Posted on 02/27/2004 7:54:46 AM PST by Copernicus
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners
EMERGENCY ALERT - S.1805 has Gun Control attached -- KILL IT!
Feb. 26, 2004, 1300 hrs Mountain - As predicted, S.1805, the Lawsuit Liability bill, is being debated on the Senate Floor right now (at the behest of its sponsor, Idaho Senator Larry Craig).
And late last night, Senator Larry Craig (a board member of the NRA) worked with rabid anti-gunner Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) to come up with a "Unanimous Consent Agreement" which allows a large number of gun control amendments to be offered to S.1805.
By pushing this bill to be heard on the floor, and agreeing to hear a large number of gun control amendments (listed below), Senator Craig has opened up Pandora's Box of Gun Control.
That means you MUST call your US Senators immediately, even if you called them yesterday.
Senator Wayne Allard can be reached at (202) 224-5941.
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell can be reached at (202) 224-5852.
Urge both of Colorado's Senators to VOTE AGAINST S.1805, now that it has gun control on it and is likely to contain more.
As this alert is being written, the Senate just passed an amendment (by 70-27, for story on this amendment click here, or here for full text) to require Trigger locks (we do not have the language, but will shortly) and is moving toward more gun control. It's a federal government intrusion on your right to self-defense, and FAR outweighs any good S.1805's original language would do.
And as this is being written, Sen. Teddy Kennedy is offering an amendment to ban "Cop Killer Bullets."
After agreeing to the "Unanimous Consent Agreement", Sen. Larry Craig said "Some of these amendments could pass." This C-Span2 admission is understating it -- some of these gun control amendments WILL pass. In fact, one already has, and others gun control advocates are lining up to join in on the "fun".
NRA Board Member Sen. Larry Craig has agreed to allow a slated list of gun control amendments to S.1805. These include, but are not limited to, the following unspecified gun controls:
Boxer - new Federal rules for Gun locks
Campbell - Cop-Only Nationwide Carry
Kennedy - Cop Killer Bullets
Mikulski - Snipers
McCain-Reed - Gun Show ban
Feinstein - Assault Weapons ban
Frist/Craig - Cop Killer bullets (a toned down, yet still anti-gun rights version of Kennedy's amendment)
And these are only the amendments that have been announced. Others almost certainly will be floated, and maybe passed.
Does this constitute proof that the NRA "struck a deal" to allow gun controls to pass? Of course, they claim they didn't cut any deals.
But ask these questions:
1. Have you received an e-mail from NRA-ILA urging voting against S.1805 IF it gets gun control on it? They KNOW quite well that this bill will have gun control on it, and have known it for weeks. Instead, they play inside baseball and tell gun owners "Trust us -- we have a plan", trusting in their own cleverness to circumvent the anti-gunners amendments. That is the same thing they said on the McCain-Fiengold Campaign Finance Deform bill (which stripped gun owners of their 1st Amendment rights) as well as the first Assault Weapons and High-capacity magazines ban bill, Brady Registration Checks, Lautenberg Gun Ban, etc, etc.
That's a failed strategy, and should be abandoned.
Remember, the definition of insanity is continuing to do what you've always done but expecting different results.
They'll post some things on their website (which is passive), but they won't apply real pressure. That mean's they are, by their silence, agreeing to this "Unanimous Consent Agreement." And their board member, Sen. Larry Craig, openly agreed to that agreement with Sen. Reed.
Craig will vote against most (not all -- in fact, Sen. Craig offered his own "Cop Killer Bullets" amendment in an attempt to appease Teddy Kennedy) of the gun controls, but he's the person who enabled all of these gun control amendments.
2. Why would an NRA board member accept a Unanimous Consent Agreement to allow a huge number of amendments to be debated, all of which strip gun owners of their rights and many of which that board member (and US Senator) knows will pass?
The writer of this alert is a former staff member (not intern) of the U.S. Senate, under Senator Bill Armstrong. I know how the U.S. Senate works, and have been in regular consultation with those who have worked in all aspects of Congress for decades.
One thing is crystal clear: the NRA's mouthpiece, US Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho), has agreed to let these amendments be heard, and he knows some will be attached to the bill.
3. Have you heard the NRA say that they will oppose S.659/S.1805 in the Senate if it gets gun control amendments on it? We haven't, and doubt we will, since their US Senator is the one who enabled those amendments to be attached. Their plan, to let these gun controls ride on the bill and hope they are stripped out in the House, is an incredibly risky gambit, which if lost will result in the largest erosion of our rights in American history.
There's no more time to waste.
Call your US Senators immediately and urge them to vote AGAINST S.1805.
Senator Wayne Allard can be reached at (202) 224-5941.
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell can be reached at (202) 224-5852.
Urge them to vote against S.1805.
It's time to pull the plug on this well-meaning, but gun-control-laden dog.
E-mail: ExDir@RMGO.org
I'm sure I would have preferred S.1805 without the Boxer/Kohl amendment, but now that it's attached, I'm just not sure that amendment alone is enough reason to kill all of S.1805.
Any Ammo ban amendment or AWB extension amendment would definitely be a deal killer.
I'm not so sure about the Boxer/Kohl gun locks amendment. I would have preferred to wait until there was an obvious need for the type of protection that this amendment provides to gun owners, and I'm not sure the tradeoff of requiring dealers to provide locks with handguns was necessary. On the other hand, now that this amendment is part of the Senate version of the bill, I'm not sure it's worth killing the whole deal to get rid of it.
Perhaps it would be best to wait and see on this issue until S.1805 either passes or fails, and if it passes with this amendment, work hard to keep it out of the House version and get it removed in the conference committee.
Mostly, I was pointing out that this particular amendment is quite complex and not completely "anti-gun" as it is often presented. And, like I said before, there has been a lot of misinformation about this particular amendment in the past few days, mostly aimed at inflaming emotions and trying to get pro-gun individuals to seriously harm their own credibility when they contact their Senators.
skip2myloo wrote:Actually, "they" aren't going to come after you with criminal charges. What could potentially happen is that a victim or victim's survivor might come after you in a civil lawsuit.
Now, here's a thug that's committed 4 serious felonies, and they're gonna come get me as an accessory to murder because I didn't have my gun secured "properly" with some $6.95 Master Lock ?? To me, that's just insane.
skip2myloo wrote:Since it would be a civil case, and "they" would be the plaintiff, "they" should have to bear the burden of proof to prove that the gun was unlocked when it was stolen/used without your permission.
I'll still have to defend myself and possibly still lose because I can't prove I was in compliance with Boxer/Kohl.
"Perhaps it would be best to wait and see on this issue until S.1805 either passes or fails..."
You and I are in violent agreement :)
Thank you. I think I now can see what's going on. This is a grand chess game, and I think I can see the endgame.
This is all about the AW ban, not the industry protection bill.
Schumerstein and Kennedy (actually, Soros and McKelvey, in reality) will become more and more desperate as the time for the AW ban to expire gets closer and closer. As long as S.1805 is still sitting somewhere with their precious gungrab still attached to it, they're going to have to push for the gungrab as attached to S.1805. If S.1805 leaves the Senate without antigun amendments - and in particular the AW ban - Fiendswine will sit there hammering the Senate to death, shrieking like a banshee, making it impossible to get any work done. (Yes, they should just stand up to the vile old harpy - but they don't have that kind of backbone; we've got the same shituation here in Oregon where a similar piece of Commie trash, Sen. Ginny Burdick (here unaffectionately known as "Burdbrain"), held the entire Legislature hostage last session, squealing and squawking until they agreed to allow her pet anti-gun bill a hearing).
So in a sense, rather than S. 1805 being poisoned by the AW ban (assuming it gets attached), the AW ban is going to end up getting poisoned by S. 1805 - because even if there is *no* action on industry protection, the AW ban *will* expire all by its filthy little self, if we can manage to play out the clock.
Meanwhile, as long as Craig and NRA and etc. appear to be dealing in earnest, and S. 1805 with all sorts of verminous gungrab amendments is festering in some committee somewhere, Schumerstein & Co. won't be able to get any traction in polluting any other legislation with the AW ban, no matter how loud they squeal - their RINO "Colleagues" will be able just point to the "Stalled" legislation, shake their heads in sympathy, and insist that "we have to move on"...
My guess is NRA has no expectation whatsoever of S. 1805 passing. They expect to continue negotiating and haggling over it until the AW ban expires, and then let it die in committee.
Meanwhile, all the good Senators can go on apace, smiling for the camera, issuing press releases, and appearing on Face the Commie-entator or whatever, while Clinton's precious piece of tyrannical bilge (for which it said it would give up its Presidency, if I remember correctly, back when the House PASSED a REPEAL of the AW ban) dies its well-deserved death, twisting slowly, slowly in the wind...
Then, next session, after we've thrown a few more Communists out of the Clowngress, we will ram the Industry Protection bill through - and Schumerstein, Soros & Co. will not have *nearly* as much to bargain with...
I'm not saying I approve of this strategy, or that I approve of NRA approving of it (if they do in fact approve of it), or that we shouldn't try to get S.1805 through without amendments, or that we shouldn't keep calling the Senate until all the bars in DC run out of liquor and all the drugstores run out of Xanax - I'm just saying I think I can see what's going through whatever it is they have that passes for minds, up there in the rarefied atmosphere of Wastington...
I fully expect such a proposal will be offered.
The question is, how will it fare ??
We shall see.
I am a voting member of the NRA and have sent them contributions over the years. I am a "silver bullet" member sponsor.
I also associate with and respect the 75 Million American 2nd Amendment Supporters who DO NOT belong to the NRA.
Sadly, I believe the NRA "speaks" for the 2nd Amendment Community in much the same way Jesse Jackson "speaks" for the Black Community- in a top-down, we know what is best for you,misguided patronizing way.
We are buried in experts who have answers to everything and solutions to nothing.
The NRA, particularly the NRA-ILA, has been infiltrated by these experts who fix things that aren't broken until they are ruined beyond repair.
It is time for the vast overwhelming majority of the 75 million other 2nd Amendment Defenders to stop these quislings who destroy rights in the name of their salvation.
I will instruct my representatives (again) to vote for a completely "clean" 1805 or shut it down.
Zero tolerance and all that.
Best regards,
If you want to express opposition to any of the controversial amendments, fax or call your Senators today (or tomorrow morning at the latest). S.1805 isn't going to keep kicking around in committee (unless S.1805 is voted down, then another nearly identical version might come up).
Feinstein's AWB and Craig's ammo ban amendments will be voted on tomorrow. After that, S.1805 will be voted on. The clock is running very quickly on this bill.
.22 rimfire magnum is.
Zero tolerance and all that.
I appreciate your position and support, not identical to my own, but certainly parallel.
Either S.1805 goes, or I no longer recognize the legitimacy of any constitutional authority. The United States is over and done with.
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