Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 21, 1986 Page: 4 of 24
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I
Anvil Herald
Viewpoint
A page of comment and opinion
Guest Editorial
When guns
are outlawed,
When Bernhard Goetz finally goes on trial next month in
New YoTk, perhaps Barbara Walters can be called as a witness
for the prosecution.
While in the Big Apple for "Liberty Weekend," it seems, the
indefatigable Ms. Walters ventured down into its subway sys-
tem for a look. Emerging unscathed, she pronounced it good.
She bubbled enthusiastically as she told television viewers
about how wonderful it was to ride the New York subways.
Ms. Walters presumably wishes to win the Imelda Marcos
award for insensitivity to other people’s problems. In her cheer-
iness she seems to have carelessly forgotten that people die in
the subways in New York. They are raped and robbed there.
But if she has had a memory lapse, she isn’t the only one. Her
cavalier attitude intimates one reason why nothing substan-
tive is ever done about crime in this country: Those in power
aren’t bothered by it.
Perhaps it’s because so many of them live in a different
world. The appeals judges, the civil liberties lawyers, the TV
journalists, the legislators -- too many of them are cloistered
away from the surrounding brutality. Most don’t ride subways
to work or live in high crime neighborhoods. Many need’t
venture regularly into the seedier parts of town or walk to their
cars in unsupervised parking lots at night.
And so they aren’t bothered by the fact that the violent crime
rate today is two-and-a-half times higher than it was in 1960.
Or by this startling statistic, unearthed by award winning
journalist William Tucker in his latest book: "The average
American living his or her entire life in a large city now has a
better chance of being murdered than the average American
soldier had of being killed in combat during World War II."
They are bothered by Bernhard Goetz, though.
Bernhard Goetz annoys them, even angers them. For Mr.
Goetz represents a trend -- begun before him certainly, but also
spurred by him -- a trend toward the use of guns in self defense.
It is a trend that many in government and the media would
like to ignore -- or better yet, to quash. But that’s the problem: In
the past, they did succeed in quashing it. Arguing that the
availability of guns merely contributed to crime, the leaders of
many cities passed stringent gun control laws. But gun control
laws have done what their critics said they would Those cities
with the strictest controls now have the highest crime rates.
Criminals still have guns; the only ones who don't are their
victims. Local officials are reduced to offering excuses about
the inevitability of violent crime -- or worse, offering proposals
to make it yet harder for ordinary citizens to buy guns for their
own defense.
Excuses and failed ideas, however, are no longer acceptable
to large portions of the American public. The crime problem is
now so terrible that many are more than willing to arm them-
selves to fend off attacks. Some government officials are oblig-
ing them.
Since 1982, at least seven American cities have passed laws
actually mandating gun ownership. At least ten others have
passed resolutions recommending it.
It is reasonable to expect that more will do so in the future -
especially when it becomes more widely known that such
efforts provide dramatic results. Consider:
Four years ago, Kennesaw, Georgia, passed a city ordinance
mandating that every household keep a Firearm (conscientious
objectors excepted). The crime rate subsequently plummeted 73
percent. And it has stayed there. In 1985, there were no homi-
cides in Kennesaw, no rapes, and only one assault. Further,
there were only 11 residential burglaries. The year before the
gun law passed there were five times as many.
Almost two decades before Kennesaw, the city of Orlando,
Florida faced an epidemic of rapes. The police department
urged women to buy guns and sponsored a highly-publicized
program on how to safely use a firearm. In the nine months
following the program, there were only three rapes - a 90
percent reduction in the rape rate. Burglaries also decreased.
According to economics professor Bruce Benson, similar gun
training programs "Have led to a reduction in armed robberies
in Highland Park, Michigan; drugstore robberies in New
Orleans; and grocery store robberies in Detroit."
Sometimes even a single person who has a gun and uses it
can effect a dramatic decrease in a specific crime rate. Bernard
Goetz probably did. In the week following his use of a gun in
self defense, the rate of subway robberies inexplicably dropped
almost in half - from around 145 a week to only 83.
Despite these major success stories, however, there is no
doubt that old ideas die hard. Clinging to the failed gun control
policies of the past, many will be repelled by the prospect of
promoting guns as a solution to violent crime. They will term it
barbaric. But it is time to seriously ask whether the real barba-
rism is not someth ng else - namely, allowing our fellow citi-
zens to be murdered, .aped, robbed and battered indiscrim-
inately.
"To prevent the aggressions of the powerful upon the weak.
..This is the natural, the original office of a government,” wrote
Herbert Spencer. He added: "It was not intended to do less.”
But our governing institutions are guilty of doing qjiuch less.
The courts have refused to protect us; the police cannot. If we
truly want to end the rising spiral of violence, we must be ready
to defend ou.selves. There is nothing uncivilized in doing this;
indeed, there s *enis to be something indecent about a society
that has not the will to do so.
Bernhard Goetz comprehended the truth two years ago on a
grimy subway in New York.
Cicero understood it some two millennia earlier:
"There exists a law, not written down anywhere by inborn in
our hearts... a law which has come to us not from theory but
from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I
refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endan-
gered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and
every method of protecting ourselves is morally right."
-John West Jr.
■John West Jr. is vice president of the Publius Foundation in
Seattle, Washington, and a columnist for the Robinson News
paper chain.
Where to write
to your reps
District 45
Rep. Eldon Edge
P. O. Box 2910
Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78769
District 25
Sen. Bill Sims
P. O Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78769
U.S. Congressional Dist. 23
Hon. Albert Bustamante
House Office Building
2408 Rayburn
Washington, D C. 20515
U.S. Senate
Hon. Lloyd M. Bentsen
240 Russell Office Building
Washington, D C. 20510
Hon. Phil Gramm
142 Russell Office Building
Washington, D C. 20510
You’re never too
old to quit
blowing smoke.
STATE CAPITAL
SPARKS
By Frances Reitzer Proctor
A NOTE OF GOOD NEWS...
... is reported by state comptroller Bob Bullock Hondo and
Medina County in general are faring better economically than
other communities in the area, judging by the increase in sales
tax rebates received from the state.
Hondo's check was 16.52% more than the same month last
year. The year-to-date total of receipts is 10.17% more than
same period last year.
Devine received a check which was 15.22% larger than its
counterpart last year. In the same eight month period Devine's
receipts are 9.53% higher than last year
Castroville’s check jumped 27.3’%i higher than lat year’s
refund check, with the year’s total showing a 24 07% increase
over last year.
l^aCoste received a rebate 10.75% higher than last year's
corresponding check. For the year the increase averages
13.56%.
The most recent check received by Natalia was 10.47% larger
than last year’s, with year-to-date totals averaging 10.71%
higher.
These totals certainly belie the gloom and doom attitude
that seems to have pervaded the area
If we’d stop moaning and groaning for a while, and start
counting our blessings, maybe a little cheerfulness would
become the fashion. It come become contagious, even epidemic
HI6HLI6trFS
By Lyndsll William*
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
AUSTIN—The House last
week moved nearer to a special
session showdown with the
Senate by beginning debate on
its controversial appropria-
tions bill that contains no new
taxes.
The action also pits House
Speaker Gib Lewis, a conserva-
tive Democrat, against other
Democratic state officials who
want to raise the sales tax this
session to resolve the $3.5
billion budget shortfall
State Treasurer Ann Rich-
ards told a Senate Finance
Committee last week that new
taxes were necessary now. Her
nod makes her the latest of-
ficially to join Gov. Mark
White, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and
Comptroller Bob Bullock and
several state senators in urg-
ing sales tax action. Former
Gov. John Connally, now a Re-
publican, also endorsed a tax
hike.
Richards told the senators
the state treasury will run out
of cash within a year unless
the tax is raised.
Bullock added that, unof-
ficially, he projects the spend-
ing gap could reach as high as
$5 billion to $8 billion in the
88-89 biennium.
House, Senate Action
In other action, the House
also approved a new school dis-
cipline measure that makes it
easier for schools to punish or
expel incorrigible students.
The House Ways and Means
panel passed a measure to ban
a state personal income tax,
but balked at including a cor-
porate tax ban.
The Senate Economic De-
velopment Committee ap-
proved and sent to the floor a
bill allowing out-of-state banks
to buy Texas banks. The pane!
was scheduled to begin con-
sidering a bill to allow branch
banking here as well.
A proposed state lottery was
blocked on a point of order in
the Senate State Affairs Com-
mittee. The objection, based
on the issue’s position outside
the special agenda, was heard
after Bullock told the panel he
would back a state lottery,
even though it was a “sleazy
way to run a government.”
Sacred Cow Attacked
The House budget version
okays $660 million in state cuts
and merges several state agen-
cies as a cost-saving measure
The approach, pushed by
Ia‘wis, is referred to as a
“Bandaid” measure until the
Legislature meets in regular
session in five months.
More dramatic was a pro-
posal by I-ewis and other
House members to use $918
million from two protected
funds to deal with the fiscal
crises, the 1\rmanent School
Fund and I’ermanent Univer-
sity Fund.
Two more sacred cows can-
not lie found in the Legisla-
ture, and opposition to tamper-
ing with them was quickly
solidified, particularly from
the University of Texas Alum-,
ni Association. Governor
White threatened to veto the
issue.
In the end, sources ex-
plained, the budget bill was too
important to risk by including
the RSF and PUF raids, and a
separate bill will address that
strategy.
Budget Cuts Made
The budget cuts included in
the House bill are a 13 percent
across-the-board budget reduc-
tion for state colleges and uni-
The Old Philosopher:
So that's how
they do it
Dear Editor:
According to figures just
announced, about two-thirds
of the members of Congress
and the Senate took govern
ment-paid trips last year to
study conditions in other
countries of the world.
As it turned out, conditions
in Paris and London and
Tokyo needed far more study
than conditions in South
Africa or Afghanistan. Con-
ditions in Iceland also weren’t
worth examining.
As I understand it, Con
gressmen say these trips are
worthwhile because the world
is getting smaller, countries
are interlinked, and you need
to know what's happening
around the globe in order to
vote more intelligently on
legislation in Washington.
For example, how would a
Congressman know how to
vote on a U.S. farm program if
he hasn’t studied the menus
in French restaurants in
Pans? We re dealing in food,
aren't we?
Or how can he explain the
deficit to the people in his own
district if he hasn't found out
how politicians in other
countries explain theirs to
their people?
The cost of those Congres
sional junkets abroad last
year was over $4 million, all
charged to taxpayers
It has been argued that if we
raised Congressmen’s sal
anes they could pay their own
way abroad without charging
it to taxpayers
I have examined this argu
ment carefully and I believe
there’s a hole in it somewhere
Yours faithfully.
J A
versities, and a nine percent
cut for junior colleges.
The House and Senate op-
erating budgets were slashed
13 percent.
The three percent pay raise
for state employees on Sept 1
was eliminated.
The Department of Human
Services lost 418 employees
and the Department of Mental
Health and Mental Retarda-
tion lost 415 staffers.
Ninety state troopers were
trimmed from the Department
of Public Safety.
The Department of Correc-
tions budget was trimmed
$33.8 million.
The Good Neighbor Commis-
sion, the Governor's Council on
Physical Fitness and the Of-
fice of State-Federal Relations
were abolished.
The Agriculture Depart-
ment fire ant program was
eliminated.
Political Repartee
Former Gov Bill Clements,
on the campaign trail against
Mark White, said the fiscal
crisis is really a spending
crisis and a tax increase is as
necessary as a hole in the
head.
Some Democratic lawmak-
ers, meanwhile, offered a
$1,000 reward to anyone who
could find Clements’ “secret
plan” for balancing the bud-
get.
And a newspaper analysis
of White’s campaign contribu-
tors revealed that almost 20
percent of his campaign
money, or almost $1 million,
came from persons he ap-
pointed to state Ixiards and
agencies. The gifts are not
illegal.
The latest Texas Poll indi-
cates Clements is leading
White by 12 percentage points,
44 to 32 percent 21 percent of
the 707 registered voters
polled early last week were un-
decided.
In the Texas Poll conducted
in May, 47 percent favored
Clements, 33 percent favored
White, and 20 percent were
undecided.
\
HONDO ANVIL
HERALD
Published at i KD l A'e K Hondo
Medina County Texas
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Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 21, 1986, newspaper, August 21, 1986; Hondo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth818521/m1/4/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hondo Public Library.