Posted on 02/13/2015 1:18:49 PM PST by forty_years
About a year ago, the Second Amendment community was rocked by news that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) had teamed up with Attorney General Eric Holder to utterly destroy firearms manufacturers and dealers by cutting off all credit and banking relationships with them.
For its part, the FDIC categorized gun and ammunition sales as a "high-risk business," lumping it in with drug dealers, pornographers, and Ponzi scheme operators -- all of which it was working to completely destroy.
Holder, in turn, would provide the "muscle" -- using a program called Operation Choke Point to make sure banks "got the message."
Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) soon got appropriations language to defund Operation Choke Point. But when Holder promised to be a "good boy" and the FDIC removed guns from its "high-risk list," the appropriators relented and allowed the program to continue.
Not surprisingly, every evidence is that Holder was lying -- and has every intention to continue using Operation Choke Point to go after gun dealers on a case-by-case basis.
In Hawkins, Wisconsin, for instance, a bank was just recently pressured to deny credit to the local gun dealer for the purpose of shutting its doors. (And, incidentally, AG candidate Loretta Lynch lied to Vitter and Mike Lee about knowing nothing substantial about Choke Point, even when warned she would be asked about it.)
So now, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced legislation to shut the doors of Operation Choke Point -- and bar all of the possible escape routes.
Rubio's bill, S. 477, would defund Operation Choke Point -- permanently. It would insure that the FDIC didn't use "fees" to fund a program which could no longer go on with appropriated funds. And it would prohibit Holder and the FDIC from reestablishing "Choke Point" under another name.
Furthermore, Rubio is committed to not just allow his legislation to lie dormant. He understands that he may have to add the proposal as an amendment to a must-pass bill. This is exactly what we will need to overcome a potential presidential veto.
Rubio's strategy can become a template for other pro-gun legislation, in addition to putting the Second Amendment community on the offense, rather than simply playing a defensive strategy.
I hate to be a cynic here, but why do I have to call my legislators - at all. Don’t Republicans control both chambers of Congress? Isn’t there a big bipartisan majority of NRA supporters?
*sigh* Rhetorical questions all, but it is unfortunate that this doesn’t automatically go into the legislative dumper with Congress openly slapping down Holder and Obama without any prompting. I can dream can’t I?
I’m done calling them. I called for years but finally realized what a wasted effort it is. They don’t care what I think.
It’s important that conservatives remember Operation Choke Point. Because it is also important that leftist organizations feel the brunt of a Choke Point as well, to let them know that they can expect their tyrannies thrown right back in their face.
For example, what about a Choke Point against Planned Parenthood?
What a weak, limp wristed response by our so called legislators. The proper response would have been to Impeach and Remove Holder, then revoke the Corporate Charter of every business that followed these blatantly illegal requests.
GOA has done something the NRA, with its far greater resources, has not done; it’s made it really easy, cheap, and simple for each of us to contact our own Senators and Representatives. They do it by sending all of their members action emails on various matters with active links to their web page. There you find an email already addressed to the appropriate official(s) with your return address that you can either click and send or edit as you chose and then send. It’s the easiest way to contact congress critters I’ve seen and it’s free.
Good luck, these people don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves..
too much money made in sacrificing babies.
But it should be unfunded in every way, shape, and form, plus overturned. The buildings razed and memorials built.
Simple: so they'll know.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a state where the Congresscritters have been educated (read, "beat over the head") to know that the Second Amendment is sacred.
Maine, for example, is represented by at least one senator who is most charitably called a RINO, and would otherwise vote with her liberal Dimocrat pals on an issue like this.
If you don't tell them, how do they know?
And trust me, a phone call is worth a hundred emails...
They know that people who take the time to contact them are very likely to vote.
We just defeated an anti-gun bill here in New Mexico (HB 44) by testifying at hearings, sending emails, calling, faxing... Several members of the committee in which the bill was killed told me that all the communications gave them the political backing to confidently stop this "gun control legislation."
The reason so many elected reps seem unresponsive is a self-fulfilling cycle. The less people engage, the more these reps feel they can act with impunity. The more communications they receive, the more responsive they become to their constituents.
Saying it won't do any good is just an excuse not to take a few minutes and put pressure on elected reps. As you sow so shall you reap. Quit complaining and do something.
And yes, phone calls and written letters are the most effective forms of contacting elected reps.
I just called my senator (Cory Gardner R-Colorado) and left him a message.
BUMP!!
Would you happen to have a direct link to the Senate website so we could look up these bills as they come? So we could find the names of those who support or oppose such legislation?
See, I have this nasty habit of putting their names on lists and leaving the lists at shooting ranges, gun shops, etc.
Heh-heh!
Thanks for the links.
I’m guilty of putting up the names of the anti-freedom voting legislators up for all to see:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3257338/posts
I’ll put your links to good use.
Doesn’t funding originate in the House and isn’t he in the Senate?
Just when I think I understand I get confused.....
So who thinks Bath House will sign this? Not me.
Granted. However, if they were Choke Pointed, it would cut off their access to banking and other finance, which would cripple their ability to spend vast amounts of money to lobby to save themselves.
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