8/18/94
In a highly dishonest advertisement by the National Rifle Association on CNN last Tuesday, actor Charlton Heston criticized the Crime Bill, claiming that it would let 10,000 drug dealers back out on the streets. Nowhere in the commercial did Heston mention the NRA's real objection to the bill, which is the Assault Weapons Ban.
The NRA's tactics are reprehensible: they've sacrificed both truth and the rights of others in order to advance their agenda. In doing so, they risk alienating a large number of their supporters.
Please contact the NRA and Heston to let them know what you think of their Machiavellian politics:
National Rifle Association Charlton Heston
11250 Waples Mill Road c/o International Creative Management
Fairfax, VA 22030 8942 Wilshire Boulevard
(703) 267-1000 Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Some points for your letters:
-- The U.S. Sentencing Commission has calculated that only 1,600 prisoners will be released under the retroactive safety valve clause.
-- Only first time, low level, non-violent offenders who have cooperated fully with federal authorities will be eligible.
-- Sentence reductions will be given only case by the case at the discretion of the presiding judges.
-- The prison spaces freed by the safety valve can be used to prevent early parole of violent criminals like murderers.
-- The NRA's commercial is dishonest, not only in grossly exaggerating the number of inmates who can be released early, but also in concealing the ad's real purpose, which is to prevent passage of the Assault Weapons Ban.
-- It's wrong to barter constitutional rights.
-- Machine guns are more dangerous than hemp plants.
Note: DRCNet is strictly devoted to drug policy reform, and takes no position either for or against gun control. We do maintain, however, that the bulk of gun crime results directly or indirectly from drug prohibition, and that the most, possibly the only effective means available for significantly reducing violence today is legalization.
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