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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    February 01, 1998

    Wisconsin Lawyer February 1998: Letters to the Editor

     


    Vol. 71, No. 2, February 1998

    Letters


    The Wisconsin Lawyer welcomes letters to the editor on any law-related subject, whether that subject has been a topic of a Wisconsin Lawyer article. The magazine publishes as many letters in each issue as space permits. Please limit letters to 500 words; letters may need to be edited for length and clarity.

    Letters responding to previously published letters and to others' views should address the issues and not be a personal attack on others. Letters endorsing political candidates cannot be accepted.

    Please mail letters to "Letters to the Editor," Wisconsin Lawyer, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158, fax them to (608) 257-5502, or email them.


    Bar should not advocate gun control, or other political stance

    You may add my name to the list of opponents of the State Bar's embrace of a political position; advocacy of gun control (August Wisconsin Lawyer). With all due respect to Past President Saichek, this is unquestionably a political issue, as it directly impacts constitutionally protected freedoms. In addition, even if this were not clearly a political issue, it has nothing whatsoever to do with advancement of the legal profession or provision of legal services to those in need.

    Mr. Saichek also indicates his belief that "Proliferation of cheap and unduly dangerous handguns has definitely affected our courts and the investment of judicial resources." Ignoring for the moment the glaring failure to define the terms "cheap" and "unduly dangerous" (as if any firearm is not dangerous), Mr. Saichek misses the point. That being, every single act the State Bar Commission on Violence and the Justice System is worried about is already against existing law. Rather than a hysterical and elitist rush to judgment, couched in terms of protecting our courts, the Commission would do the public a greater service by emphasizing protection for individual liberties while focusing on the root causes of violence in our society.

    Again, guns, even the "cheap and unduly dangerous handguns," are not the problem. Every time a firearm has caused an injury or fatality there has been a human hand involved. Rather than employ sophistic arguments to finesse the membership of the Bar and the public at large into giving up their hard-won rights, the Commission could support existing efforts to identify and ameliorate the root causes of unrest and violence in our society. Regrettably, these efforts usually lack the glamour and appeal of parroting Handgun Control Inc.'s party line.

    If the State Bar is to retain and enhance its position as a beacon of dispassionate reason in our modern legal climate, we must studiously avoid taking political positions as an organization. All the members of the Commission, indeed, all the members of the Bar, are free to vote for political candidates and espouse their individual political beliefs as they so choose. However, it is an affront to the individuality of each of the Bar's members and to the dignity of the Bar itself to engage in a political assault, especially where the freedoms to be affected are so dear as to be protected by the Bill of Rights.

    Gerald R. Fox
    Black River Falls


    I object to the State Bar's use of membership dues to fund "junk findings" on the subject of gun control. The Commission on Violence and the Justice System's recommendations regarding handguns are nothing more than a slick back-door attempt to ban handguns. The Commission's recommendations will be received with glee at the headquarters of Handgun Control Inc. I am shocked, however, to learn that Wisconsin lawyers are willing to play the same kind of shell game with the facts that we have come to expect from the national media.

    The Commission's recommendations on gun control will cause people to be skeptical of other portions of the Commission's work. It also tends to reinforce, if not confirm, the popular belief that the State Bar is run by a handful of big-city lawyers who have no idea what is going on in the rural parts of this state, and who don't care. Civil libertarians interested in actively defending the Bill of Rights are urged to contact me at P.O. Box B, Juneau, WI 53039; fax (920) 386-0251.

    Joe Sciascia
    Juneau


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