This page is a transcription of a FAX alert that I received, added my own supporting data, and in turn forwarded. Please distribute it as widely as possible. We do not need a cancer within our own ranks -- we have enough to deal with fighting our admitted enemies!

Please note that I do not personally have verification of the ``neo-Nazi'' claims in Mr. Wilson's letter, but the rest I know to be true. Also note that Mr. Wilson has included Mr. Caplan's address and telephone number at the end of his letter. I absolutely do not condone, nor do I encourage in any way, harassment or physical/verbal intimidation of Mr. Caplan via the abuse of this information. No late night calls to him, please, and don't go stalking or harming him -- just vote him off the NRA Board.

Regards,
Chris BeHanna
NRA Life #CPC7725J

Chris BeHanna [Address suppressed] (610) 847-2747 FAX

February 26, 1997

Dear Gunowner,

Attached to this cover sheet please find 3 pages concerning NRA Director David Caplan. Although I do not agree with Mr. Wilson's opinion that Wayne and Tanya are doing a ``good job,'' I most emphatically agree with him that Mr. Caplan is a great danger to the firearms community. As a former board member of the Coalition of New Jersey Sportsmen (CNJS), I have experienced Mr. Caplan's tactics firsthand -- he is one of the few people I have ever met who can actually filibuster a board meeting! He falls back upon misstatements about Robert's Rules to delay meetings and seizes upon the most trivial aspects of semantics to carry arguments on for more than half an hour at a time, claiming that people should have stated their points differently during board meetings. He has also made personal verbal attacks upon Mr. Alan Rice, former board member of JPFO, during CNJS board meetings and is a thoroughly unpleasant person when he gets his dander up (which can happen for no fathomable reason of any importance to the gun rights movement). Caplan also publically insulted another CNJS board member by stating that he should ``stick to pulling wires'' and should stay out of gun rights politics (the other board member is an electrician by profession and I can attest that he is a very dedicated and intelligent individual when it comes to gun rights). Caplan's behavior led the CNJS board to adopt a rule that any board member who makes personal attacks upon another board member during a meeting will be summarily ejected from that meeting.

Mr. Caplan is a retired patent attorney (formerly employed with AT&T) with no experience whatsoever in practicing constitutional law, yet he was able to use his position of being an attorney (and of being chairman of the CNJS Legislative and Legal Action Committees) to delay the CNJS board from filing the lawsuit to overturn the Florio gun ban, citing vague concerns about ``mootness'' and ``ripeness'' of the case. He routinely failed to do what he said he'd do and gave no reasons for doing so -- this went on for months at a time. When confronted on other matters, Caplan threatened to call Halbrook and tell him that CNJS was financially unreliable so that Halbrook would drop the case (I heard this firsthand). Although I am no attorney, I am somewhat familiar with Stephen Halbrook's reputation, and I believe that had Halbrook felt that the case lacked merit or had the case been at great risk of being summarily dismissed, he would not have agreed to take it.

In addition to the matters discussed by Mssrs. Wilson and Duncan (and Mr. Duncan has given me copies of correspondence between himself and Mr. Caplan that prove the veracity of Mr. Duncan's claims), there was a bill, A.221, that passed in New Jersey in [late 1995] which makes it a crime of the first degree (the same severity as premeditated murder!) to ``conspire to sell firearms illegally.'' This law is written so vaguely that the owner of a gun shop who misinterprets some record keeping requirement and then instructs his employees based upon that misinterpretation could face a sentence of 25 years to life. At the time this bill was in committee in 1995, Mr. Caplan's wife, Sue (also an NRA Director), was the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs (ANJRPC) paid, full-time lobbyist in Trenton. Although the ANJRPC and the CNJS are distinct organizations, the ANJRPC was a member of the CNJS (indeed, Mr. Caplan is ANJRPC's representative on the CNJS board) and did not share any information about A.221 with the CNJS at this early stage when the bill could have been dealt with in committee (in fact, during ANJRPC Legislative Action Committee meetings that I attended, Caplan downplayed the danger of A.221). When CNJS Chairman Richard Miller suggested to Caplan that it might be nice to get some information from the ANJRPC lobbyist (who was Caplan's wife), Caplan somehow interpreted this as a personal attack upon his wife and went off the deep end, tying up the rest of the meeting with a series of repetitive (Caplan is often mind-numbingly repetitive) angry outbursts of over an hour's duration, during which, of course, no other business was transacted. In obviously hypocritical fashion, Caplan later criticized the CNJS for not stopping A.221 when it was rushed through the N.J. legislature in late 1995 (during a hurried lame duck session) and signed into law by Christie Whitman. The CNJS was in effect blindsided with A.221 just as we [in Pennsylvania] were with Act 17.

I had a personal telephone conversation with an activist from New York who confirmed Mr. Wilson's brief summary of Mr. Caplan's history. I wrote up a summary of that conversation, but at the activist's request, I have omitted his name -- he does not want his organization tied up in scandal if Mr. Caplan should decide to file suit for defamation (he has threatened legal action against some CNJS board members who have confronted him in the past). We all know that truth is the ultimate defense, but we also know that truth doesn't prevent you from having to pay legal expenses, and the truth doesn't prevent the newspapers from spinning hurtful sound bites into scandal (just look at what they do with Edmondsen's quotes). At any rate, I can forward that summary if needed.

Throughout everything he does, Caplan is very careful not to say or do anything that can tie him to telling an outright lie, but he seldom tells the whole truth either (remember what they say about half truths?). It is absolutely true that he supported the bill that Bill Duncan said he supported. I concur very strongly with Mssrs. Duncan and Wilson that David Caplan should not be reelected to the NRA Board of Directors.

Please circulate this information as widely as possible.

/s/

Bill Duncan P.O. Box 8513 Landing, NJ 07850 Tel: (201) 770-0571 Fax: (201) 770-6576

February 25, 1997

To All Concerned Gun Owners:

The attached Paladin Group Insider Report regarding David Caplan should be of great interest to you. It should prove especially enlightening to those wondering how and why gun owners have lost so many of their Constitutional rights. Please copy, fax and distribute it as if your few remaining gun rights depend on it! Herein some additional information:

For years, David Caplan has, either directly or Indirectly, influenced the activities of NRA, Association, and Coalition; damaging either by intent or stupidity, the 2nd Amendment rights of millions.

During the Florio regime of 1992, anti-gun legislation (A. #1662) was proposed which would automatically surrender all firearms and revoke the permits of any New Jersey resident convicted of the most basic misdemeanor crimes -- crimes such as bouncing a $200 check, for example. There would be no appeal. All state-wide pro-gun groups initially opposed A.1622 for the obvious reasons up until David Caplan actively lobbied for its support.

Through his efforts, Caplan was able to change the legislative position of the Association and Coalition to one of support for A.1662. In his letter of January 6, 1993 Caplan cites one advantage of A.1662 in that it allows gun owners 45 days in which to turn in or dispose of their firearms. He also finds ``positive values'' in the legislation since it allows police the option of how they may notify a gun owner that he or she will lose all their firearms.

After great controversy within the pro-gun community over the true consequences of this back door gun ban, and even with David Caplan supporting A.l662 to the end, the legislation was defeated. (Florio's Attorney General would testify in favor of A.1662, and as to the need for the state to surrender the firearms of gun owners convicted of misdemeanor violations.)

At the time, full documentation regarding David Caplan's slick manipulation of New Jersey's pro-gun organizations to support such threatening legislation was sent to the NRA President and entire NRA board of directors, as well as Association and Coalition leadership. Yet no action was taken, nor even a question raised over his anti-gun efforts. Today, David Caplan continues to strongly influence 2nd Amendment activities at both state and federal levels. His wife, Sue Caplan, is legislative chairman for the Association.

A package of documentation regarding Caplan's support of A.1662 is available by contacting me at the above address.

Sincerely,

/s/

Bill Duncan

Paladin Group Insider Report

Special NRA Election Information

Don't Vote For David Caplan For NRA Board Of Directors. Here's Why.......

The NRA's Nominating Committee almost refused to renominate David Caplan for the NRA Board of Directors. Why would the NRA not want to renominate an existing NRA Director back to the NRA Board? Why would the NRA nominate another NJ activist to take his place? Caplan had to get his anti-NRA chronies to sign petitions to get his name back on the election ballot! Finally, bending to the demands of a few of the anti-NRA dissidents, the Nominating Committee put Caplan on the election ballot again. Here are some reasons why many at the NRA do not want David Caplan on the NRA's Board. They are the same reasons why you should not vote for him, unless you want to tear apart the NRA. Caplan has successfully divided pro-firearm organizations in New York and New Jersey. Now he is trying to divide and destroy the NRA! You cannot let him destroy the NRA!

In NY during the 1980s, Caplan unsuccessfully tried discredit the NY State Association's President and Board, wanting to get his close friend elected as the NY Association's President. Former NY Association officers and board members describe Caplan as ``poison to the organization,'' a ``snake,'' .... His actions have caused divisions within the NY State Association and several other organizations that are so deep that they are not healed 10 years later. The NY State Association's Nominating Committee refused to renominate him to the board. He was ousted from the NY Association. This sounds similar to the NRA's action today, almost 1O years later!

Since Caplan's ouster from the NY Association's Board eliminated his role in the NY pro-gun movement, he decided to move to New Jersey. He joined the Association of NJ Rifle and Pistol Clubs. From this NJ base, he started the same pattern again -- divide and destroy the NJ pro-firearm community.

His attacks have directly led to most volunteers leaving the Association -- hundreds left -- entire committees resigned: the Legislative Committee, the Legislative Action Committee, the Women's Issues Committee and the Shows & Publicity Committee. Since the Association cannot get volunteers, it now must resort to a paid staff to get key work done. NRA insiders report that the Association is now run by just three old men -- ``the Association is just three heart attacks away from extinction.'' The Association is now using smoke and mirrors -- and a paid PR firm -- to create the illusion that the Association is doing something for its membership. But the membership is not dumb. Membership in the NJ Association has fallen over 40%. Now most Association members are only range members! Talk to any NJ Association member. Usually they will say that they ``don't think the Association is doing anything.'' David Caplan worked hard to insure that the NJ Association could not do anything. Inaction is Caplan's hallmark! He appears not to want the pro-gun movement to succeed. Now he is in the process of crippling the NRA!

Not only has Caplan attacked the Association's organization, he attacked other organizations within NJ, helping cause deep divisions and distrust between NJ pro-gun groups and the NJ Association. Cooperation is at an all time low, thanks to Caplan.

Caplan has attacked not only organizations, but he has attacked over a dozen pro-firearm individuals in leadership positions in New Jersey. He not only tried to destroy their pro-firearm leadership positions, but also their jobs and careeers. One interesting fact is that he has concentrated on primarily Jews and women. Why? If you have questions, please refer to a previous Paladin Group news release where we have documented Caplan's support of neo-Nazi groups and neo-Nazi publications in the Association's publications. The NRA intervened and overruled Caplan and the Association stopped selling the Nazi hate material. Now you may be able to answer your own questions about Caplan!

He also has tried to stop or delay many pro-firearm initiatives. Here are some of Caplan's actions on just one firearm initiative -- the now pending law suit against the New Jersey Assault Rifle ban. There are many, many other examples. NRA insiders indicate that:

• He argued against initiating any law suit for months
• He successfully fought to delay the law suit for over six months
• He stopped the NRA from helping fund the law suit for over eight months
• When the NRA overruled Caplan and moved to fund the law suit, Caplan successfully reduced the amount of money the NRA would contribute to the law suit.

Caplan has not limited his anti-firearm activities to NY and NJ. He has recently sided with the NRA dissidents and has started attacking the NRA Board and specifically several NRA leaders -- including Tanya Metaksa and Wayne LaPierre. Caplan's anti-NRA-leadership group has stated:

• ``the NRA seems recently to have become confused about how to do its job''
• ``they were asleep at the switch''
• ``the current Board is not strong enough''
• ``the NRA was duped by the Democrats''

The Paladin Group believes that the NRA has been doing a very good job. Wayne should remain, Caplan should go.

The pattern is clear for over 10 years. Caplan is again trying to divide and destroy the pro-gun movement -- starting in NY, then NJ and now this time his target is the NRA. Each time he gets a small band of dissidents, starts attacking leadership, divides and destroys and the result is inaction and a winning anti-firearm movement. This is the third time he has done it.

You cannot let him succeed this time!

Why is he doing it? Many people believe Caplan might be a anti-firearm mole within the pro-firearm movement! Caplan admits to being a former member of the anti-gun Anti-Defamation League (ADL). He will not. say whether is still is a ADL member. He admits getting HCI insider information. Is he a HCI member also? The Paladin Group has not yet gotten access to the membership lists of these organizations, but when we do, we will let you know if he is a member of these anti-firearm groups.

Is this the type of person you want on the NRA Board? We believe the answer Is NO! Save The NRA -- Don't Vote For David L Caplan, Ph.D., who lives at 41 Madison Ave, Apt 9B, Madison NJ 07940, His phone is 201-765-0177.

Tim Wilson
Executive Director - Paladin Group
Chicago, III 60645