Reposted from www.pre-ban.com

Immediate $250 Reward -- Project Safe Neighborhoods

I saw (and picked up) a pamphlet today at the library. It shows a smoking semiauto handgun on the front and says “Immediate $250 Reward” and in smaller print “Illegal Gun Tip --- Call 444-STOP”. In even smaller print it says, “If you know of a felon, drug dealer, or any other individual possessing an illegal firearm, call 444-STOP. If your anonymous tip leads to an illegal gun arrest, you could be eligible for an immediate $250 reward.”

It has a bunch of other information. It says that anyone who is prohibited from owning a gun (pretty much the same list thats on the 4473 form), also cannot have any ammunition in their possession. When did this happen? It also says that giving anyone on the list (including anyone under the age of 1 a handgun or ammunition, YOU can be prosecuted. So I can be reported for taking my sons shooting?

There is a lot of other stuff here, but how long do you think it will be before the anti-gun, left-wingers start reporting anyone they think has a gun? If the police don’t find anything, you can bet the bogus tipsters won’t be prosecuted.

One thing that I note around here is that although the requirements for gun ownership have gotten much more difficult since 1968, whenever they break down someone’s door and haul out a few guns and a few boxes of ammunition (and invariably call it an arsenal, or a cache), they always say they are illegal because they don’t meet today’s requirements. They are obviously trying to retroactively apply background checks, registration, etc. to guns that were probably bought legally at the time and in the place where they were bought. Under those standards, most of my guns would not pass muster. So far, it looks like these cases are eventually dropped, but I wonder how badly the guns are damaged when they get them back? Or, do they have to agree to let the guns be destroyed in order for the bogus charges to be dropped?

Looks like we are in for a bumpy ride.

Gee just like confiscating Inter Ord gun parts.


"    We need a national strategy to assure that every community is attacking gun violence with focus and intensity.  I'm here today to announce a national initiative to help cities like Philadelphia fight gun violence.  The program I propose we call Project Safe Neighborhoods will establish a network of law enforcement and community initiatives targeted at gun violence.      I will involve -- it will involve an unprecedented partnership between all levels of government.  It will increase accountability within our systems.  And it will send an unmistakable message:  if you use a gun illegally, you will do hard time.

    This nation must enforce the gun laws which exist on the books. Project Safe Neighborhoods incorporates and builds upon the success of existing programs.  In Richmond, Virginia, for example, during the first year of what's called Project Exile, homicides were reduced by 40 percent; and armed robberies were reduced by 30 percent, in the first year alone. And thanks to Boston's Operation Cease-fire, in almost two years, no one under the age of 17 was shot.

    These are tremendous success stories, and ones that are worth duplicating around our nation.  My administration is proposing to devote more than $550 million on Project Safe Neighborhoods over the next two years.  (Applause.)  The funding will be used to hire new federal and state prosecutors, to support investigators, to provide training and develop and promote community outreach efforts.  All newly appointed United States Attorneys will be directed to certify to the Attorney General that the new comprehensive gun violence program has been implemented in their districts. (Applause.)

    We're going to reduce gun violence in America, and those who commit crimes with guns will find a determined adversary in my administration. Domestic tranquility is a phrase made famous in this city.  Project Safe Neighborhoods is one step, and an important step, to making that a reality.

    And now to explain the program is a fine American, a great Attorney General, John Ashcroft."- [url=www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/05/20010514-1.html]Remarks by the President on Project Safe Neighborhoods Pennsylvania Convention Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 14 2001[/url]

[url=www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-440es.html]There Goes the Neighborhood: The Bush-Ashcroft Plan to "Help" Localities Fight Gun Crime[/url]

by Gene Healy

Gene Healy is an attorney and senior editor at the Cato Institute.

Executive Summary

The centerpiece of President Bush's crimefighting program is an initiative called Project Safe Neighborhoods. That initiative calls for the hiring of some 700 lawyers who will be dedicated to prosecuting firearm offenses, such as the unlawful possession of a gun by a drug user or a convicted felon. The basic idea is to divert firearm offenses from state court, where they would ordinarily be prosecuted, to federal court, where tougher prison sentences will be meted out. Project Safe Neighborhoods will also provide funding to escalate gun prosecutions at the state level.

Praise for Project Safe Neighborhoods comes from quarters as diverse as Handgun Control, Inc. and the National Rifle Association. Unfortunately, those disparate parties have united in support of a singularly bad idea. Project Safe Neighborhoods is an affront to the constitutional principle of federalism. The initiative flouts the Tenth Amendment by relying on federal statutes that have no genuine constitutional basis. Moreover, the program will very likely lead to overenforcement of gun laws and open the door to prosecutorial mischief affecting the racial composition of juries. As the constitutional and policy implications of Project Safe Neighborhoods become more apparent, the Bush initiative looks less like a commonsense solution to crime and more like a political gimmick with pernicious unintended consequences. If the "respect for federalism" he has repeatedly professed is sincere, President Bush must reconsider his support for Project Safe Neighborhoods.

My father once had his entire firearms collection seized by the local PD due to some bullshit.  I got my Ruger Bearcat back with a big ass gouge taken out of it on the barrel.  Several other weapons had been scratched.

The ammo prohibition has always been there (well at leat since 1968) when the feds added the statute prohibiting felons from posessing firearms. It has been rarely enforced, but it is still on the books.