Pennsylvania to classify PUMP-ACTION RIFLES as "Assault Weapons" (idiot legislators alert!)

AW ban sunset website forums ^ | 27 March 2004 | Pennsylvania legislators

[Long Cut]

Prepare to have your blood pressure rise. Is there no end to the idiocy of those who live in abject fear of guns?

Wh, oh why, does no national leader call this for the nonsense that it is?

[LibKill]

DOH! Buy .22 LR first.

Not a big punch, but very useful.

[Squantos]

then......... there'll be a proper way to turn em in at some given point . These little peon POS polidiots and their presstitutional and socialist handlers had better be ready if that day comes. They ain't gonna like the unemployment line I plan on making em stand in.

Stay safe !

[WestSylvanian]

Maybe Philly suburbs won't go for Kerry. And there's the Republican center of the state. I'm not sure Pittsburgh area Reagan Democrats will go for a left-wing, anti-gun, Vietnam protest organizer like Kerry.

There was a lot of respect for John Heinz even among Democrats in western PA. The Widow Heinz paying for her gigolo husband's expensive lifestyle should alienate them. Spread the word about Kerry's botox treatments, his eye job, and hair dye and he's finished. And remember, Rick Santorum manages to win.

I've been to the Flight 93 crash sight. They've got volunteers with photographs and personal memories of that day keeping a vigil there, working in shifts, telling visitors what happened, how the plane flew over the local school before it finally crashed.

Bush has a good chance. Pennsylvanians don't like phonies.

[ampat]

Yeah. All of the world's armies immediately converted to the Remington 870 pump as soon as it came out.

[Unknowing]

There can be no logic in making a category mistake; it's like saying Philadelphia will be classified as a suburb of Pittsburgh by a new statute.

Socialists want to make every word a legal "term of art," defined by statute and devoid of plain meaning. Thus we would have to look to the government to tell us what words mean. They irrationally fear rifles, but they are terrified to the utmost by words of truth.

This Orwellian strategy assails the First Amendment, too, if we think about it. Using words in a manner that countermands their statutory meaning would be legally moot, and possibly even illegal.

[Travis McGee]

the rest is just legislative and executive branch blathering under color of law.

Isn't it a pretty serious federal felony to conspire to deprive Americans of their contitutional rights?

[Long Cut]

Only, apparently, if you're not a lawyer, judge, or legislator.

[GrandEagle]

Hey, what do you think it would take to get a march like we were talking about together?

[GrandEagle]

Their constitutency tends to come from the parasitic classes
You have a point...

[Unknowing]

It does not seem as if a felony charge would lie against the conspirators, Travis.

Under 42 U.S.C. §1983, a plaintiff can bring a claim against violations of Bill of Rights protections, subject to the qualified immunity defense. This claim can be brought against individual government officials sued in their individual capacities, including state officials. Hafer v. Melo. All the plaintiff can receive, though, is prospective relief and uncapped compensatory damages for actual injuries. Carey v. Piphus. But also punitive damages where the defendant has acted with reckless indifference or an evil motive. Smith v. Wade. Against government entity defendants, there can be no punitive damages. Attorney’s fees and expert’s fees are recoverable under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b) and (c).

Source: Civil Rights Law and Practice, Harold S. Lewis and Elizabeth J. Norman (West 2001).

And, since the Second Amendment has not been incorporated against the states, there can be no cause of action for a state deprivation of that Constitutional right.

[Long Cut]

Well, first would be the support and action networks of the NRA, GOA, SAS, and any other progun orgs out there. They'd need to alert both their general memberships AND any gun dealers so the word can be passed at the shops and shows that are the grassroots. They'd also have the collective pull to get the proper permits for the march, and the celebs to appear.

We'd need no less than a year's lead-time, so all the members and interested parties can be informed and arrange their schedules accordingly. Ads would need to be purchased in ALL the major gun publications as well. We'd also ned to establish a website and a strong internet presence on ALL gun-related websites and chatrooms to further spread the word.

Further, we'd need to bring the manufacturers in as well (hey, we're their customers) to offer sponsorship and help. Their employees would also add to the numbers. We could also bring in other groups not strictly progun, but sympathetic to our cause a a way to solidarity on Liberty.

Finally, having done all that, we would need to REMIND, REMIND, and REMIND all our people that if they want to keep their rights, they MUST show up and be heard.

Oh, and briefing in the major radio and Fox news commentators and talkhosts wouldn't hurt, either, nor the conservative commentators.

Invitations should be sent to anyone who is even nominally on our side in Congress or the executive branch, including the President.

It'd be tough...GOA and NRA don't usually work together well, and it'd be a major undertaking, but it'd be worth it to show the Left and the rest of America that we're not some isolated nuts, but a true cross-section of the country, and that we will not give up our rights so easily.

[wku man]

Buy ammo now while you can, the time's gettin' short...

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[SauronOfMordor]

The is especially outrageous considering the Pennsylvania State Constitution specificly says:

Right to Bear Arms

Section 21.

The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.

Parts that really disturb me include:

• "Compliance check.--The Pennsylvania State Police may, no more than once per year, conduct an inspection to ensure compliance with this subsection." -- Translation: if you reveal possession of an "assault weapon", the State Police get to come into your house and conduct a warrentless search for anything that might violate the law
• It will be a Felony to have an unregistered "assault weapon"
• He's required to "Safely and securely stores the assault weapon pursuant to regulations adopted for such purpose by the commissioner" --Translation: the commissioner may decree that you may only store such firearms in a $4,000 safe, with the bolt in a separate $4,000 safe, and the ammo in a third $4,000 safe
• The owner has to get do a new registration and background check YEARLY, and get a bill for the cost of administering the program

[B4Ranch]

Willie Nelson is probably who you're thinking of.

[GrandEagle]

He is another good one but it was Ted Nugent I was thinking of.

[quietolong]

Look what was tried in WI.

WCCA alert: Doyle/Baumgart bill gets worse (99% banned)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/614867/posts

Baumgart, Doyle Propose Gun Ban
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/612231/posts

Doyle urges fight against gun lobbyists

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3896049f7e88.htm

[El Gato]

It's very tiresome to hear the liberal idiots go on and on about the dangers of "assault weapons" when you realize that a shotgun is a better weapon at close range.

That's why they are incrementally adding various shotguns to the category of "assault weapons". However they are also beginning to twig to the notion that the real threat to their power, not mention their persons, lies not in shotguns, nor even so called "assault weapons", but rather various sorts of optics equiped high powered and highy accurate rifles. What we might call a "deer rifle" (For mule deer anyway) or an "Elk Gun", they will call a "sniper rifle". Your grandads, or great granddad's deer rifle will morph into a deadly sniper rifle, which only terrorists would want to own.

[El Gato]

And, since the Second Amendment has not been incorporated against the states, there can be no cause of action for a state deprivation of that Constitutional right.>

Such an action might however be a good vehicle for getting it so incorporated. Might it not?

[El Gato]

We'd need no less than a year's lead-time, so all the members and interested parties can be informed and arrange their schedules accordingly. Ads would need to be purchased in ALL the major gun publications as well.

We really don't have a year. More like 6 months (slightly less acutally ... until September 14th).

We did turn out some fairly impressive crowds during the run up to the passage of the Assault Weapons ban, and afterwards as well. For all the good that did us. Even if we have a big ralley, the media will only cover it minimally, and they will under "estimate" the numbers, just as they generally over estimate the numbers for the Million Mommies (would you believe 100 thousand? ... what about 10,000?))

[Unknowing]

OK, the incorporation issue may be brought as part of the prospective relief sought, I suppose.

The Bill of Rights are applicable to the states only through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Under the doctrine of selective incorporation, the Supreme Court has held that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is inapplicable to the states. U.S. v. Cruikshank. The Court has refused to incorporate the Second Amendment into the Fourteenth. Presser v. Illinois.

However, the Presser decision was based on a narrow ground, and so it does remain arguable that infringement of the Second Amendment by a state government violates a fundamental right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.