Minuteman Monthly Issue 15 (October 2001) Thank you for reading the 15th issue of the Minuteman Monthly. The Minuteman Monthly is the monthly newsletter for www.savetheguns.com ************************************** Savetheguns.com Gun Safety Tip of the Month NEVER climb a tree or fence or jump a ditch with a loaded gun. Always unload your firearm before climbing a tree. It is possible for heavy brush or dense foliage to "click-off" a safety device and pull the trigger. I know, it happened to my brother-in-law while hunting in my early twenties and I could have been hurt if he was not pointing the shotgun in a safe direction at the time. ************************************** Savetheguns.com Quote of the Month "They will be exposed, and they will discover what others in the past have learned: Those who make war against the United States have chosen their own destruction." President George W. Bush 9/15/01 ************************************** How You Can Help Please tell your buddies at the gun club about www.savetheguns.com. If your gun club has a monthly or quarterly newsletter, ask them to contact me for an interview. I would be happy to do an interview for a gun club newsletter. Tell them to e-mail me at president@savetheguns.com. Also let your gun club officers know that I make pin-on buttons and will custom design the club logo onto pin-on buttons for your club for free. The button price is negotiable. If your gun club has a Web site, please ask them to carry a link to www.savetheguns.com I will also make custom patriotic pin-on buttons for $1.00 each, with no design charge!!! custom_buttons@savetheguns.com ************************************** The BATF publishes a Web page that contains a synopsis of State Gun Laws. It is the duty of each gun owner to be familiar with these. Please visit this page and consider printing out your State's gun laws. www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/statelaws/22edition.htm (Make sure you put the whole address into your browser.) ************************************** The October Issue Issue 15 of the Minuteman Monthly will focus on the terrorist activities in New York, Washington D.C. and the fourth plane that went down in Pennsylvania. Tens of millions of people have been affected by what occurred on Tuesday September 11th. Almost everyone knows someone who was affected. I personally know of seven (7) people myself. Our past complacency in airport security left us very vulnerable. I flew on a commercial airliner cross country just ten days before the cowardly attacks on America. Security was indeed inadequate. However, I never want to see our basic freedoms restricted and diminished because of the actions of a bunch of disgusting despicable slugs from the middle east. We must keep a watchful eye on upcoming legislation that might infringe upon our liberties. If we allow our liberties to suffer, the terrorists would have accomplished a much larger goal than just inflicting death and destruction. If we sit back and allow national i.d. cards or restrictions on interstate travel, the sacrifices of our forefathers would be in vain. As George W. Bush said, "...freedom will be defended." A recent poll really disturbed me. It concluded that up to 66% of United States Citizens would allow further restrictions on civil rights in order to feel more safe. THAT'S WRONG. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 ----------------------------------- If we are going to be willing to allow our freedoms under the Second Amendment to the United States constitution be suspended on commercial flights, then we must insist on armed U.S. Marshals on each flight or at the very least allow pilots and co-pilots to have a firearm under their control in the cockpit if they so choose. A firearm under the control of each of the four (4) pilots/co-pilots very well could have saved nearly seven thousand (7000) lives. Laws concerning interstate travel with firearms must become relaxed and uniform. I think it is totally ridiculous that I can't lawfully travel to a neighboring state with a handgun as a law-abiding American Citizen. However, a state on the other side of the country recognizes my permit, but I can't legally get there with it. Now how ridiculous is that? We already trust our commercial airline pilots with our lives every day of the year. Many of them are military veterans. Many also are law abiding gun owners. Pilots and co-pilots are fully aware of the danger of cabin decompression during flight in the event of an errant bullet piercing the fuselage. However, the distances involved in firing a handgun at a highjacker would probably be just outside of arm's length. A miss at that distance by a properly trained gun owner would be unlikely at best. Furthermore, the plane will not disintegrate if a bullet pierces the fuselage, that only happened in a James Bond 007 movie and some people have accepted it as fact. Reasonable cabin pressurization can be maintained even with a few windows gone. Not to mention the fact that there are highly frangible bullets out there such as the Glaser Safety Slug which may be a safer choice for air travel as they may not penetrate the fuselage completely. Armed Air Marshals are indeed something that should be considered, but with more than 35,000 daily flights, the cost could be enormous. Allowing pilots to carry a personal firearm coupled with much more stringent and possibly federally controlled airport security is a much better and more sound solution. There is a bill in the House of Representatives that would allow pilots to carry firearms if they so choose. Please tell your Congressmen to support H.R. 2896 and its United States Senate version S. 1463, they must be considered as viable solutions. Please tell your House Reps and Senators that you would like to see commercial airline pilots be able to defend the cockpit with a firearm. Some people believe that it is too dangerous for a pilot to have a gun in the cockpit. Those people obviously don't know firearms. Handling and firing a revolver is a whole lot less complex than flying a commercial airliner. Of course it is clearly evident that a pilot would not fire a handgun in the plane unless every life in the plane was in jeopardy. President Bush seems to be a bit cool to the notion of allowing our pilots to arm themselves. Why not send him a kind reminder about the Second Amendment and why you think arming pilots might be a good idea. president@whitehouse.gov Recently, it was announced that if a highjacked airliner diverts from its course, refuses to change course and endangers populated areas, it may be shot down by the U.S. Military. Now wait a minute...they don't currently allow a pilot to defend the passengers of an airliner, but they can fire air to air missiles at them and take the plane down??? Really makes you want to fly again, doesn't it? ************************************ Some of the blame for what happened rests on the shoulders of those who have been supported gun control measures for our own citizens. Gun control laws prevented passengers and pilots on September 11th from exercising their basic human rights of self-defense. The United States government always criticizes other countries when they violate basic human rights, while denying the right of self-defense to Americans as soon as they board an aircraft. We must do a much better job at communication in government between departments and we should really consider arming pilots and bringing back armed Air Marshals. The cockpit of a commercial airliner also should not be as accessible to the passengers as it has been. ************************************ Our Freedom Our freedom is worth dying for. We cannot allow our liberty to be diminished. We must do a much better with security measures at airports, however, our civil liberties embodied in the Bill of Rights must not be encroached upon. We are hated and targeted as Americans because of our freedom, our way of life and our affluence. We cannot allow these freedoms to be infringed upon by leftist forces within our own government or terrorist forces from the Middle East. Stay Informed-----Stay Vigilant-----Stay United ************************************ Please spread this newsletter around. It should be posted every month in your local gun club, supermarket, department store and anywhere else you can think of. Thank you for registering as a Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Recipient. ________________________ If you don't want this newsletter anymore, just send me an E-mail with "Unsubscribe MMM" in the subject line to: info@savetheguns.com Thanks, Marc Owner/Founder www.savetheguns.com