--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> In a message dated 6/16/01 10:01:51 AM Pacific
> Daylight Time,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> << "Gun registration is not enough. Waiting
> periods
> are only a step. Registration is only a step. The
> prohibition of private firearms is the goal." -
> Janet Reno >>
>
> I was pretty sure this one was bogus, too, -- it's
> just too silly to be true
> -- but it took me a little longer to find the
> evidence. From the Free
> Republic site (not a bastion of liberalism, as I
> understand it):
>
> According to editorials by Martin Dyckman, published
> in the St. Petersburg
> Times May 2 and May 28, 1995, the "quote" appears to
> have originated with an
> affidavit written by Fred Diamond of Miami, FL who
> claimed to have heard Reno
> speak in Coral Gables (not Fort Lauderdale) "on or
> about November 1, 1984".
> According to Diamond's affidavit, "Janet Reno told
> the members of our group
> assembled, that waiting periods were only a step,
> that registration was only
> a step, and further that the prohibition of the
> private ownership of firearms
> was the only ultimate solution to controlling crime.
> I was shocked and
> appalled to hear her, an elected public official
> sworn to uphold and defend
> the Constitution, espouse and advocate a position
> that would effectively
> repeal the guarantees of the Second Amendment."
>
> Early in 1993, after Reno was nominated to be
> Attorney General, Diamond
> talked to Marion Hammer, then the National Rifle
> Association's Florida
> lobbyist, and NRA sent him affidavits to sign.
> Diamond says he rejected their
> first draft. Subsequently, Hammer's newsletter,
> Florida Firing Line,
> published an article on Reno in March 1993,
> including almost word for word
> the key passage from Diamond's affidavit about what
> Reno allegedly said, but
> the newsletter put the speech in 1991, not 1984.
> Diamond didn't sign the
> affidavit (with the correct year) until June 17,
> 1993, after Reno had already
> been confirmed.
>
> Reno has been questioned about the "quote" and
> denies having said it, either
> in 1991 or 1984. A spokesman for the Justice
> Department, Bert Brandenburg,
> told the New York Times syndicate: "The assertion is
> untrue and the attorney
> general has never made such a statement" (Cleveland
> Plain Dealer, May 2,
> 1995). The Reno "quote" has appeared in print
> elsewhere, including National
> Review on May 29, 1995 as part of an article by Alan
> W. Bock about the
> militia movement; and was reprinted in a Guns and
> Ammo editorial by Ed Moats
> on concealed carry in October of 1996.
And, because Diamond was reluctant to go on record
about what he had heard and because he didn't agree
with what the NRA wanted him to modify, his words can
be discounted out of hand. And if I were Reno and
bucking for a higher office, i'd say what people
wanted to hear depending on what group I was speaking
to. I'd certainly deny it later if I thought I could
get away with it.
dean
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