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Pro-Gun Bills Make Way To House Floor

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NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert Vol. 13, No. 38 09/22/06

PRO-GUN BILLS MAKE WAY TO HOUSE FLOOR!

The House of Representatives may act as early as next week on critical pro-Second Amendment reform bills. These bills need your support today:

H.R. 5092–the “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act of 2006,” by Reps. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) — will curb the agency’s efforts to revoke dealers’ licenses for minor paperwork errors, improve the appeals process for dealers, and, establish new guidelines for BATFE investigations. This bill was drafted in large part to address recent, blatant BATFE abuses at Richmond, Virginia gun shows highlighted in hearings before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. (See next story on Brady Center’s blatant misrepresentation of this bill.)

H.R. 5005–the “Firearms Corrections and Improvements Act,” by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) — will protect gun owners’ privacy by creating a permanent version of the “Tiahrt Amendment,” preventing disclosure of gun owner records outside of legitimate criminal investigations. The bill also includes a ban on BATFE retrieving out-of-business dealers’ records by the gun owner’s name-making permanent an appropriations restriction that’s been in effect for the last 10 years. Among other reforms, H.R. 5005 will also permanently ban federal fees on instant background checks and roll back various restrictions on firearms industry activities.

With the legislative clock running out, this may be our last chance to pass these essential reforms before the November election–so please be sure to immediately contact your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121, and urge him or her to VOTE FOR H.R. 5092 and H.R. 5005 when they are brought to the House floor! Additional contact information can be found by visiting www.NRAILA.org, clicking the “Take Action” icon, and then clicking the “Write Your Representatives” icon.

Please be sure to contact your Representative TODAY, and urge your family, friends, and fellow firearm owners to do the same!

Thank you for your continued support as we work to make these legislative reforms the law of the land!

BRADY CENTER MISLEADS PUBLIC ON BATFE REFORM BILL

The Brady Center’s latest hatchet job attacks makes many false claims about firearm dealer license revocations, in order to attack H.R. 5092 and the reforms that bill would make.

The “study” is based on published court decisions that have upheld BATFE license revocations. This is misleading because it excludes all cases (about 90% of revocations) where dealers choose not to file a challenge in court-often because the dealer couldn’t afford the necessary attorneys’ fees.

The study also implies that dealers violate the law more often than they used to. To “prove” this, the Brady Center relies on studies from the Clinton administration, which targeted licensees in an effort to reduce the availability of firearms to law-abiding Americans. It’s not surprising that when BATFE politically broadened the definition of “violations,” it found more of them.

The report also harps on dealers who had guns “lost” or “unaccounted for.” These vague phrases don’t tell us whether the dealer had a gun stolen, made a paperwork mistake, or made criminal “off the book” sales. Obviously, under current law or under H.R. 5092, intentional sales without paperwork would be serious violations, for which a dealer could have his license revoked (and even be arrested and imprisoned).

70 MILLION MORE GUNS.38% LESS VIOLENT CRIME

Data released by the FBI on Monday showed that in 2005, the nation’s total violent crime rate was 38% lower than in 1991, when violent crime hit an all-time high. Rates of the individual categories of violent crime were also much lower in 2005 than in 1991. Murder was 43% lower, rape 25% lower, robbery 48% lower, and aggravated assault 33% lower. The FBI’s report came on the heels of a Bureau of Justice Statistics crime survey that found that violent crime was lower in 2005 than anytime in the survey’s 32-year history.

Defying the anti-gunners’ claim that more guns means more crime, from 1991-2005 the number of privately owned guns increased by more than 70 million.

The news media often characterize violent crime as a primarily gun-oriented problem, but the FBI’s report showed that only one in every four violent crimes in 2005 was committed with a gun. In 2005, as in previous years, most violent crimes were robberies and aggravated assaults, most of which were committed with knives or bare hands.

Recently, anti-gun politicians and activists have intensified their rhetoric over the “lack” of bans on handguns, so-called “assault weapons”, and .50-caliber rifles; gun registration, gun owner licensing, and mandatory background checks on sales of guns between friends and family members; and limits on the frequency of gun purchases, all of which they say are necessary to reduce the nation’s murder rate. But for the last seven years, the murder rate has been steady¾in the 5.5-5.7 per 100,000 population range¾at all times lower than anytime since the mid-1960s. In 2005, for example, the murder rate was 5.6.

Naturally, anti-gunners will downplay the downward trend in violent crime since 1991, and focus on the fact that the FBI’s report showed a 1% increase in total violent crime, and a 2% increase in murder in 2005, compared to 2004. But those changes are miniscule, compared to the huge decrease in crime over the last 14 years.

The FBI’s report once again confirmed that violent crime rates are lower in states with Right-to-Carry (RTC) laws. In 2005, RTC states had, on average, 22% lower total violent crime, 30% less murder, 46% lower robbery, and 12% lower aggravated assault rates, compared to the rest of the country.

As usual, Washington, D.C., which leads the nation in anti-gun laws, led the nation in murder, with a rate six times higher than the rest of the country. Neighboring Maryland, where gun control advocates have been particularly active recently, once again had the highest robbery rate among the states, but also tied for the unenviable distinction of “first place” in murder among the states. However, despite Maryland’s high crime counts, CeaseFire Maryland, the local Brady Campaign affiliate that recently released a paper demanding an “assault weapon” ban, was unable to point to any crimes in the state involving such a gun.

The FBI’s report must have displeased New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg (R). Despite the mayor’s recent posturing on the gun issue, and his self-laudatory comments about fighting crime, the Big Apple’s murder rate was more than double that of the rest of the state. Similarly, in Philadelphia, where anti-gun politicians are calling for a statewide one-gun-a-month law, the murder rate was more than seven times higher than the rest of Pennsylvania.

Adding to the reasons why voters should “Dump Doyle” in Wisconsin’s upcoming gubernatorial election, their state had the greatest total violent crime rate increase (15.1%) between 2004-2005. Murder was up 25.2%; robbery up 11.2%; and aggravated assault up 20.2%. Wisconsin is one of only two states that prohibits Right-to-Carry entirely, but in 2005, 11 of the 12 states that had the greatest decreases in total violent crime, and 12 of the 14 states with the greatest decreases in murder were Right-to-Carry states. The seven states with the lowest total violent crime rates in 2005, and 11 of the 12 states that had the lowest murder rates, were Right-to-Carry states.

Last, but not least, is good news from Florida, the state that during the last 20 years has been most often attacked by anti-gunners, for (among other reasons) setting the Right-to-Carry and “Castle Doctrine” movements in motion. In 2005, Florida recorded a murder rate 13% lower than the rate for the rest of the country (4.96 per 100,000, vs. 5.67 for the rest of the country). For the record, Florida’s 2005 murder rate was 58% lower than it was in 1986, the last year before the state’s landmark Right-to-Carry law took effect.

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2nd Amendment RKBA

The People’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms

http://scottsworld.info/rkba.htm

The People’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms

You will be told that the second amendment is about militias, but it is not and that is an intentional lie. It was written to protect the right of the people to defend themselves and have an armed populous to defend the country from foreign and internal threats to our liberty, I.E. the Government trying to take away our Rights.

This amendment uses the word People I.E. you and I, the same as it does in every case that it is used in the Bill of Rights and Constitution, it means the common citizens. The founders were clear when they meant State I.E. Government and when they meant People. They did not give the right to the government at any level to regulate your right to self defense or to keep and bear arms, they in fact wrote that it “Shall not be infringed“.

It is no coincidence that the right to keep and bear arms comes right after the right to free speech. When we lose these rights and the others in the Bill of Rights will shortly follow, and we will be no longer a free people.

Without the right to bear arms to defend ourselves and our rights, we have no rights! Are we free people today? Our rights have been so infringed by government because we keep demanding more of government that it is debatable if we are free now. Read the Bill of Rights and Constitution for yourself and see how frequently it is violated and ignored by our government from the Federal Government on down to the local level. It is vital to the future freedom of this country and our posterity that we know our rights as protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights and vote to defend them.

The answer to violence and crime is not to ban guns or other weapons. We have literally thousands of gun laws which largely are not enforced well, if at all. It is illegal to murder someone, do we need more laws specifying it is illegal to murder someone with a weapon as well? (I oppose hate crimes for the same reason.) In many locations in this county you can not have a gun in your home to defended yourself. Much less carry one in your car or on you as I do here in Arizona to defend against car jackers and other assailants. Is it any wonder that crime and murder are rampant in these areas? Such areas are easy pickings for the criminals who don’t obey the laws anyway, because they know their victims have been disarmed by the government for them.. In nearly every state it is illegal to shoot a burglar even in your own home unless you are threatened with harm or death and can not get away..

Someone breaking into to your home is not threat enough? It is mind boggling. You may or may not be prosecuted for shooting a burglar depending on the views of the prosecutor in your area. Then, thanks to lawyers, you might be sued by the burglar or his family for injuring him, pain and suffering, depriving him of his livelihood. You think I’m joking? They have done it and won several times!

The answer to crime is to punish criminals severely for crimes. I strongly support capital punishment, I do not believe we should intern any criminal for life at tax payer expense. If they are so bad we must lock them away for life to protect society from them, then they should be put to death. If they take a life or use a gun in the commission of a violent crime they should be put to death. The idiots who want to ban guns will say their efforts have reduced crime. Utter lies, crime is going down because more and more states are keeping criminals behind bars with truth in sentencing and three strikes laws. The more criminals behind bars, the less crimes they commit, how much more simple could it be? The majority of crimes are committed by repeat criminals, something like 60% of all crimes. Crime is also going down because more states are allowing (imaging that, allowing you to exercise your God given right to defend yourself..), citizens in good standing to pay a tax (I.E. license) so they can carry a concealed weapon to defend themselves.

It has been proven conclusively that the more lax the gun laws a locality has and the more citizens carrying weapons to defend themselves, the less violent crime there is. The inverse is true also, the more strict the gun laws the more violent crime and murders there are. This is because criminals are cowards and attack the easiest prey they can find. They most definitely don’t want to go after someone who can defend themselves and possibly hurt or kill them.

Accidents? Truth be told accidents with guns have been going down for decades. The reason why is education, yet the gun banning idiots claim gun education promotes gun violence. We teach children to be safe with matches, hot stoves, etc. Why do we not teach children how to be safe with guns? The NRA Eddie Eagle education program teaches very simple rules to children. If they find a gun they are not to touch it and to find an adult and tell them about it. It is frequently opposed by liberal fools because it has to do with guns and is taught by the NRA.. If we are to ban guns to “Save The Children” (a favorite refrain of reactionary, emotional, fools), should not we also ban cars, swimming pools, bicycles, dogs, etc., which each kill and maim far more children than guns do every year? Opps, I almost forgot there are some liberal fools out there trying to do just that too…

My interest in guns? I like to target shoot and I carry a pistol for self defense most of the time. I started carrying after a shoot out between two cars in the parking lot of the apartment complex I used to live in, in a reasonably nice neighborhood. A couple months later I was shot at in south Phoenix, likely by some gang members. They were following me on the highway I-10 and I pulled off on to surface streets around Thomas and 27th Ave to verify this, then tried to loose them on side streets. I am a very good driver and when I was so far ahead of them I started to loose them, they turned sideways at a T in the street and fired one shot which went through the rear window of the camper shell of the red lowered Toyota Pickup I had as my company vehicle at the time. This came from my boss’s son after his divorce and was popular with the gangs back then, it attracted way too much attention all the time. From there the bullet went though a box, a plastic tool box and passed between where the camper rests on the bed frame and the bottom of the camper, hitting the rear of the cab behind my right shoulder, stopping after leaving a big dent in the metal. The car was a white late 80’s Mustang with dark tinted windows so I never saw them and they were always behind me so no plate number. The police think it was a 9 mm handgun. Which was one of the reasons I bought a 40 Caliber Glock 23, also the police are carrying the same caliber which was a shortened version of the10 mm the FBI was carrying in the 80’s.

Several years ago, about 1 A.M. (I’m a night person) I left my apartment complex to mail some bills that needed to be off right away so they would go out at the 6 am pickup at the post office half a mile away. When I came back about ten minutes later the parking lot was filled with police, Fire Dept. and neighbors. In the short time I was gone, one of the neighbors had caught someone breaking into his truck and they murdered him by shooting him in the head when he confronted them unarmed. Unarmed = Victim.. I won’t be a victim, don’t be one yourself!

If we allow the liberals to keep passing stupid gun laws, some day you will be a criminal just because you own a shotgun, rifle or a handgun to protect your home, hunt with or target shoot. There are already liberal controlled cities (in America, the land of the Free and home of the Brave??) where if you have an unregistered gun you are a criminal just for possessing
it. Have no doubt many liberal idiots want only the police to have guns and have publicly said so, even then they don’t really trust the police with them either.. There is no question they want to take away your rights to arm and defend yourself and your family. They don’t Trust you! You Must not trust them! Say NO! to more gun laws! Be involved, write your congressmen and senators to tell them you are opposed to any bill that infringes on your right to bear arms.. Tell them you are opposed any federal crime bill, crime is a local issue, best dealt with at a local level. Elect people who will support your rights and do your best to remove from office those who won’t.

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