SaveTheGuns.com Members and Minuteman Monthly Subscribers, This is the 31st Issue of the Minuteman Monthly. On it, I do my best to tell the truth about issues that involve firearms, gun safety and the non-existent benefits of laws that regulate gun ownership. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your gun club, or print it and post it on your gun club's clubhouse bulletin board. Give it to a friend or family member too! http://www.SaveTheGuns.com has had more than 846,890 hits since I started the site back in the year 2000. SaveTheGuns.com is closing in fast on a million hits. There has been over 13,000 visitations to my gun safety page for kids. I want to thank you all for your helpful tips on how I can improve my "For Kids Only" page and get more children to visit. I am answering at least a few questions a week from children all over the world. http://www.SaveTheGuns.com/for_kids_only.htm Oh, yes, and this is all due to SaveTheGuns.com Members and those of you who have mailed me generous contributions. I have exhausted all the money I have personally set aside to operate SaveTheGuns.com and I am now running everything from your generous contributions. Without the giving spirit of lawful gun owners like you guys, SaveTheGuns.com would have been pulled off the Internet last Summer. Together we are telling the truth about guns and gun owners. Together we are making a difference in the minds of legislators and the media. Together we are helping to save lives with the largest and most comprehensive gun safety page that currently exists in the world. http://www.SaveTheGuns.com/safety_rules.htm ############################################# ############################################# February's Quotes of the Month "Charlton Heston announced again today that he is suffering from Alzheimer's." Actor George Clooney [When asked if his classless and thoughtless joke went too far, he said "I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle Association; he deserves whatever anyone says about him."] "Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event." Samuel Adams speech, 1771 "The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops..." Noah Webster, An Examination of The Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia 1787 "One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them." Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796 "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." Noah Webster 1758-1843 ############################################# ############################################# February's Gun Safety Tip of the Month This month's gun safety tip involves some tips concerning reloading centerfire ammunition. Tens of millions of gun owners all over the world reload their own ammunition. They purchase their cases, gunpowder, bullets and primers in bulk and prepare their own ammunition. This can be rewarding and very economical. I have reloaded my own ammunition and have found it enjoyable, but I also know how many precautions are in order. Always follow accepted, published and well known ammunition tables when reloading your own ammunition. There are over 100 kinds of gunpowder, 12 sizes of primers and many different bullet weights for each caliber. Some incorrect combinations, could very well end your shooting career or even your life, not to mention your expensive firearms. A cartridge which has: the wrong powder, no powder charge, or too large a powder charge; an inverted primer, mis-seated primer, the wrong type of primer or an inert primer; a mis-seated, inverted, or mis-sized bullet; a collapsed, weakened, improperly sized or mis-crimped case; incorrect overall length or any of a host of other defects may seriously jeopardize your safety, the safety of those around you, and/or the reliability of your firearm in a defensive situation. I might mention that if you reload your own ammunition and use it to defend yourself or your family and you get charged by the District Attorney's office, the Assistant District Attorney who may be prosecuting you, could attempt to portray you in a bad light. They may say that you purposefully loaded especially powerful ammunition. Many police officers have told me that it is not a good idea to reload ammunition for self defense. ############################################# ############################################# You can help me out by clicking on one of the following links and buy something, or sign up for PayPal. http://www.qksrv.net/click-1101834-19357 (NBAF Magazine Subscriptions) http://www.qksrv.net/click-1101834-1161489 (CheaperThanDirt.com Affiliate Link) http://www.vstore.com/vstorereading/savetheguns (SaveTheGuns Bookshop Address) https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=markel@tmlp.com (PayPal Sign Up Link) ############################################# ############################################# Minuteman Monthly Issue 31 MAIN FOCUS A recipe for a divide and conquer strategy, to bring widespread support of gun control to a screeching halt is my focus this month. A sound strategy to divide and conquer the gun control world, is not as difficult and complex as it might seem. You see, the vast majority of citizens who say they generally support stringent gun control laws, are really decent human beings, who really don't know what the truth is about how felons get their firearms. Generally, those who support strict gun control, do so out of a concern to help bring down the rates of violent crime, especially where firearms are used. A very slim minority of those who support gun control want to eliminate private firearm ownership across the board. What we should focus on is dividing those who want to eliminate private gun ownership, from those who want to do something about violent crime where guns are used. I believe we can accomplish this feat quite easily, by getting out the truth about where felons obtain their firearms and the fact that only retail sales of firearms are affected by gun control laws. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is painfully obvious, clear and evident that violent felons never concern themselves with obeying gun control laws. Gun control laws will be followed and obeyed when guns are purchased only at the retail level. We have all done it. We have all filed the federal BATF form 4473 and of course we have all tried to obey the restrictions, paperwork and permits that are required at the state level. But felons who are prone to violence, seldom purchase their guns at the retail level, thereby circumventing all required paperwork and restrictions. The gun control advocate who merely wants to do something about violent crime where guns are used might say, "...then where do they get them?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Truth About Felons 85% of all violent crime is committed by a very small segment of the criminal population. A mere 7% of the criminal population commit 85% of all violent crime. Where do they get their guns if they don't buy them at retail? According to newly released studies by the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics report entitled, "Firearms Use by Offenders", the overwhelming majority of firearms used to commit crime, come from friends, family members or illegal sources. Over 18,000 inmate cases were studied in this report and it was the largest undertaking of its kind by the federal government. Inmates serving time in state prisons obtained the guns they used through the following sources: Friends or family, 39.6 percent. On the street/illegal source, 39.2 percent. A retail store, 8.3 percent. A pawnshop, 3.8 percent. A flea market, 1.0 percent. At a gun show, 0.7 percent. Undetermined source (probably illegal) 7.4% (As you can plainly see, the concerted effort by nationally recognized gun control groups to ban gun shows are much more concerned about eliminating private gun sales between individuals than concerned about felons obtaining firearms. Less than 1% of convicted criminals got their guns from gun shows.) I can just see the support for banning gun shows melting away. (As long as the public hears the truth, so please forward this newsletter out to your family, friends and gun club membership rosters.) ############################################# ############################################# In Conclusion 86.2% of firearms used by convicts spending time in prison came from undetermined sources, friends, family or illegal sources. The remaining sources of firearms used in crime total 13.8%. This 13.8% includes gun shops, gun stores, sporting goods outlets, department stores, all retail outlets, pawnshops, flea markets and gun shows. Gun control laws only apply to 13.8% of the sources of guns used by convicts, of these, many criminals used false identification and fabricated lies on the federal form 4473. If this message gets out to all of America, the support for strict control of gun sales at the retail level will evaporate very quickly. 86.2% of firearms used to commit crime were obtained outside of the reach of laws that regulate the possession, usage and transportation of firearms. That is precisely why gun control laws have not worked to eliminate violent crime where guns are used. Lawful gun owners are paying the heavy price of restricted freedom, because our nation's legislators and congressmen are passing laws that affect only retail sales of firearms, while 86.2% of convicted criminals obtain their guns elsewhere. Can't you just see widespread support for strict gun control laws evaporating? Please spread the word. ############################################# ############################################# Final Thought How can we curtail the number of firearms getting into the hands of violent felons? A quite simple three-prong assault will suffice nicely... 1.) Add penalties to a violent crime of 5, 10, 15 and 20 years if a gun is present, brandished, fired or used to injure, respectively during the commission of a violent crime. (who cares about the resulting prison overcrowding? Not me. Maybe the ACLU.) 2.) Add severe penalties to an individual who knowingly provides a firearm to a known convict. Be them a friend, acquaintance, family member, neighbor or drug dealer. 3.) Require retailers of firearms to confirm at least two (2) accepted methods of identification in order the thwart the criminal's attempts at falsifying documents at the time of sale. As usual, feel free to send this newsletter out to anyone or use the Minuteman Monthly for your pro-gun efforts, as long as you mention my Web site name somewhere. http://www.SaveTheGuns.com Thank you for registering as a Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Recipient. If you don't want this newsletter or the legislative alerts anymore, just send me an e-mail with "Unsubscribe MMM" in the subject line to: info@savetheguns.com