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                              Online Report
                                  to the
                   F I R E A R M S   C O A L I T I O N
                         7771 Sudley Rd., No. 44 
                           Manassas, VA  20109
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April 17, 1998           http://www.NealKnox.com         Vol. 5, No. 3
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     See last page for subscription and administrative information.
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In this issue:
  April Hard Corps Report
    BATF's Brady Regs Stretch New Powers 
    Clinton Bans 58 Imports By Executive Order
    Campaign 'Reform' Dead For The Year
    ABC Boosts Eddie Eagle
    Killings Revive Juvenile Bill
    Rep. Steve Schiff Succumbs To Cancer
    Firearms Coalition Moving to Virginia
    Doctor 'Misadventure' Kills Snow Survivor
    New Roberti Bill Close To Passage
    NRA Members To Decide Major Issues at Philadelphia
  Latest Shotgun News Column
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     With the fol-de-rol around the NRA elections I've been off my 
usual pace of getting at least one regular FCO bulletin out per month.  
You've received the two columns prior to the one I include here, plus a 
couple of NRA-related items.  I have slammed them into www.NealKnox.com 
with scant regard for aesthetics and the page looks it!  Everything 
I've sent out over the past six weeks is there -- somewhere.  The file 
version of this bulletin will include all of them in the usual 
location.  I'm also including the past week's telephone log with 
updates current as of April 8.  The complete telephone log will also be 
available on the web page at http://www.NealKnox.com.  The complete 
version will be available on the web page.  If it isn't up directly 
after you receive this, it soon will be.
                           * * * * *
     In this issue you will see more information on the expansion of 
the Brady law to cover long guns.  Naturally, there is a rift among the 
firearms community in how to approach it.  On the one hand, it's always 
bad when a bad law is made worse.  On the other, the hardest of the 
hard-liners of our brethren see expansion of the Brady law as an 
opportunity to galvanize shotgunners, bolt-action rifle shooters and 
hunters, and therefore oppose stripping the long gun restrictions. 
Devotees of less politically correct firearms perceive all three groups 
as complacent and politically naive.  Leaving the long guns in, so the 
reasoning goes, will rouse the claybirders and single-shot rifleman and 
force a rollback of all of Brady.
     There is a political tactic which holds that making a bad bill 
more palatable aids the passage of a bad bill and is therefore no favor 
to the defense of the Second Amendment.  That tactic is usually a last-
ditch defense when it appears that the really bad version might pass.  
     The present case does not hold with that model.
     To begin with, there is little chance of rolling back Brady.  
Pushing back on including long guns, however, affords a good 
opportunity to make exactly the same arguments we will make when we do 
go after Brady.  Further, stopping the long gun inclusion will open 
some eyes to what some have been saying for the past 30 years, that the 
failure of repressive gun legislation to reduce crime breeds more 
repressive gun legislation, that the object of the other side is 
ultimately to make all firearms disappear from civilian hands.  
     Possibly opening more eyes at the expense of pulling all firearms 
under Brady is a questionable bargain.
     "Hastening the revolution" by taking a "the worse the better" 
approach is a dangerous game at best.  
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   I wrote and am solely responsible for everything above this line.
                             Chris Knox
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Neal Knox Associates
7771 Sudley Rd., No. 44,
Manassas, VA  20109
                                               April 10, 1998
Dear Friend and Supporter,
     The media and the anti-gun crowd is in a feeding frenzy over
the Jonesboro middle school murders, attacking gun ownership in
general and hunting rifles in particular for the first time in over
30 years.  "The very idea of teaching a youngster how to shoot!"
     Because the 11 and 13-year-old killers cannot be tried as
adults, and will be released from juvenile custody with a legally
clean record when they turn 18, their killing spree has breathed
life into the stalled Juvenile Justice Bill.  
     That bill, S. 10, "encourages" states to allow such brutal
kids' crimes to be treated seriously.  Attorney General Janet Reno
doesn't like the idea of vicious teens being prosecuted and has
urged Congress not to move too quickly in the heat of Jonesboro,
but doesn't apply that caution to gun law proposals.
     Although the bill came out of the House last spring with no
anti-gun provisions, it cleared Senate Judiciary last summer with
the specific understanding that gun amendments will be offered.
     It will be the major "vehicle" for anti-gun legislation this
Congressional session.  Trigger locks, one-gun-per-month, "safe gun
storage" requirements for individual gunowners, prohibiting sales
of "grandfathered" high-capacity magazines, and more, are all in
the works -- and Jonesboro will give a boost to each.
     BATF has also exceeded its authority in the proposed
regulations implementing the permanent "instant check" provision of
the Brady Act, which will go into effect Nov. 30, 1998, requiring
a Federal background check on all firearms purchasers.
     When that bill was being promoted, "Instant Check" (which can
take three days) was supposedly going to be used by state agencies
to check for criminal records without any record of the check being
kept.  Only if a state's records were inadequate was a Federal
agency to be used for the background check.  Supposedly.
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