Conservative Libertarian Outpost

There’s a lot of danger looming on the horizon. When the next
> Congress is sworn in January, a committed gun hater and supporter of
> gun confiscation, Nancy Pelosi, will take the reins in the House.
>
> The democratic congresswoman from California is rabidly anti-gun.
> She holds an F- rating from Gun Owners of America and has
> consistently championed socialist “values.” The new Majority Leader
> in the Senate, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, also holds an F- rating
> from GOA.
>
> Both Pelosi and Reid have worked hard to earn their failing grades,
> and now, they will be setting the agenda on gun control issues. Gun
> owners will have to remain vigilant in a way that we have not had to
> for more than a decade. But lest we forget, there was much that we
> were able to accomplish this year. Just consider some of the
> victories that we achieved together.
>
> *** January — March
>
> Gun Owners lobbied on all kinds of issues at the state level this
> year. But, perhaps, the most gratifying victories centered on the
> Emergency Protection bills that protect the rights of Americans to
> keep and bear arms in the wake of a natural disaster.
>
> Gun owners will remember that a little over a year ago — in the wake
> of Hurricane Katrina — police began stealing the guns of law-abiding
> residents in New Orleans. This travesty exposed the fact that,
> similar to Louisiana, several states had laws which gave enormous
> (although unconstitutional) powers to Governors to regulate or ban
> firearms during an emergency.
>
> GOA sprung into action, first, by posting videos of the gun
> confiscation on our website. GOA then began working in several state
> legislatures, as GOA-supported bills were introduced all across the
> nation to repeal these pernicious state codes.
>
> GOA spent a lot of time in Louisiana, getting gun owners in the state
> to lobby their own legislators in favor of a change in the law. The
> results were astounding, as the state sponsor of the “Emergency
> Protection” act credited GOA with helping him get 80% of the House of
> Representatives to cosponsor his bill.
>
> Rep. Steve Scalise, told GOA that, “I’ve had a number of
> [Representatives] come up to me asking to co-author my bill because
> they heard from members of Gun Owners of America in their districts
> in support of my bill.”
>
> Not only that, Scalise said that the GOA-produced videos which
> contained media footage of the gun thefts were instrumental in
> helping him convince lawmakers that gun confiscation had actually
> occurred. (Yes, it’s true. Many of his legislative colleagues had
> no idea gun confiscation had occurred in New Orleans.)
>
> In the end, Louisiana was one of ten states that GOA spent time in,
> working to enact their Emergency Protection bills into law.
>
> *** April — June
>
> With most of the state legislatures ending, GOA turned its sights on
> pro-gun bills at the national level. GOA used the Internet and the
> mail to mobilize gun owners in support of the Vitter-Jindal bills,
> which were federal versions of Emergency Protection legislation that
> passed in almost a dozen states.
>
> GOA also spent time defending gun owners’ rights in the courts.
> After San Francisco voters decided to ban handguns within their city
> limits, Gun Owners’ founder and chairman, Sen. H.L. Richardson,
> submitted an amicus brief contesting the new edict.
>
> While serving as a California state senator for more than two
> decades, Richardson had drafted (and passed) preemption legislation
> which bans localities from doing what the Bay City did.
>
> In June, Superior Court Judge James Warren agreed with the Gun Owners
> Foundation-funded amicus brief and overturned the voter-approved
> measure, citing Richardson’s law as prohibiting the city from banning
> guns.
>
> At the same time, GOA started alerting people to the upcoming UN gun
> control conference, which would take place over the July 4 holiday.
>
> In the days leading up to the conference, Gun Owners of America
> activated its grassroots network, generating thousands of messages
> into Senate and State Department offices.
>
> GOA used the mail, radio, and Internet for several months, urging gun
> owner support for legislation to instantly cut off US funds to the
> United Nations. In addition to contacting the Congress, GOA also
> urged gun owners to contact the State Department delegation which
> attended the UN conference.
>
> *** July
>
> GOA members were on hand to protest the UN and give interviews to the
> New York Times on the opening day of its gun control summit. Fox
> News reported that “Groups like Gun Owners of America… [are]
> heavily lobbying against the symposium here at the U.N.”
>
> Despite high expectations in the gun-grabbing community, the
> conference would not end favorably for Brady-types all around the
> globe. As indicated above, GOA was very active in the weeks and
> months leading up to the July 4 gun control conference. And with the
> conclusion of the conference, press reports indicated that our active
> participation was well worth the effort.
>
> According to Reuters, the conference ended in a “total meltdown” and
> “chaos.” No formal paper was adopted, and no plan for future action
> was agreed to.
>
> Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), in a column appearing on the day before the
> conference was to begin, praised gun owners for having responded to
> the call to action with “an avalanche of letters” to the American
> delegation, asking that none of our tax dollars be used to further UN
> anti-gun proposals.
>
> July was also an important month because both the House and Senate
> passed their respective versions of the Emergency Protection Act.
> The bill was signed into law by President Bush in October.
>
> *** August
>
> Most lobby groups in Washington get to take a vacation in August, as
> Congress goes out of town for its summer recess. But Gun Owners went
> to work, lobbying hard against the expansion of the Brady Act — a
> bill introduced by F- rated Carolyn McCarthy. Her bill (HR 1415) is
> designed to suck in even more innocent, unsuspecting gun owners into
> the web of gun owner disarmament.
>
> GOA members and activists overwhelmingly responded to our internet
> and postal alerts over the August recess, resulting in untold
> thousands of postcards and emails being dumped on legislators’ desks
> in opposition to HR 1415.
>
> The results were astounding, as indicated by the following quote from
> a congressional office: “Oh s–t! We got a lot of postcards and
> e-mails from GOA members.”
>
> It’s a good thing those postcards and e-mails were sent by our
> members, too, because GOA was the only Second Amendment group in
> Washington opposing McCarthy’s attack.
>
> *** September
>
> Part of the confusion over the McCarthy gun grab was that pro-gun
> lobbyists in the nation’s capital were encouraging House members to
> support her anti-gun bill. For this reason, when the House Judiciary
> Committee was scheduled to vote on HR 1415 in early September, the
> McCarthy gun bill was expected to easily pass.
>
> But that was before thousands upon thousands of postcards and emails
> from GOA members began flooding legislative offices. When the
> Judiciary Committee met in September, they reported two
> firearms-related bills to the floor of the House — but they
> specifically passed over the McCarthy bill (even though it was
> scheduled to come up for a vote).
>
> Thanks to the active support of GOA members, legislators decided they
> didn’t want to touch this “hot potato.” The tidal wave of grassroots
> opposition buried the gun control bill as legislative offices on
> Capitol Hill told GOA, “We’ve heard your postcards and e-mails loud
> and clear!”
>
> *** October — November
>
> Gun Owners were very involved in the recent elections, as our
> political victory fund helped elect several, new, outstanding pro-gun
> legislators to Congress. GOA-PVF directly assisted several of these
> new congressmen, while GOA helped expose the anti-gun records of
> those who were selling out gun owners’ rights.
>
> GOA is famous for its extensive Candidate Rating which is posted
> every two years on our website, and has been published in many
> pro-gun magazines over the years. But the Brady Campaign hates this
> fact, and they have asked the Federal Election Commission to
> investigate GOA’s practice of posting its candidate ratings on the
> Internet.
>
> Millions of gun owners rely on these ratings, but obviously, that is
> something the Brady Bunch would like to end. They want to keep you
> in the dark! They don’t want you to know the truth. The more they
> can hide what anti-gun legislators are doing, the greater their
> ability to take away your guns.
>
> A decision by the FEC is currently pending. While this could become
> a costly battle for Gun Owners of America, we still plan to fight it
> in the courts. But this won’t be the only court battle that is
> carrying-over to the next year. As the year comes to an end, there
> are three very-high profile cases in which Gun Owners Foundation is
> involved.
>
> First, GOA’s foundation stood alongside the Attorney General of
> Wyoming in defiance of the BATFE. The agency wants to overturn a
> Wyoming law, introduced by Senator Cale Case, which essentially
> allows state residents (who are disqualified to own firearms because
> of the federal Lautenberg gun ban) to find a legal way of getting
> around the federal ban. While the BATFE is opposing this law in
> court, GOA is in the state, helping to protect the rights of gun
> owners.
>
> This case is extremely important, because if GOF can win in Wyoming,
> then Case’s law can be used as a model in other states, thus allowing
> innocent gun owners — who were unsuspectingly disarmed for life —
> to own guns once again.
>
> Another one of GOF’s high-profile cases is in Montana, where we are
> helping to defend Rick Celata, the owner of KT Ordinance. KTO makes
> parts kits for individuals who want to make their own firearms, which
> is legal as long as the owner does not sell the firearm to another
> person. The BATFE has raided Celata and confiscated all of his part
> kits, although the agency has yet to charge him with any criminal
> wrongdoing. Nevertheless, Celata’s firearms have been put up for
> forfeiture.
>
> Finally, GOF is assisting Bob Arwady, a gun dealer in Texas. The
> BATFE vendetta against gun stores in general — and Bob Arwady in
> particular — has dragged on for years. The BATFE lost their effort
> to jail Arwady when he showed in federal court that their three
> witnesses were liars. The jury acquitted him. But that has not
> stopped the BATFE from their current effort to pull Arwady’s dealer’s
> license — an effort which amounts to nothing more than the agency’s
> attempt to punish and harass someone for having continuously beaten
> them in court.
>
> As you can see, both Gun Owners of America and its foundation have
> been working to defend your rights all over the country. And we
> certainly look forward to working together with you again next year.
>
> PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO YOUR PRO-GUN FRIENDS AND FAMILY. We
> are going to be fighting a lot of battles in the next Congress, and
> it’s good for gun owners all across the country to go into these
> skirmishes with a reminder that we can accomplish much together (and
> that we have done so in the past).
>
> Thanks for standing with us. You can go to
> http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm to make sure that your
> support remains current.
>

What can I say? Too arms! Too arms! The Commies Democrats are coming!

This entry was posted on December 16, 2006 at 08:42 and is filed under Gun Control. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.