ustxtxb_obs_1970_11_13_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

street city state I 1 Check enclosed [ 1 To be billed signed as follows: zip L. from Half-cdcked By Bill Hamilton Austin Never have so many been so riled over so little. And yet those ardent opponents of gun control legislation are not discouraged by their setbacks in the November elections. They will continue, they say, to organize in Texas and elsewhere to depose those whom they consider to be their enemies. The Association to Preserve Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms, based nationally in Medford, Oregon, and endorsed by John Birch Society, chairman Robert Welch, backed Lloyd Bentsen over Republican George Bush in the recent Texas Senate election. They opposed Bush because he voted for the weak-sister gun control act passed by Congress in 1968. “I think Lloyd Bentsen will be a real good friend of the gun owner,” said Perry Adcock of San Antonio, head of a Texas arm of the association. He said they wanted outright repeal “nothing less” of the federal firearms law. Whatever the Texas chapter of the association did for Bentsen was much more low-key than the group’s activities in other states. In Montana the national organization distributed ominous “Wanted!” posters against Democratic Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield which read: “Wanted! Mike Mansfield! Removed from the U.S. Senate. For violations of the Second Amendment in supporting registration and licensing [sic] and breaking his trust with the good citizens of Montana.” The signs added this blunt solicitation: “For the price of a box of your favorite ammunition . . . we can remove Mike Mansfield from the Senate.” Pictured was a box spilling out bullets. Similar propaganda was distributed among gun-owners in Maryland, opposing Sen. Joseph Tydings, D-Md., who sponsored the 1968 act, and in Pennsylvania against Sen. Hugh Scott, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, who voted for it along with Mansfield. Texas Senators Yarborough and Tower both supported the bill, which requires gun buyers to prove their identity, makes gun sellers keep records of buyers and limits possession of such high-powered weapons as bazookas and machine guns. It primarily limits mail-order gun purchases. The Dallas Times Herald quoted a Robert Welch article in the Birch Society’s July bulletin praising the Association to Bill Hamilton is an Observer editor at large who has been working during the campaign for the Democratic Rebuilding Committee. Preserve Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It is run, Welch is quoted as saying, “by some good members and friends of ours.” Bentsen promised to work for repeal of the law, which he called a “monstrosity.” He used Bush’s vote for the bill as a key issue throughout East Texas and in areas of South and West Texas where hunting is popular. Although the Times Herald said the association had nearly 100 members in Texas, Adcock, the San Antonio contact, said he knew of only 25 in the Texas “arm.” “Most of them are professionals “doctors, lawyers, and like that. In fact, that’s one of our problems,” Adcock said. “We’re top heavy with professionals who believe that these gun laws are dangerous, but they don’t have much time to put into this cause.” Adcock, who is a narcotics investigator for the State Board of Pharmacy, travels the state and says he finds widespread dissatisfaction with the law. “As a law enforcement officer, I t _alk to many other lawmen, and nearly all of them agree that gun laws are not the answer,” Adcock said. He hopes to enlist many of them in the association so that in 1972 they can be more effective. This year the association’s main thrust came in the form of an advertisement in the Freedom newspapers of the Rio Grande Valley, castigating Bush and others for supporting the legislation. The national offices in Oregon say a mailing went out to Texas gun owners denouncing the Bush vote, but Adcock says he isn’t aware of it. “But we’ll be much more ‘active in 1972,” he said. “We intend to keep right on organizing. And .it’s not enough for candidates to be just sympathetic to us, They’ve got to be with us.” Nov. 13, 1970 7 From El Paso To Brownsville Via Wichita Falls Texas Southmost University, The University of Texas at El Paso, and Midwestern University have granted The Observer permission to place a coin-operated news rack on campus. Now we hope to find someone in each of these cities who would be willing to attend to the rack for a commission based on sales. The job involves a trip to the rack every two weeks to stock the new issue and collect the money. Please contact The Observer business office, 504 West 24th, Austin 78705, for additional details. Thank you. “A tradition of honesty, accuracy, fairness, and tireless investigation has enabled The Texas Observer to occupy a unique place in Texas journalism.” THE ADVERSARIES: POLITICS AND THE PRESS, Bill Rivers, ed. “One of the best publications in the country remains The Texas Observer.” THE NEW YORK POST, Dec. 18, 1969. “A journal of considerable influence in Texas public life.” THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, Oct. 22, 1967. With “influence felt far beyond the state borders.” TIME, Sep. 27, 1968. “I think The Observer ranks with The Progressive as one of the two most useful papers in the United States.” JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH, Sep”. 16, 1970. “In a state known for its bland, homogenized, periodically right wing and perennially constipated press, The Observer has acted as a combination gadfly-hornet since it was founded in 1954.” NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, May 22, 1970. “Probably as close as any publication in America to the high European standard of informed reportage and commentary.” THE SOUTH AND THE NATION by Pat Watters \(Pantheon “Despite its shortcomings, The Texas Observer is needed in Texas. Texans would miss its publication.. ..” TEXAS AFL-CIO NEWS, Nov. 15, 1965. “The conscience of the political community in Texas…” THE NEW REPUBLIC, Nov. 20, 1965. “. . . that state’s only notable liberal publication.. .” WASHINGTON POST, Nov. 25, 1968. The Observer “voices dissent to almost every power bloc or politician of consequence in the state; from far , left to far right. … Time and again … The Observer has cracked stories ignored by the state’s big dailies, and has had the satisfaction of watching the papers follow its muckraking lead.” NEWSWEEK, March 7, 1966. “A respected journal of dissent.” THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, March 2, 1969. r””” T H E TEXAS OBSERVER’ 504 West 24th Street Austin, Texas 78705 Enter a 1-year subscription, at $7.30 \(includ