NRA-ILA SPECIAL ELECTION ALERT 10/11/06 - PRO-GUN VICTORIES IN THE 109TH CONGRESS

NRA-ILA ^ | 10/11/06 | NA

[neverdem]

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NRA-ILA SPECIAL ELECTION ALERT 10/11/06

PRO-GUN VICTORIES IN THE 109TH CONGRESS--
Gun Owners’ Victories Since the 2004 Elections

Elections matter.  Precisely because of our work and success in the 2002 and 2004 elections, we were able to lay the groundwork for the victories that you will read about below.  Now the question before us is, “What will the future hold?”  Two years from now, will we be reporting on more victories in our quest to protect and preserve the Second Amendment?  Or, will our update contain bad news for gun owners?  Election Day -- Tuesday, November 7 -- will be when the next chapter in the history of the Second Amendment will be written.  Your work in the coming weeks will be what spells the difference between pro- and anti-gun candidates on Election Day. Thus, you will write the future legislative history of the Second Amendment.

Following is a list of the major federal victories we have seen during the 109th Congress:

· Enactment of the “Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act.”  Within a year of Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast, Congress passed the NRA-backed H.R. 5013, sponsored by Representative Bobby Jindal (R-La.), by an overwhelming 322-99 vote.  This bill amended federal emergency laws to prohibit federal, state, and local authorities from confiscating lawfully-owned firearms during emergencies or disasters.  Senator David Vitter’s (R-La.) amendment to prohibit the use of funds appropriated under the Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 5441) for the confiscation of lawfully possessed firearms during an emergency or disaster passed the U.S. Senate by an historic 84-16 vote.  The Jindal bill was substituted for the Vitter amendment in the conference committee and President Bush signed it into law on October 4.

· Enactment of the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.”  President Bush, marking the culmination of six years of hard work by NRA-ILA and gun owners nationwide, signed “The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” (S. 397) into law on October 26, 2005, thus ending the campaign of politically motivated lawsuits designed to bankrupt law-abiding American firearm manufacturers and retailers.  The Senate passed S. 397 by a 65-31 vote on July 29, 2005 and then by the House by a 283-144 vote on October 20, 2005.

· Enactment of the “Tiahrt Amendment.”  This amendment protects gun owners’ privacy by prohibiting the release of firearm trace data to any entity except a law enforcement agency conducting a bona fide criminal investigation involving the firearm.

· Enactment of a tax exemption for custom gunsmiths.  During the same week the Senate passed S. 397, NRA-ILA helped win an important but less-publicized victory for small custom gunsmiths.  A massive highway construction bill (which President Bush promptly signed into law) contained an amendment that exempts manufacturers of fewer than 50 firearms from “manufacturing” excise taxes.

· House Passage of H.R. 5092.  The NRA-backed “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act,” by Representatives Howard Coble (R-N.C.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.), passed the U.S. House of Representatives by an overwhelming bi-partisan 277-131 vote.  H.R. 5092 was drafted in large part to address BATFE abuses at Richmond, Virginia area gun shows last year, which were detailed in three oversight hearings by the House Crime Subcommittee this spring. The measure will help curb BATFE’s efforts to revoke dealers’ licenses for minor paperwork errors, establish new guidelines for BATFE investigations, and improve the appeals process for dealers.  It will also provide more accountability and much-needed reform to this federal law enforcement agency.

· Enactment of critical hunting and conservation legislation.  Sportsmen and wildlife scored a critical victory when House and Senate negotiators approved a provision in the 2007 Defense Authorization Act that will save the herds of elk and mule deer on Santa Rosa Island (the second largest of California’s Channel Islands) from court-ordered eradication. With encouragement from NRA-ILA, this Congress correctly determined it is in the public interest to maintain this sanctuary for these two remarkable species of animals.

Clearly, the past two years represent one of the most successful congressional sessions that gun owners have ever had.  But make no mistake--all of our hard work and vital victories must be protected!   This year’s elections are critically important, as their outcome will determine whether our hard-fought gains will stand or fall.

The House Judiciary Committee has just sent several important pro-gun reform bills to the floor, but if control of the Congress changes hands, the new chairman of that committee would be John Conyers of Michigan—the only House member still serving who voted for the Gun Control Act of 1968, voted against the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, denounced crime-fighting proposals (such as Project Exile) that to his way of thinking “unwisely place a great emphasis on enforcement programs,” and has repeatedly called for a national ban on handgun ownership and possession!

And while many bills start out in Judiciary, they must all pass through the House Rules Committee before they go to the floor.  The Rules Committee is a nearly all-powerful body that sets the ground rules for how a bill will be debated on the House floor—and on the amendments that can be offered.  In line to fill that gate-keeping role: Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.).  Rep. Slaughter is a persistent cosponsor of anti-gun bills, including a bill to ban .50 caliber rifles, and another to reverse the Bush administration’s policy of destroying instant check records on law-abiding gun buyers.

Of course, the last check on this anti-gun attack would be the House leadership itself.  But don’t look for much hope there, because would-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi also has a decades-long anti-gun track record.  Pelosi, a close ally of fellow San Franciscan Dianne Feinstein, co-chaired the 1992 Democratic platform committee that endorsed gun bans, gun licensing, and gun registration, and joined Conyers in opposing expansion of Project Exile enforcement programs against violent criminals.  Pelosi’s sorry record on Second Amendment issues was underscored by one of her first acts on joining her party’s leadership; when she was elected House Minority Whip, she hired a former Handgun Control, Inc. spokesman as her communications director.

None of these pro-gun victories would have been possible with Pelosi, Conyers and Slaughter in control of the U.S. House of Representatives.  The message for gun owners and sportsmen is obvious.  Elections matter, and votes count.  We cannot take our past victories for granted; we must continue the fight.  Pro-Second Amendment candidates can only win if NRA members lend their support to those who support our gun rights and hunting heritage.

Please refer to the previous two Grassroots Alerts for activities you need to undertake to ensure victory on November 7--registering to vote, contacting your EVC, volunteering on pro-gun campaigns, etc.  NRA-PVF grades and endorsements are now available online at www.NRAPVF.org.

 

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Find this item at: http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/Read.aspx?ID=360

[DugwayDuke]

Just read the article in my NRA magazine. Great that you posted this so some of our 'the GOP is just as bad' crowd may see the light.

[Varmint Al]

What you get

If You Vote Democrat...

New Documents Detail Clinton White House Behind-the-Scenes Role in "War" on Gun Rights
Pushed Plan to Attack the Gun Industry, a la "Big Tobacco"

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that fights government corruption, announced today that it has uncovered new documents from the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas which shed light on the Clintons’ plan to attack the gun industry.  The following are highlights from the documents:

 

• A March 6, 2000 letter from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer includes a handwritten note at the top from Bill Clinton to then-White House Deputy Counsel Bruce Lindsey, which reads:  "Bruce, See me re: this…has some good ideas for future."  Among the "good ideas" -- denying gun manufacturers the right to sell guns to the military and law enforcement unless they sign an anti-gun "code of conduct" that would have crippled the industry.
   
• A memorandum from former Clinton Advisor Sidney Blumenthal to Bruce Reed, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, dated November 9, 1998, reads:  "I've enclosed an article and a press release about the new effort to file class action suits against gun manufacturers.  I think this is a very promising idea.  Let's talk about it soon."  The press release, from the Mayor’s Office in New Orleans, was in draft form, suggesting the Mayor coordinated the strategy with the White House.
   
• The "promising idea" identified by Blumenthal involved filing massive product liability and negligence lawsuits against major handgun makers, "the opening salvo in a campaign against the gun industry by an alliance of anti-tobacco attorneys and local governments," wrote The Los Angeles Times.  According to one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuits:  "We are going to do to [the gun industry] what we did to tobacco.  It's going to be a very large war."

In March 2000, less than two years after the Blumenthal memo referenced above, the Clinton strategy was used to strong-arm gun manufacturer Smith and Wesson to install gun locks, introduce so-called “smart gun” strategy, and to ban the sale of its weapons at trade shows.  Smith and Wesson broke ranks with other gun manufacturers and agreed to execute this strategy if a lawsuit against the company would be dropped.

 

“These new documents clearly show that the Clinton administration put into motion an organized plan to attack the gun industry,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “Tough questions about these extortive methods ought to be asked of both Clintons.”

Judicial Watch

 

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[dhuffman@awod.com]

What do you get if you vote GOP; same ol' infringed Second Amendment same old. More from the National Reasonable-regulation Asses. The uninfringed Second Amendment is a fine, for me, litmus test. Not many, none in my experience, that advocate the u2A also advocate bigger govt, abortion, faggotry, tax and spend et cetera.

Good people should be armed where they will, first with wits then with guns.

[neverdem]

What do you get if you vote GOP; same ol' infringed Second Amendment same old. More from the National Reasonable-regulation Asses. The uninfringed Second Amendment is a fine, for me, litmus test. Not many, none in my experience, that advocate the u2A also advocate bigger govt, abortion, faggotry, tax and spend et cetera.

If your vote empowers the dems, here's what we already got besides more gun control..

On April 29, 1975, hundreds of Americans and South Vietnamese were evacuated from Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, by helicopter. The following day the city was captured by the North Vietnamese, signaling the end of the Vietnam War.
UPI/THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE

While working as a journalist in Vietnam, Nayan Chanda took this photo of a Communist tank entering the presidential palace in Saigon on April 30, 1975. Chanda, now editor of YaleGlobal Online, will speak about his experiences there at a panel marking the 30th anniversary of the event.

AP
An anti-American demonstration in Tehran after Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in November 1979.

AP
The scorched wreckage of an American C-130 Cargo aircraft involved in the failed August 1980 attempt to rescue the hostages.

AP
Blindfolded and with his hands bound, an American hostage is led by young militants to a mob in front of the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran in November 1979.

[Varmint Al]

Well done. The pictures are better than a thousand words, no a hundred thousand words.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[Varmint Al]

Senate Bill 1655: Senators who know absolutely nothing about Hunting attempting to control it.

Legislation is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee that could seriously jeopardize game programs across the country by federalizing hunting laws. Senate Bill 1655 would put a "one size fits all" policy on wildlife management activities that ignores the diverse hunting culture in this country. Sportsmen across the nation need to contact their U.S. Senators in opposition to this bill.

The members are:
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) 202-224-4242 Chairman
Joseph Biden (D-DE) 202-224-5042
Maria Cantwell (D-WA) 202-224-3441
Richard Durbin (D-IL) 202-224-2152
John Edwards (D-NC) 202-224-3154
Russell Feingold (D-WI) 202-224-5323
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841
Edward Kennedy (D-MA) 202-224-4543
Herb Kohl (D-WI) 202-224-5653
Charles Schumer (D-NY) 202-224-6542
Sam Brownback (R-KS) 202-224-6521
Mike DeWine (R-OH) 202-224-2315
Charles Grassley (R-IA) 202-224-3744
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 202-224-5251
Jon Kyle (R-AZ) 202-224-4521
Mitch McConnell (R-NY) 202-224-2541
Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 202-224-4124
Arlen Specter (R-PA) 202-224-5454
Strom Thurmond (R-SC) 202-224-5972

Congress.org To find your Senators
Congressional Legislation Details 
Full Text of Senate Bill 1655

All 14 Sponsor/Cosponsors are DEMOCRATS!
----The pink-o color is on purpose.----

Biden, Joseph (D-DE)  Identified Plagiarist
Cantwell, Maria (D-WA)
Corzine, Jon (D-NJ)
Durbin, Richard (D-IL)
Feingold, Russ (D-Wl)
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA) No Guns For The Mindless Masses! (While concealing her own!)
Kennedy, Edward (D-MA) Chappaquidick & Mary Jo Kopechne 
Kohl, Herbert (D-WI)
Levin, CarI (D-MI)
Mikulski, Barbara (D-MD)
Murray, Patty (D-WA)
Schumer, Charles (D-NY) Gun Control Hall of Fame
Torricelli, Robert (D-NJ) Wants your rights to go along with "his" Grandfather Clock.
Wyden, Ron (D-OR)

MY COMMENTS.... What these sponsors know about hunting wouldn't fill a 17 HMR brass! Want to tell me there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats? At least we have a Republican President that has actually been out in the field hunting and he can veto any such stupid legislation if it every happens to pass

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This is old news, but it shows a trend. Democrats don't trust the citizens with arms.

 

 

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[Myrddin]

What these sponsors know about hunting wouldn't fill a 17 HMR .22 CB cap brass!

[beltfed308]

NRA Bump.