Posted on 07/21/2005 1:02:56 AM PDT by Richard-SIA
[b]The first half of the 109th session of congress is winding down, more ACTIVISM from NFA-RKBA supporters is critical! [/b]
I would have preferred to post this under "Activism", but this section appears to get the most traffic.
We need all of our members and lurkers to get much more active, congress is historically much braver regarding "controversial*" legislation in the first half of each session. In the second half they begin covering their back's in preparation for the next election!
The author's of the several bills we support in our mission statement all took a significant career chance in supporting our RKBA, and even publicly criticizing ATFE! If they see no significant support it will become harder to convince them (or any other members of congress) to do so again.
Most good bills die in committee without a fair hearing, we need to change that! The only way to do so is to become very vocal. I fully realize that our mere 300 of so members cannot fully accomplish this on our own. But if EVERY member and lurker contacted their reps in the next two days it WOULD be noticed!
I know it is summer, but this session is winding down, in order to pass any of the GOOD bills that have been introduced this session of congress we have to skip a party or two and make ourselves heard.
[b]So here is a plan! [/b]
1. Do you know who your reps. in the house and senate are? If not, find out. NRA, GOA, etc. have excellent internet links to help you determine who they are. If you do know who they are, proceed to step two.
2. When it comes to our gun rights, both congress and the large "established" RKBA groups are only interested in a very small number of bills that have their attention at this time. The fastest way to get them to pay significant attention to the bills that are of primary interest to NFA enthusiast is to help pass (or kill) the bills that are currently taking up their attention.
3. The top legislative priorities in Congress at the moment continue to be: passage of S. 397/H.R. 800--legislation to end reckless, predatory, and potentially bankrupting lawsuits against the gun industry, and S. 1082/H.R. 1288--the "District of Columbia Personal Protection Act"--that seeks to restore the constitutionally-guaranteed Second Amendment rights of the residents of the District of Columbia. Please call your reps ASAP and urge them to pass these bills without amendments. If they are already supporters be sure to thank them! Maybe, just maybe, we can then get them to pay more attention to H.R. 2088 and the rest of the bills WE care most about once the current bills have been settled.
4. Look over the bills posted at "Bills in Congress" on this site. Decide which ones you most heartily endorse.
5. When calling to support passage of S. 397/H.R. 800 and S. 1082/H.R. 1288 also ask your rep. to cosponsor at least one of OUR bills. This will help to raise our bill's profiles with the members of congress.
6. Be prepared! As soon as either of the major bills above is passed or defeated begin lobbying for OUR bills in ernest! At that time we must also begin a real effort to enlist the aid of the "established" RKBA groups to move OUR bills ahead. It will be perfectly legitimate to demand some pay-back for our support of their bills now!
7. Please try to pay more attention to the "Bills In Congress" and "Activism" sections of this site. Please try to put new post regarding those topics under the appropriate existing header instead of creating a very large array of new topics in "General".
At this time H.R. 2088, the V.H.F.A act, is probably closest to passage, with 55 cosponsors. It may be a gateway to additional reform of ATFE, a genuine general "amnesty" to supplement the '68 amnesty, and is simply the fair and honorable thing to do for our veterans and their heirs.
H.R. 1603 "Fairness in Firearms Testing", and H.R. 1703 "Second Amendment Protection Act of 2005" are also excellent bills, with huge potential to protect the RKBA of all firearms enthusiast. Both have no cosponsors to date, a situation we need to change ASAP.
The numbers escape me at the moment, and I hesitate to look for them for fear of losing what I just typed, but I believe there are other good bills pending as well. So far as I know they are all listed on this site.
The recent "Decision" from the AG and ATFE arbitrarily redefining existing law so as to exclude importation of parts kits that remained available even during the Clinton regime should be a wake up call for all of us! If we do not become much more active immediately there will be little or no significant improvement in our NFA-RKBA situation. At best we may see one or two minor points go our way, but only in the realm of title one arms, and at a cost of millions to the "mainstream" RKBA groups.
That is simply unacceptable. The many abuses and arbitrary chicanery at ATFE, NFRTR, ATFE-Tech Branch, and DDTC need to be addressed by congress, it is up to us to make sure they do so. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long post, and very much my own effort, hopefully no members are offended by anything I am saying here. It has always been my concept that this site has two primary goals.
1. Education, as regards the history, activities, and status of the NFA and related matters. We have established NFAOA as a superb reference site in this area.
2. Activism, to make corrections and improvements by all legal means. We have had some notable success in this regard, but I feel there is much, much, more to be done.
*No, I do not understand why support for our RKBA is "controversial", except that the socialist dominated media and other seditionist organizations say so.
RKBA = Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Bill Of Rights.
And we thought the AW ban was lifted!
NFAOA.ORG is the active RKBA group dedicated to preserving our right to keep and bear the most non-PC arms legally available.
Anyone with any interest in NFA items is invited to check out the NFAOA site. It is the preeminent reference site for NFA related congressional testimony, pending legislation, and activism.
I wish the PWPIA would PITSL the SOTP so that the FWAU would know WTF your talking about !!!
Please don't be offended. I also beat up on the posters who post local news without listing the known location in the subject line.
Acronyms are great, but only for those who know what they mean.
I do know what the NRA is, and a great supporter.
At least I posted my complaint in the middle of the night, US time :)
I expected that the members of the *BANG* list would be familiar with these terms.
NFA = National Firearms Act, the "act" or "law" "regulating" (attempting to ban via exorbitant tax) machine guns, suppressors, short barrel shotguns, etc.
NFAOA = NFA Owners Association
If you follow the link the full text will be clearer, the site also has all the beck round info you could ever want.
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