====================================================================== The Atlanta Declaration: Every man, woman, and responsible child has a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- handgun, shotgun, rifle, machinegun, \anything\ -- any time, anywhere, without asking anyone's permission. ====================================================================== L. NEIL SMITH'S \LEVER ACTION\ LETTER NUMBER 06b == AN OPEN LETTER TO CERTAIN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER EDITORS == This is to inform you, in light of the editorials you've been running lately in support of bans on semiautomatic weapons (not to mention the lies and biased coverage with which you've always treated Second Amendment issues), that I may begin asking my own tens of thousands of readers across the country to circulate petitions to create a new law aimed at preventing such heinous abuses of free speech in the future. Among other things, the "Newspaper Control Act of 1990" will provide that anyone involved in any way in the production or distribution of newspapers will be required to register themselves with a special agency of the government, purchase an expensive occupational license, undergo a detailed and intrusive personal background examination, and perhaps even pass a certified "newspaper safety and responsibility course". Newspapers are dangerous things to leave lying around, after all. In the past, they've started wars and gotten all kinds of people maimed and killed. Under the Newspaper Control Act of 1990, each and every individual newspaper printed will have to be stamped with an identifying serial number. That's only to keep track of them, of course, and help get them back if they're lost or stolen. Sure it'll drive the price of newspapers right through the ceiling, but if it saves just one life ... Whenever a newspaper is sold, its serial number will be recorded in a bound book meeting certain official specifications, along with the name of the purchaser, his address, driver's license number, age, race, and sex. The public, after all, has a right to know who's reading all these newspapers! Naturally, no one under 21 will be permitted to purchase a newspaper, nor anyone convicted of a felony or with a past history of mental illness. Of course it will be strictly forbidden to buy or sell newspapers by mail or across state lines. That's probably nothing you can't live with, especially if you aren't given any choice. All retailers engaged in the sale of newspapers -- we won't define this; if nobody knows precisely what it means, we'll get a lot more convictions -- will be at all times subject to warrantless searches by the authorities and punitive closure for failure to comply with any feature (however vague and contradictory) of the Newspaper Control Act of 1990. Special postcard forms will be provided to all retailers so that anyone purchasing more than one newspaper within a five-day period can be immediately reported to the special government agency and his name placed in a permanent registry. After paying for a newspaper and filling out all the mandatory forms, the purchaser will be required to wait 15 days before taking possession of his newspaper while authorities investigate his background and determine whether they want him to have a newspaper. Of course 15 day old news may not do him much good, but what the hell, we're talking Public Safety here. Above all, it will be simultaneously unlawful to carry a newspaper openly (which we'll call "brandishing" or "creating a public disturbance") or concealed on one's person in a pocket, briefcase, purse, or shopping bag. Authorities will be empowered to "stop and frisk" anyone suspected of violating this provision of the Newspaper Control Act of 1990. \Please\, no undignified whining about the First Amendment! It's two centuries obsolete, and was only meant to apply to the Government Printing Office, anyway. In fact, it may even be necessary for the government to buy up newspapers -- there are way too many of the damned things -- and destroy them at the expense of those paying a special 11% newspaper tax we'll manage to sneak in somewhere. Hey, don't worry, this is only a temporary emergency measure -- \for now\. One thing's for certain: something has to be done -- and right away -- about these oversized Sunday editions. What legitimate use would any decent citizen have for a newspaper with that many pages, anyway? ******** As a typical American newspaper editor, you should applaud proposals like these. Every one of them is already in force, along with 20,000 similar laws, against those whose enthusiasm for weapons was supposed to have been protected absolutely all along by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Second Amendment you're doing your damnedest to destroy with the same kind of lies, spurious reasoning, and disregard for individual rights and dignity you've seen here. That enthusiasm and the rights that stand behind is, as we all saw recently in China, are no less vitally important to the maintenance of American social democracy than yours for free speech. Think it can't happen to you? Then take a good hard look at the news you're printing -- about library censorship, religious book burnings, and death-threats against authors -- in your own newspaper. Exactly what makes you think that your freedom under the Bill of Rights is any more secure than anybody else's? Toward Mutual Assured Destruction, L. Neil Smith ====================================================================== L. NEIL SMITH'S \LEVER ACTION\ LETTER NUMBER 06b 111 EAST DRAKE ROAD SUITE 7032 FORT COLLINS, COLORADO U.S.A. 80525 L. Neil Smith is the award-winning author of 16 novels including \Henry Martyn, The Crystal Empire, BrightSuit MacBear, Taflak Lysandra, The Probability Broach,\ and the forthcoming FORGE OF THE ELDERS trilogy, beginning with CONTACT AND COMMUNE. Your contributions to this effort, while extremely welcome, are not tax-deductible. ====================================================================== X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X