Posted on 05/01/2010 9:13:50 AM PDT by epow
When members of the General Assembly decided to pass a bill to repeal Georgia's 140 year old public gathering law on Thursday night, they were confused by the irony of the largest gun rights group in the nation opposing the reform.
SB 308 passed the General Assembly late on the last day of the session. The final version removed two provisions that had been in the bill earlier decriminalizing the carry of weapons by licensed persons in churches and on college campuses. Under the final version, these two locations will remain illegal for carry.
The surprise came when the nation's largest and oldest gun rights lobby, the National Rifle Association, began lobbying against the bill. Earlier in the evening, the NRA had pushed legislators to add language expressly permitting the carry of weapons in airports. This language is already in a bill, SB 291, that the General Assembly passed earlier in the session. SB 291 is awaiting the Governor's signature. The NRA informed legislators that voting in favor of SB 308 without the amendment would be a "scorecard issue," meaning that the NRA would be using the vote against legislators in its ratings. In other words, legislators who voted to remove Georgia's restrictive public gathering law would be punished in ratings from the NRA.
The proposed amendment was never added to SB 308. When the NRA was rebuffed on its proposed amendment, it then began lobbying aggessively against the bill. The local civil rights group GeorgiaCarry.Org was at the Capitol lobbying for SB 308 to pass.
During the Senate debate, Sen. Steve Thompson stood in the well and read from GeorgiaCarry.Org's letter supporting SB 308. Calling GeorgiaCarry.Org's statement that it was tracking the SB 308 vote a "threat," Sen. Thompson....
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
However, I received an email from NRA this morning that doesn't mention the allegation that it lobbied against passage of the bill, and it urges GA NRA members to call or write Governor Purdue asking him to sign the bill into law. But if the allegation is true, and I believe the men who claim they witnessed the alleged lobbying are honest, truthful men, why would NRA ask members to urge the governor to sign a bill it lobbied against one day earlier? Call me FlummoxedinGA.
The ONLY gun legislation I am concerned with in Georgia is the removal of all restrictions for LEGAL CITIZENS with no criminal records. A law-abiding citizen has the RIGHT to protect himself ANYWHERE.
I agree, but until that Utopian day arrives I want to be able to legally carry a weapon without worrying about breaking a vaguely worded section of the weapons law that could at best end up costing me a small fortune for legal representation, and at worst, incarceration in Reidsville.
Oh....I have no problem with changing the meaning to be LESS restrictive. Anything different is poison in my book.
I had it with the NRA 40 some years ago, 1968 was not a good year for gun owners, or anyone with a love of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Things are not any better today, as we view the ever increasing advantage of the Federal Government over the populace just within the 1986 laws against the people of the United States.
Or more likely, my guessing game is way off base and NRA has simply lost it's bearings and is no longer the champion for 2nd Amendment rights that it once was. Pity.
I also don’t know if this is true or not, but it would surprise me only a little. I always get a few nasty criticisms when I criticize the NRA here, but here goes.
I joined two years ago after years of ambivalence, and have found their approach distasteful. I don’t know if it was the MD after my name (a BIG mistake, I think, to put that target in front of a lobbying/fundraising group), but the frequent and strident unsolicited evening calls hitting me up with one story after another explaining why I should donate more and more money quickly turned me off, and didn’t stop with the first few hints or requests. The endless mail I can just throw out - the evening calls to an unlisted number after repeatedly requesting it stop grew very off-putting: I had to just start hanging up on them.
Their long-term defensive approach to the erosion of 2nd Amendment rights - essentially sticking fingers in a crumbling dike - seemed very ineffective as well. Their arguements were also behind the curve as the Left manuevered into power, seeming for far too long to focus on our right to hunt and sport shoot, as opposed to our right to protect ourselves from crime, or the ultimate meaning of the 2nd - to protect ourselves from tyranny. Others woke up long before they did, and presented a less passive approach, and now they have thrown their weight behind the movement as if to claim it as their own.
I have wondered, watching them merely try to defend against repeated assaults to our rights through the years, if they have a mission statement or some other stipulated stand which states that, beyond this point or that point, or after this many more or that many more attempts to disarm us, they would admit their organization’s legal and legislative approaches were ineffective, and advise their members to actually exercise the 2nd Amendment for the purposes for which it was written. I doubt it. Based on their behavior, it has seemed to me they would have just continued the fingers-in-the-dike approach until it was a moot point. I have little respect for such an approach.
Have they and do they serve a purpose? Unquestionably. But it is ultimately a fund raising organization, and one that played defense far too long and far too ineffectively on an issue vital to our freedoms. Whether true or not, it does not surprise me to hear that petty stuff like a scorecard of victories or somesuch that can be used for publicity and fundraising is more important to them than the victories themselves - that does not seem beyond belief with them, at least to me. Sad.
Anyway, one bloke’s opinion. /rant. Flame away!
dagogo - who has a more subtle tagline than I – views it correctly:
“…seeming for far too long to focus on our right to hunt and sport shoot, as opposed to our right to protect ourselves from crime, or the ultimate meaning of the 2nd - to protect ourselves from tyranny.”
Such a passive, misdirected tactic unnecessarily avoided the issue and gave the argument to the gungrabbers.
gaffer correctly stated: “A law-abiding citizen has the RIGHT to protect himself ANYWHERE.”
Whereupon the obviously well-meaning and intelligent epow responded: “…until the Utopian day arrives…”
That exchange points out the difficulty.
At what point did we agree to give up that natural right and wait for that Utopian day, a foolish move by any standard? Or, was the option taken from us by “law” by the government we formed?
When we determined to form a government which was to operate with and by our consent did we also, under any reasonable theory, step aside from our natural right to protect ourselves? (Did it commence with a couple of thristy drunks and a “Check your guns at the Sheriff’s Office” sign?)
For instance, when did we expressly or impliedly agree to not carry firearms into a courtroom for a public trial, or a city council meeting, or a government buiiding - where passions might run high?
No flame.
I agree with you.
GOA is better.
When we determined to form a government which was to operate with and by our consent did we also, under any reasonable theory, step aside from our natural right to protect ourselves? (Did it commence with a couple of thristy drunks and a “Check your guns at the Sheriff’s Office” sign?)
a lil of both I think, but the cement was poured in 34' IMO...after NFA the 'concensus' became the amount of infringement allowed to trickle down via federal 'law'...
of course this was all gradually accepted from the wild west gunslinger days when the frontier demanded the sheriff to be the whole 'law' of the land...im sure many Rights violations went uncontested, and as civilization and different forms of enlightenment approached said frontier, the same do-gooders brought official nannystatism to bear as well...
if any of that makes any sense...
today the randy weavers and david koreshs' of the country get abandoned and we wonder why so many are afraid to wade out into the open to be the next target...I didnt make the 19 apr marches on DC for many reasons [mostly economic] but the fact that it wasnt a true million man armed showing was dissapointing, IMO most people were inclined to think that it was gonna be spark, and werent willing to be martyrs for the first round...
anyways, my .02...
>The ONLY gun legislation I am concerned with in Georgia is the removal of all restrictions for LEGAL CITIZENS with no criminal records. A law-abiding citizen has the RIGHT to protect himself ANYWHERE.
I’ll one-up you; a freeman (i.e. non-prisoner) should not be debarred the use of arms. I absolutely HATE the once-a-felon you cannot own/use guns laws, even after serving your sentence; I hate the ‘domestic violence’ misdemeanor [or in some cases the mere allegation thereof] disbars their use of weapons laws.
It is no longer enough to qualify those who should be allowed to carry as “law-abiding” for the reason that Ayn Rand pointed out: when the government doesn’t have enough criminals to control [because it cannot control freemen] they simply declare enough things to be illegal that you cannot help but BE a criminal.
We have seen this here with the addition of “repeat misdemeanors become felonies” laws & the proliferation of ‘laws’ which are themselves in contradiction to the ‘supreme law’ of the governing Constitution.
we are all future criminals is worth repeating...
From the NRA-ILA website
Friday, April 30, 2010
Two important pro-gun bills (Senate Bill 291 and Senate Bill 308) have both successfully passed and will now head to Governor Sonny Perdue’s (R) desk for his consideration.
SB291 would allow a person lawfully licensed to carry a concealed firearm the right to carry in all non-secure areas and while dropping off or picking up passengers at an airport or airport facility. Also included in the bill is a provision that would make the license renewal process much easier by basically creating an automatic renewal. Instead of the licensee having to remember to renew, the probate court will be required to send out renewals 90 days before expiration.
SB308 would reform Georgia’s concealed carry laws so that the concealed carry license would enable the person to carry any handgun or knife, openly or concealed. SB 308 would also allow concealed carry license holders to carry in more places by repealing the broad and vague “public gathering ban.”
Please begin contacting Governor Perdue today by phone at (404) 656-1776 or via email by clicking here and respectfully urge him to sign these important concealed carry reform bills.
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It looks like you didn’t do your homework.
The NRA feigned opposition to the NICS system briefly after its’ implementation 16 years ago. Now what? When was the last time the NRA mentioned aggressively seeking to repeal the Brady act and get rid of NICS? Now they not only support it but want to strengthen it.
The NRA also tried to derail the Heller case and nearly succeeded in preventing it from reaching the USSC.
The one problem is sb308 defines “long guns” as shotguns only.
This is just another thread in a long line of threads posted on FR recently trying to turn people against the NRA. I have been a member since 1954 and I will always be a member. If it wasn’t for the NRA we would have lost all gun rights in this country long ago. GOA maybe ok but anyone who dumps the NRA for the GOA are simply idiots. Join both if you have a problem, but I will never dump the NRA, especially since articles like these rarely pan out(if ever)to be true. This was sure as he** isn’t.
I watched the portion of Friday's Georgia General Assembly session in which the two gun bills were being debated and voted on, did you? If not you could have, the GA Assembly sessions can be viewed and heard HERE. The NRA-ILA message on your post is only what the NRA was putting out today. I received that same email from NRA this morning, and I was almost stunned to see that apparently the NRA now supports the same bill that it lobbied against in the GA Assembly just yesterday. Does one NRA hand not know what the other NRA hand is doing?
What you don't know about this strange behavior by the NRA, or at least didn't mention, is the FACT that the NRA had it's lobbyists working the floor of the Georgia Assembly before the Friday evening vote lobbying delegates to the Assembly to vote AGAINST SB 308. One representative told a GCO member that the NRA lobbyists were threatening Assembly members by saying that their rating in the NRA voting guide would be significantly lowered if he or she voted for the bill. While it's true that the same NRA lobbyists were lobbying FOR passage of SB 291, SB 291 is not nearly as important and beneficial as SB 308 because it doesn't repeal the onerous "public gathering" clause that is the primary thorn in the sides of GFL licensees.
Read my post #17. I am not misrepresenting the observed FACTS regarding this matter, nor are the GCO gun rights activists who were present at the Assembly session, nor the many more who watched it live on the GPB webcast.
Although I doubt that unless you are a GA resident you have any actual knowledge concerning the gun rights issues that were before the GA Assembly or the actions of the NRA lobbyists, you are of course free to believe whatever you want about the matter. But you are sadly mistaken if you think the NRA was lobbying on the same side of the issue as GA gun owners were in Friday's session.
I forgot to mention that SB 291 is almost certain to be vetoed by the governor because it allows GFL licensees to carry guns concealed or openly in churches, something the Governor has said he will not support. I'm reasonably sure that NRA knows that as well as Georgia's gun owners do.
On a side note, one of the GCO's legal team used to be a lobbyist for the NRA and left the organization after the NRA was found to be pushing the Veterans Disarmament Bill in '07.
It is also worth noting the NRA pimps from other states that do not have a clue about the GA Bill or the states history concerning this matter, jump in and show their ignorance... much like the NRA has.... Just sayin.
And finally, just like Heller and a growing list of legal challenges, the NRA jumps in at the last minute or after the action is won, to get its name on the marquee.
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