======================================================================

The Atlanta Declaration: Every man, woman, and responsible child has a 
natural,  fundamental,  and inalienable human,  individual, civil, and 
Constitutional right to obtain,  own, and carry,  openly or concealed, 
any weapon -- handgun,  shotgun, rifle,  machinegun, \anything\ -- any 
time, anywhere, without asking anyone's permission.

======================================================================

L. NEIL SMITH'S \LEVER ACTION\ LETTER                       NUMBER 02b

                     == THE SAME BOAT AMENDMENT ==

As a gun owner, for over 20 years I've spent time almost every day dealing 
with political threats to individual, human, Civil, and Constitutional 
rights which were supposed to be guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. I'm sick 
of the legislative terrorism that makes it necessary and of parting with a 
thick slice of my standard of living for the privilege.
     Either the Constitution has teeth or it's an empty exercise. If it's the 
supreme law of the land as advertised, where are the penalties, fines, and 
prison sentences for those who enact bills that violate it? At least they 
should be subject to as much harassment as their average constituent. If 
they had to throw their money down the same rat-hole we do, if their fortunes 
rose and fell with ours, if they were forced to scrape by day by day like 
the rest of us, they might find something better to do with their free time 
than threaten our fundamental rights. They might even get some feedback, 
missing heretofore, concerning the wisdom of the measures they adopt.
     Engaged as they are in a never-ending struggle against the Bill of 
Rights, your legislature and congress won't do this job on themselves, but 
the late Howard Jarvis showed us the way by leading a popular revolt against 
property taxes in California. Could it be done again? And what should be 
done? It should be something that lets us play by our own rules, on our own 
field, and with our own bat and ball, since politicians are too adroit on 
their own territory at the kind of chicanery which has cost us all so much. 
It might be nice to save taxpayers some money and provide other benefits, 
such as bailing out the troubled savings and loan industry.
     The idea? Allow me to introduce the "Same Boat Amendment":
     1. No elected or appointed official at any governmental level may 
receive more in salary, benefits, and expenses during his term of office 
\or for ten years\ afterward than his average productive sector constituent; 
employees of companies deriving more than 10% of their income from government 
are excluded for purposes of calculating the average.
     2. Officials subject to the Same Boat Amendment \will\ participate in 
the Social Security system; other income (business, inheritance, investment, 
spouse's wealth, speaking fees) will be placed in randomly selected S&Ls 
until the specified period ends.
     3. Officials subject to the Same Boat Amendment will file detailed weekly 
income and expenditure statements for scrutiny by the IRS, the media, and the 
public; telephone "hotlines" and "whistle-blower" rewards will be provided; a 
suspected official's salary and benefits will be suspended pending results 
of any investigation.
     4. All violations of the Same Boat Amendment will result in immediate 
removal from office, loss of salary, benefits, expenses, \along with all 
deposited monies\, and no fewer than 25 years in a federal maximum-security 
prison; introducing, sponsoring, or voting for legislation intended to evade 
the Same Boat Amendment or falsify the statistical base on which calculations 
are made will be treated as violations.
     Now about here, someone's bound to object that there are good legislators 
out there across the land and that the Same Boat Amendment constitutes a form 
of indiscriminate group punishment. Why not? Haven't innocent gun owners 
been group-punished for decades for the actions of criminals and assassins? 
Sure it's indiscriminate. After the way George Bush caved in on the semi-auto 
issue, who deserves special consideration?
     Anyway, I'm not sure what a "good" legislator is. Imaginary differences 
between the two major parties aside, voting seems to have degenerated lately 
into a choice between the dregs that settle to the bottom of the barrel and 
the scum that floats to the top. In the productive sector, if you had an 
employee who showed you the same loyalty most legislators do for their oath 
of office, you'd fire him. If you had a car that worked as well in this 
respect as Congress, you'd drive it straight into the crusher yourself.
     It's especially important that "good" legislators (if indeed such 
mythical beasts exist) be placed in the Same Boat with all the rest. Maybe 
they'll stop singing the virtues of compromise (a mistake the other side 
\never\ makes) and get in there and fight for us.
     Those who value the right to own and carry weapons need to broaden the 
front we fight on, too -- our base of political support -- and even 
non-shooters will love the Same Boat Amendment. Genuine liberals (as opposed 
to the limousine type who vote for gun control, then hire machinegun-toting 
bodyguards) will like it because it's egalitarian. Conservatives will like 
it because it makes fiscal sense. Libertarians will like it because 
politicians will be forced, as a matter of sheer survival, to reconsider 
economic theories (from Adam Smith to F.A. von Hayek) which make sense and 
abandon theories (from Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes) which don't.
     So how do we get started?
     Xerox this and mail it to your "favorite" congressperson, legislator, 
or city councilman. Make sure that he, she, or it understands (and you do, 
too) that just because certain aspects of the idea are funny (I think they 
are, anyway), that doesn't mean it isn't serious.
     Explain carefully that it'll be hard mustering enough support for the 
Same Boat Amendment if gun owners are too busy shooting at tin cans, iron 
silhouettes, and paper targets to circulate petitions.
     On the other hand, if their guns have to be hidden away, they'll all 
have lots and lots of free time. \For politics.\

                                 ***

LEGISLATORS TAKE NOTE: this issue -- and the Same Boat Amendment itself -- 
is dedicated to your colleagues Howard Berman, Cardiss Collins, John Conyers, 
Edward Feighan, Edward Kennedy, Howard Metzenbaum, Abner Mikva, Pete Stark, 
Sidney Yates, the semi-late Mario Biaggi, the ever-peculiar Daniel Patrick 
Moynihan, and others of their ilk who made it necessary.

======================================================================

L. NEIL SMITH'S \LEVER ACTION\ LETTER                       NUMBER 02b
111 EAST DRAKE ROAD        SUITE 7032
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO  U.S.A.  80525

L. Neil Smith is the award-winning author of 16 novels including 
\Henry Martyn, The Crystal Empire, BrightSuit MacBear, Taflak Lysandra, 
The Probability Broach,\ and the forthcoming FORGE OF THE ELDERS 
trilogy, beginning with CONTACT AND COMMUNE.

Your contributions to this effort, while extremely welcome, are not 
tax-deductible.

======================================================================


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