An Open Letter to ABC
News Anchor Diane Sawyer
From Aaron Zelman – Founder and Director of
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO).
Copyright JPFO 2009
Dear Ms. Sawyer:
Congratulations on your promotion to the news anchor desk at ABC.
With your increased personal responsibility in mind, and with my most sincere concerns for the future of America as my motivation, I would like to respectfully bring some historical realities to your attention. Based upon your prior public statements, it is obvious that you embrace victim disarmament. However…
… it is obvious that you embrace victim disarmament.
1. Did you know that the police have absolutely no legal duty to protect you or any other American citizen? You can sue the police for failing to protect you, but, because of legal doctrines like “sovereign immunity”, you will most likely lose. In JPFO’s book “Dial 911 and Die” (written by an attorney) it is explained in careful detail how Americans, unbeknownst to the vast majority, are actually saddled with their own self defense.
It’s not just that the police cannot protect you. They don’t even have to come when you call! In most states the government and police owe no legal duty to protect individual citizens from criminal attack. The District of Columbia’s highest court declared plainly:
“(the)fundamental principle that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.”
Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1, 4 (D.C. 1981)
And this eye-opener from the U.S. Supreme Court:
"The [Due Process of the 14th Amendment] Clause is phrased as a limitation on the State's power to act, not as a guarantee of certain minimal levels of safety and security; while it forbids the State itself to deprive individuals of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, its language cannot fairly be read to impose an affirmative obligation on the State to ensure that those interests do not come to harm through other means." DeShaney v. Winnebago County , 489 U.S. 189 (1989)
It’s not just that the police cannot protect you. They don’t even have to come when you call!
2. Is it possible that racism had any part in the growth of so-called “gun control”* in America? The answer is a resounding, irrefutable “yes”. Some of the very first “gun control” laws were intended to keep firearms out of the hands of freed black slaves. JPFO has produced a film that confronts this issue directly: “No Guns for Negroes”. Not a single historian or African-American spokesperson has come forward to refute this documentary.
… to keep firearms out of the hands of freed black slaves.
3. Could it be possible that the “Gun Control Act of 1968” was, in many fundamental details, copied directly from German Nazi “gun control” laws? JPFO meticulously researched this matter and published a book titled “Gateway to Tyranny”. Presented in this material is documented proof that Senator Thomas Dodd had the German Nazi “gun control” laws translated into English, by the Library of Congress, and incorporated into American law in 1968.
… Senator Thomas Dodd had the German Nazi “gun control” laws translated into English, by the Library of Congress, and then incorporated into American law in 1968.
4. Has “gun control” played an essential part in the major genocides of the last one hundred years? Yes, this is an inescapable historical fact, as shown in JPFO’s thoroughly-researched book “Death by Gun Control”, and summarized in the widely distributed “Genocide Chart”, which has had worldwide impact. Additionally, because this issue is so immensely important, we employed and expanded that research to produce the documentary entitled “Innocents Betrayed>”.
Has “gun control” played an essential part in the major genocides of the last one hundred years?
In every major genocide in the 20th Century, firearms registration, and then confiscation, preceded the murder of countless millions of unarmed people by their own governments or the ethnic/religious factions those governments supported. Ms. Sawyer, not one single reputable historian has come forward and refuted JPFO’s widely published information. Not one.
5. Do you understand the real intent of the Second Amendment? The goal of the Second Amendment was to preserve and enthusiastically bolster an armed citizenry, such widespread mass of armed citizens being the only realistic guarantee that a government designed to serve would not someday become a slave master. I ask you to view JPFO’s award-winning free online documentary film regarding the Founders’ crucial historical decision to trust an armed citizenry: “2A Today for the U.S.A.”.
… such widespread mass of armed citizens being the only realistic guarantee that a government designed to serve would not someday become a slave master.
6. Could it be remotely possible that many people who support “gun control” might actually have mental health issues? You might want to read another JPFO publication written by psychiatrist Dr. Sarah Thompson. It is titled “Raging Against Self Defense”.
After reading this succinct essay, I would sincerely ask you to compare it to the message you sent out to America with your recent special “If I Only Had a Gun”. Are you projecting your secret hatreds and fears upon the rest of us, Ms. Sawyer?
Are you projecting your secret hatreds and fears upon the rest of us, Ms. Sawyer?
7. Could it be that the foundational scriptures of the Jewish and Christian religions actually command us to defend ourselves and the innocents around us? The answer is “yes”. Self defense is a foundational precept of the Jewish religion, and therefore, like the Ten Commandments, a foundational precept of the Christian religion. It is not the pacifist’s interpretation: “thou shalt not kill”. The proper translation of the Hebrew text of the Sixth Commandment is “thou shalt not murder”.
The proper translation of the Hebrew text of the Sixth Commandment is “thou shalt not murder”.
Observant Jews and Christians alike are coming to understand that there is a scriptural mandate to defend themselves and the innocent from attack. JPFO has recently helped publish “The Ten Commandments of Self Defense”. JPFO believes that people are better off living by G-d’s** law than needlessly dying from man’s law.
And so, you may ask me: “What? Should everyone be armed?”
And my answer is: “Yes, absolutely, if they so freely choose.”
Any adult who cannot be entrusted to keep and bear arms cannot be entrusted to circulate freely in our society.
Any adult who cannot be entrusted to keep and bear arms cannot be entrusted to circulate freely in our society.
Please consider this common sense logic. Such dangerous individuals, if lawfully adjudicated as criminals or dangerously insane, should be in prison or institutionalized. To strip Americans of their most fundamental freedom, the right to self defense, is to punish and endanger the vast majority for the misconduct of the very few. We would be selling out our future liberty for an extremely dangerous and illusory false sense of security.
I look forward to seeing you share these realities with your viewers.
Sincerely,
Aaron Zelman – Founder and Director of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
*The phrase ”gun control” is a malicious semantic deception. It has historically meant gun registration, gun confiscation, and then the murder of unarmed victims.
**Out of respect, observant Jews do not spell out the Almighty’s name in secular text.
ABC News likes to hear from their viewers, and so please take this opportunity to contact Diane Sawyer and politely ask her to come to JPFO’s site and read this letter. Use this link: