Re: gun politics

Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 07:06:00 -0500


Anton Sherwood wrote:
>
> Anton wrote
> : > Ceteris paribus I'd rather not buy from Ruger,
> : > because of his support of evil legislation.
>
> Michael Lorrey wrote:
> : What pray tell, is this "evil legislation"??? If I were to amend my
> : buying habits for a business man's politics, I'd get rid of all of
> : my microsoft products because Bill Gates heavily supported the group
> : that broght the gun registration bill to a vote in Washington state
> : this last election. ...
>
> Ruger has supported the bans on "assault rifles" and large magazines -
> and, coincidentally, makes an "assault rifle" not covered by the ban.
> I prefer not to reward such marketing techniques, all else being equal.
> In contrast, it's not obvious how Gates could benefit from 676.
>
> I'm keeping my Ruger pistol, though. ;)

I don't know who told you that Sturm, Ruger & Co. or Mr. Ruger himself
supports the ban on "assault rifles". From the several dozen or so
people I know who know him personally and professionally, and work for
the company in senior management positions, that is not the case. I
would not doubt that, not only in self interest, but in the interest of
the gun using public, the company and the man oppose the widespread
dumping of inexpensive, cheaply made foreign guns on the market, that
are not objects of pride, nor are supported by their manufacturers.
Given that people tend to act more responsibly with something that costs
them something measurable, the idea of dime a dozen zip guns easily
available to anyone at all does not interest me at all, either. As the
old saying goes, you get what you pay for, and an increase in gun
accidents, or an increase in gun use by youths and criminals due to
cheap and easy supply only serve to encourage anti-gunners like HCI to
lobby for ever more fascist legislation.

The reason that Ruger guns are not classified as assault rifles by govt
is because they follow the law and will only install a maximum of two
accessory items on the controlled list. Sounds like you are getting your
info from somebody with a gripe that they can't buy it from the factory
with as many controlled accessories as they want.

Ruger IS a stern advocate for gun safety and responsible gun use. They
will offer a gun lock free to any customer who wants one, and users
manuals are also free to anyone for the asking. In today's political
climate such a policy is only wise defensive politics. I can tell you
that Ruger is working to eliminate as much Microsoft software from their
company as possible, due to Gate's support of recent gun control
legislation.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Ruger's pioneering and prescient policies to
encourage responsible gun use have been painted as anti-gun by the,
shall we say, less responsible gun companies.

-- 
TANSTAAFL!!!
			Michael Lorrey
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mailto:retroman@together.net	Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering
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