15-12 November Issue

1 www.VoterEducation.netfacebook: The Voter Publications15-12

November 1, 2015 No. 15-12

Americas Gun Disease: Still No Vaccine

TALKING POINTS1. If you see a gun, leave the

building!2. What Floridians really

need to fear is the harm to our educational system and the gun lobbys mes-sage that the only answer to crime and conflict is le-thal force.

3. Guns and cigarettes are similar (see page 3)

4. Florida is among the top 3 states in human trafficking.

5. In one year on average, over 108,000 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides and suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, or by police intervention.

[Continued on page 2, VACATE!]

What Is The Inoculation?

You are! Voter power is the only vaccine against the parasites which cause the disease. Ask your candidates if they will vote for gun sense laws. If they equiv-ocate or refuse to answer, find an-other candidate who will! You are responsible for solving the appalling loss of life each year in our country. Dont stay home on election day! [ed.] ###

Your Right-To-Carry vs. My Right To Vacate

We Quickly Leave a Building I am appalled at the rapid pace of right-to-carry gun legis-lation in Texas. Gun lovers may achieve the right to carry, but we must also have the absolute right to evacuate any space where we feel at risk due to the presence of guns. Treat it the same way as the right to evacuate a building that is on fire.

Proposed Strategy Every right-to-carry proposal must in-clude a provision allowing stu-dents, workers, and business patrons to choose to leave any en-vironment where guns are present without question or penalty.

Students may leave any class without penalty if they feel at risk in the presence of armed persons.

Workers may leave their workplaces with cause: for example, Walmart workers can immediately leave the store without penalty if an armed person enters.

Restaurant patrons may leave in mid meal and settle the bill later.


Attach This As A Rider To All Right-To-Carry Bills Call it:

The Right To Carry Right To Evacuate Rider.

This rider will force the business community to consider what is a reasonable response for employees/patrons who find themselves around people openly carrying guns.

Safety First No one should be required to remain in the presence of gun toters if they feel they are at risk. It would also need to be incorporated into OSHA and other workplace safety laws.Law or not, this is now my personal policy. If I see someone openly packing a gun, Im exercising my right to leave.

Immediately. byjmbar2, originally posted on

Houston Area Kossacks

Gun Carrying Harmful to Higher Education and Public Safety

by Thomas Gabor

Committees of Floridas Senate and House of Representatives have passed bills that would allow people to carry concealed weapons on college and university campuses. Campuses Are Unified in Their Opposition A Harvard poll indicates that 90% of Americans oppose this measure. Other surveys show that large majorities of university administrators, faculty, students, and police also oppose this policy. Most students say they would feel less safe with guns on campus. Costs Would be Substantial Campus officials say that campus-carry will cost millions of dollars in additional personnel, training, equipment, storage facilities, and technology. The Association of Florida Colleges estimates the cost to approach $75 million for 28 state colleges, shifting valuable resources from education to security. Chilling Effect on Higher Education This policy can inhibit the free exchange of different viewpoints as both faculty and students may fear angering someone who is armed. Faculty members may face an armed student who is angry due to a poor grade. A North Carolina study found that workplaces allowing guns were 5-7 times as likely to experience a homicide as those prohibiting guns.

Campuses Safer Than Community The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) indicates that college students are less likely to be crime victims than non-students of the same age. About 90% of violent victimizations of students occur off-campus. A 2003 study by the Dept. of Education found that there were nearly 12,000 gun homicides in the country and just 10 homicides on college campuses. Guns Rarely Foil Crime An analysis of 5 years of NCVS data found that guns were used by victims in less than 1% of over 14,000 crimes with offender-victim contact, despite the fact that 25% of adults are gun owners. In over 300 sexual assaults, not once did a woman use a gun to protect herself. Most sex offenses are committed by acquaintances of the victim, rather than predators, and alcohol is often present. In these circumstances, gun owners would not likely be carrying and the presence of a gun may further endanger the victim. Fear Mongering Nothing New The gun lobbys fear-mongering about out-of-control crime is nothing new. What Floridians really need to fear is the harm to our educational system and the gun lobbys message that the only answer to crime and conflict is lethal force.

Thomas Gabor, a former professor of criminology, is a consultant, author, and expert witness specializing in the study of violence (www.thomasgabor.com).

Debate ScheduleRepublican DebatesTue November 10, 2015: Wisconsin (Fox Business/Wall Street Journal)Tue Dec. 15, 2015: Las Vegas (CNN/Salem Radio)January 2016: Iowa (Fox News)Sat Feb. 6, 2016: Manchester, New Hampshire (ABC News/IJReview)Sat Feb. 13, 2016: South Carolina (CBS News)Fri Feb. 26, 2016: Houston (NBC/Telemundo/Na-tional Review)Pending:

March 2016: TBD (Fox News)Thu March 10, 2016: Florida (CNN/Salem Radio)

Democrat DebatesSat Nov. 14, 2015: Des Moines (CBS/KCCI/Des Moines Regiser)Sat Dec. 19, 2015: Manchester, N.H. (ABC/WMUR)Sun Jan. 17, 2016: Charleston, S.C. (NBC/Congres-sional Black Caucus Institute)February or March: Miami (Univision/The Wash-ington Post)February or March: Wisconsin (PBS)

[VACATE!, contnued from page 1]


What If We Made Gun Culture Uncool Like We Did Cigarettes?

by Michael Maiello

Sorry, I cant bring my kids to your place if there are unsecured guns in the house.Thanks for coming over. Do you mind leaving your shoes in the hallways and your pistol off my property?I cant stay over if you keep a gun in the bedroom, especially if weve been drinking. Guns make things less safe when the lights go out.

Its Easy Its surprisingly easy to imagine a society where gun ownership is looked down upon, if not scorned outright. This already happened with smoking, at least partly as a result of a public education campaign aimed at young people, and it happened when polite society finally came down against people flying the Confederate flag after the Charleston church shootings this year. Sometimes, when legislative action is difficult or downright impossible, a cultural approach works to curtail dangerous behaviors.

Uncool In short, we can make gun ownership uncool.

We Did It With Cigarettes This was once unthinkable when it came to cigarettes. In post-World War II America, you might have kept an ashtray in your house even if you were a non-smoker, just to accommodate guests. Its hard to imagine anyone doing that today, or even to imagine a smoker with the audacity to ask if they can light up inside.

Advertising Turned the Tide The cool once associated with cigarette smoking, from James Dean rolling a pack into his shirtsleeves, to smoking Hollywood vixens, to outlaws like Hunter S. Thompson stuffing their cancer sticks into plastic filters, was effectively undermined by a public advocacy campaign started in 2000 by the American Legacy Foundation. These Truth ads, funded by money raised from the Master Settlement Agreement between U.S. tobacco

companies, 46 states, five territories and the District of Columbia, focused on the behavior of tobacco companies over the years, casting young smokers not as rebellious outsiders but as dupes to a big money corporate system run by people who had lied for decades about the health risks of their products.

In its first two years, the Truth campaign helped reduce student-age smoking from one quarter of all high schools to 18 percent by the end of 2002. By 2009, it is estimated, the campaign generated health care savings that not only covered the costs of the outreach but allowed for between $2 and $5 billion in reduced healthcare spending. As Millennials, the original targets of the ads, grew up, they found new ways to rebel and now, instead of clustering outside the office in packs of smokers, they wear oversized headphones and pretend not to be able to hear you when you talk to them.

Like Cigarettes, Guns Are Big Business Smith & Wesson has a $1 billion market capitalization and a CEO who made $1.9 million last year. Sturm, Ruger & Co. has a $1.1 billion market

cap and a CEO who made more than $1.1 million in the latest fiscal year. The National Rifle Association boasts 4.5 million members and regularly takes in contributions approaching $100 million a year, in addition to its program revenues. In short, guns are part of the establishment and people who spend money on them are no more iconoclasts than people who fork over money to Phillip Morris on a daily basis.

Like The Tobacco Industry the gun industry has obfuscated about the dangers of its products. It has sold a fantasy of self- and home-protection that is out of touch with reality. And like tobacco companies, the industry aggressively markets to young people. A presentation by Smith & Wesson from March 2015 says that two thirds of new shooters are 18-34 years old, that a quarter of first time purchasers buy a second gun within a year, and that 60 percent of new shooters are buying for personal defense or security.

Republicans in the House of Representatives

fiddle do nothingwhile America burns.The Do-Nothing

Republicans in Washington fiddle while 30,000

Americans die from guns every year.

And they call themselves the Pro-Life Party.

Hogwash.

[Continued on page 4, UNCOOL]


[Continued on page 5, WOULD YOU SELL]

[UNCOOL, continued from page 3

Marketing to Kids Of course, when Smith & Wesson presents, it talks about marketing to younger adults. In many parts of the country (including New Mexico, where I grew up and was first told a rifle was mine before I was 10) kids take ownership of guns well before they can drive. Keystone Sporting Arms still advertises its Crickett .22 caliber weapon as My First Rifle even after a five-year-old Kentucky boy killed his two-year-old sister with the single shot rifle he had received as a birthday present. They also offer a youth rifle called the Chipmunk, named for what kids are supposed to shoot with it.Defense? The defense angle (whether self or society) is particularly vulnerable to clever media rebuke. There are the scores of dead children who have managed to get hold of the weapons kept by relatives. There are the sad tales of Oscar Pistorius and George Zimmerman. There was the well-intentioned gun owner who, during the heat of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, nearly shot an innocent bystander. There is probably no end of military and police veterans, highly trained and skilled with firearms, who will testify how even the most practiced shooter is vulnerable to involuntary behaviors during the height of a threat.Contempt The gun industry has also made itself vulnerable to outright ridicule by opposing the most common sense reforms. The NRA opposes biometric trigger locks, for example, that would render weapons useless to anyone but authorized usersbecause it fears it will lead to a ban on existing guns without such locks. The industry also opposes requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance. PSAs on such issues are unlikely to sway the current generation of gun enthusiasts but, as with smoking, it might be possible to get young people thinking early and viewing both the industry and culture of gun ownership more skeptically.Little Chance for Legal Reform On the legislative front it seems America has made its choice and there is little chance for legal reform in the near future except at the margins deemed acceptable by the gun industry and a current generation of gun owners who believe that things happen is an appropriate reaction to gun deaths. When lawmakers cant lead, a social solution is certainly worth a shot. ###

Would You Sell A Gun To This Man?by Bill Lueders, The Progressive

With the topic of gun control in the news (if not in our legislatures) we decided to look at what The Progressive [magazine] has published on guns in the past. Back in 1984, journalist Bill Lueders wrote about going undercover on a gun-buying spree. The question is -- how much has changed?!!

Buying a Gun I leaned over the counter, close enough for the salesman to smell the alcohol on my breath. On the left side of my army -green pants was a button that proclaimed, SMASH THE STATE. The button on my jacket was even more to the point: Go REDS/SMASH STATE. With trembling hands I adjusted my Chairman Mao cap.I was buying a gun a .25 caliber automatic no bigger than a package of cigarettes. My hands were trembling because I had taken dangerous amounts of legal stimulants. But the man behind the counter didn't know that. And he didn't know whether I was a convicted felon or had just escaped from a mental institution. What's more, the man behind the counter didn't care.My Gun Buying Spree Two years ago, as a reporter for an iconoclastic underground publication called The Crazy Shepherd, I went

on a gun-buying spree in the Milwaukee area. On the morning of October 25, 1982, I crawled out of bed (with a stinging hangover, after a meager five hours of what passed for sleep) and

proceeded to down three Vivarin tablets-a total of 600 milligrams of caffeine alkaloid, the equivalent of at least fifteen cups of coffeealong with three cans of Pabst, all on an empty stomach.Bad Breath Then I put on my revolutionary outfit, grabbed two more cans of Pabst (to keep the stench of early-in-the-day consumption fresh on my breath), and went looking for a weapon. As identification, I took along the Wisconsin State ID card I had grimaced for years earlier on a post-adolescent lark.I visited five gun shops in all, picking out the least expensive short-barreled pistol I could find at each, and exiting on the pretense of retrieving my forgotten checkbook after the sale had been written up. Nowhere was I asked why I wanted a cheap, easily concealable, inaccurate-except-at


close-range handgun, nor was one ever refused me, despite my intoxicated condition, goofy ID, and aberrant behavior.At Country Outfitters on North 124th Street, I acted jittery and drunk, dropping my car keys twice and expressing dismay when informed of the Wisconsin law requiring a forty-eight-hour "cooling off 'period before I could pick up my purchase a .38 Special revolver nicknamed "The Undercover."Did You Ever Refuse? The clerk told me that when I came to claim the gun I would have to fill out a Federal form that asked about such things as whether I was a convicted felon, mentally deranged, or a fugitive from justice. Would the form be given to law-enforcement officials to check if my answers were true? No, came the reply, it would not. "Ever refuse to sell a gun to someone?" I asked. "Only if they answer 'Yes' to one of the questions," he said. What would prevent someone from simply lying on the form? "That's a Federal offense," I was told.After selecting a .22 caliber snubnose at Dean's Sport and Cycle on Villard Avenue, I inquired uneasily whether a check would be made into my background during the forty-eight-hour waiting period. No, the merchant assured me, there is no such procedure, although it was possible a crosscheck of names might be done at some later date. "The only people who get tripped up," he added, "are people who are on probation or something, but, of course, by then the gun is long gone."Depraved Laugh No more Mr. Nice Guy, I resolved over a beer on my way to Spheeris Sporting Goods on North Capital Drive. There, upon locating the cheapest snubnose in stock, I let loose with a depraved laugh. When the salesman got around to me, I pointed to the weapon of my choice and said gruffly, "I want that."As the clerk wrote up the purchase, I belched beer breath in his face, left monstrous teeth marks in the cap of the pen he lent me, and let saliva dribble out of one comer of my mouth. The clerk was busy and the sale was written up in no time flat. The red star on my cap winked "Thanks" as I left again for my checkbook.Still True All this happened two years ago, and before retelling the tale here, I had to make sure the results of my peculiar investigation were still

valid. And so on August 22, 1984, I went back to Milwaukee on another gun-buying binge.This time, I wore a Marine Corps camouflage cap. My T-shirt pictured a grinning, beret-capped skull, and emblazoned in stark yellow and red letters was the motto, KILL 'EM ALL / AND LET Goo SORT 'EM OuT. I hadn't bathed in a week. I smelled bad and my hair was matted in disgusting clumps. Embarrassed, I slipped on a pair of shades.They Expand Better I popped eight No-Doz pills (800 milligrams caffeine), washing them down with a six-pack of Pabst-again, on an empty stomach. Then I went to Flintrop Arms Corporation on West National Avenue and slurred, "I'm been thinking about buying a gun." I chose a .22 caliber pistol that sold for $79.95. The salesman

set me up with hollow-point bullets, explaining that they "expand better," as compared to round points, which "just make a clean hole."The Belly-Buster The gun, which he said was known as a "belly-buster," was accurate at about twenty feet. The hollow points, which were banned by the Geneva Convention as too insidious for war, had a range of one mile. Feeling increasingly lousy, I went to Shooters Shop, Inc., on South 84th Street.

After choosing a cheap, short-barreled revolver, I was told, to my feigned surprise, about the two-day "cooling off period. I couldn't wait that long, I said, and opted instead for a used twelve-gauge High Standard shotgun.As the salesman copied the information from my ID card, I filled out the Federal form. I answered "Yes" to the questions asking whether I was under indictment for a crime, a convicted felon, a fugitive from justice, and an "unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana, or a depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug," only to change my mind to "No." An older clerk saw what I had done and made me fill out another form, this time without the conspicuous crossouts.My Purchase My purchase weighed in at just under $150.00, including two boxes of Hunterbrand shells. In a moment, I would be the proud owner of a twelve-gauge shotgun, one of the weapons James Huberty had used to annihilate twenty-one lives at a McDonalds the month before. All I had to do was go outside and retrieve the cash I said was in the glove compartment of my car.I went outside and threw up. ###

True or false? The NRA has backed legislation that would make it a felony for lawmakers to propose gun laws.True. Thats right. In 2013 the NRA backed legislation that would make it a class D felony for politicians to do their job.

[WOULD YOU SELL, contiued from page 4]

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Human Trafficking AwarenessAmong the very few bills that passed the Florida State Legislature in the 2015 regular session, were some that dealt with the serious problem of human trafficking.

Not Only in the Third World Until recently people assumed that human trafficking only occurred in third world countries or perhaps to people trafficked into this country from Latin America or Eastern Europe. But it only takes a few facts to disabuse people of that belief.

Human trafficking is a $32 billion worldwide industry.

Florida is among the top 3 states in human trafficking.

83% of victims in confirmed sex trafficking cases were identified as U.S. citizens.

Even more troubling is that so many of these victims are children as young as 11 or 12. It is estimated that over 100,000 children are sex trafficked in the U.S. each year.Tackling the Problem At both the federal and state level, legislators are recognizing that they have an obligation to tackle the problem. One of the ways they are doing this is to address the demand side of trafficking. As long as those who purchase sex, even from children, suffer few consequences, they will not stop their behavior. And while there is a strong demand, there will be no incentive for the trafficker to stop putting women and children on sale.

Legislation This year, Congress passed the com-prehensive Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act 2015 which would impose a fine of $5,000 on people who buy, sell or otherwise assist in the trafficking of men, women and children. In Florida, we passed HB465, Human Trafficking (Chapter No. 2015-145) that pro-vides greatly enhanced criminal penalties for solicit-ing another to commit prostitution & similar offenses.

Hotline Number There is also recognition that we still need more awareness on the issue. Rep. Dave Kerner introduced HB369 that requires the posting of the National Trafficking Resource Center Hotline throughout the state, so that victimsand those who suspect someone is a victimknow where to call to get help: 1-888-373-7888 (or text 233733 Befree). Human Trafficking groups across Florida, includ-

ing POAST (Partner Organiza-tions against Sex Trafficking), a Palm Beach Coalition of 501c3 & 4 groups, lobbied hard to make this important measure a reality. Through Rep. Kerners commit-ment and skill, the Legislature approved the bill just before it abruptly adjourned. The Gov-ernor signed it and it will be in effect on January 1, 2016. The next step will to be get County Commissions to pass ordinances to enforce the posting of the ho-tline number in strip clubs, adult entertainment centers, and mas-sage parlorssome of the worst sex trafficking sites. On July 21, 2015, at the initiative of Com-missioner Melissa McKinlay, the first such ordinance in the state was passed by the Palm Beach County Commission.

Linda Geller-Schwartz, Ph.DFlorida State Policy Advocacy Chair

National Council of Jewish Women (Palm Beach)

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SIGNUPS FOR OBAMACARESpread the word to family and friends! Sign-ups for ACA (affectionately known as Obamacare) begin again

on October 1!!

EDITORIALDan Isaacson, PhD., Editor

The GOP HypocritesPlease.Can someone please tell me how the leadership of the Grand Obstructionist Party can have the unmitigated gall to display such an over-the-top hissy fit over 4 Americans gunned down in Benghazi by a terrorist group, when they patently dont show a tinkers damn about our neighbors 28 children and teachers gunned down in Sandy Hook. And they reliably vote to not stop the gunning down (murder) of 30,000 of our neighbors every yearyear after year after yearon American soil and they call themselves the Pro-Life party!

Republicans in Congress choose to legalize the military-style guns that kill our neighbors. Each year they sanction the murder of 10 times the number of Americans that died in the World Trade Center. Is that what we want?

2016 ELECTION DATES TO REMEMBER

Mark Your Calendar:2016 Presidential Preference

Primary and Municipal Elections:Tuesday, March 15

Early Voting Period:Saturday, March 5 to Sunday, March 13

Book Closing Deadline (New Registration and Party Changes):

Tuesday, February 16

Absentee Ballot Request Mailing Deadline:Wednesday, March 9

Primary Election:Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Presidential General Election:Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Background Checks for Bullets?California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2018, said that he planned to lead a ballot measure campaign next year to further tighten the states gun-control laws.

The measure would require background checks for those seeking to purchase ammunition, Mr. Newsom said. It would also ban possession of large-capacity magazines with 11 rounds or more.

California can set the tone for the rest of the nation with these common-sense public-safety provisions, he said. We will lead the nation. Alejandro Lazo, WSJ

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15-12 November Issue