Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 00:47:10 EDT
From: freemanaz@aol.com
Subject: [lpaz-discuss] Now that's a Democrat of a different color
To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com


OCTOBER 7, 1998

The Libertarian
by Vin Suprynowicz 


Now that's a Democrat of a different color 


 I ran into John Ross at the Soldier of Fortune Expo in Las Vegas the other 
day. John's masterful novel of the ongoing persecution of America's gun 
culture, Unintended Consequences, is now entering its fourth printing at 
little Acuracy Press, having sold 30,000 copies despite a virtual cone of 
silence lowered by the nation's libraries and mainstream book reviewers. 
The St. Louis investment adviser also managed to win the Democratic primary 
this summer, and is now the official challenger to incumbent Jim Talent in 
Missouri's Second Congressional District. 

With perhaps $75,000 to pit against the incumbent's $1 million -- in a year 
when Bill Clinton's dalliances are widely expected to keep Democrats home in 
droves -- Ross isn't bold enough to predict victory. Still, he's gotten a lot 
further than he did in 1996, and he figures the Year 2000 may be the charm. 

He's also a bit testy about Missouri media who refuse to talk to him about 
anything but guns. 

"Everyone knows where I stand on that," says Ross, who wants the people of 
Missouri (one of the few states where a "civilian" can't carry a concealed 
weapon under any circumstances) to have "the same firearms freedoms as anyone 
else." 

Winding up an interview with a reporter for the weekly Riverfront Times 
recently, "I asked the reporter, 'Aren't you going to ask me about anything 
else?' and he said 'No, the editor says this is the story, a gun guy running 
for Congress.' I made him write down my positions on some other issues, but 
they relegated all of those to one little paragraph two inches long. Then his 
readers gave the editor hell, saying they wanted to know where this guy stood 
on the other issues." 

Why a Democrat? Ross explains his uncle was Harry Truman's press secretary, 
that political afifliations run deep in his part of the country. 

Besides, he contends, his pro-choice views fit in with the Democrats'. "The 
incumbent wants to make abortion a federal crime, but if you ban RU-486, 
people are still going to get it. At that point, any woman who has a 
miscarriage will be under suspicion of committing a federal felony. Can you 
imagine how big a police force we'd need to enforce that?" 

The GOP has been a tremendous flop at giving us a smaller government that 
interferes less in our lives, Ross argues. "With the Republican Congress 
we're eliminated no federal programs or departments. And the budget is bigger 
than it was in 1993. ... 

"The first thing I would do is disarm any tax or regulatory agencies. The 
BATF should do what the FCC has done with HAM radio licenses -- they've done 
things to encourage people to get license and pay their taxes. Let's have 
them encourage people to engage in legitimate business. They don't need guns 
to go see if Anheuser-Busch or Philip Morris have paid their taxes; it's the 
militarized nature of tax enforcement that is the problem. ... 

"I'd love to see federal funds spent on (shooting) range creation. In 
Switzerland every city above a certain size has to have a public, 300-meter 
rifle range; that would be a wonderful benefit to the populace. Having 
Americans as a group be competent andsafe and skilled in the use of firearms 
would benefit the entire country. ... 

"On Social Security, after you've paid in for 20 years, I'd allow young 
people to opt out. You'd never get any benefits, but you'd never have to pay 
in again, either. That program is in no way shape or form based on investment 
principles. The way it's set up puts it at the mercy of birthrate and 
longevity." 

But what about the needy, people who get injured or fritter way their 
earnings and simply have nothing left to live on? 

"We need to resist being swayed by socialist arguments that have proved to be 
failures. What they should not be free to do is put a gun to someone's head 
and force them to help this guy who lost his leg." 

I told Ross he sounded like a Libertarian. 

"The Libertarian Party has removed itself from political reality, and has 
become a debating society." 

Ross says he will have enough funds to air a TV ad this fall: 

I come on and ask, "Have you ever said 'I want more federal regulations, more 
restrictions, higher taxes?' No? Well neither have I. I'm John Ross, and I'm 
running for Congress." 

Contributions are welcome at Ross for Congress, 7912 Bonhomme, Suite 375, 
Clayton, MO 63105. 




It was also a pleasure to chat with Randy Weaver and his daughter Sara at the 
Soldier of Fortune Expo (where the magazine's "Humanitarian" award this year 
went to the richly-deserving retired Gen. Paul Tibbets, who one day in 1945 
saved millions of lives, both American and Japanese, with a single mission of 
his B-29 Stratofortress, the "Enola Gay.") 

Sara Weaver is now a full-grown young lady of 23, who seems to have come 
through the trauma best known to the nation as "Ruby Ridge" with a better 
outlook than could reasonably be expected. Finishing high school in Iowa, she 
found she missed the mountains, and reports she and her fiance, David Cooper, 
have now relocated the remaining Weaver clan to Montana. 

Randy and Sara were in Las Vegas to promote their first-hand account of the 
murders of Vicky and Sammy Weaver at the hands of federal marshals and FBI 
snipers in Idaho in August of 1992. "The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge," a 
modest 170-page paperback, sells for $16.95 -- $21.95 postpaid -- through 
Bookmaster, P.O. Box 388, Ashland, Ohio 44805; tel. 800-266-5564. 

Those interested in this watershed event on America's path to becoming a 
police state will want a copy of the book for the raw power of the events as 
recalled in the victims' own words. (What? The Weavers weren't "victims"? Is 
that why the federal government shelled out $3.1 million to compensate them 
for the wrongful death of their wife and mother, son and brother ... while a 
jury of 12 unanimously acquitted Randy and his friend, Kevin Harris, of any 
wrongdoing in the events of August, 1992, including the death of Marshal 
William Degan?) 

But it should be noted this book is a far cry from a comprehensive history of 
those events of the summer of 1992. For that, Sara Weaver agrees that readers 
would be well advised to pick up a copy of"Ambush at Ruby Ridge," by Alan 
Bock of the Orange County Register. 





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