Subject: That 'wacky' Bill Ruger You've asked for references about Ruger's anti-gun agenda. I didn't save the original statements made by Ruger but I do have a copy of Neal Knox's response to the Ruger actions. The following is from an article which appeared in the December 1, 1989 issue of Gun Week. Stephen Sanetti is Ruger's general counsel and frequent spokesperson. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [The following is from Neal Knox] "Steve Sanetti says 'I know better' than to ascribe Bill Ruger's magazine ban proposal to business considerations. Maybe so; I don't think Bill is by any means 'anti-gun,' nor do I think he really _wants_ a ban on either guns or magazines (after all, he got his start as a machine gun designer). But I do think Bill Ruger is pushing a plan that would protect his business while affecting only his competitors, and I think he's damaging the efforts of those of us attempting to stop all proposed bans. Further, I don't think his actions on this issue, and other issues in the past, allows him to be described as 'the strongest supporter of our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.' "What I _know_ is that about 9 p.m. the night before Bill sent a letter to certain members of Congress calling for a ban on high-capacity magazines he called me, wanting me to push such a ban. His opening words, after citing the many federal, state and local bills to ban detachable magazine semi-autos, were 'I want to save our little gun' -- which he later defined as the Mini-14 and the Mini-30. I'm not ascribing Bill's motives as 'expedient from a business standpoint;' Bill did. "While I agree that a ban on over-15 magazines would be 'indefinitely preferable' to a ban on the guns that use them, that's not the question. Neither I, nor the other gun groups have ever believed that we were faced with such an either/or choice. Early last year the NRA legislative Policy committee discussed various alternatives to the proposed 'assault weapons' ban, and wisely decided that magazine restrictions wouldn't satisfy our foes, but would make it more difficult to stop a gun ban. "I was particularly shocked when I realized Bill was talking about a ban on possession of over-15-round magazines, rather than a ban on sales (which is bad enough). I told him that such a law would make me a felon, for not only did I have standard over-15 magazines for my Glock pistol (a high-capacity which has sharply cut into Ruger's police business), I have many high-cap mags for guns I don't even own, and don't even know where they all are. As I told Bill, after a lifetime of accumulating miscellaneous gun parts and accessories, there's no way I could clean out all my old parts drawers and boxes, then swear -- subject to a five or ten-year Federal prison term -- that I absolutely didn't have an M3 grease gun mag or 30-round M-2 magazine lying in some forgotten drawer. ""Bill said (and all these direct quotes are approximate). 'No, there'd be amnesty for people like you. We have to propose a ban on possession before they could take us seriously.' He contended that the public's problem was with 'firepower,' which could be resolved by eliminating high capacity mags. (continued) --- QuickBBS 2.76a Ovr * Origin: ==SSBBS== (1:231/30) 0SEEN-BY: 231/30 50 110 1000 1300 1310 1700 376/178 206 396/1 3615/50 51 0PATH: 231/30 50 3615/50 376/178 From: Elmer Cooper #0 @1:231/30 via 1:376/178 FIDOnet Re: Bill Ruger, 2/2 0AREA:GUNS 0PID: QE 2.76- 0MSGID: 1:231/30 2F29388B (continued from previous message) "I told him Metzenbaum and Co. would gladly use whatever he offered, but they weren't about to willingly agree to eliminate high-cap magazines as a substitute for banning guns; that their intention isn't to eliminate 'firepower' but 'firearms.' "Bill finally said, 'Neal, you're being very negative about it.' He got angry, then said 'Well somebody's got to do it; by God I will.' And the next day he sent his letter to the Hill; the evidence indicates a few weeks later he talked SAAMI into supporting undefined 'regulation' of magazines over-15-rounds -- a vote that might have gone a little differently if any produced high-capacity magazines as standard for either rifles or pistols. "I suspect that Ruger and SAAMI's actions are responsible, directly or indirectly, for the Bush administration's proposal to ban high-cap mags, but that proposal has been ignored -- except as evidence that 'the Bush administration and the American firearms industry recognize there's a problem -- that Americans shouldn't be allowed to have such guns.' "Of course, that isn't what Bill Ruger and SAAMI are saying, but that's the message they're sending. Perhaps it isn't business expediency to propose banning only that which they don't make, in an effort to protect what they do make; but it sure can't be claimed to be in defense of the Second Amendment." ---------------------------------------------------------------- Note that recent events suggest that the second-to-last paragraph was wrong; the proposals weren't ignored, they were stored away until they were deemed to be useful. Mr. Ruger was later interviewed by the national TV media. The media excerpted and broadcast only those portions of Mr. Ruger's interview which would be interpreted as a gun maker opposing civilian ownership of firearms. E-mail me if you'd like to know what I think of a person who is so naive that he would provide material to the media for their manipulative purposes. Bob Hale hale@brooktree.com (end) --- QuickBBS 2.76a Ovr * Origin: ==SSBBS== (1:231/30) 0SEEN-BY: 231/30 50 110 1000 1300 1310 1700 376/178 206 396/1 3615/50 51 0PATH: 231/30 50 3615/50 376/178