Another Feinstein Gun Ban!

[LIONHART]

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!

[Mario Scarpino]

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

[LIONHART]

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