Power Corrupts

Power corrupts - and it makes people stupid, too!
By BLAIR LEE
Montgomery Journal
Wednesday 10/17/01
{edited to relevant part only}

How would you feel if the Montgomery County government shut down your place of worship because it didn't approve of your religion? What if the county shut down your favorite art show, book store or theater because it didn't like the subject matter? What if it shut down your business because it didn't like the items you display or sell?

If these examples strike you as illegal and un-American, then you'll be pleased to know that a federal judge struck down Montgomery County's gun show ban this month.

Last May the County Council threatened to withhold public support from the Montgomery County fairgrounds unless the fairgrounds board evicted Silverado Promotions, a firearms trade show. Never mind that Silverado's gun show took place twice a year for 10 years without one complaint or incident. Never mind that Silverado's gun shows are subject to Maryland's gun laws - laws that close gun show loopholes (i.e., in Maryland a gun purchase at a gun show is the same as at a WalMart). And never mind that the state police and county police say they've never had any trouble with Silverado's shows.

Funny, this is the same county government that preaches to us about hate and intolerance. Don't harass people just because they're different. Be tolerant of other cultures. Don't let terrorism undermine our liberties and freedoms.

Yet, these hypocrites are so terror-stricken by gun violence that they turn into a lynch mob willing to string up some poor bastard who runs a perfectly legal gun show. This is the abuse of power our forefathers had in mind when they created the Bill of Rights and the courts to enforce them.

But our county government isn't impressed. With perfect conceit, Council President Blair Ewing said, "I think the judge is wrong, we are going to appeal." That's right folks, we're using your taxes to make fools of ourselves at every legal level.

Why? Well, the county executive's spokesman, David Weaver, puts it this way, "We're going to defend our right to regulate firearms."

Oops, that's a problem. You see, Montgomery County has no right to regulate firearms. In fact, no county does. That's because regulating firearms - like regulating motor vehicles, hospitals, tobacco, abortion and alcoholic beverages - is a power the state retains to itself. Only the state Legislature can regulate firearms but we have a county spokesman who believes otherwise. Friends, are you beginning to see the problem here?

Of course, Montgomery County government has a long history of breaking laws it doesn't agree with. When reminded, back in the 1980s, that it couldn't regulate handguns, the County Council tried banning bullets, instead. It lost in court. And when it tried banning outdoor smoking in Friendship Heights, it lost again. Now it's going to appeal the gun show ruling.

Lord Acton's 1887 observation that "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" should have added "...and it makes people stupid, as well."<< SNIPED >>


Reprinted by; MCSM--Www.mcsm.org


Now, for the rest of the story...
The rest of the story is ...

The following is a first person recount by an individual directly involved with the events described below. It has been slightly modified from an informal e-mail message for proper grammar and to remove information about the writer. The message remains unchanged. (AND the lesson remains UNLEARNED)

To: MCSM
October 18, 2001


FYI, the Montgomery County Board Chairman, Blair Ewing, was the head of a research project at the Justice Department's Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in 1978 (now the National Institute of Justice). Other researchers and I met with him and Lois Mock to complain their gun research focused on "what kind of gun law can be passed that MIGHT do some good " rather than "Have existing laws done any good?"

Ewing and Lois changed their proposals and put about $190,000 into one grant to study what kind of gun law was most effective. They gave it James D. Wright of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) who had written of the "need" for gun laws. Wright found "no evidence that any gun law or combination of gun laws could be shown to have reduced the crime rate." (That's a close quote from his Executive Summary) That idea went into the book "Under the Gun," by Wright, Rossi and Roll.

Wright and I were on a panel at a Senate luncheon a few years later; he said he had expected to become the hero of the gun control movement by his work, showing what kind of gun law was most effective. "But I found that none were effective!"

Wright did a subsequent study for DOJ, almost $400,000 in a grant, to determine WHY gun laws didn't work. He interviewed 1,800+ felons in 11 state prisons. That study found the laws didn't work because criminals paid no more attention to gun laws than laws against rape, robbery and murder. I would've told them that for free.

At every opportunity remind Ewing that gun laws don't work and he oversaw the first DOJ studies that showed it!

Sincerely,

And now we can remind Ewing that he is AGAIN wasting money by pursuing the Gun Show ban. For what? Establishing a political "legacy" (or Swan Song) may be about right.

MCSM