yorker could
actually (start ital)receive(end ital) such a permit, simply by applying.

  ("New York City gun laws are so strict that applicants must show a 'need
or special danger'," reports Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment
Foundation in his 1996 book "Politically Correct Guns." When the Wall
Street Journal won a court suit in 1981 requiring New York Police to
release the names of the chosen few who (start ital)had(end ital) been
granted pistol permits, the city revealed more than 9,000 (start
ital)non-police(end ital) city employees had been granted this privilege
which is withheld from the average New Yorker. It was subsequently revealed
permits had also been issued to such "celebrities" as Laurance Rockefeller,
Uri Geller, Bill Cosby, Donald Trump, Howard Stern, Joan Rivers, and
anti-gun New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger.)

  But now we reach an astounding new depth of slackjawed dementia, as word
arrives that a New York federal trial jury on Thursday awarded $500,000 in
damages to a 19-year-old man who survived a gunshot wound, ordering that
those damages be paid not by the "friend" who "accidentally" shot
19-year-old Steven Fox in the head after purchasing his firearm, but rather
against a group of 15 American handgun manufacturers, including Colt and
Beretta USA, on the fantastic legal theory that those manufacturers
knowingly sell "too many" handguns in Southern states, aware that some of
those firearms are later re-sold in areas where local authorities have
enacted unenforceable gun laws which drive up the black market price of
such goods.

  The legal repercussions should such a verdict withstand appeal -- the
likelihood of lawsuits against auto manufacturers for selling cars of which
they "know full well" some will be driven by drunks, the liability of
liquor distributors who sell six-packs which they "know full well" are
later re-sold out of car trunks to fraternity boys in dry counties --  are
mind-boggling.

  Surely we now approach the last stop on a dizzying downhill trolley-ride
to that particular circle of hell where everyone will be responsible for
evil acts (start ital)except(end ital) the criminals who actually
perpetrate them.

  In fact, the real agenda here was revealed by plaintiff attorney Elisa
Barnes, who in her closing argument declared "This huge pool [of handguns]
is like toxic waste."

  The notion that it is only "handguns" to which these folks object is a
bitter joke. Defying promises to never use the data for such a purpose, New
York authorities have already started used gun registration records to
begin seizing "previously legal" semi-automatic rifles far too large to
ever be considered "concealable weapons."

  What these twisted souls hate is the notion that individual American
victims of crime or oppression should retain (start ital)any(end ital)
power to defend themselves, rather than mewling piteously into the
telephone and then patiently waiting for our government masters to dispense
aid at their leisure.

  In vain do patriots attempt to remind such hand-picked juries that Thomas
Paine spoke for all Americans when he wrote in 1775: "Arms like laws
discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve
order in the world as well as property"; that Patrick Henry said during the
Virginia debates on ratification of the Constitution, "The great object is,
that every man be armed. ... Everyone who is able may have a gun"; that
Washington's friend George Mason agreed with Mr. Henry, reminding the
Virginia convention that the British authorities had found "to disarm the
people ... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them"; and that
Samuel Adams vowed Massachusetts would never ratify the Constitution unless
a Bill of Rights were added to make clear "that the said Constitution be
never construed to authorize Congress to ... prevent the people of the
United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their arms."

  Make no mistake, a battle has been joined. It was not merely 15 firearms
manufacturers that suffered a body blow in that Brooklyn courtroom last
week. It was what remains of our American liberties.

  At the very least, if New Yorkers consider their products "toxic waste,"
those 15 manufacturers should promptly refuse to sell any further firearms
or replacement parts to New York City residents ... starting with the city
police.


Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin@lvrj.com. The web
sites for the Suprynowicz column are at
http://www.infomagic.com/liberty/vinyard.htm, and
http://www.nguworld.com/vindex. The column is syndicated in the United
States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas
Nev. 89127.

***


Vin Suprynowicz,   vin@lvrj.com

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John
Hay, 1872

The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not
get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases
to discriminate between good and evil.  He becomes a slave in body and
soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt
against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943

* * *



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