Brady Bill Ii Essay, Research Paper

More Women and Children Killed By The Brady Bill

The following stories represent examples of what happens when political power brokers like Sarah Brady start to define the parameters of “public safety.” There is nothing public or safe about the process that culminates in lethal legislation such as the Brady Bill.

President William Jefferson Clinton shares equally in being responsible for the deaths of these Americans. Sadly, these examples are examples of “disposable” women and children. That is, those women and children who serve no politcal purpose and whose deaths cannot be exploited to further the liberal political agenda.

An equal share of blame for these uneccessary deaths rests squarely on the shoulders of other celebrated men and women who roll excitedly in the liberal scat being generated daily in Washington, D.C. Among the more vocal champions of legislation that extinguishes innocent American lives would be; our Attorney General, Janet Reno; the representative fron New York, Charles Schumer and the misguided ladies from California, Barbara Boxer, Maxine Waters and Diane Feinstein. Dozens of organizations in the publically-funded, but allegedly “private” sector whose employees and/or members pay dues that finance the passing of deadly legislation are guilty of killing their neighbors as well.

Not one of the above persons or organizations will send so much as a sympathy card to the families of these victims. Why would they? It would serve no political purpose. Instead, only the memories of these young and vibrant Americans, once alive and now dead, will survive to see another Christmas or celebrate another birthday.

This is the reality of the Brady Bill.

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Bonnie Elmasri

On March 5, 1991 Bonnie Elmasri called a firearms instructor, worried that her husband-who was subject to a restraining order to stay away from her-had been threatening her and her children. When she asked the instructor about getting a handgun, the instructor explained that Wisconsin has a 48-hour waiting period. Ms. Elmasri and her two children were murdered by her husband twenty-four hours later.

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Rayna Ross

On June 29, 1993, at three o’clock in the morning, a 21-year-old woman named Rayna Ross was awakened by the sound of a burglar who had broken into her apartment and entered her bedroom. The burglar was her ax-boyfriend, a man who had previously assaulted her. This time, having smashed his way into her apartment, he was armed with a bayonet. Miss Ross took aim with a .380 semiautomatic pistol and shot him twice. The burglar’s death was classified as a “justifiable homicide” by the Prince William County commonwealth’s attorney, which determined that Miss Ross had acted lawfully in shooting the attacker.

Miss Ross had bought her handgun one full business day before the attack, thanks to Virginia’s “instant background check.” Virginia’s 1993 Democratic candidate for governor, Mary Sue Terry (endorsed by Handgun Control, Inc.), proposed that-although the Virginia instant check already checks all handgun buyers-Virginia handgun purchasers should undergo a “cooling-off period” of five business days. Had the proposal been law in Virginia in 1993, Rayna Ross would now be undergoing a “permanent” cooling-off period.

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Sonya Miller

Armed with a knife, Charles A. Grant, Jr., sexually assaulted a 33-year-old woman on a Virginia beach one Tuesday in 1991. The assault was videotaped by a tourist who (not having a permit to carry a concealed handgun for protection) apparently could do nothing to help except record the crime.

The following day, Wednesday, Charles Grant raped a 12-year-old girl. News broadcasts of the videotape of Grant’s Tuesday assault frightened many people in the nearby Nags Head community.

A young woman named Sonya Miller had been wanting a handgun for a while, and on that Wednesday, her father bought her a .38 Special revolver. He gave her the revolver that evening. At about 9 P.M., Miss Miller went to the post office to pick up her mail. As she stepped into the dimly lit parking lot near the post office, Charles Grant saw her, and she saw Charles Grant. They both screamed. Grant told the young woman he would not hurt her, but when she attempted to get into her car, Grant lunged at the door. He stuck a .25 caliber pistol in her face, began climbing into the car’s back seat, and said, “I’m going to kill you.” “No,” she replied, “I’m going to kill you.” Sonya Miller picked up the revolver she had acquired less than fifteen minutes before. When she pulled the hammer back (a step preparatory to firing), he dropped his gun and fled. Miss Miller drove home; her father called the sheriff’s offices, and Charles Grant was apprehended. Regarding the handgun Miss Miller had just acquired, “It’s the only thing that saved her life,” her father observed.

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Virgen Blanca

At the age of seventeen, Virgen Blanca emigrated to the United States from Spain. By the time she was twenty-three, she had three children and was divorced. To make ends meet for her family, she had to work two or three jobs, as long as eighteen hours a day. In 1993, Ms. Blanca and her three teenage children moved from Mesquite, Texas, to Dallas, in order to be closer to her job as a house painter. The family moved into a seven-unit apartment building, where they were the sole tenants.

During the night of Saturday, July 24, 1993, a prowler twice attempted to break into the apartment. The second time, Ms. Blanca’s 15-year-old son Reel jumped out a second-story window to call the police. By the time they arrived, the prowler was gone, having left behind a message scrawled on a light switch next to the Blanca apartment, “I’ll be back.”

On Sunday, Mrs. Blanca purchased a Bryco semi-automatic pistol [an inexpensive pistol]. On Monday night, Mrs. Blanca left the apartment to buy food. Moments later, 15year-old Reel, 14-year-old Alexandra, and 10-year-old John Paul heard a door creaking outside the apartment house. Recognizing the man to be the same man who had twice attempted to break in Saturday night, Reel took the Bryco pistol from his mother’s room, and aimed it out the window at the man in the courtyard below. Reel yelled “Freeze!” but the man began to open the door to the apartment building. Reel shot the gun three times, wounding the man in the groin.

The man limped two blocks, asked someone to call an ambulance, and claimed that he had merely been looking for a place to urinate. Because Mrs. Blanca could not make a positive identification of the man, police dropped burglary charges.

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What a Difference a Day Makes

In 1985 in San Leandro, California, a woman and her daughter were threatened by a neighbor. Instead of being able immediately to obtain a handgun for self-defense, the woman had to wait fifteen days. The day after she finally was allowed to pick up her gun, the neighbor attacked them, and she shot him in self-defense. Had the man attacked fourteen rather than sixteen days after his initial threat, the woman and her daughter might have been raped.

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Catherine Latta

In September 1990, a mail carrier named Catherine Latta of Charlotte, North Carolina, went to the police to obtain permission to buy a handgun. Her ex-boyfriend had previously robbed her, assaulted her several times, and raped her The clerk at the sheriff’s office informed her the gun permit would take two to four weeks. “I told her I’d be dead by then,” Ms. Latta later recalled. That afternoon’ she went to a bad part of town, and bought an illegal $20 semiautomatic pistol on the street. Five hours later, her ex-boyfriend attacked her outside her house, and she shot him dead. The county prosecutor decided not to prosecute Ms. Latta for either the self-defense homicide, or the illegal gun.