Letter to LA Times Re:

Letter to LA Times Re: Assault Weapons Series

Once again, the hidden agenda behind the latest gun-control fad becomes obvious.

On page A-10 of the August 25, 1997 issue of the Times, we're shown a color photo of a victim of "an assault weapon attack": the wounded white skin of Mr. Kent Wingerd. On page A-11, facing, three times larger and also in full color, we are shown "California resident Julian Campbell" holding "a Ruger Mini 14, one of two weapons he bought at a Las Vegas gun show. The other was a Colt-Ar-15." Mr. Campbell is black, muscular, wearing a reversed cap and sunglasses.

Charlton Heston, in a recent TV interview, revealed that Schindler's List director, Steven Spielberg, owns a collection of "assault weapons." The Times can't honestly argue that it expects its readership to feel equally threatened by Mr. Spielberg's possession of firearms, and Mr. Campbell's possession of them. The Times has played the same race card played by the white establishment through U.S. history, from the laws passed by whites in the postbellum South to disarm freed slaves who were then terrorized by the Ku Kux Klan, to New York's Sullivan law designed to disarm immigrants, to the California legislature which passed the law forbidding carrying of loaded firearms after the Black Panthers lobbied them while armed.

The Times repeatedly asks why anyone needs an "assault weapon." The semi-auto civic-defense arms which the Los Angeles Times slanders as "assault weapons" are designed for home and business defense during extended periods of disorder, such as would follow a major earthquake. When Hurricane Andrew wiped out telephone service to large portions of Florida for three months, semi-auto firearms of the type the Times wishes to ban were the only line gainst roving bands of looters. And yes. It was semi-auto firearms which homeowners and businesses used to defend themselves against roving bands of looters during the Los Angeles riots, a few years ago.

I'm white, but I do not fear armed blacks, Asians, and Hispanics, because only a fool could believe that a person's race or ethic origin makes them incapable of the reasoned use of deadly force when necessary to protect their lives and livelihoods.

Unless the Times readers are equally afraid of Steven Spielberg's guns, and Julian Campbell's, I implore them to ignore the Times factual distortions, emotional propaganda, and one- sided reportage, and urge their state legislators to focus their attention on fighting crime rather than eliminating the public's means of civic defense.

J. Neil Schulman, author
Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns
Self Control Not Gun Control

10736 Jefferson Boulevard, No. 775
Culver City, CA 90230-4969
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Internet: jneil@pulpless.com
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