EL SEGUNDO HERALD June 7, 2018 Page 3
Letters
Is This What People Want?
I’m writing to mourn the passing of one
of the best, most innovative and excellent
stationary stores in our area (the only one
in El Segundo), Banners. After 19 years of
excellent service, imaginative products and
visitations of many grade-school classes, the
rent has doubled per month, to where its owner
has decided to close, rather then pay it. And
guess what is going to replace it? A cigar
store--I’m sure the grade-school classes will
visit there! When does money replace excellent
service, school supplies to the incoming
classes of the schools in late summer, and
many other items that people need and want?
The Exchequer wins again.
We’ll greatly miss you, Banners.
A Top-Rated Bank in America (Forbes Magazine, 2017)
El Segundo Business Financial Center
Rich Heisen
Vice President, Manager
Email - rjheisen@cbbank.com
275 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245
310-322-2222
Specializing in Commercial
Real Estate Lending, Equipment Financing,
& Business Banking Services
Member
FDIC
(0911)
– Sally Palm
Attack On
First Amendment Rights
Ben Watkins seems to assume previous writers
of letters to the Herald are “spokesmen” of
the NRA and/or “Gun Manufacturer’s Lobby”.
I will give him the benefit of the doubt that
he’s an “American”.
I find it alarming that an “American” would
call on the Herald to censor “Letters to the
Editor” or force people to buy ads in order
to have their voices heard. That is a blatant
attack on everyone’s First Amendment freedom
of speech. I hope the Herald won’t give in
to demands of bullies to take away citizen’s
inalienable First Amendment rights, thereby
allowing activists who have differing views
to incrementally eliminate rights and freedoms
that they don’t approve of.
I also find it telling that previous writers
don’t address the need for harsh consequences
for committing any violent crime. They would
rather scapegoat and turn law-abiding citizens
into felons and punish them for exercising
their inalienable, constitutionally protected
Second Amendment right to keep and bear
arms because it’s easier than severely punishing
violent criminals. In order to look like they are
doing something constructive they continue to
call for more laws that violent criminals don’t
obey. This doesn’t do anything to solve the
real problems facing this country.
The constitution protects the freedom and
rights of all law-abiding and legal “Americans”,
not just “protected” groups!
We need to stand up and fight and vote to
protect our rights before they are taken from us!
– Kathy Benudiz
“Assault Weapons”
Michael Usher repeated 30-year old anti-gun
Democrat campaign lies and fake news (5/10/18
letter). For example, he claimed “The AR-15,
the weapon of choice of mass shooters, is not a
defensive weapon. … It is an assault weapon.”
Apparently Usher wants to ban and confiscate
all AR-15 rifles – including those mounted
in police cars and on police motorcycles of
the El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo
Beach, and Los Angeles police departments,
because they do tissue damage. It is necessary
to damage tissue to stop enemy combatants,
whether criminals, terrorists, or soldiers. The
AR-15 is a semi-automatic civilian version of
the full-automatic military M-16 rifle. Both fire
standard center-fire 22 caliber ammunition that
has less than half the power of 30 caliber deer
hunting ammunition.
All semi-automatic firearms are not machineguns
(which have been severely restricted
nationally since 1934). They fire one bullet per
trigger-pull (like handguns). Democrats and fake
news misrepresent them as machineguns to ban
them. The AR-15 is functionally identical to all
semiautomatic firearms widely commercially
available since 1896, long before soft-on-crime
liberal Democrat policies increased crime.
The Democratic Party mislabels traditional
semi-automatic firearms as “assault weapons”,
which sounds similar to “assault rifles” which
are machineguns, as part of their campaign
to ban and confiscate all firearms from lawabiding
Americans. The California Democrat
“assault weapon” law banned traditional rifles
and shotguns based on looks, not function. It
banned a single-shot shotgun (“Encom CM-
55”), and firearms that don’t exist (“H-93”),
based on pictures in a firearms book.
– Jerry Wellfonder
Democrat Gun Control Agenda
Modeled On Nazi Gun Laws
The Democrat “gun control” agenda is modeled
on “gun control” laws Hitler’s National Socialists
(“Nazis”) used to register, ban, and then
confiscate firearms from all Jews and political
opponents prior to sending millions of Jews to
concentration camps, gas chambers, and ovens.
Constitutional scholar Stephen Halbrook
authored books and articles on the subject,
which he researched using German document
archives. German and European Jews were not
cowards or pacifists. They were disarmed by
“gun control” laws and unable to resist.
In an interview published in the 7/26/1976
issue of The New Yorker magazine, Handgun
Control Inc. (HCI) founder Nelson Shields
boasted about HCI’s three-step agenda to register,
ban, and then confiscate all handguns from ordinary
law-abiding Americans. Registration would
facilitate the confiscation process. He explained
it would take multiple laws over time to incrementally
ban and confiscate all handguns.
Shields used the analogy that if he could
not take the whole loaf of bread at once, he
would take it one slice at a time. HCI was
renamed the Brady Campaign after expanding
their agenda to ban and confiscate all firearms.
The Democratic Party adopted their agenda.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Haynes
v. U.S. (1968) that felons cannot be convicted
for failure to register or license their firearms,
because it would violate their Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination (felons are prohibited
from owning or possessing firearms).
The real purpose for firearm registration is to
confiscate firearms from law-abiding Americans.
– Marianne Fong •
Wiseburn School Bond
Community Briefs
Notice
The Jewelry Source Hosts
ES Auxiliary Children’s Hospital
Los Angeles Fundraiser
The Jewelry Source invites the community
to its “Reach for the Stars” fundraising event
at the store on Saturday, June 23 to benefit
the El Segundo Auxiliary Children’s Hospital
Los Angeles. The festivities run from 4 to
7 p.m. Twenty percent of all sales during
the event will be donated to the hospital
(some exclusions apply). Admission is free,
refreshments will be served and there will be
a raffle held for a custom gold and diamond
pendant. You can purchase raffle tickets at
ElSegundoAuxiliaryCHLA.org or from auxiliary
members. The Jewelry Source is located
at 337 Main St. in El Segundo. 310-322-7110.
Contrary to some information that has been
posted on social media, Bill Ruane has no
ownership interest in Beach Mex restaurant,
Banner Stationers or the buildings within
which they are located.
El Camino, Honda South Bay
Promise Supports College Access
El Camino College President Dena P. Maloney and members of the El Camino Community College District Board of Trustees joined South
Bay leaders to participate in a signing ceremony for the South Bay Promise – a $50,000 pledge from American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
as a lead-in gift for an endowment program that provides affordable access to a college education. Photo: ECC.
El Camino College President Dena P.
Maloney and members of the El Camino
Community College District Board of
Trustees joined South Bay leaders to
participate in a signing ceremony for the
South Bay Promise – a $50,000 pledge
from American Honda Motor Co., Inc. as
a lead-in gift for an endowment program
that provides affordable access to a college
education. The pledge will be the catalyst for
providing long-term funding in perpetuity for
students in the South Bay.
The pledge was made during a signing
ceremony last month for the South Bay
Promise at El Camino. At this event, 130
educational leaders, elected officials and
community partners joined together to sign
resolutions in support of the South Bay
Promise and reaffirm their commitment to
this program that provides access to college.
ECC’s South Bay Promise will expand this
fall to include 500 high school graduates from
all seven school districts in the El Camino
Community College District. Through this
program, high school graduates from the
class of 2018 who attend ECC full-time after
graduation will have enrollment fees waived
for the first year. Eligible students must enroll
in El Camino College directly after graduating
from a high school (public, charter, private,
or home school) located within the district,
which includes El Segundo, Hawthorne,
Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale,
Lennox, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach
and Torrance.
Through the South Bay Promise, students
not only have access to higher education, but
also to services such as tutoring, counseling
and other support programs they need to be
successful and transfer or graduate and enter
the workforce.
– Source: ECC •
Measure Fails
On Tuesday, voters in the Wiseburn
Unified School District rejected the
$29 million Measure W school bond.
Preliminary results with all 14 precincts
reporting showed 949 yes votes (49.87
percent) and 954 no votes (50.13 percent).
The measure required 55 percent voter
approval in order to pass. The bond sought
to generate $2.1 million annually through
approximately 2042 at a taxpayer cost of
1.9 cents per $100 of assessed evaluation.
Targets for the funds included facility,
technology and security upgrades as well
as classroom upgrades. •
“The way to change the world is through
individual responsibility and taking local
action in your own community.”
– Jeff Bridges