Mar2001

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The Armed M is a publication of the 2nd Amendment SIG, a special interest group of American Mensa Ltd. Opinions expressed herein are the opinions of the writers, and not of American Mensa, Ltd., which has no opinions. This newsletter is linked to the Mensa web page WWW.Mensa.org as WWW.webcatt.com/2ndAmend_SIG

I have moved and am now in Wilmington North Carolina. My E-Mail address is Smith13@Worldnet.att.net. I can always use contributions to the newsletter. If you write something or find something e-mail it to me I'll put it in the newsletter as space and theme allows. Bob Smith

In the following article, you will discover that there is a shooting in certain neighborhoods of London about once a day. Of course it is not easy to get guns in England, the police say. It takes at least 1 or 2 days. Pretty good indication of the ability of gun control laws to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. None.

THE SCALE of gun violence between feuding black drug gangs in London has reached crisis levels with one shooting reported every other day.

Scotland Yard is now calling a summit of community leaders across London in an effort to combat gun crime.

This month alone, there have been at least 13 attempted murders and two killings between rival groups and individuals. In one 12-hour period earlier this week, there were five shootings, including one death.

Commander Mike Fuller, head of Operation Trident, the specialist squad set up to combat black gun crime, said: "There is no obvious reason for this increase.

"The sheer scale has shocked us. I think there would be uproar if the number of shootings that take place in black areas were to occur in certain other parts of London." He said he had called a crisis meeting of all prominent black community leaders in London to discuss possible new ways of tackling the problem.

"We are getting a lot of community support and a lot of information but we are looking for any constructive new ideas that we may have missed," he said.

In recent weeks officers from his 160-strong squad have seized three sub-machine guns and eight handguns in London, compared with four sub-machine guns in the whole of last year. Police are increasingly called to reports of shootings only to find bullet holes in cars or houses, spent cartridges and sometimes even blood.

The increase in shooting comes as Brent council launched a poster campaign featuring a young black man shot through the face with a handgun by his side. The pesters, which read "Young, gifted and dead" will appear in north London in an attempt to shock communities into action.

The Home Office-funded campaign is in stark contrast to the more "softly softly" Trident police approach to win respect in the black community.

Mr. Fuller said: "We believe in raising awareness and encouraging young people to pass on information but there are risks in using shock tactics.

"We discussed using tactics like this at our lay advisory group but we didn't go for it; The Met are keen not to heighten the fear of crime." Brent was chosen because it has more shootings than any other area of London. A Brent council spokesman said the poster was chosen by focus groups. He said: "Yes, it is horrible for children to see this but it is a lot more horrible that they could walk out of school and see this for real."

Mr. Fuller said police 'were particularly concerned at the rise in the' number of "assassination style" weapons in London.

"However, London is not flooded with guns. You can't just hire one on any street corner. In fact, it sometimes takes a couple of days, even if you know the right person to approach."

Supt Stuart Low of Brent Police said: "The poster is very graphic and it is a source of concern to us. We do not want to create alarm but the sad reality is that this sort of violence has been with us for some while. Our biggest problem is trying to unlock community intelligence. We have to find new ways of getting the community on board." Keith Johnson, whose brother Richard Parkinson was shot dead while working as a security guard at a black music venue in April 1999, said: "The poster is worth a try. It might get the message across but whether it will get the information across is another matter."

Two black men have died in shootings so far this year. Carlton Speid, 67, was found with gunshot wounds in a house fire in Brixton earlier this month. A man has been charged with his murder. Andrew Williams, 30, of Clapham, was shot outside Chicago's nightclub in Peckham at the weekend.

"Because less than twenty years ago I was the target of a terrorist group. It was the New World Liberation Front. They blew up power stations and put a bomb at my home when my husband was dying of cancer. And the bomb didn't detonate. ... I was very lucky. But, I thought of what might have happened. Later the same group shot out all the windows of my home" "And, I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I'd walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me."

"This is a munitions manufacturer owned by the State of Israel, and by advancing this export, the Israeli government is putting the official imprimatur of its people on the commercial sale of weapons designed not for hunting, but for combat; not to protect, but to kill. It is my hope that the Israeli government will lead the way and set an example that others will follow."

-U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat from California, letter to President Bill Clinton, September 17, 1997, regarding Israeli Military Industries

"Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us are totally disarmed."

"Our main agenda is to have ALL guns banned. We must use whatever means possible. It doesn't matter if you have to distort facts or even lie. Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed."

-Attributed to Sarah Brady, President of Handgun Control, Inc., to Senator Howard Metzenbaum - The National Educator, January 1994, Page 3.

The quote appears to be accurate to the extent that National Educator ran the quote. The nature and accuracy of their source is a matter of some debate. However, neither Brady nor Metzenbaum appear to have denied the statement or accused the National Educator of libel.

When the Free Congress Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) defended and supported the misnamed "Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA)" we at SCAN spoke out against their actions warning that the act allowed state and federal agencies -- as well as select private data banking entities such as Esperian and Equafax -- to have unfettered access to driver license information. We warned that the DPPA was nothing less than a well-devised Trojan Horse.

Three separate federal courts ruled that the law (DPPA) was unconstitutional. However, when a challenge to the DPPA was ultimately appealed to the US Supreme Court, EPIC -- a Washington-based pseudo-privacy organization that works mostly for more government enforcement of pro-government "privacy" laws -- urged the courts to uphold the DPPA.

We warned specifically that the DPPA allowed for driver license photos to eventually be systematically and routinely used in criminal investigations. We referred to the driver license photos as "digital mug shots". We now see below, in these two articles forwarded to us from Kevin Cross, that the DPPA digital driver license photo/digital mug shot criminal investigation systemis about to become a reality.

[The Pinellas Sheriff's Office gets $3.5-million for a new photo-matching program]. By Lisa Greene

LARGO -- Pinellas County sheriff's deputies plan to start looking at your picture every time they're looking for a criminal suspect. That's because the Sheriff's Office won a $3.5-million federal grant, signed Thursday by President Clinton, to match photos of crime suspects with databases of other photos, including Florida driver’s license pictures. Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice says the program will be a huge asset, but some criminal defense lawyers say it may infringe on citizens’ privacy rights.

"Just another Big Brother situation, if you ask me," said Denisde Vlaming, who thinks reviewing license photos would violate Florida’s Constitution. It specifically gives Floridians a right to privacy. Anthony Battaglia agreed.

"My picture's been up there for 10 years, and I think I have a right of privacy," Battaglia said. Battaglia's partner, Timothy Weber, noted that drivers already licensed didn't know their pictures could be used this way.

"The question is, what was the consent you gave at the time you gave your driver's license photo?" he said.

But the sheriff doesn't see a problem. "I don't see anything Big Brother about it," Rice said. "The innocent public out there doesn't have to worry because all it's going to do is point to a possibility or a probability."

Still, he is expecting controversy.” I’m sure, like everything else we do in our business, it'll be subject to a court challenge, but I just don't see a violation here at all,” Rice said. Rice compared the program, called face recognition technology, to DNA evidence and automated fingerprint matching. "It's just amazing how this will boost our investigative capabilities," Rice said.

The computer software would use a picture of a suspect, such as one taken by a surveillance camera at a bank or convenience store, or a police composite drawing. It would measure the suspect's face: the distance between the person's pupils, from eye to nose, and other features. Then it would review those measurements against photos in databases. In effect, the program could run every licensed Florida driver Through a photo lineup.

Pinellas would be the first police agency in Florida to use the technology, but it's already being used in a few other states, most often to prevent fraud rather than to catch criminals.

According to news reports, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department caught a mugger three years ago by comparing a composite sketch to mug shots in its database. But most of its mug shots aren't digitized so they can be read by a computer.

In Illinois and West Virginia, computers check driver's license applicants with existing license photos to make sure they don't have another identity. In Boston, welfare officials do the same thing to prevent double dippers. But in Michigan, state officials decided not to use the technology because of privacy concerns.

DeVlaming compared the plan to the controversy generated several years ago, when Florida sold the state's database of driver's license photos to a private company that planned to use them to help retail stores fight credit card fraud. The sale generated so much protest that Gov. Jeb Bush canceled the contract in early 1999.

But Bob Sanchez, spokesman for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said this program would be different because it would bemused only by law enforcement agencies. Rice said he hopes to have the system working sometime next year,” but that may be a little optimistic." The Sheriff's Office has few details about how the technology will operate. It is working with a computer company, Viisage Technology, and a consulting firm, the Lafayette Group. But officials still don't know what new computers or other equipment they will need. "There's still a lot of work to do, but it's a very exciting prospect," said office spokeswoman Marianne Pasha. "It's going to be custom-designed for our use."

The department plans to phase in the technology, Pasha said, first using a database of county jail booking photos, and then moving on to Florida driver's license records and other photo databases. Those could include other local jails' booking photos and federal arrest photos.

Records on the grant, which was included in legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, the Largo Republican who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, also say the Florida Highway Patrol will participate in the plan.

Sanchez said late Thursday that the patrol met last week to discuss the program, but that officials there haven't yet decided whether the program is feasible. Young and Pasha said the patrol already agreed to participate. In the past, Rice said, investigators have been frustrated by surveillance photos. Without other information, they have no way to compare them to the records they have unless they look at thousands of pictures. "This is right up there with DNA and automated fingerprints," Rice said. "It makes our job a lot more effective."

That's what scares deVlaming. He envisions innocent people being summoned to police lineups, where a witness could choose the wrong person. "You may resemble the individual who committed a crime," he said.” You get put in a six-picture lineup, and you have a one in six chance of being identified.” Weber questioned what would happen if the initial photo were blurry. "If it's sketchy, or fuzzy, or they got a bad angle, I would think the courts would be very, very skeptical of letting somebody be convicted solely on a comparison of two bad pictures," he said.

Young said the technology would make false accusations less likely. He said the computer's measurement of suspects' features would be a more exact tool than relying on the fuzzy memories of a witness. "This will actually protect the innocent, by more thoroughly identifying the culprit," he said. "This is the initial stage on a new technology to help law enforcement in their fight against crime."

Your driver's license photograph soon could be part of a criminal investigation.

A $3.5 million federal grant signed this week by President Clinton will allow Pinellas County deputies to match photographs of crime suspects with those in existing databases.

Facial recognition technology helps deputies focus on photos that most resemble suspects, without having to browse through thousands of photos.

Computer software evaluates a photo or composite drawing of a suspect, measuring facial features such as the distance from eyes to nose, or ears to eyes. Then it compares the findings with photos available in databases.

``It will give us some direction; ´´ said Marianne Pasha, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

``Detectives will still have to go out and put cases together, but the information developed by this technology will advance their case by narrowing the field of the investigation. ´´

Because the technology is new, it will be months before it is implemented. The department is having informative sessions with its mid-level command staff, briefing them on how their jobs will be affected. Pasha said the next step is to identify an in-house team, which will meet with software vendor Viisage Technology and with Lafayette Group, a law-enforcement consulting firm.

``This is going to take some time. We need to design it to meet our current needs or any needs that can come up in the future, ´´ Pashas aid.

The grant is the result of efforts by U.S. Rep. C.W. ``Bill´´ Young, R- Largo. Pasha said Young was aware of needs for investigative technology within the department, and he worked to make the money available.

The software will bolster the Pinellas sheriff's growing arsenal of high-tech investigative tools, including digital records and fingerprinting technologies.

Photos from the Pinellas County Jail's digital database will be the first to be incorporated into the new system. Driver's licenses and photos from other databases will be next, Pasha said. ``These photos will be available to other agencies as well, not just Pinellas, ´´ she said.

The program already is used on a small scale in some states, but the Pinellas sheriff's office will be the first agency in the state to take advantage of it.

Pasha said concerns that the software might invade privacy are welcome and expected.

``It’s extremely preliminary at this time, ´´ she said. ``That´s why were setting up a task force of representatives of each of the agencies that will be affected by this. ´´Natashia Gregoire can be reached at 727-799-7413.

Last week I told you about the experience I had when I renewed my vehicleregistration, so this week I thought I’d tell you about the experience I had last year when I renewed my driver’s license. It began the same way, with my discovery that my driver’s license had expired, with no reminder from the DMV. I called and found out where I needed to go. Upon arriving at the strip mall where the DMV office was supposed to be, I couldn't find it. I drove around looking for it for about ten minutes before discovering that it was inside a Kroger, with no sign on the outside. Only the government could remain in business after failing to inform its customers of its location.

I stood in line for well over an hour, but at least this time I got to wait inside. Could you imagine having to stand in line for an hour at Kroger or any other business? You would be outraged, and rightfully so. I recently witnessed this very thing when a Kroger customer asked a slow cashier, what’s the deal? But with government, long lines are par for the course, so there is nary a peep from subjects in a queue.

There was a TV in the waiting area that was tuned to the Montel Williams Show. During a commercial break, I was surprised and kind of horrified when I saw an ad for WIC, the federal welfare program. The government was using my tax dollars to advertise the financial equivalent of crack cocaine. Surely this is a signpost of a society headed for the abyss. I noted that the welfare bureaucrats had done a good job with their marketing research; they knew when their potential clients would be home and what they'd be doing and watching.

I soon learned that if I didn't want to be an organ donor, I'd have to pay an additional $8. This is the government's feeble attempt at alleviating the shortage of organs caused by its own laws that prohibit people from selling their organs. Well, if they weren't going to allow me to sell my own organs, I sure as heck was not going to give them away just so I could save $8 every four years. So I had to pay an additional $8 for the privilege of keeping my own organs. After effectively setting a maximum price of $8 for all of a person's organs, the government wonders why there is a shortage of them.

Then came the part that I had been dreading: I had to place my index finger on an inkless scanning device and give the state a copy of my fingerprint. Obviously, my fingerprint has nothing to do with my ability to drive. The state uses the driver's license as a vehicle to gather information about you that you would otherwise never provide. I believe that in the future, the state will use driver's licenses, income tax returns and census forms to gather more and more personal information about you to populate its databases and control your life.

As I understand it, the language that allows (but does not require) the DMV to collect fingerprints was slipped into a bill at the last minute, and few legislators had read it or were even aware that it had been added to the bill. Not surprisingly, law enforcement favored this provision and has opposed efforts to repeal it. Some argue that having everyone’s fingerprint on file makes the police's job easier. Well, law enforcement was not necessarily meant to be easy, and in countries where it is, it's called a police state. It would make it easier for the police if we scrapped the Fourth Amendment, so should we do that, too?

I actually know a woman who gave up her right to drive just so she wouldn’t have to provide a copy of her fingerprint to the state. She has since led a one-woman crusade to have this law repealed (Go to her website, http://www.fingerprintsayno.com/ to see a chilling photo of how one government was using fingerprints in 1940). I only wish I had her courage and spirit of resistance.

Back in July, there was a non-binding question on the ballot in the Republican primary for my county asking whether the fingerprint law should be repealed. I was heartened that someone was asking the question but disappointed that Republican politicians had to test the political winds to find out where they should stand on the issue. Surprisingly (or not?), 47% of the voters in my county's Republican primary thought the fingerprint law should not be repealed. Yet another mile marker on the road to tyranny. Sixty years ago, they tattooed a serial number on your forearm to identify you; today they use an inkless scanning device to get your fingerprint. When I called my state representative to complain about having to provide my fingerprint to renew my driver’s license, he told me about all of the new features on the license, one of which is a hologram. He was trying to think of the word hologram when he asked me, is it holocaust? I said, No, that's what's going to happen after we give the state a copy of our fingerprints.

And then it was on to the final station: the photograph, yet another item that has nothing to do with my ability to drive. The driver's license has become a de facto ID card. Currently, it contains your picture, your digitized fingerprint, and other information about you. Four years from now, it will also contain your retinal eye scan and a sample of your DNA. After going through a process reminiscent of a slaughterhouse, the DMV employee who was working the camera had the audacity to tell me to smile. I felt like giving her a one-finger salute, but not wanting to piss off the people who buy their bullets by the case, I merely scowled.

A recent study by the Media Research Center (MRC) documents the palpable anti-gun bias of the major television networks in reporting firearm-related news. A study released by the MRC last year examined 653 morning and evening news stories from July 1, 1997, to June 30, 1999, and found that stories advocating gun control on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC outpaced those opposing by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1. The recent study examined the same period, and showed that the bias advocating more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners is accompanied by an apparent unwillingness to cover stories that the pro-Second Amendment community would like to see.

For example, over the past several years, when NRA spokesmen had been invited to comment on the debate over gun control on news programs, they regularly pointed out the failure of the Clinton-Gore Administration to prosecute armed violent felons. But the MRC study showed that TV reporters mentioned the drop in federal prosecutions under Clinton only eight times during the period studied. Similarly, NRA has been promoting real crime-fighting programs such as the "Project Exile" prosecution model, which originated in Richmond, Va., for several years. The networks, however, mentioned this program a mere three times over the period studied. "Project Exile"-a cooperative effort among local, state, and federal law enforcement and prosecutors-targets violent felons who violate firearm laws, seeks the most stringent penalties available, and has been credited with a dramatic reduction in Richmond's violent gun-related crime.

The lawful, defensive use of firearms by law-abiding citizens is a subject that has also been widely ignored, according to the MRC. Although award-winning criminologist Gary Kleck has estimated that firearms are used as often as 2.5 million times a year for protection, the networks reported such acts only 12 times out of the 653 firearm-related stories covered.

And while NRA constantly points out that passing new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners does nothing to reduce crime, especially in light of the countless laws that are violated in every high-profile shooting, this argument was mentioned only five times over the study period.

This latest study complements last year's study, and supports another MRC study released in 1994. The 1994 study focused solely on evening news programs from December 1, 1991, to November 30, 1993, and found that 62% of the 107 stories examined devoted substantially more time to anti-gun arguments than pro-gun. It also found that news commentators who endorsed gun control outnumbered those opposed by nearly 2 to 1, and the anti-gun bias was even more distinct when the story concerned the Brady bill, expanding to 3 to 1 against the pro-Second Amendment view. Of course, advocates of our Right to Keep and Bear Arms have been painfully aware of this institutional bias for years, but as more studies report what we already know to be a problem, perhaps the networks will begin to take notice. If they don't, more and more viewers will desert them for more objective news sources. If you would like more information on the MRC and its recent study, go to its website at www.mrc.org.

INDIANA: On Wednesday, the Senate Courts and Criminal Code Committee passed SB 72, the Reckless Lawsuit Protection Act, which would protect firearm manufacturers from frivolous, politically motivated lawsuits aimed at bankrupting them. The full Senate is expected to consider the bill as early as next Thursday. Contact your State Senator at (800) 382-9467 and urge him to support SB 72. IOWA: On Wednesday, the Senate passed House File 43, the NRA-backed Dove Hunting bill, on a 26 to 24 vote. The bill now goes to Governor Tom Vilsack's (D) desk. Call Governor Vilsack's office at (515) 281-5211 and urge him to sign House File 43. MISSISSIPPI: As early as next Monday afternoon, the House Judiciary B Committee may consider HB 558, a bill that seeks to repeal a state requirement that licensed dealers keep records of lawful ammunition purchases. Call committee members first thing Monday morning at (601) 359-1541 and urge them to support HB 558. For a list of committee members, please call the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683. NEW MEXICO: Right to Carry bills have been filed by Sen. Shannon Robinson (D)-SB 148-and Rep. Judy Vanderstar Russell (R)-HB 277. SB 148 must first go to the Senate Public Affairs Committee, and HB 277 to the House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee. Call members of these committees (Senate Public Affairs Committee at (505) 986-4504 & House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee at (505) 986-4326) and urge them to support SB 148 and HB 277, respectively. For a list of committee members, please call the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683.