Weekly Update Volume 3 Issue 4 Apr. 11-18, 1996 THINGS LEARNED During the month of May 92, a major disturbance erupted in Los Angles, it was a riot. Well over 50 people died in the violence that took place for nearly three days. The losses in monetary terms may peak in the billions. For the survivalist who observed and monitored the situation closely, a few things were learned. These are listed below. 1) The police followed orders exactly as trained. They withdrew from the area to preclude manpower and equipment losses. The orders received by the police were to CONTAIN THE SITUATION. That was achieved. In doing so the law abiding people trapped in the area were abandoned and forced to fend for themselves. 2) Over 80% of the fatalities were the result of gunshot wounds. Looters versus business owners. Gangs versus gangs. Gangs versus innocent passers by. Police and national guard versus looters. 3) Several thousand firearms were stolen within minutes of the outbreak by gangs who planned such actions weeks in advance. Most of the firearms are still missing. BATF is conducting Gestapo-type raids throu ghout the area in vain attempts to recover and to practice for the day when such actions may be more productive. 4) Looters ranged from age 4 to 64, male and female, black, white, brown and yellow. There made no difference what so ever as to any minority status once the looting frenzy started. When it came to being a looter it was strictly an equal opportunity affair. 5) The law abiding citizens that chose to defend their property by the use of firearms succeeded 85% of the time, something not reported by the news media. 6) Immediately upon the onset of the riots, the city of Los Angeles suspended the sale of ALL firearms and ammunition. Also gasoline was prohibited from sale into small containers. 7) And, amateur video hounds hastily shot video which will be used by the police after the fact. Thus the police are under no obligation to protect the public from harm, only collect evidence after the fact. What does this mean to survivalists? In such a social breakdown it may be the difference between life and death. Let's evaluate Number 1. The police withdrew under orders. As a survivalist you should be monitoring via scanner the events. You should be prepared to evacuate quickly or stay put to defend your position until the police consolidate *their* positio ns to return. How long will this be? Who knows. Will you have the water, food, fire fighting gear and firepower to maintain your position? If you answered negatively to any of the above questions, evacuate now, quickly and quietly. Looking over number 3. Eighty percent of the fatalities were gunshot related. Obviously some people were prepared to shoot looters. Those who chose not to shoot looters were likely to be shot. We are not concerned with anyone but innocent victims. The innocent victims were those people that failed to prepare for the situation, and thus were felled by bullets due to poor planning or ignorance. As for number 3, thousands or firearms were stolen and BATF is making attempts to recover them. The fact is that gangs targeted gun shops and pawn shops years ago. They were looking for an opportunity. All FFL dealers should be well aware that your name and location is a matter of public record. Anyone can locate a gun dealer. BATF provided LAPD with a detailed list of ALL FFL dealers within hours of the riot. One warehouse that contained 1000+ M16 rifles for Malaysia was secured in a lightning style raid within hours of the riot. BATF is now reviewing video tape for firearms violations by rioters and looters. These reviews will make it easier to conduct "raids/searches" later. On to number 4. Looters were of all shades, races, ages and sexes. No discrimination here. All elements of society became involved in the "feeding frenzy" of looting. I actually saw four year old kids loaded down with booty. Will your friends and relatives become looters? could you shoot under such conditions? People never involved in an unlawful act became felons in seconds, due to the mess hysteria and looting frenzy. There is no way to identify a looter prior to a riot condition. Anyone can be capable of such acts of greed and temptation. On to number 5. The media chose to ignore the law abiding citizen protecting their property to a major extent and focused on the frenzy of the looters from every angle. If you look closely you will see the same acts over and over, only the camera angle has changed. From the media you would draw the conclusion that half of LA was in flames. The fact is that only about a half mile square area was involved (5 to 7 city blocks). Ignored were the people standing guard. These areas suffered little or no losses. The areas involved were business districts with only occasional unarmed security guards to protect them. Looking at Number 6. The government agencies in their liberal bias immediately banned the sale of arms, ammo, and gasoline. Why? LA has waiting periods and has banned semi- automatic weapons for the most part by state legislation. Only 22 semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and bolt action rifles were available for sale. Of these only the shotgun would be effective against a riot. Yet ammo was made unavailable to the law abiding citizen. Number 7. If someone is video taping the scene, avoid being the focus of attention. The LA police and "other agencies" now have a massive tape library of people with the guns and are looking very closely at those weapons that have been banned in California. Any day they may come door knocking to pick up those unregistered semi-automatic assault rifles. The thing I learned is that it's best to stay put, out of sight, ready to protect yourself and property. Be prepared to evacuate and do not get caught on "candid camera." Nationwide gun sales soared an average of 25%. All races and sexes panicked and flooded the firearms dealerships. In the event of a local disruption it would have been too late for these people to purchase anything worthy enough to control a riot. We suggest that you prepare for the eventuality. Social unrest or breakdown is but one of the survival related problems that may befall you. THE NEW REGION FIVE REPORT Volume 4, Issue 7 BACK TO ONE GUN A MONTH Charles Shumer is keeping the home fires burning on Capitol Hill. With Clinton's bullet ban stalled for now, he has turned his attention to pushing a national one-gun-per- month limitation on firearms purchases. Schumer extracted the one-gun-per-month concept from a larger blueprint of gun-control ideas, no doubt because the limit is perceived as a difficult idea to argue against. Furthermore, antigunners expect to encounter little grass-roots opposition to such a limit, calculating that the number of gun owners who can even afford more than 12 new guns per year is relatively small. Schumer prompted his pals at the New York Times to write an editorial that supported the limit and asked why wouldn't a 12-guns-per-year limit be good for the citizens of the nation. The answer that "in a free country, someone might want 13" might be reasonable and accurate, but in Washington this type of answer is often ignored. Of course, the Constitutional arguments are always valid but rarely heeded The issue of purchase limitations will once again pit the second Amendment against the "why not do something" mentality of many Washington politicians. Antigunners plan to shamelessly manipulate this mentality and the power of the oval office to pursue odds and ends from their agenda, if for no other reason than to keep the gun issue high-profile in an election year. It's become clear that they will step up on any soapbox, no matter how convoluted or inappropriate, to press for mor e bizarre and arbitrary restrictions on our fundamental rights. In the presidential race, Clinton will run breathlessly to and fro across the spectrum of ideology in an effort to please a variety of constituencies, but gun control remains the one issue on which he will not waver. 1996 promises to be a watershed year in the second Amendment debate. The gun owners of America can let the water erode yet more of our rights or they can help build a bridge to dry ground. Shooting Times May 1996 by James Jay Baker THE WORLD'S CHANGING JOB MARKET Some facts as reported by The Associated Press. The number of unemployed workers in traditional nations has tripled to 35 million since early 1970. (Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) The average real wages of young American men with only a secondary education fell by 20 percent between 1979 and 1987. (Source: World Bank) As of December 1995, more than 52,000 American workers were certified eligible for government aid because they lost jobs as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). More than 67,000 others were certified eligible becaus e of other trade-related job losses (Source.' U.S. Labor Department). POLICE ROADBLOCKS TO PROMOTE SEATBELTS Federal highway safety officials, seeking to reduce traffic injuries and healthcare costs, are trying to get three of every four people to use seat belts by the end of the year. Currently, only 58 percent of front-seat occupants use seat belts, acc ording to a survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency had been citing a higher rate of 68 percent but a federal audit said it was based on incomplete and inconsistent state data and probably is not accurate. To help move towards the 75 percent compliance rate, the Transportation Department has awarded 20 states grants of $90,000 to $225,000 each to pay for overtime work by state highway patrols to conduct roadblocks. The series of roadblocks across each state this year will check for seat belt use, provide literature on state law requiring their use, and in some cases, result in citations. The 20 states are: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The Grand Rapids Press March 18, 1996 MAGNETIC STRIPS IN MICHIGAN DRIVER'S LICENSES HB 4281 and HB 4541 pertaining to the insertion of a magnetic strip in Michigan driver's licenses was unprecendentedly pulled out of committee without the committee chairman present and brought to a vote on March 16, 1996. The bills were passed by an overwhelming margin. WHY? I ask.