Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 17:28:39 -0700
From: quixote@goodnet.com ("Andreasen")
Subject: FW: [Lis-LEAF] Anti-Gun Violence Group Seeks 'Ask, Tell' Policy
To: cartero@nguworld.com ("Mike & Tracy"), mikeh@cybertrails.com ("Michael Haggard"), randerson22@home.com ("Bob Anderson"), rsrchsoc@ionet.net ("John Wilde"), pls@thekeep.com ("Paul Schauble"), mhorning@eskimo.com ("Mark & Jen Horning"), jsharpe@ix.netcom.com ("Jim Sharpe"), >, kvc@tima.com ("Kent & Fran"), >, pgammill@home.com ("Powell Gammill"), Drray4321@cs.com ("Ray Price"), >, r.destephens@att.net ("Rick DeStephens"), sarah@therighter.com ("Sarah Thompson"), Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com ("Vin Suprynowicz \")
Thought you all would appreciate the sinister anti-gun campaign that PAX is
pushing in schools.
Liz
-----Original Message-----
From: Tee [mailto:eagle1@tcac.net]
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 12:41 PM
To: Lis-LEAF@yahoogroups.com; ALLY@yahoogroups.com;
taig-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lis-LEAF] Anti-Gu Violence Group Seeks 'Ask, Tell' Policy
Anti-Gun Violence Group Seeks 'Ask, Tell' Policy
By Jason Pierce
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 21, 2001
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200105\CUL20010
521d.html
(CNSNews.com) - Imagine your child asking a friend over to your home to
play, then you get a phone call from the parent to ask if there are any
guns in your home? If one gun activist group has its way, these and other
types of personal questions will become commonplace in America's
neighborhoods.
Pax, a New York-based non-profit organization, has launched an all-out
advertising assault urging parents to ask if the home where their child is
going to play has a gun, and encouraging students to tell a school official
or call 911 if they hear a classmate may have brought a gun to school or is
making violent threats.
"The 'Ask Campaign' goes to parents and educates them about the facts of
number of guns in homes with children, and the fact is that over 40 percent
of homes with guns have a child living there, and many times the guns are
left unlocked and loaded," said Shane Kavanagh, spokesman for Pax.
"The 'Tell Campaign', which is scheduled to begin with the new school year,
aims to make students feel comfortable calling 911 or going to a school
official and telling them when they hear threats of violence, such as a
student may have brought a gun to school," he said.
Kavanagh said Pax believes its methods can be more effective than lobbying
because it is getting at the oots of the matter - parents and students.
Pax was started in 1997 shortly after the Empire State Building shootings
in 1997, where a lone gunman armed with an automatic pistol opened fire on
unsuspecting tourists on the observation deck. Daniel Gross, whose brother
was one of those shot that day and lived, started Pax.
According to Kavanagh, Pax avoids "getting involved with the politics of
legislation, but does support such things as closing the gun show loophole,
making ballistic fingerprinting mandatory and other actions that make gun
owners more responsible."
"Instead of spending their money on Capitol Hill, they are using money to
come up with creative, innovative media strategies and go directly to the
people and amplify the issue and get the issues out there," Kavanagh said.
"We can create a change in the hearts of Americans and have them do
something about it without demanding Congress to do anything."
Kavanagh contends that Pax does not aim to step on anyone's right to bear
arms, but instead seeks make people become aware of the presence of guns
and ask gun owners to be responsible.
"We are not out there to take away guns or yell at gun owners, but just to
create awareness to say when you have a child over, by all means, ask if
there is a gun in the home, like you would want to know if they would be
watching R-rated movies or staying up late eating sweets or anything else,"
Kavanagh said.
However, the Gun Owners of America see Pax as a politically geared
organization that wants to take away gun rights and demonize gun owners.
"Pax is a politically motivated organization that would rob people of the
most effective means of self-defense," said John Velleco, spokesman for the
Gun Owners of America.
"They formed in the aftermath of the Empire State Building shooting in New
York, where it is virtually impossible to carry a gun," he said. "Certainly
the tourists at that crime scene weren't able to have a gun and defend
themselves."
Velleco said that even though Pax claims to just ask gun owners to stre
their weapons safely, their "whole premise is that all guns are only
dangerous and essentially don't have a legitimate use."
What the United States needs is more guns, "so that we can be on a level
playing field with criminals," Velleco said. "So next time some thug walks
into the Empire State Building with a gun he is not going to be as
effective because any number of decent Americans will have the means to
defend themselves."
Liberty's Educational Advocacy Forum
http://freedomlaw.com
promotes "action that raises the cost of State violencefor its
perpetrators ... lay(ing) the basis for institutional change." [Noam
Chomsky]
Dr. Tavel's Self Help Clinic and Sovereign Law Library
http://drtavel.com/
Not a high-tech law firm brochure, "because a lawyer is only
as smart as you make him" [Max Katz] and
"the Law . . . should be accessible to
every man and at all times." [Franz Kafka]
For Liberty in Our Lifetime,
R.J. Tavel, JD
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