Getting started

Getting started

S.J. writes from Johns Hopkins:
"Vin -- I have found and enjoyed your web page. I am also recently reading David Boaz's book "Libertarianism: A Primer." I have been accused by professors of being a Libertarian. I really was not sure what one was. Thus my recent readings. I have many questions and no one to dialogue with. If you have time, could you tell me places I may check here in Washington D.C. ..."
Egon, whose locale I don't know, similarly inquires:
"... Incidently, I both enjoy and dread (reading your columns.) So few people realize how this country was intended. There is no other country in which the citizens are "sovereign," with all the rights of a king reserved to the people. But at the same time, the government has craftily changed things around. And so, the real question: Can

you point me in a direction to information about how to help address these issues, or people to talk to about them?"

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Since informing others must always start with informing ourselves, I suggested that both fellows they lay hands on a couple of recent catalogs from Laissez Faire Books, 938 Howard St., Suite 202, San Francisco 94103; tel. 415-541-9780; e-mail orders to orders@laissezfaire.org.
Beginners may want to look for Thomas Szasz, Burton Folsom, Albert J. Nock, John Taylor Gatto, and Ayn Rand. Laissez Faire now lists L. Neil Smith's "Bretta Martin," which is good, but not "Pallas," which would be better. Also missing are John Ross' "Unintended Consequences" (Accuracy Press) and Claire Wolfe's "101 Things to Do Till the Revolution" (Loompanics.)
It's also worth getting on the mailing list of the Cato Institute, at 100 Mass.

Ave. NW, in Washington D.C., 20001 (tel. 202-842-0200), and of Bumper Hornberger's Future of Freedom Foundation (e-mail FFFVA@compuserve.com), in Northern Virginia.

The Ludwig von mises Institute (owner-misesmail@colossus.net), tel. 334-844-2500 puts out some nifty economic publications, and for e-mail on jury rights issues you can't beat the Jury Rights Project, e-mail jrights@levellers.org; web page www.lrt.org/jrp.homepage.htm.

Leading the new battle against the national ID card is the Coalition to Repeal the Fingerprints Law, Suite 133, 5446 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Atlanta 30341; voice mail 404-250-8105; web site www.atlantainfoguide.com/repeal/.

I seem to have fallen out of touch with the Separation of School and State Alliance, based in California; maybe they'll send me some up-to-date contact information.

President Brenda Grantland tells me the group Forfeiture Endangers American Rights has recently opened an office in D.C., and may be in a position to welcome volunteer help as well as contributions. Contact Interim Director Tom Gordon at the F.E.A.R. Foundation, P.O. Box 15421 Washington, D.C. 20003; tel. 202-546-4381, or toll free at 1-888-FEAR-001; e-mail TomGordon@fear.org; web site http://www.fear.org.

Other groups worth contacting for information -- and supporting with donations or volunteer help -- include the Fully-Informed Jury Association at Box 59, Helmville, Montana 59843, tel. 406-793-5550, and Aaron Zelman's Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, 2874 S. Wentworth Ave., Milwaukee, Wisc. 53207, tel. 414-769-0760 (web site http://www.JPFO.org; e-mail Against-Genocide@JPFO.org.)
JPFO welcomes "righteous goyim," or non-Jews, and in fact never even asks prospective members their religion.
I used to think JPFO was the only truly principled gun-rights organization in the nation, holding that ANY "gun control" is an inevitable precursor to new genocides. I am now, finally, ready to submit that there are two.
I have been watching for some years the development of Larry Pratt's Gun Owners of America, based at 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, Va. 22151; tel. 703-321-8585; web site http://www.gunowners.org; e-mail goaslad@aol.com.
Folks have always called GOA "the other gun group," in deference to the massive and cholesterol-clogged National Rifle Association.
Enemies of freedom always enjoy caricaturing ther NRA as a bunch of buck-toothed hunters in plaid shirts, blasting

away at Bambi with a bazooka.

But let me make a fearless prediction right here: as the lean little GOA strides onto their battlefield like an adolescent saber-tooth, the forces of victim disarmament are going to start waxing reminiscent about the warm, happy days when their only "opposition" was that walnut-brained brontosaurus, the NRA.

The NRA's lobbying philosophy has long been to ridicule Libertarians or Independents who may be TRUE devotees of our Second Amendment rights, instead cynically endorsing and even funding the "lesser of two evils" among the two candidates representing the Republicrat and Demopublican branches of the Big Government Party.

This NRA spending and lobbying philosophy is all about "buying access," but as Mr. Pratt of GOA says, "It's all based on a defeatist attitude. They think we've lost, that we have a bad bargaining position, so all we can do is make the best deal we can with this tyrant."

Recently, NRA lobbyists have even twisted arms in state legislatures

around the nation to INCREASE the cost and "training" rigmarole required to lay hands of a state "concealed carry permit" ... the better to insure the standards are the same nationwide.
GOA thinks permit requirements should be identical in every state, too ... identical to the current law in Vermont, which requires no permit for concealed carry, at all, and which has "the lowest murder rate in the country," smiles Mr. Pratt.
"But the 'access' lobbyists, if their approach was right, why do we keep losing ground?" Pratt asked his enthusiastic Las Vegas crowd.
Next time: The GOA plays hardball.

Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin@lvrj.com. The web site for the Suprynowicz column is at http://www.nguworld.com/vindex/. The column is syndicated in the United States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas Nev. 89127.

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