This speaks for itself guys.
Hostettler and Smith Combine Forces to Deliver Pro-gun
Victories!
-- Gun activists play key role
Gun Owners of America E-Mail/FAX Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org
(Thursday, October 12, 2000)
"Demil" Provision Removed
GOA warned you last month about a very dangerous
provision in the
DoD authorization bill (H.R. 4205). This provision
would have
allowed the Defense Department to collect and destroy
certain
privately owned militaria -- including your M1 Carbine,
1903
Springfield, Colt SAA, and more.
The House passed the bill yesterday on a 382-31 vote,
and GOA is
happy to report that the "demil" provision has been
stricken. There
are three reasons for this:
* First, you guys rang the phones off the hook over the
last month.
Thanks to your involvement, legislators on Capitol
Hill quickly
learned there was a problem in the DoD bill and
worked to satisfy
their unhappy constituents.
* Second, Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN).
* Third, Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH).
Both Hostettler and Smith worked tirelessly to make sure
this
dangerous demilitarization provision was removed from
the bill. Gun
owners should thank them for their efforts.
Clinton Gun Control Scheme Receives A Setback
In other good news, Rep. Hostettler succeeded in keeping
pro-gun
language in the same DoD bill. Hostettler amended this
bill in May
when he inserted language to bar the Department of
Defense from
giving Smith & Wesson preferential treatment in
government
contracts.
As one of the conference-committee members, Hostettler
was
instrumental in keeping this pro-gun provision in the
bill. Thus,
DoD will be prohibited by law, from rewarding the gun
maker for the
anti-gun deal that it cut with the Clinton
administration in March
-- an agreement that imposes all kinds of new gun
control upon
dealers and gun buyers.
Gun owners should thank Rep. Hostettler for his
determined efforts
to preserve our 2nd Amendment rights.
BATF Strikes Again!
On August 28, 2000, BATF launched its most recent attack
on the
Second Amendment. Its proposed regulation (contained at
page 52054
et seq. in the Federal Register of August 28, 2000)
would require
FFLs to conduct an annual gun inventory.
While not the obvious threat of other Clinton-Gore
proposals, such
as national gun registration, this proposed regulation
nevertheless
represents the most recent installment in efforts by the
Clinton-Gore administration to inflict on the Second
Amendment a
"death by a thousand cuts."
It is therefore important that law-abiding gun owners
make their
voices heard with respect to this most recent
unconstitutional,
unjustifiable effort by this administration to harass
its political
opposition.
Here are some of the arguments against the regulation:
1. BATF gives no significant justification for
inconveniencing
law-abiding businesses. It cites "1,271 crime guns"
which had been
stolen without the theft having been reported. The
problem is
there is no evidence that the subsequent crimes
committed with
these guns could have been prevented or the guns more
easily traced
had the thefts been detected and reported. To the
contrary, BATF
appears to have been able to locate each shipper and
trace each gun
with no difficulty. How would a mandatory annual
inventory improve
this?
2. Contrary to BATF's misrepresentations, the burden
on businesses
of conducting an annual government-mandated inventory
will be far
greater than it asserts. Furthermore, the burden will
fall on
active dealers and inactive ones -- presumably for the
purpose of
further discouraging law-abiding Americans from holding
federal
firearms licenses.
3. BATF's ability to impose additional regulatory
requirements in
connection with the annual inspections are open-ended,
and
inspections could be required "[a]t any other time the
Director of
Industry Operations may in writing require" -- even if
he decides
to require daily inspections.
Small to medium size gun dealers could be easily
harassed into
early retirement, thus having the effect of "drying up
the well" as
far as the gun supply is concerned. The supply of gun
dealers will
be greatly reduced, resulting in higher gun prices.
Moreover, the
BATF will be able to focus its resources to crack down
on the few
remaining dealers in existence, as government studies
will, no
doubt, claim these few dealers are resulting in a high
rate of
sales to criminals.
4. Finally, BATF's efforts to micromanage the exercise
of a
constitutional right are unconstitutional. Its
attempts to harass
gun dealers -- and only gun dealers -- can only be
viewed as
analogous to prohibitively expensive regulatory burdens
applied
only to newspapers, to civil rights organizations, or
to defense
attorneys.
ACTION: The BATF is receiving comments from concerned
Americans
until November 27, 2000. Please consider using the
above talking
points to submit your comments in opposition to the
regulations. Or
view the regulations at
http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/rules/notice902.pdf
(with Acrobat
Reader) on the internet and formulate your own letter in
opposition.
There are two ways to submit your comments:
Email: nprm@atfhq.atf.treas.gov
Mail: Chief, Regulations Division; Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and
Firearms; P.O. Box 50221; Washington, DC 20091-0221;
ATTN: Notice
No. 902
NOTE: Written comments must be signed. E-mail comments
must
contain your name, mailing address, and e-mail address.
They must
also reference the notice number (No. 902) and be
legible when
printed on not more than three pages 8 1/2 x 11 inches
in size.
They will treat e-mail as originals and will not
acknowledge receipt
of e-mail.
**************
Sheriff Richard Mack is the Director of Public Affairs
for Gun
Owners of America. Mack took the Brady Law to the
Supreme Court
where the judges agreed that the Feds could not force a
local
official to perform a background check. Sheriff Mack
now has an
electronic newsletter. Please stop by
http://www.gunvote2000.com
and look it over.
**************
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 01 2000 - 21:37:42 PST