THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180012
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 32 lines
I read your editorial ``Gun traffickers beware'' (Sept. 12) and have some questions. Upon what do you base your assertion that the National Rifle Association is controlled by a ``hard-core minority''? Could that have come from a Handgun Control Inc. sound bite?
You failed to mention that Federal Firearms License fees were increased 600 percent, contributing more to the decrease in FFL holders than any fingerprint requirement. Incidentally, the fingerprint requirement hasn't discouraged many people from applying.
In your blind admiration for the Brady Law, you neglect to mention that most of the 103,000 denied handgun purchases (where did you get that number?) were found to have been denied in error. To date there have been only seven prosecutions under Brady. You conveniently omitted the fact that Brady has been found unconstitutional in four federal jurisdictions and will be reviewed by the Supreme Court this fall.
The Brady II you are shilling for would, among other things, require a $300 annual fee for an ``arsenal license'' just to own $20 worth of .22 long-rifle ammunition. This licensing scheme would give the BATF, who have shown a propensity for abusing their authority, the authority to search licensees' homes without warrants any time, day or night.
If we pass another ineffectual, asinine gun control law like Brady II, pass-a-law, get-a-vote politicians and criminals will be the only winners. Freedom-loving Americans will be the real losers.
HERMAN B. FINKELSTEIN
Virginia Beach, Sept. 12, 1996 by CNB