A little further context on Adrian Garcia

After I received the second anti-Adrian Garcia flyer from the group that's masquerading as "Citizens for a Better America", I searched the Chronicle's archives to get some context on one of the quotes they're using to smear Garcia. I've now searched the Austin American Statesman and the San Antonio Express News for the others. Here are the results.

Quote from flyer: People need to "change their habits and develop more safety-minded type attitude." (Austin American Statesman, 12/24/91)

From the archive:

Stun gun sales rise with crime in Houston
Author: AP AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN Date: December 24, 1991 Publication: Austin American-Statesman Page Number: B3 Word Count: 336

HOUSTON (AP) - With fear about the city's robbery and homicide rates on the rise, Houston retailers say stun guns and other "personal safety devices" have become popular Christmas presents.

"They don't feel safe, and they want their loved ones to be safe, and this gives them security," said Ron Hardman, manager of The Spy Factory. "They say they hate to have to buy this kind of gift for Christmas, but they think it's a good one."

I can't get the full story without paying for it (if anyone has an account with the Statesman and wants to retrieve the full text for me, I'll be glad to excerpt the relevant bits). Clearly, though, this is as I thought. In respose to a story about people buying stun guns for personal safety, Adrian Garcia suggests that "changing habits" and developing a more "safety-minded attitude" would be time and money better spent. Anyone want to quibble with that? I don't. I presume he offered specific tips about what habits should be changed and what a more safety-minded attitude looks like. Perhaps twelve years later, some of the specifics of his advice might be considered misguided, but we weren't given that for consideration.

Quote from flyer: Believes "Houston gangs rarely attempt to terrorize their own neighborhoods." (San Antonio Express News, 12/13/00)

From the archive:

December 13, 2000 San Antonio Express-News
Family gun safety needed to avoid problems, misuse

Column

With so many guns on the street today, some people feel owning a firearm is the best way to stay safe at home. But for curious children and untrained individuals, a gun can be a ticking time bomb. Adrian Garcia, 39, is a police officer, husband and father of a 5-year-old girl. In his 20 years with the police department, Garcia has seen the problem of firearm misuse firsthand. "Nowadays, more and more people are arming themselves with handguns in order to solve their problems,

[View the full-text article, 418 words]

It's an op-ed on gun safety (as above, payment is required to view the whole thing). I'm not sure what the quote about gangs has to do with this, though I'd guess it's to say that most people probably don't need to buy a gun to defend their homes from gang violence. Without getting into an argument about risk acceptance and aversion, I'm fairly certain that national crime statistics would support that assertion. I should note that a news article upon which this column was apparently based appears two other times in the E-N's archives, on December 6 and November 23 of 2000. The headlines for the earlier articles are "Handgun safety is important" and "Gun locks can stop accidents", respectively.

We'll see if this winds up having an effect on the District H race. A few other tidbits from the Woodland Heights chat board: At least one person has contacted District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal to see if any campaign laws have been broken; Hector Longoria has not replied to email from a WH person asking him if he had any knowledge of or involvement in this mailer; the faux CFABA group has apparently also targeted Herlinda Garcia (HCC Trustee District 3). Stay tuned.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 03, 2003 to Election 2003 | TrackBack