NYC's BLOOMBERG PROBLEM

Then there's the gun control legislation that Mr. Bloomberg is hawking, delighting advocates who ignore statistics that discredit such laws. No matter how many laws are passed to control the sales, ownership, or distribution of guns, criminals will bypass them. Law-abiding citizens in New York cannot obtain legal arms to defend themselves against the lawless, and that is frightening to potential victims.

As the son of Holocaust survivors, Ralph Rubinek is acutely aware of how governments can strip the citizen's right to bear arms. The National Rifle Association member sent me a link to a video of a recent Klu Klux Klan rally where the speakers blamed the oil crisis, unemployment, and the war in Iraq on the Jews. It was disgusting to see these morons chant "Seig Heil" over and over.

It would be easy for some to debunk Mr. Rubinek's anxiety about such events as unfounded paranoia if one didn't remember the three-day pogrom in Crown Heights during the Dinkins administration in which blacks roamed the streets shouting "kill the Jews." Mr. Giuliani made such an event unthinkable. Anti-Semitism is on the rise all over the world as haters blame the Iraqi war on Israel and the Jews. How can any Jewish person not understand the importance of the Second Amendment?

Although Mr. Giuliani was not popular with civil libertarians before September 11, 2001, he helped bring about ethnic peace in New York City because he fostered a universal standard of decency.The quality of life policing methods he promoted with his first chief of police, William Bratton, was applied impartially, to all offenders. In spite of the hue and cry by civil rights groups, minorities actually benefited from these tactics, as crime fell dramatically in their communities.

I once read that all crime is committed by only 3% of the population; that percentage was targeted by the NYPD in the Giuliani administration. Despite reports that crime is down in New York, the city doesn't feel safe. A homeless man this week confessed to stabbing four people, including two Canadian tourists in the Times Square area and a Texan on a C subway train. Meanwhile the mayor goes after smokers, paint that adheres to metal, junk food in bodegas, and restaurant menus. These tactics may make statements, but they don't accomplish much.

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CA: County says deadly shooting justified: "A Cochise County Attorney's Office investigation of the July 23, 2005, shooting that left a local man dead and his wife injured has determined the shooting is legally justifiable as self-defense. The office made its findings public in a letter Wednesday addressed to the Sierra Vista Police Department, which was the investigative agency. The case will not be sent to a grand jury or a preliminary court hearing after the office's review, Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer said. Sierra Vista police and family members of the man killed expressed disappointment Friday that the case won't be reviewed by a grand jury..... "(The boy who shot Pence) was legally entitled to use deadly force in defending himself, his younger brother and their residence from Frank Pence," the letter from the county attorney's office stated. "Under Arizona law, he had no duty to retreat before resorting to the use of deadly force. Physical evidence in the case, including Pence's blood and cigarette butt on the inside of the boy's residence noted by Sierra Vista police investigators, combined with witness statements, indicate justification, "i.e., Frank Pence entering the residence with the intent to assault" the boy's younger brother. "Keep in mind that Mr. Pence had already assaulted (the 16-year-old boy) outside the residence," and the younger brother had physically pushed Mr. Pence off of the older brother and then ran inside, the county attorney's letter stated".