By Stewart Beattie
Author of A Gunsmith's Notebook on Port Arthur, 2002
Recent news reports from out of America's East Coast of a "sniper" shooting unarmed people in Maryland and Virginia caused me to take a second look at part of an article I'd written earlier in 2000, about a "star" of the gun control network, Doctor Rebecca Peters, who coincidentally went to Baltimore as soon as her task "down under" was done.
In Australia the "gun control" compact deployed as a network of NGOs, but also they were strategically grafted into our Administration in the Attorney General and Justice Departments. Duncan Kerr (Labour) was the Minister responsible for the Department of Justice who over saw the appointment of one Daryl Smeaton, charged with the drafting of new gun laws, for the States and Territories to enact - as early as November 1995.
The National Coalition for Gun Control (NCGC) was based in Sydney, but had an important branch in Hobart, Tasmania, headed up there by lawyer Roland Browne, while in Melbourne a "sister" organisation, the Coalition for Gun Control (CGC) was run by John Bruce Crook. Prior to 1996, Crook was involved in a defamation action in Melbourne, and in that trial it was reported that none other than Daryl Smeaton presented the Court with a supportive character reference for Crook. 1
But it was in Sydney where Rebecca Peters rose to prominence, arriving in 1981, 'with a man she met travelling,' and apparently lived in Cairo prior to her arrival. While Peters says "she decided" to settle Down Under and become an "Australian citizen," I'm caused to remember those famous words, 'In politics nothing happens by chance. If it happens, it was meant to happen that way'. Apparently Rebecca was from a young age, bent on saving the world.
Born in 1962, Peters grew up as a teenager in Costa Rica, the second of six children in an American family. As her father worked for the American Government there, 'half jokingly,' she suggested in an interview in Australia he "probably worked for the CIA." At age 15 years while attending an "alternative school" in Costa Rica, Peters was educated by itinerant "young hippies". It was during this new-age education she became "obsessed with changing the world."
In Sydney, Peters enrolled in a university in the faculty of Engineering (possibly Macquarie), being just one of only two females in the course, but in 1983 she dropped out. For a time Rebecca took a job as a researcher and reporter with ABC Radio (known locally as the "Gay-BC"), worked with Andrew Olle, but soon found the nature of journalism, 'too disposable'.
Peters on gun control
In 1991 with a not-so-subtle agenda, Peters returned to university, enrolled as a law student gaining her law degree, at the end of which, she produced a thesis on 'tighter gun control'. This was the "centrepiece" of an enormous folio of material she collected and wrote for her campaign to remove loop-holes in existing gun laws in Australia. She promoted herself as a 'multilingual middle-class lawyer' who was fanatical about "gun control". 2
Runs NCGS
By `91 Peters was running the NCGC, rising fast to the position of "chair", almost as quickly as the death rate climbed with each incident of that new phenomenon to Australasia, the gun massacre. Undoubtedly her success in this new global calling was to the delight of her best friend the feminist activist Eva Cox and Peters' mentor Charles Watson, Professor of Public Health at Wollongong University, who admired her for her 'intellectual thoroughness.'
In a remarkably short time she quite brilliantly bull-dozed aside the entire weak, (some treacherous), and fragmented firearm owner, sporting shooters' groups, and almost surely was surprised by her success with the shooting massacres producing a 'win-win sound-bite' for the minds and meek support of the gullible Mums and Dads of Australia. Dunblane massacre occurred on 13 March `96 and Port Arthur followed 46 days later. Then all the pieces fell into place for Federal Attorney General, Daryl Williams, to implement the gun-ban laws prepared and ready in November of 1995 by Daryl Smeaton. Job done, it was off to the "Big Apple" for Peters.
But a point to remember, while Rebecca Peters was "down-under", 6 shooting massacres occurred in Australia and New Zealand resulting in 76 deaths and 53 wounded people. In "gun control" here, Peters was no doubt - numero uno. Curiously though since Peters left, the shooting massacres have ceased! None in the last six years. And private firearms still abound.
In New York, Rebecca Peters hit the pavement 'running' and is immediately associated with Desmond Riley of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence - part of the NAACP crowd involved in 'crafting a gun control strategy' for "curing gun ownership" - their words.
Shortly it was announced that Peters was awarded (if you believe their own news releases, or if logic is your guide, rewarded may be the more appropriate word), with a Senior Fellowship in March 1997 by the Soros Foundation's Open Institute funded Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Merryland. So the good citizens there should perhaps keep her Australasian achievements in mind. In making application for her fellowship, Rebecca had to 'submit a budget' for her envisioned work - forgive me from chuckling. Can you imagine her difficult task here? Think of a big digit add lots of zeros and voila - a budget!
You may wish to drop a line to the Doctor so here is her working address: The Center on Crime, Community and Culture, 400 West 59th Street, New York, NY10019. Or perhaps you may wish to forward a congratulatory e-mail to < rpeters@sorosny.org . Rebecca's doctorate included a stipend incidentally of US$32,500 p. a., plus various expenses covered in her 'budgeted' expenses, the lot bankrolled by the tax-exempt Soros Foundation.
Her citizenry disarmament program is far flung, and includes Australia, New Zealand, the sub-continent, South America, Great Britain and Europe: she's a true-blue "globalist". First on the list after jetting out of Australia though, was her close involvement in organisation of the 'Million Mom March' and in reports of this event, her trademark outlandish unsubstantiated claims regarding crimes, firearms and related deaths appeared on cue. Easily destroyed later by reputable writers, but once the lie is said, truth inevitably is the casualty. Before leaving Australia though, her name was noted alongside that of her NCGC Hobart colleague (now chair of NCGC), Roland Browne on a University Paper entitled, Australia's New Gun Control Philosophy: Public Health is Paramount. 3 But I find it remarkable, that even although in Australia she'd been granted citizenship, Peters' American roots were emphasised. Now in America, Dr Peters is always reported as being 'an Australian gun control expert' - a weird twist don't you think.
In America, the Million Mom March staged on Monday 15 May 1996, on the Mall in Washington, was in Australia lauded 'a raging success'. But even with wall-to-wall major media publicity, numbers were in fact a long way short of the hoped-for million. Hillary and Bill Clinton were of course on tap for the regulation photo-shoot, not surprising really. As it was reported that the rally was 'conceived by Donna Dees-Thomases', supposedly just a concerned 'New Jersey housewife'. However it was reported that in fact Dees-Thomases was a 'high-powered CBS publicist who at one point worked for CBS anchor Dan Rather'. Even of more interest in this same report was the claim that the lady 'is the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases', who was lawyer, political advisor and confidant of Hillary Clinton, the then First Lady. 4
For Rebecca Peters, her 1996
schedule was quite hectic. It was crunch year and on
13 March at
Dunblane
primary school in Scotland,
43-year-old Thomas Hamilton, shot dead 16, wounded 13 and then shot himself.
Fifteen of the sixteen dead, and ten of the thirteen wounded were all
children. Energetically publicised by their chums in the Media,
Dunblane
was in the scheme of disarmament, the precursor to Port Arthur massacre
in Tasmania, Australia. At Port Arthur on 28 April 1996, 35 people died and 20
were wounded in the first convoluted terrorist shooting massacre in this
nation. In the massacre, the murder of Nanette Mikac and her two daughters was
said by the CNN's John Raedler in the EMA papers to be the classic win-win,
sound bite. Raedler scurried down to Tasmania from Sydney to capture that
win-win, sound bite. I'm caused then to wonder how would uncivilized people
evaluate Dunblane?
However, in relation to both massacres it should be remembered it was Rebecca Peters' colleague, Roland Browne, now chair of NCGC, who predicted a shooting massacre in Tasmania in November of 1995, and quite remarkably again made a repeated prediction on the "A Current Affair" TV show, straight after Scotland's Dunblane Massacre. But then anti-gun proponents in Australia seem to have this remarkable psychic skill. For in Tasmania's capitol city Hobart after a Special Premier, s Conference in relation to Gun Control held in December of 1987, NSW's then Premier, Barry
"No-gunsworth" Unsworth stated bluntly:
"There will never be uniform gun laws in Australia until we see a massacre in Tasmania." Port Arthur massacre was the catalyst for subsequent reciprocal visits across the globe by some of those closely involved with victims of both shooting murders. But with Peters in America, in the, Washington Mall, just 9 weeks after Dunblane massacre, three mothers; Kareen Turner, Alison Crozier and Karen Scott, who each lost a daughter in the Dunblane murders, featured in the Million Mom March. Now while we all probably sympathise with their personal loss of young innocent children, in Washington they marched along smiling and waving. I wonder who paid for their return flight to America and similarly other flights to Australia, and conversely the Port Arthur survivors to Dunblane? Dr Peters also flew to Dunblane in August of 1996 'to deliver messages from Port Arthur survivors' it was reported at the time.
The network of Peters' and her NGO's the global Gun Control Network, are well funded and conveniently placed, as the synonym suggest - outside of governmental restraints. I would be astonished if it was proven her Australian network had not received a generous helping of Institute hand-outs to disarm our good people in 1991- 1996. To example the extent of these amassed fortunes, one such "funder", the Joyce Foundation, was reported as granting between 1993 and 1997, some $13.2 m, for distribution among 55 'gun control' organisations. John Hopkins is bank-rolled to sustain disarmament battle by such "funders" as the California Wellness Foundation (CWF), Gerorge Soros' Open Society Institute and the Public Welfare Foundation, just three of the well-endowed tax-exempt funders supporting the global gun-grabbers. George Soros, Open Society Institute funds gun control networks on a national scale across America, but indeed globally, in 33 countries. One should be surprised if Australia didn't figure high on this list. Open Society also gave the Violence Policy Center $1.2 million in 1997 to expand its anti-gun efforts. 5
Like Joyce, CWF treats gun violence as a public health problem that
requires government regulation just as Peters did in Australia. Sadly every
good citizen Peters disarms effectively produces one more potential victim of
criminal misdeeds, a point obviously not overlooked by her. As it was observed
by the then leader of the Australian Democrats, Cheryl Kernot, that Peters
always went out of her way to keep a discreet distance from victims of gun
crime, as she was 'sensitive to the emotional implication.'
6 I wonder if disarmed potential victims ever crossed her mind while accepting
her Human Rights award from Dame Roma Mitchell? As I mentioned Peters went to
John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and first to their Violence
Policy Center. Interestingly, my investigations show Rebecca's doctorate is
somewhat tainted, as if such principals would matter to Dr Rebecca.
Back in August of 1987, John Hopkins University was heavily involved in promoting food irradiation, even although the process was banned by the West German Government in 1958, and the American FDA in 1968. But not to be deterred John Hopkins organised a forum to promote publicly a 'balanced view' with 20 guest speakers. However the seminar had to be abandoned, when speaker number 20 exposed the other 19 speakers not only heavily biased to promote this disposal system for nuclear waste as "safe" with all of them involved heavily in the nuclear industry.
It should come as no surprise to learn that John Hopkins in 1986, received funding of a reported $317m American "defence dollars"! What level of "Arms and Military" funding does John Hopkins receive today that in any way assists the works of Dr Peters and her 'arms-grabbing' cadre? 7
Now returning to the scene in New South Wales for a moment. Before Rebecca Peters flew out to her allotted 'battle ground' in America, she had one important task to complete here. The Parliaments of Australia are legislatures with limited powers. They are not supreme. The right to keep and bear arms and use them is a right beyond the powers of Parliament. Six hundred years ago people didn't trust government, and it would appear nothing has changed. So armed Government willing to use force - legitimised by Doctor Peters and her network - are in truth, hell-bent on closing that "loop-hole" in gun laws which are basic individual freedoms that with "clubs" they are intent on closing! This single fact assured that there would inevitably be a legal challenge mounted by some section of our citizenry that would surely win in the courts.
So in New South Wales, as the Government proclaimed "gun buy-back," began to effect the citizens a previously formed Concerned Citizens Association in the Hunter Valley, sought legal opinion as to how best to mount a case against government to have this iniquitous "law" quashed.
The global "gun control" network had no intention of suffering such a set back. Its network tentacles obviously penetrated the very fabric of society at many different levels. Peters and company certainly had a very effective "grape vine" network.
The legal advice was no sooner prepared and delivered to the client Association, than word was received by the Association's executive that Peters - remember in her own estimation a "middle class" lawyer, a very junior solicitor - had already been given an audience before the autocratic NSW Bar Association, a quite extraordinary accomplishment in itself.
I have learned that it was directly as a result of Rebecca Peters addressing that eminent group of staid gentlemen which caused them to immediately pass a motion which effectively bound them, that should a legal challenge be launched against the 1996 gun law changes in Australia, the Bar Association would mount a strong campaign to defeat such a legal challenge and apparently "free legal services" were promised to aid in defeating any such challenge, which is perhaps why in the courts of Australia, survivors of the Port Arthur massacre seeking redress have a devil's own job in getting their case to Court.
When Port Arthur and its "fruit" are considered alongside what has occurred especially in Canada what is building - fast - just south of the border should cause all Americans a deal of concern. In Canada a not-so-discreet Canadian Liberal Party Senator, Sharon Carstairs let the cat out of the bag some time back with her witnessed as pointing out before the Community Legal Education Association, that the new gun law is the lynchpin in her party's plan to "socially re-engineer Canada". 8
Her revelation prompted journalist Lorne Gunter of the Edmonton Journal, to write, "The Liberals believe [the draconian gun law] would re-engineer Canada, and especially male gun owners, making its citizens more docile." Continuing he wrote, "When lawmakers trample centuries-old liberties without an overwhelming social good, in return then respect for the law dies and the rule of law along with it." 9
Summary:
As I edited this article, news came to hand that a tenth victim had been
shot and killed in Washington. On the same television news I saw were
10 people were killed and 34 injured in a 24-plus vehicle pile-up on
Interstate 13, near Milwaukee: they died a grizzly, fiery death - but to a
wider public such incidents are fill-in news items. They cause no widespread
trauma, certainly nothing equivalent in any way to a win-win sound bite such
as results from the gross uncertainty of the Washington sniper. Just the same
as the Port Arthur massacre. Those who employ Hegelian dialectics against
their fellow man for political gain play trauma as a finely tuned tool, to
control a nation, just as 9/11 did to many nations. Trauma is an
extraordinarily efficient agent, deployed to deliver control to the State
through voluntary surrender by the people of their inalienable rights and
freedoms.
Is it too hard to look at history? Not so long ago the Tavistock guru's Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary under the wing of Capitol International Airways (CIA), created the first "somatotomic serial killer" Charles Manson. Hence the spate of earlier school yard shootings in America, and this latest sniper program prompts me to quote the following for your consideration: http://i.am/jah//node/view/255
"In a quite almost invisible way, OSS-CIA assessment methods transformed our basic notions about human nature. Thirteen million youths were screened, selected, trained in complex skills, behaviour-modified by means of psychological techniques. In the future, both war and peace were to be based on our knowledge of the brain. Intelligence became the key to survival in the future. Psychology became the new science of human engineering." end quote. 10
This morning's latest "breaking news" of the huge bomb detonated in the Bali township of Kuta resulting in upwards of 184 killed and 'hundreds' more wounded reminds me of the above article. Official reports here are suspect to say the least. After the Port Arthur Massacre, how can any Australian trust our present crop of politicians. For in the scheme of gun control delivered by politicians, I must remind you: there is no trigger guard or safety-catch on politicians.
But of one point I can be certain; Dr Peters has not deserted her latest field of operations, Baltimore and the District of Columbia, and the gun control network is not going away either. So, in these uncertain times it is Okay to be unarmed, but if you love freedom with a passion - should you be so reckless as to allow yourself to be disarmed?
Sources
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, Press Release c-1998. Fairfax - GOOD WEEKEND, 5 April 1997 "In The Firing Line" by Sonya Voumard ISSN 1443-8607 Vol 1 Number 2 Nov. 2000. American Rifleman - by Daniel T. McElrath, July 2000 p. 13 Various Internet sites re Soros and "Gun Control" advocate posted articles Fairfax - GOOD WEEKEND, 5 April 1997 "In The Firing Line" by Sonya Voumard Murder By Injection by Eustace Mullins 1988, p. 224 American NRA's ILA article, "Canada: where registration equals confiscation" American Rifleman, March 2001, p. 67-69. Ibid. Serial Killers Part II, by Carol Greene and David Hammer (c-1990) p. 11.
The author gives permission to copy, providing it is done so without omissions or amendments. SB
