I got this off the FAP list. It is HUD's response to a letter concerning the gun suits. In short, we know it's uconstutional, we are going to do it anyway, we don't give a damn about what you think, have a nice day.
This is the reply that I received from HUD concerning their gun industry law suit. Comments can be directed to Dana Carroll mailto:Dana_P._Carroll@HUD.GOV or mailto:Alexandra_C._Stanton@HUD.GOV by or by telephone: (202) 708-2804, x5160
Thank you for sharing with me your views regarding the issue of guns in our society. This is an issue that we take very seriously. HUD and communities around the nation struggle with the problem of gun violence every day.
Indeed, the problem of gun violence cannot be ignored. Each year more than 30,000 people in this country die in shooting incidents. To give you some perspective, in 1996 alone, more Americans were killed with guns in the U.S. (34,040) than were killed in the entire Korean War (33,651). The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that by the year 2001, firearms will surpass motor vehicles as the leading cause of product-related death in the U.S.
The epidemic of gun violence is a cause for great concern throughout our society and, in particular, urban areas suffer a disproportionate share of this problem. Part of HUD's mission as an agency is to help provide safe places to live for people in these communities and we are pursuing a multi-faceted strategy to address this problem. These actions include providing funds for additional law enforcement, security personnel, and investigators. HUD also has a youth violence prevention program, a "one strike and you're out" policy for public housing and has organized a gang abatement conference. While these programs are a good start, we need to explore all available options to reduce the terrible threat of gun violence. For HUD and housing authorities to turn their back on any potential solution to the gun violence crisis in public housing would be not only to forgo our Congressionally mandated obligation to provide decent and safe housing - but would be reneging on our responsibility as public servants to ensure that taxpayer funds are used in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
To help illustrate the size and seriousness of the problem, I have enclosed with this letter a summary sheet describing a small sample of the incidents of gun violence taking place in and around public housing from 1998 and 1999.
Sincerely,
(Signed)
Harold Lucas
Enclosure
GUN VIOLENCE IN PUBLIC HOUSING - A SMALL SAMPLE FROM 1998 AND 1999
Gun violence in public housing across the country has become an all-too-common tragedy. A search of newspaper articles over the years turns up thousands of stories about people who have been killed, people who have been wounded, and families living in fear. Here are brief summaries of a sample of news stories published in 1998 and 1999 about shootings in public housing.
ALABAMA
MONTGOMERY - 1999 - Police statistics show that 16 percent of the city's 32 homicides in 1998 occurred in public housing. In addition, about 12 percent of the city's aggravated assaults in 1998 were reported in public housing projects.
CALIFORNIA
RICHMOND - July 22, 1999 - Gaston Avila, 19, of Richmond was shot to death and three others -including a 15-year-old girl who was nine months pregnant - were shot during a birthday party at the Easter Hill public housing complex.
SAN FRANCISCO - March 31, 1998 - A 27-year-old man was shot to death execution style in the Sunnydale public housing development. The neighborhood has experienced gun violence in the past. In November, Charles Adams, a 60-year-old retiree, was killed by a stray bullet from a shoot-out between two young men.
CONNECTICUT
BRIDGEPORT - February 1, 1999 -The body of Delmar Epps, 23, was found lying in the road near the Green Homes public housing development, with multiple gunshot wounds.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
WASHINGTON - October 21, 1998 - A 4-year-ol d girl named Javina Holmes, a resident of the Frederick Douglass Dwellings public housing development, was killed when her 8-year-old brother found a loaded shotgun inside their apartment and began shooting.
WASHINGTON - June 21, 1999 - A 55-year-old grandmother, Helen Foster-El, was gunned down by two stray bullets fired by feuding young men as she tried to usher neighborhood children to safety. Parents in the East Capitol Dwellings public housing development said they give their children survival instructions on what to do when shooting erupts, because it happens so often.
FLORIDA
CLEARWATER - May 20, 1999 - LaShonda Denise Williams, 19, was accidentally shot in her Jasmine Court public housing apartment when a revolver that she and her boyfriend were looking at went off. The bullet passed through Williams' neck and came out her shoulder.
LACOOCBEE -- November 3, 1998 -- Willie Hills Jr., a 2-year-old who lived in the Cypress Manor public housing complex, died at St. Joseph's Children Hospital after being accidentally shot by a his 3-year-old playmate who found a gun in the boy's apartment. It was the third accidental shooting involving a child in Pasco County in 1998.
MIAMI - July 15, 1999 - A resident of the James E. Scott Homes, the largest public housing development in Florida, recounted the story of a boy who was shot by two men driving by in a car while the boy was buying ice cream.
TAMPA - April 1, 1998 - One man was killed and two others were critically wounded during a shootout in the Riverview Terrace public housing development. Police said the incident initially appeared to be a drug deal gone bad, since drugs and guns were found in the car. The slaying was the third homicide in three weeks and the second in two days at Riverview Terrace.
ILLINOIS
CHICAGO - January 19, 1998 - Parents and other residents will escort children to school with the hope of protecting them from gang gunfire in the Cabrini-Green public housing development.
CHICAGO - September 7, 1998 - Lavell Jones, 22, was shot and killed by a Chicago Housing Authority policeman after allegedly threatening the officer with a 9-mm. handgun at the Robert Taylor Homes public housing development.
KENTUCKY
LOUISVILLE - May 5, 1999 - Suspected gang member C . Corey J. Bell, 25, was shot to death in an apparent drug dispute at the Clarksdale public housing development. The suspect in the shooting, Ricky LaSalle Glass, 22, shot in himself in the head after a four-hour standoff with Louisville police and died later in the day.
LOUISIANA
NEW ORLEANS - May 3, 1998 - A mother of seven children, Melissa Stone, was on her way to Jazzfest when she was abducted at gunpoint, raped, shot and left to die in an abandoned apartment in the Desire public housing development. Her body was found several days later. A New Orleans man with no adult criminal record was convicted of manslaughter.
NEW ORLEANS - May 29, 1999 - A 14-year-old girl was admitted to Charity Hospital with a gunshot wound in the chest after a gun accidentally went off in the hands of a 14-year-old boy at the Fischer public housing complex.
MARYLAND
ANNAPOLIS - April 12, 1999 - Bryon Antoine Jones, 22, was fatally shot near the front stoop of his girlfriend's Annapolis Gardens duplex. The shooting at the public housing community was apparently the result of an earlier altercation at Club Hollywood, a nearby nightclub.
MASSACHUSETTS
WORCESTER - March 27, 1998 - Luis A. Torres, 24, was shot in both legs while walking along a street in the Great Brook Valley public housing project. After being treated at the University of Massachusetts Hospital, Torres was arrested on criminal warrants. Police said the shooting by five assailants wearing ski masks coincides with the assumed arrival in the neighborhood of a cache of stolen handguns.
NEW JERSEY
NEWARK - January 9, 1999 - Newark Police Officer Frederick Johnson was shot and wounded and Douglas Lamont Parker was killed in a shootout during a routine drug arrest in the Stella Wright Homes public housing development. While the officer was preparing to arrest several men during a drug deal, police said Parker burst through a back door and began firing.
PATERSON - June 24, 1999 - Benjamin Reyes, 26, was shot in his car by an unknown assailant at the Alexander Hamilton public housing complex. Reyes survived and he and a companion in the car were later charged with possession and distribution of heroin.
NEW YORK
NEW YORK CITY - August 1, 1999 - Gerard Carter, a 28-year-old New York City police officer, died four days after being shot outside a building in the West Brighton Homes, a public housing development on Staten Island. The alleged gunman was Shatiek Johnson, 17. Carter and his partner were attempting to arrest Johnson on charges of shooting a 20-year-old man in July. Johnson was on parole for beating a homeless person to death two years earlier.
SCHENECTADY - June 20, 1999 - As children played nearby, 21 -year-old
Shawn Stevens was shot in the abdomen at a playground at the Steinmetz
Homes public housing development.
NORTH CAROLINA
ASHEVILLE - June 2, 1999 - A 17-year-old youth died after he was shot at Deaverview Apartments, a public housing development. The suspect is a 16-year-old boy.
DURHAM - April 7, 1998 - While walking with his mother, a 5-year-old boy was hit by a stray bullet from a gunfight. The bullet severed his spine, and Taquan Mikell may never walk again. The bullet struck him more than a half block away from the gunfight.
PENNSYLVANIA
BETHELEM - July 7, 1998 - Police said Julio Hernandez, 39, shot and killed William Lopez, 21, at the Pembroke Village public housing development, shortly after Lopez shot and critically wounded Anthony Feliciano, 23, after an early-morning argument.
EASTON - June 16, 1998 - A New York City man was shot in the leg at the Delaware Terrace public housing development. The alleged assailant, Troy Alvin, 19, was also arrested in another shooting that injured two bystanders at a Stroudsburg restaurant and bar. At the time of the restaurant shooting, Alvin was awaiting trial for the shooting of the New York City man.
MOUNT PLEASANT - October 10, 1998 - A 46-year-old man broke into a neighbor's apartment at the Pleasant Manor public housing development. He shot and killed 9-year-old Jeremy Barnhart and critically wounded the boy's 14-year-old sister, Cori Barnhart. The gunman, Alan Waterhouse, then returned to his own apartment and, after barricading himself inside for 12 hours, killed himself. Waterhouse was the former boyfriend of the children's mother.
TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS - November 12, 1998 - 4-year-old Lildezmon White, who lives in the Lamar Terrace public housing development, was shot in the head after a gun fell from a shelf. The child was hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.
MEMPHIS - June, 1999 - Two recent shootings of children at Fowler Homes public housing have increased public pressure for better protection, including a proposal to hire private security guards. In the past year, four homicides, 62 assaults, 133 burglaries and other crimes have taken place at Memphis Housing Authority developments, according to the agency.
NASHVILLE - July 2, 1999 - Nashville teenager, Eric Harvey Hazelitt, was fatally shot in the chest when gunfire erupted at the John Henry Hale public housing complex in Nashville. Just 14-years-old, Hazelitt was often seen riding his bike, helping older neighbors shop or emptying the trash. Witnesses said Hazelitt got caught in the crossfire of two groups shooting at each other.
VIRGINIA
PORTSMOUTH - July 10, 1999 - Linwood Scott killed a 28-year-old woman and himself, ending a 13-hour standoff with police at the Jeffrey Wilson Homes public housing development. The woman, Rene Childers, was one of four hostages held by Scott.
RICHMOND - May 25, 1999 - A 5-year-old boy who lives at the Hillside Court public housing development was shot accidentally in the lower back and admitted to the Medical College of Virginia's hospital.
RICHMOND - July 23, 1999 - A woman was shot in the head and killed at the Gilpin Court public housing development while standing next to a pay telephone.