Subject: Alleged gun safety violations by San Francisco concealed weapon permit holder

Dear Mayor Brown,

I'm informing you by certified mail of an alleged public incident of unsafe firearm handling by one of your city's concealed-carry permit holders. Please refer this information to the appropriate department (police or sheriff, whoever issues the permits) so they can take whatever action is appropriate regarding this individual's concealed weapon permit.
According to Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Jill Labbe, "Guns nowhere as dangerous as liberals who can't handle them" (Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, 3/27/99),

"There stood Dianne Feinstein, the anti-gun senator from California, posing for all the nation's media to capture on Kodachrome, holding an AK-47 with her finger firmly planted on the trigger."
"Here's a woman so concerned about the supposed recklessness of gun manufacturers that she's calling for a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines- the justification being little more than anecdotal evidence- who wouldn't  know firearm safety if it bit her on the end of her upturned San Franciscan nose."

The position of the microphone stand suggests that the firearm's muzzle is indeed pointed unsafely. I do not expect anyone to take this photo as evidence, but it should certainly be investigated. Perhaps one or more of the three police officers behind Ms. Feinstein could testify about the direction of the weapon's muzzle.
Also, was the weapon's bolt open or closed? When a firearm is handled around other people, the bolt is always left open. If it is closed, no one can tell whether there is a live round in the chamber with a cocked firing pin behind it. Even if the high-capacity clip about which Ms. Feinstein complains so frequently was not in the weapon, the chamber can hold a live round. Obviously, the firearm was empty— but "it isn't loaded" is never an excuse for letting the muzzle point at anyone or anything you wouldn't want to shoot. "I didn't know it was loaded" is a common explanation for the shooting accidents about which Ms. Feinstein and her allies in Handgun Control Inc. cite so frequently.
I cannot help thinking about how NRA mascot Eddie Eagle might advise children who saw a firearm being handled this way: "Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult." Leaving the area might have been appropriate but, in this case, the presence of adults— including three uniformed police officers— did not prevent the safety violations. This incident must have been particularly embarrassing for the three officers, who probably learned the rules of safe firearm handling their first day on the range. I'm sure they wanted to tell Ms. Feinstein politely and respectfully that she shouldn't point a firearm's muzzle at her audience with her finger inside the trigger guard, but the setting made it impossible for them to do this without being noticed.
I do not apologize whatsoever for putting you on the spot like this; you can thank Senator Feinstein for that. Had she chosen to "walk her talk"— "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out-right ban, picking up every one of  them... 'Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in,' I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here." (CBS-TV's "60 Minutes", February 5, 1995)— instead of carrying a pistol while promoting gun control for "the little people," she would not have invited this letter. Also, the alleged mishandling of the AK-47 could be excused as ignorance on the part of someone who had never before touched a firearm, but not by someone who said (emphasis is mine),

"And, I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I'd walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me."
(U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) during U.S. Senate hearings on terrorism held in Washington, D.C. on April 27, 1995)

     Regards,
 
 
 
 

      William A. Levinson

cc by hard copy or electronic mail:
· Citizens' Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA)
· Gun Owners of America (GOA)
· Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO)
· Jill Labbe
· Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) (police officers' comments on safe firearm handling?)
· Lawyer's Second Amendment Society, Inc. (LSAS)
· National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA)
· Second Amendment Foundation (SAF)
 

Important note: reply from San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown

1. Ms. Feinstein voluntarily relinquished her pistol permit and weapon a long time ago.
• I play hard but fair. If she no longer has the permit and the weapon, my other pages, leaflets, and so on will be modified accordingly.
2. The firearm shown above was "unloaded, disabled, and 'locked.'"
• "Unloaded" does not, of course, make it safe to handle as shown. If, however, "disabled" means it was rendered unable to fire under any circumstances, e.g. firing pin removed, breech disassembled, or something similar, I am willing to conclude that it was no more dangerous than an inert theatrical prop (such as one actor might safely point at another).
• Nonetheless, I think Ms. Feinstein set a poor example by handling the weapon in this manner. I recall a Star Trek episode in which one person let a phaser point at another, who said, "Watch where you point that." The first replied, "Don't worry, the safety is on." The idea that "the safety is on" makes it all right to point any weapon (even a science fiction one) at another person should not be propagated by any media.