LIONHART Posted July 21, 2005 Report Share Posted July 21, 2005 Feinstein Gun Ban Could Come up in the Senate Soon Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408 http://www.gunowners.org Thursday, July 21, 2005 While the big news of the day is President Bush's pick for the Supreme Court (more on this below), Gun Owners of America is hearing rumblings that the Senate will soon be considering legislation to slow down the number of frivolous lawsuits against gun makers. Although GOA is supportive of this legislation, S. 397, we must remember that anti-gun Senators used this legislation last year to load it up with all kinds of anti-gun riders -- things like gun show restrictions, semi-auto bans and more. In the end, pro-gun supporters were forced to vote against (and kill) the lawsuit protection bill in order to defeat the anti-gun amendments. GOA told Majority Leader Bill Frist that all of this could have been avoided if he used certain parliamentary maneuvers to keep Senator Dianne Feinstein from offering her gun ban amendment to the bill. Later, when she tried to attach the semi-auto ban to another bill, GOA asked you to contact Frist and urge him to use those parliamentary procedures. Well, he did. And it worked. Feinstein & Co. were furious that Frist was acting in such an "undemocratic" fashion. They railed against Frist and the Republican leadership. But we escaped without getting ANY new gun restrictions. (You can read about this victory by going to http://www.gunowners.org/a091404.htm on the GOA website.) Fast forward one year. Some Republicans have seemingly forgotten this key success from last year, and seem willing to allow Sen. Feinstein to offer gun control legislation to the gun makers' protection act. The Washington Post reported last week that Sen. Feinstein is looking to offer a gun ban when the lawsuit protection bill comes up for a vote in the next couple of weeks. Feinstein said she "would try to limit sales of powerful 50 caliber weapons so that they could only be sold through federally licensed dealers, not at gun shows." Unfortunately, rather than repeating a proven strategy for success, Senate Republicans are reportedly adopting a VERY DANGEROUS plan. In fact, they would be going down the same road that gave us both the semi-auto ban and the McCain-Feingold incumbent protection act. The Post quotes Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) as saying that the "strategy this time would not be to dump the bill but remove anything objectionable in conference with the House of Representatives." OK, there are two problems with this strategy. First, they don't need to "dump" the bill. Why not just use the parliamentary procedures (described at http://www.gunowners.org/a030204a.htm on the GOA website) which would prevent -- and have prevented in the past -- anti-gun amendments from even being offered in the first place? Second, it's very dangerous to ask Senators to vote for gun control legislation, on the promise that it will be killed later on. You wouldn't try this approach out in the woods. When is the best time to kill a poisonous snake? Answer: the first chance you get. The longer you let it live, the better chance it has to bite you. This is exactly what happened in 2002, when many senators voted for the McCain-Feingold restrictions on free speech, based on the assumption that the conference committee would clean up the bill later and the Supreme Court would overturn it. Gun owners are now well aware that the conference committee never cleaned up the McCain-Feingold incumbent protection bill, and draconian restrictions on the ability of Gun Owners to inform people of their legislators' anti-gun records went to the President's desk. President Bush then signed the bill, also relying on the presumption that the Supreme Court would strike down unconstitutional provisions that were in it. Well, wrong again. The Supreme Court upheld the restrictions in December, 2003. This is also the SAME FAILED STRATEGY that gave us the semi-auto ban. Pro-gun Senators refused to filibuster the semi-auto ban -- when Senator Feinstein offered it as an amendment to the crime bill in November of 1993 -- arguing that they would remove the language in conference! Sound familiar? The ban survived the conference committee and was happily signed into law by President Clinton. Were it not for the sunset provision, the semi-auto ban would still be the law of the land. Remember, you always kill a poisonous snake the first chance you get. One can only assume that a conference committee will "take care of the problem" if one ignores the determination of Ted Kennedy, Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer. ACTION: Please urge Senator Bill Frist to do whatever it takes to keep anti-gun amendments off of the gun makers' protection act. Ask him to use ANY and ALL of the parliamentary maneuvers that he has at his disposal to keep Dianne Feinstein from attaching her gun ban to S. 397. Urge him to use the power of the majority to stand for the Bill of Rights. You can call Senator Frist at (202) 224-3344, or go to http://www.frist.senate.gov and select "Contact Senator Frist" under the "About Senator Frist" heading to send a message similar to the one below. Please note: Even if you do not live in Tennessee, Sen. Frist will probably appreciate your opinion since he is looking to represent you in the future as the next President of the United States. ----- Pre-written letter ----- Dear Senator Frist: Gun Owners of America informs me that Senator Dianne Feinstein and her cohorts are looking to offer gun control amendments to the gun makers' protection act, S. 397. I want you to know that the minimal gains this legislation will give us should NOT be accepted in exchange for Feinstein-style gun control. You should also know that I am very wary of promises that the offending gun control language will be taken out of the bill in a conference committee. Those are the same kinds of failed promises that I have heard in years past when we got stuck with the Clinton-Feinstein semi-auto ban in 1994 and the McCain-Feingold free speech restrictions in 2002. Instead, I would encourage you to use the SAME SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY that you used last year to keep gun control off of the class action lawsuit bill. I would urge you to use any and all parliamentary tools at your disposal to prevent this amendment from being offered to the gun makers' protection act. Gun Owners of America has listed how this can be done, step by step, at http://www.gunowners.org/a030204a.htm on its website. Thank you. Sincerely, **************************** Bush Makes Supreme Court Nomination As you know, President Bush has nominated Judge John G. Roberts, Jr., to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Roberts served as the deputy solicitor general in the Bush I administration and has briefly served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In all candor, not much is known about this "stealth candidate." There are indications that he believes in judicial restraint, but there is really not much of a paper trail -- especially regarding the Second Amendment -- to be sure of his approach to the Constitution. On the one hand, choosing stealth candidates has given us bad judges like David Souter. Ann Coulter is certainly a notable conservative who is out front, leading the charge against any such stealth nominee. On the other hand, choosing a candidate who does not have a paper trail could be a brilliant strategy to prevent him from being "Borked." All of this to say, Gun Owners of America will be looking forward to the nomination hearings with great anticipation. Please stay tuned. **************************** Pass this on Folks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario Scarpino Posted July 22, 2005 Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 If fineswine, hitlery, teddy and chuckie pull off a fast one on our "pro-Second Amendment supporters", its time to clean house. Vote for anybody but an incumbent in the next primary election. All these clowns should know they will be "fired" if they cannot do the very basics for which they were elected, protect the Constitution and the American people. What has happened to this country in the past 30-40 years is absolutely amazing. For the past forty plus years or so we were supposedly fighting the communists at all costs. We sent our brave men to fight and sometimes die for what was right, the American way. Now we (the U.S.A.) have fully empowered a communtist county (china) that can or will soon be able to dictate what America can and cannot do. I guess the lives of our brave men who fought for the American way died in vain. Have any (even one??) of our U.S. congressmen or senators introduced a bill to secure or close our borders (protect and defend America)? They passed the "patriot act" (a joke if you ask me), but no common sense type of action like securing the borders!!!! These clowns don't care about you and me, just themselves. Judges get appointed who favor letting murderers, rapists, child molesters, etc back onto the streets, but who totally oppose the idea of free people protecting themselves. To them, a law abiding citizen carrying a gun is a bigger threat to society than a twice convicted child molester (out on parole). How about quotas, outcome based education, political correctness, etc. etc.??? This country could not have gotten to this point without the help of both the democraps and the republicants. I consider myself a conservative and have been supporting the repubs, but they have shown under Bush that they can't get the job done either. ANY ANTI SECOND AMENDMENT BILL OR ANYTHING ATTACHED TO A BILL THAT IN ANYWAY IMPOSES ANY RESTRICTION ON THE SECOND AMENDMENT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE, I WILL VOTE FOR THE CONSTITUTION PARTY CANDIDATE OR SOME OTHER THIRD PARTY CANDIDATE. Some of you will say this will get hitlery elected in 2008. She only represents more of what we already have. Unless we take terrorism seriously, and let all other countries know we will remain a sovereign country, it will be too late guys, we will lose the battle. My guess is our current politicians don't have the balls to do the right things. We know fineswine, boxer, chuckie and teddy don't have any! Hitlery has bill's, so she gets partial credit. We need to make noise now, not later!!!!! I feel a little better now, but not much!! Thanks Lionhart for keeping an eye on these ball-less wonders!!! Mario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LIONHART Posted July 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 Gun Rights Alert from the Firearms Coalition * Senate to Debate Manufacturer Liability Next Week * (Washington, D.C., 22 July, 2005) Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has said that the Senate will take up the issue of firearms industry liability protection before the August recess. “*I am hopeful that with the cooperation of members, we can complete all action on this legislation before the recess."* Said Frist yesterday. That means it must come to the floor in the next few days. Currently there are a total of 57 sponsors on the bill in the Senate and all have promised to vote for a “clean†bill with no souring amendments such as those that caused Senator Larry Craig (R, Idaho), the primary sponsor, to pull the bill last year. Craig recently commented that if “poison pill†amendments are attached this year, he will continue to push for passage with a strategy of removing the unpalatable portions during the House/Senate Conference Committee process. While that is not an unreasonable strategy, it is a bit disconcerting that Senator Craig felt compelled to reveal that bit of information prior to the floor debate. Such prior knowledge of this possibility could give some Senators a sense of cover to vote for bad amendments. Expect John McCain (R, Arizona) to lead off the amendment parade by trying to attach “gun show loophole†language. The Brady Campaign against Gun Owners and the Violence Policy Left-of-Center have been widely circulating quotes from Illinois State Rifle Association press releases calling for closing of the “gun show loophole†in their state to keep guns out of the hands of “drug lords, terrorists, and gang-bangers.†(and ISRA wonders why I’m mad at them…) Also on the poison pill menu: Assault weapons ban, .50 cal. ban, and a call to bar people on the federal “No-Fly List†and “Terrorist Watch Lists†from legally purchasing firearms (which doesn’t sound bad until you realize just how easy it is to get on those lists and how hard it is to get back off). In your communications with Senators over the next couple of days, be sure to remind them that it’s the votes that count not the end result. Let them know that if they vote for bad amendments – even if those amendments are eventually stripped out in committee – that the bad vote will be remembered and held against them. * Industry Petitions Supreme Court * A coalition of firearms manufacturers has petitioned the Supreme Court to review a Washington, D.C. law which holds the industry to “strict liability†for any harm that comes from their products. Under the D.C. law, a police officer wounded with his own gun during a struggle with a criminal could sue the manufacturer for damages. The law has been upheld once in the D.C. Court of Appeals so now the industry is seeking relief from the Supreme Court. * Latest Hard Corps Report in the Mail * The latest Hard Corps Report should be in mailboxes today or tomorrow. With this issue we introduce a new look and a new format which offers more space for information. If you do not already receive the Hard Corps Report – the bi-monthly newsletter from the Firearms Coalition – subscribe today by sending your mailing address and a contribution to help us stay in business to: The Firearms Coalition Box 3313 Manassas, VA 20108 As always, we will do our best to keep you informed with timely reports and insights into the gun-rights news you need to know about. Along with these e-mail alerts and the Hard Corps Report, we are regular columnists for Shotgun News and maintain links to useful information on our web site at www.FirearmsCoalition.org . Yours for the Second Amendment, Jeff Jeff Knox Director of Operations The Firearms Coalition www.FirearmsCoalition.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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