< PREVIOUS ] [ 1991 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
The do-gooders have again persuaded the U.S. Congress to
consider restricting the right of American citizens to bear
arms. Since the only gun I own is a .22 single-shot rifle,
research was in order. I borrowed a copy of Shotgun
News
from my neighbor, a lifetime NRA member.
Shotgun News
is a 200-page tabloid with nothing
but advertising, mostly for guns. One is the Street
Sweeper, a 12-round semi-automatic drum-fed 12-gauge
shotgun.
The Street Sweeper is Not for sale in California,
for understandable reasons. Even the cops in the Golden
State are dangerous; every American now knows what horrors
the L.A. police can perpetrate with mere nightsticks. How
could they be trusted to use a repeating shotgun
responsibly?
Even if you don't want a Street Sweeper, you can still choose from original U.S. 1919-A4 machine guns, laser scopes, custom assault vests, Galil assault rifles, .410 derringers, Uzi carbines, Cobray M-11's, Chinese AKS-47's, gatling guns, grenade launchers, cannons, ammunition by the case, original-issue bayonets, field packs and helmets.
Although there is no editorial matter, the ads give you a hint as to the politics of many gun buyers.
There are never any historical guns used by the
Lincoln Brigade fighting Fascism in Spain.
But many
places offer genuine German WWII Mausers with Nazi
markings.
A Nazi Mauser commands a $20 premium over an
identical Czech-made rifle which lacks swastikas.
The non-gun ads also indicate that the Third Reich has fans in the gun world. You can buy Nazi propaganda posters (but no Allied WWII posters), or recordings of Hitler's and Goebbels' speeches (but none of FDR's or Churchill's).
For those who read, there's a novel, The Turner
Diaries.
Set in the near future, it is about some
gun-toting white rebels who fight the government's
Equality Police.
The ad alleges that liberals in the
media are attempting to suppress this vital work. Not me.
I'll tell you it is available for $5.95 postpaid from
National Vanguard Books, P.O. Box 330, Hillsboro, W.V.
24946.
So there are a lot of racist neo-Nazi gun-buyers in America. That's a price we pay for civil freedoms in this country, just as freedom of religion includes Jerry Falwell, and freedom of the press includes Hustler.
Even so, if Congress really wants to clamp down, it could start by making sure its own hands are clean. The U.S. ranks second only to the Soviet Union in global arms sales -- $12.6 billion in 1987, and all approved by Congress. That dwarfs the $1.8 billion domestic firearms market. In a five-year span, America sold 1,213 tanks, 574 war planes, 2,114 missiles and 1,673 artillery pieces; a Street Sweeper is meaningless in that league.
After the Gulf War, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney noted that our weapons totally outclassed the Iraqis' French- and Soviet-made arms; there would be great demand for made-in-the-USA munitions.
Our own government apparently wants to be the world's leading arms provider, and even sells on credit to various tinhorn regimes -- $100 million a year to El Salvador. In the Gulf War, our entire military was, in effect, rented out for six months for $54.5 billion to an international consortium. Until Congress cleans up its own guns-and-money act, it has no business telling American citizens to wait seven days before buying a pistol.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1991 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >