Posted on 12/04/2002 2:11:25 AM PST by SLB
A statewide group that supports citizens' rights to bear arms is gearing up to fight expected anti-gun legislation.
The nine-year-old Kentuckians for the Right to Bear Arms is actively recruiting for the first time since 1996 when it successfully fought for concealed weapons permits to fight prohibitive legislation that may be on the agenda when U.S. Congress reconvenes early next year.
"I don't think everyone should have a gun," county chapter Chairman Richard Nelson said. "I think the ones who know how to handle it should have a gun."
The county's KRBA chapter has been drawing 50 to 60 people at its meetings, which are held at 6:30 p.m. the first Tuesday of every month at the Pizza Hut across from Hardin Memorial Hospital. The statewide group believes Congress will try to close gun shows, limit some automatic weapons and prevent people who have received mental care from owning guns.
Local KRBA Director Norman Davis said the problem with the latter bill, known as the Our Lady of Peace Act, which passed the House of Representatives but didn't clear Congress, is that people who have received minor or involuntary care are excluded just as the same as people with severe mental problems.
"That's about stupid," Davis said.
Nelson said the KRBA has laid low since 1996 because there were no major threats on the horizon to their Second Amendment rights. Many KRBA members worked with another lobbying group, Take Back Kentucky, which expands its fights to include all constitutional freedoms in jeopardy, including property rights and the right to an abortion.
But the Our Lady of Peace Act and other measures, some of which are expected in the aftermath of the recent Washington, D.C.,-area sniper attacks, has forced the KRBA to step up its involvement and start lobbying again. The group wants to take pre-emptive shots at anti-gun legislation.
"Why sit around and wait for em and have to come from behind again?" Davis asked.
The KRBA formed in 1993 to fight a losing battle against the Brady Bill, which required background checks on gun purchasers and a five-day waiting period.
"A lot of people think people for gun rights are radicals," Nelson said. "We're not radicals. We're just after the rights we have."
After the November elections, I decided to leave my home state of Kalifornia... For good. Tired of the commies and illegal immigration, and being told how being moral is "judgemental" (damned right it is!), and intolerant... Yep. I'm intolerant of deviant behavior, treason and having to elbow my way past illegals wherever I go...
Kentucky definitely is on my list...
FReegards to all...
Do visit us. We are a best kept secret, especially central Kentucky. This is my adopted home and I'm not leaving. FReepmail me if you have specifics you need work-wise, etc. Be glad to try and help.
We also have a gun club with excellent facilities, BTW.
Neither do I. There are probably four or five in the country that shouldn't.
In Kentucky-speak: The regional looney bin.
I'm going to Norm's, "Take Back Kentucky" meeting in Lexington at one o'clock pm tomorrow.
You need to make a meeting sometime. He also has meetings in Lechfield and E-Town.
In the eastern Red countries they sentenced polictical desentors as mentally ill.
I keep wondering when they will start the 3:00pm no-knock searches, then begin hauling us to the gulags on cattle trains with screeching whistles using the excuse of the "public good".
Norm's "Take Back Kentucky" meeting is at Ryan's Steak House in Lexington on Red Mile Rd.
Stop by, we'd love to have you attend.
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