Latest Neal Knox Update

Tuesday the Wisconsin Assembly will vote on whether to override Gov. Jim Doyle’s (D) veto of a license to carry law. The Senate has already passed the measure and the state’s press and leftist organizations are practically foaming at the mouth to stop it.

The vote had been scheduled this past Tuesday but was cancelled because one pro-gun member was absent due to illness – a claim disputed by the press, which said the delay indicated the majority Republicans didn’t have the votes.

The licensing bill originally passed two votes short of a veto-proof two-thirds margin. The two Republicans who originally voted against it have agreed to support the override – but at least one of the seven Democrats who voted for the bill will oppose it.

Three other Democrats say they will vote to override but the other three aren’t talking – and for the law to pass at least one of them must stand by his or her earlier vote, despite the blandishments and coercions to “support your governor.”

New York Gov. George Pataki (R) has included in his Executive Budget a proposal to increase the handgun license fee – to possess, not carry – by a $100 “certification” fee, establish a five-year expiration (most are now issued for life), charge $25 for each handgun owned, and lift the cap on licensing charges by local licensing agencies.

New York’s budget problems are so great that these fees cannot possibly make any difference to the treasury, but will hurt individual handgun owners – which, of course, is the intent.

When the handgun license fee was initially enacted in 1911 it was 50 cents. It has been increased in nearly every session of the legislature since.

Ohio's new concealed handgun license, which takes effect April, disqualifies applicants who have felony convictions, have protective orders against them, or who have been committed – even voluntarily – to a mental institution.

Making that last determination is a problem for sheriffs, the state’s attorney general says, for the Federal law protecting the privacy of individuals’ medical records says such records may be used only for health care purposes.

Do you suppose Gov. Bob Taft (R), who opposed the law every step of the way, then signed it while piously proclaiming his love for the Second Amendment, will now decide that no licenses can be issued because those non-available medical records can’t be checked?

NRA-ILA has a new web page, www.ClintonGunBan.com, designed to educate Congressmen and staff to the “purely symbolic” (to quote the Washington Post) “assault weapon ban.”

A streaming video “Story of the Gun Ban” is available on the page, along with news updates and other info.

Being designed for politicians, the video focuses on the political impact of the 1994 Ban, which Bill Clinton told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper caused Republicans to take control of the House for the first time in 40 years – while defeating the only sitting Speaker in modern history.

The bill will expire Sept. 13 unless the anti-gun crowd succeeds in passing an extension or expansion – as they’re swearing to do.

Their own just-started web page, www.NRAmadness.com, is long on emotion and short on facts (most of those distorted or false) about both the gun ban and S. 659, which prohibits lawsuits against gun manufacturers and FFL’s for misuse of their products by other parties (not all civil suits, as claimed).

The page is apparently from Handgun Control Inc., still the official name of the Brady Bunch.

S. 659 is scheduled to be on the Senate floor for three days beginning March 3 – and will attract a string of “killer amendments” including extension and expansion of the semi-auto ban, gun show restrictions, and striking the just-enacted Tiahrt reforms.

The NRA-ILA video contains so much information, both visual and voice-over, that it’s going to be very difficult for the uneducated to absorb it. And unfortunately, there’s no pause button to read the on-point newspaper headlines – or a button to return to the Home Page.

Despite those quibbles, it contains a lot of good information that most people – and certainly most new Congressmen and staff – don’t know. And it should reassure those who fear that NRA-ILA is going to accept the ban in order to get S. 659 enacted.

For more than a week voting members of NRA have been receiving magazines with ballots for the Board of Directors election, and I’m being covered up with requests for recommendations.

I’ve been debating with myself – and others – for more than two months whether to make any recommendations. I’ve decided, for reasons that some of my friends won’t understand, to vote only for the following candidates (since voting for only 13 will double the power of my ballot):

Buster Bachuber, Charles Cotten, Sen. Larry Craig, Bill Dailey, 1st Vice President Sandra Froman, Val Forgett III, Joaquin Jackson, Jim Nicholson, Jim Porter, Jim Supica, Dwight Van Horn, Bob Viden, and Rep. Don Young.

Some of these people are friends; with some I’ve had sharp differences, and I expect to differ with them in the future. But I’d sooner see them on the Board than some of the other candidates – particularly those who have displeased the powers that be, and may be facing quiet campaigns to keep them off the next Board.

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The article sounds like the same exact scenario that happened in the State of Missouri. The governors veto was overridden. Just days before implementation of the law, a circuit judge ruled it was unconsitiutional. In the past week the Missouri supreme Court heard arguements, so we are waiting for a decision. Good luck in Wisconsin. Overriding the governors veto will not stop the opposition.

I need some help. Part of the "NRAmadness" website states the following:

"This website is in no way affiliated with the NRA. It is indeed designed to oppose everything the NRA stands for, as part of the campaign to stoptheNRA.com."

I am composing a letter to them to show just what they oppose and have the following:

1. Teaching children not to touch guns.

2. Teaching gun safety and training to police officers.

3. The Brady instant check system.

4. Putting criminals who use guns in a crime into prison.

5. Putting ex-cons caught with a gun back in prison.

6. The freedom to defend one's life and family.

Now what else does the NRA support that the lefties claim to support?

3 posted on 02/02/2004 9:02:31 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn’t be, in its eyes, a slave.)

In the past week the Missouri supreme Court heard arguements, so we are waiting for a decision. Good luck in Wisconsin. Overriding the governors veto will not stop the opposition.

That decision is expected this week or thereabouts. It might be worth building a Missouri CCW ping list in advance of the announcement for those particularly interested.

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