Posted on 02/17/2003 3:41:56 AM PST by from occupied ga
(Atlanta, Sunday, February 16) -- Gun owners working against the HB197 Stealth Triggerlock bill have turned up startling new facts about the coalition backing this scheme. You'll get mad when you find out what's really going on at the Capitol.
Fortunately, steady pressure from gun owners across Georgia caused House bosses to delay again the final showdown vote on HB197 and Rep. Bobby Franklin's companion "Self-Defense" amendment.
The final showdown is now expected to start 10:00 am Tue. Feb. 18. The legislature is scheduled to be off a full week starting Wed. Feb. 19. Anti-gunners realize more delay could cost them momentum.
You get full credit for stopping a slam dunk by the anti-gunners. Your work so far has made the outcome of this fight a "squeaker."
The anti-gunners have a slight edge right now in committed votes, but fence-sitters are holding the outcome in the balance. It should be decided on the basis of telephone calls Mon. Feb. 17, as many legislators finally start to make up their minds ahead of Tuesday morning's showdown.
You can help deliver winning blows against the Stealth Triggerlock bill by calling your state Rep. right away urging a vote for Rep. Bobby Franklin's Self-Defense amendment to HB197. If you've already called, you can still help by "doubling down" (see below). This alert is a full report, so if you're in a big hurry, proceed directly to the action items.
The so-called "Child Endangerment" coalition turned out in force at the Capitol Thu. Feb. 13 to lobby legislators for HB197. CSG Legislative Director Bill Phillips said he'd "never seen anything like it. There were hundreds of them crawling all over the place." The coalition is an alliance of "child-grabbers," power-hungry prosecutors, and hardcore anti-gunners.
"Child-grabbers" are the network of so-called "children's advocates" who have built a job-rich small industry in the last ten years based on caring for children snatched up from so-called "dysfunctional parents" in accordance with concepts outlined in Hillary Clinton's book "It Takes a Village."
HB197 creates (as Rep. Larry O'Neal complained this week) an unprecedented new Georgia Code section 16-5-73 effectively authorizing the seizure of children in situations the child-grabbers merely just don't like, even though no harm has actually occurred. Under current law, only children who are actually injured can be seized. HB197 is a huge expansion of power to take children away from their parents. It's potential for abuse is enormous.
Of course, child-grabbers don't have authority to act alone, but a visit to websites of child-grabber groups shows they train and work closely with metro area prosecutors who are backing HB197.
HB197 gives prosecutors new powers to charge people who keep unlocked guns in their home or car, even if nobody is hurt. Anti-gunners, prosecutors, and child-grabbers have been quietly working together on HB197 for three years, and they're drooling at the prospect of getting these new powers.
Where do the child-grabbers get their money? In late 2001, the so-called "Georgians for Gun Safety" anti-gun group launched a massive campaign to raise money for gun control. The reply form instructed anti-gunners to make their checks out to the Atlanta/Fulton Commission on Children and Youth.
But child-grabbers also get as much as 50 percent of their money directly from the State of Georgia. That's right: last Thursday, while many gun owners were at work, these quasi-government workers, these child-grabbers paid with YOUR taxpayer dollars, were on the job at the Capitol lobbying legislators to pass the Stealth Triggerlock bill.
It's no accident last Thursday was the day HB197 was originally planned to go to the floor of the House. The timing had been carefully plotted in advance. But you and other gun owners temporarily threw a wrench in the gears.
Nonetheless, this may be your last real chance to do anything about it. Already, several well-financed child-grabbers are freshmen state Reps. this term, joining more experienced anti-gunners like Reps. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Atlanta) and Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur). For the first time, anti-gun extremists outnumber hardline pro-gun Reps. like Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta), Brian Joyce (R-Lookout Mountain) and others.
The alliance of child-grabbers, metro area prosecutors, and anti-gunners is a dangerous threat to your right to keep and bear arms. If HB197 passes, it's estimated child-grabbers will be able to seize enough extra children in a few years to double the size of their operation, the number of jobs they have, and their economic strength.
CSG President Marston Tuck said, "Nobody's questioning the love these people have for children. The problem is they love children so much they're apparently willing to discard the Constitution and other basic principles upon which our society is founded. It's like throwing out the baby with the bath water."
These people are the "soldiers" in a movement to effectively repeal your gun rights using the courts as a weapon. Right now, they're building a small army with your taxpayer dollars, and railroading bills through the legislature to legitimize their objectives, while many citizens are asleep at the switch.
If you've already called your own state Rep. you need to take immediate action to "double down" Monday by getting at least one other person to call their state Rep. and object to the HB197 scheme. If you haven't already called your own state Rep. you'd better call Monday before it's too late.
CSG is a single-issue organization dedicated to defending the right to keep and bear arms in Georgia. Our charter prevents us from involvement with other issues like so-called "child endangerment." But CSG will not stand by and let a gang of left-wing Hillary Clinton types pass anti-gun legislation in the form of a stealth triggerlock bill like HB197.
To avoid stepping outside "our box" CSG is working with House Pro-Gun Leader Rep. Bobby Franklin who will offer a Self-Defense floor amendment to HB197. This amendment protects your right to self-defense, while not otherwise taking a position on the "child endangerment" aspects of HB197.
However, anti-gunners are likely to lose much of their interest in HB197 if the Self-Defense amendment is adopted. Ms. Oliver summed it up this week in the House Judiciary Committee when she whined, "Mr. Chairman, with this Self-Defense amendment, we won't be able to prosecute anybody for having an unlocked gun."
The HB197 Stealth Triggerlock bill says if you keep a gun unlocked so it's ready for self-defense, anti-gun officials can come to your home or in your car, arrest you, and confiscate your guns. The Self-Defense amendment will stop them. But anti-gunners and child-grabbers can still defeat the Self-Defense amendment because many fence-sitters are undecided.
If you've already called, it's vital that you call again. This time leave a message asking why they're stalling the Self-Defense amendment to HB197. If you haven't called yet, you need to call your state Rep. right away. Leave a message saying to vote for Rep. Franklin's Self-Defense amendment to HB197.
The anti-gunners and child-grabbers will attempt to tie up the phone lines at the Capitol on Monday. Don't let their busy signals keep you from doing your duty. Keep pounding away until you get through. Legislative offices stay open until 5:00 pm.
ACTION ITEMS
look here for the list of house members by district Citizens for Safe Government, Inc.
P.O. Box 813764
Smyrna, GA 30081
csg@arms.org
I especially like the fact that some of these c***suckers are pocketing tax dollars to do this. Keep calling your legislators
BTW I just sent CSG a donation to help with their expenses.
On gun control, they will "never" get that far here. It's those damn environmentalists and the aiding Federal Government the are our present biggest threat. The gun grabbers are waiting in the wings.
Family tribulations this week are likely to keep me from doing any activism other than emails or phone calls, so if any of you have better lists of interested parties, please feel free to use them.
I used to think that about here too, but the statists are relentless. The heart of the cancer is the African Peoples' Democracy of Corruptlanta that has a city government that makes Lagos, Nigeria look honest.
Unfortunately it isn't just the bureaucrats who have these ideas, but a fair number of the people who live there too. What is it about people that makes them want to throw away freedom with both hands and to be dependent on government? Is it stupidity? Anyone with more that three functioning grey cells can tell that government ain't here to make you safe, but rather to line its pockets at your expense. Is it ignorance? I guess the history that they teach in the government schools doesn't show the horrific consequences of placing your trust in government. Is it arrogance? I've noticed that liberals' "minds" are always closed to logic facts and reason. Only colossal arrogance could explain their adherence to their own ideas when they've been show to be flawed so many times. It must be all three.
Original text The problem is that this is the original version, and not necseearily what cam out of committee. ANy committe changes will not be reflected here. The only way to get committe version is to go down to the House and ask the Chairman of the committe's secretary for a copy. You might get one or more like likely not.
See also earlier thread on the same bill here This thread has Warren Massey's (one of the Republic members of the House) analysis on it and it also has sow Oliver's comments about Massey's attimpt to prevent it from being used for gun control.
Closest I can find is this part:
"(b) Criminal negligence is an act or failure to act which demonstrates a willful disregard or wanton and reckless disregard for the safety of others who might reasonably be expected to be injured thereby."
or maybe this one:
(a) A person having immediate control or custody of a child under the age of 16 commits the offense of endangering a child if the person intentionally or with criminal negligence places the child in imminent danger of:Of course, those could be interpreted in many different ways.
(1) Death; or
(2) Cruel or excessive physical or mental pain.
I'm confused.
This is so totally vague as to leave anything and everything as potentially criminal
Try reading the earlier thread and pay special note to Mary Margaret Oliver's comment at the committee meeting (in red) and to Warren Massy's analysis of the bill. It is completely vage, leaving everything up to the prosecutors to determine.
BTW Oliver is one of the most hard line fanatical anti-gunners in the Ga General Assembly. Anything that she co-sponsors has to be viewed with in the light as to how it can be used to further an anti-gun agenda.
Here's a list on House members, with contact information.
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_peo_list.pl?List=sthouse
You know, the aides who man the telephones are paid to talk to people, pro and con, and they are usually very pleasant, courteous folks to deal with.
By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some 200 child advocates swarmed the Statehouse last week to push lawmakers to do what they have refused to do for two years -- pass a law against child endangerment.
They ended the week still unsure when, or in what form, a House bill might make it to the floor for a vote.
Georgia is the only state in the country without some sort of law on child endangerment.
The legislation is snagged, again, on the question of whether to exempt victims of domestic violence from prosecution if they fail to protect their children because of fear for their own safety or lives.
"It's a big old mess,'' said Wendi Clifton of Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, which is lobbying for the bill.
The child-endangerment law would create two new ways to charge adults who recklessly either put children in danger or fail to keep them from danger.
To its proponents, it is a long-overdue tool to make adults responsible for recklessness or negligence involving children.
To its opponents, it is an assault on gun ownership, domestic violence policy, religion and family rights.
Some opponents, such as Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta), want the law to spell out what is and what is not child endangerment. They say the current proposal could criminalize childhood accidents.
Franklin likes to invoke the specter of parents led off in handcuffs after a kid falls off a swing.
To which DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan has an answer: Prosecutors like to get re-elected.
"This statute brings out about everyone, and they all want an exception for their particular cause," Morgan said.
He and other supporters say a new law would fill holes in the state's existing legal apparatus for prosecuting people who hurt or endanger kids.
Conviction under the existing child-cruelty law, for instance, requires a jury to find that a perpetrator had malicious intent. Contributing to the deprivation of a minor only applies to parents or guardians.
The proposed law would create a second-degree felony, punishable by as much as 10 years in prison, and a new misdemeanor offense.
The felony would be a second kind of child cruelty, without the requirements for malicious intent.
The misdemeanor charge would be used in cases in which a child is in danger but does not get seriously hurt.
Proponents have been collecting examples of child endangerment from district attorneys around the state:
ä A mother goes on a cocaine binge for days, leaving two young children with only a little cash and the telephone number of a pizza delivery service.
ä A gang member keeps a loaded gun under the bed, with the trigger pulled back. His 8-year-old brother found it and accidentally killed a 7-year-old.
ä An adult allows teens to drink too much and drive away.
The bill also applies to reckless inaction. It is that part of the proposal that creates the debate over domestic violence. For example, a law could be used to charge a woman who does not get the children away from an abusive husband or boyfriend.
Advocates for battered women want a new law to specifically exempt people from prosecution if they fail to remove a child from harm's way out of fear for their own safety.
As it emerged from the House Judiciary Committee, the bill did not contain such language. Committee members think that existing law provided enough protection, lobbyist Clifton said.
Proponents have agreed to add the language, but she was not sure how or when it might happen.
The proposed law also could apply to child-welfare workers, but only in extreme situations. A caseworker who knows a child is in danger and lies about it could be vulnerable, Morgan said.
In addition, it could apply to parents who do not lock up guns, which has upset some gun owners, although the National Rifle Association has taken no position on the bill.
Despite the problems last week, the bill's backers are optimistic that they will get an endangerment law this time.
Some legislators who had voted against the bill are supporting it now.
Rep. Glenn Richardson (R-Dallas) said he opposed the bill in 2001 because it was too vague and last year because too many language changes were being made at the last minute.
"I'm supporting it," Richardson said. "This year, we've got plenty of time."
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