HESTON PROMOTES "PROJECT EXILE" ON CAPITOL HILL

Anti-Gunners Counter By Plotting To Push Gun Control Legislation Next Week

      Yesterday, NRA President Charlton Heston testified before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, reiterating NRA's calls for Congress to appropriate $50 million to implement "Project Exile" in cities across the country.

      Heston's testimony highlighted the impact "simply enforcing federal gun laws" has on reducing violent crime. President Heston made his point in part by highlighting the fact that the city where "Project Exile" was first hatched, Richmond, Virginia, had more BATF-instigated prosecutions of gun law violations in 1998 than California, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C., combined!

      Despite the lip service the Clinton-Gore-Reno Administration often gives to the merit of enforcing existing law, its actions speak louder than its words. Mr. Heston informed the committee of the recent Syracuse University study (see FAX Alert Vol. 6, No. 34) that showed under this Administration, BATF prosecutions have declined by 44%! As he pointed out in his testimony, BATF's response to this prosecutorial neglect has been: "...we (BATF) seek to prosecute the few sharks at the top rather than the numerous guppies of criminal enterprise."

      Mr. Heston eloquently laid out the case that the Administration's words concerning prosecutions do not in any way match its deeds, referencing a Justice Department spokesman who told USA Today, "...it's not the federal government's role to prosecute" these gun cases. And as if one needed any more proof that this Administration cares not for enforcing laws, but rather seeks political advantage,

Eric Holder

      Mr. Heston highlighted a statement made by Janet Reno's Deputy, Eric Holder, who ridiculed "Project Exile" as a "cookie cutter" approach and called it "fundamentally wrong" to earmark funds to enforce existing federal gun laws. For a copy of Charlton Heston's entire testimony, visit our website (www.nraila.org), or contact the Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683.

(Webmaster note: also available on NRA-Live)

      Not to be outdone, the anti-gunners held their own press conference later that day in which they blamed NRA for the current stalemate over the congressional juvenile justice bill. Featuring such "luminaries" as Vice President Al Gore, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (Mo.), Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers (D-Mich.), the message was clear -- we need more gun control.

      While Gephardt acknowledged that none of the current proposals being bandied about by the conference committee handling the juvenile justice legislation would have stopped recent shootings, he nonetheless advocated the passage of more restrictions. While the speakers vilified NRA for standing in the way of "common sense" gun control legislation, they ignored the fact that it was the House Democrats, who by and large, rejected legislation by one of their own -- Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) -- that would have required NICS checks on all transactions at gun shows. The anti-gun Democratic House leadership is willing to forsake virtually any legislation in the belief they can score political points in the 2000 elections.

      This press conference followed on the heels of a similar ranting earlier in the week, where other supporters of gun control re-hashed HCI statistics and arguments, and pilloried NRA.

Complete Project Exile FAX Alert Series

=+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.

This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org