It appears throughout Mr. Clark’s article he made several references about guns, fear, crime, the media and more which were all straight out of the movie, "Bowling for Columbine", by Michael Moore. My response here is not as much about gun control, although references will be made to it. It is more about the propagation of a lie. In particular the lies and deceits fabricated in the "Bowling Movie". The parallel between the KKK and the NRA is directly out of the Bowling movie.

The NRA was founded in 1871 by act of the New York legislature, at the request of former Union Officers. The Klan was founded around 1866 and became a terrorist organization. In 1871, the KKK, technically became illegal with the passage of the KKK act and enforcement act. The law criminalized interference with civil rights and empowered the president to use troops in an attempt to suppress the Klan. The Klan act was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. Grants vigor in disrupting the Klan earned him the unpopularity among many whites. After leaving the white house, the NRA elected him as it's eighth president. After Grant’s term the NRA elected General Phillip Sheridan who had been actively been involved in an effort to suppress the Klan in Louisiana and Texas. The Klan is confederate born, and was not a friend of the NRA because the NRA was founded by former Union soldiers and eight of its first 10 presidents were Union veterans. The Klan was a group made up of misguided confederate rebels and the NRA was a group of gun-totin', "Yankee's" and yet, I am to believe they supported each other for a common cause? I would bet there was a high degree of hate left over from the war that prevented them from even speaking to one another, much less cooperate for a cause. The distrust between north and south thrived for many decades. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, groups of blacks organized as NRA chapters in order to obtain surplus military rifles to fight off Klansmen. This is part of NRA history. I do not see any parallels between the Klan and the NRA, despite Mr. Clark’s observation.

Mr. Clark’s article goes on to discuss crime statistics and the coverage of violent crime by the media had gone up 600 percent. Also stated was the so-called fact that "guns kill more Americans than most of the world combined". These statistics are mis-leading and are also from the "Bowling for Columbine" movie. The statistics used were from the center for disease control and included all deaths by firearms which included weapons fired in self defense, suicide's and law enforcement’s statistics. FBI statistics may give a different view. Since when has the center for disease control, become the foremost authority on firearm related deaths? Some countries have strict gun control laws and few firearm related deaths among the population. Unfortunately, their government leaders were/are involved in mass genocide and the systematic slaughter of their own people. Gun control advocates like to compare information and suggest there are parallels that exist. Yet, they do not see a parallel between the mass genocides of history and the gun control measures that were in effect at the time.

Mr. Clark’s article went on to state that an article that appeared in the same paper exemplified his point. While he drove home the point about irresponsibility of a weapons owner, he failed to mention that during the investigation of the shooting by the 3 year old, a man walked up and filed a complaint that he was beaten with a baseball bat. Gun Control advocates never offer a solution on how to control baseball bats or any other device used as a weapon.

What Mr. Clark went over the edge in his article when he said " White men decided that if they can’t burn crosses and lynch black people, they would at least try to preserve the right to carry guns and shoot black people in self-defense". I’m not sure how someone can even bring themself to say that in a modern society. Mr. Clark's article on January 18, 2004, titled "There is no place for racism", spoke of racial harmony. In his most recent article his words cut his view of racial harmony with a knife. Mr. Clark should not speak of racial harmony in one voice then in another voice make a statement that propogates division. It may sell newspapers, but, unfortunately it only feeds more hatred.

I have referred to "Bowling for Columbine", the source for Mr. Clark’s article, as a movie, although it was hailed as a documentary. Unfortunately, for it to become a documentary it has to have facts, despite it’s claims to the contrary. It wasn’t anything more than another movie project by Michael Moore. It was in fact a propaganda film, to promote a political agenda, like all of his other projects.

The film was heavily edited and they used deceit, piled on deceit for it’s own gain. What is saddest, is that it used an American tragedy as a launching pad for it’s political agenda.

Mr. Clark closed his article by stating " Suspect everyone, and leave no stone unturned". Unfortunately he did not heed his own advice when using the source of information for his article. It would appear that "Bowling for Columbine" had a significant impact on his view of the world around him. Mr. Clark should know that we love our guns because we love to shoot guns and love to hunt. Defending ourselves is secondary.

"Bowling for Columbine" was not a factual documentary anymore than "The Blair Witch Project" was.