Hi David,
>Others assertions that the pending legislation does not REQUIRE at this time
>the destruction of our property is correct, but it ALLOWS it. Based on Sec
>Def whim.
Yup, and that is exactly why we need to be concerned about this
legislation and should be doing what we can to get it stopped (Fast Track
might screw us here), or at least amended after if we can't do that. But
I think it is important to understand that *if* this legislation passes,
that in and of itself means absolutely nothing. The Secretary of Defense
will have to act, which may or may not happen. While this legislation
introduces some potential risk of a calamity, it does not necessarily
mean it will happen.
> The next Timothy McVay uses a deuce instead of a Ryder
>truck....how
>many hours before HMV's are declared SME and the gathering begins.
I agree. However, if this legislation doesn't pass now it would likely
do so after such an attack. So in the event of another "Patriot" killing
innocent Americans with a Deuce we are likely to be faced with a threat
to our ownership of such vehicles REGARDLESS of what legislation is
already in effect. Heck, there could even be a law on the books saying
"every American has the right to own a piece of US Military hardware" and
we could STILL lose them because the law could be revoked or superseded
by something that says "no American has the right to own a piece of US
Military hardware". In other words, we are *always* at risk of losing
our rights to own such vehicles, no matter what the current laws do or do
not say.
Lesson here is that Life is uncertain. Always.
>Someone says "the logistics of rounding up and destroying are impossible"
>no,
>just difficult....how many fire arms did the Australian government round
>up? and its a larger land mass.
Apples to Oranges. Larger land mass but with a population only 1/10th as
much as in the USA. Their gun ownership rights were never as strong as
ours, nor did they have strong and vocal pro-gun rights voice in
government.
I figure the cost to the DoD for hauling in our MVs is probably around
half a billion dollars. I got news for you... the DoD doesn't have that
kind of pocket change lying around. They will have to go to Congress for
that kind of dough. And therefore, yet another opportunity to get such
action stopped presents itself.
>Someone else says....we will fight in court....yea, BS, who is gonna pay MY
>attorneys fees? I would have to sell my HMVs and my home to pay legal
>expense, and still would likely not prevail.
It isn't as hard as it would appear. Even if no outside group helped us,
such as the NRA or ACLU, and public opinion was against us, there are
enough of us collectors that we could pool our resources to challenge
such action in court. I have about $20,000 worth of OD lawn art with
probably half again as much invested in parts and that much again in
time. So I put my humble collection at $40,000. If the DoD were to
offer me at least the purchase price for my vehicles, I will be out
$20,000 and my vehicles. How much would I be willing to spend to prevent
this? Several thousand bucks. If only 100 other collectors think this
way, we have at least enough to get the ball rolling. A couple of
hundred bucks from the rest of the community, and we got ourselves a
decent warchest without anybody helping us out. And I for one think we
would get quite a bit of help once the fight becomes known.
Remember... we only need to challenge such an action and win ONCE. We do
not each have to challenge the government one at a time. Apparently a
few individuals got the Form 6 ban reversed, so I don't see why a larger
group of us can't effectively combat this in court.
>Relatively speaking, lobbyists are cheap.
True. And I hope that the MVPA, NRA, and other groups weigh in now, or
at the very least if something really bad comes of this some time in the
future.
Bottom line here is that I am VERY concerned about this legislation.
However, I won't let that get in the way of trying to analyze what this
really means for our Hobby. I've got enough things in my life that need
my "worry" attention, so I need to keep this in perspective.
Steve
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 08 2001 - 10:59:01 PDT