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http://www.gunowners.org/a091707.htm
Anti-gun California Senator Dianne Feinstein Is At It Again!
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
(703)321-8585
Monday, September 17, 2007
You may recall that in recent years, GOA has enlisted your aid in fighting
so-called "gang" legislation, which typically includes attempts to apply
federal RICO anti-racketeering statutes to minor gun infractions -- thus
harassing and prosecuting otherwise law-abiding gun owners as though they
were Mafia bosses.
Well, Feinstein's S. 456 is the latest vehicle for such underhandedness.
At issue is section 215 of the bill. In essence, your family, gun shop
employees, or even church bowling league would be considered an organized
"gang" and subjected to draconian prison sentences if you did any of a
number of things, such as:
having a gun (loaded OR unloaded) in your glovebox as you -- inevitably --
drive within 1,000 feet of a school, even if you didn't know the school was
there;
selling a gun out of your store while being entrapped in a Bloomberg-style
"sting" operation;
teaching your son to shoot without giving him a written letter of
permission (which must be on his actual person), even if you are standing
right behind him at the range the whole time; or,
simply being one the 83,000 veterans whose names were illegally added to
the Brady system by President Clinton (or, presumably, one of the thousands
more who will be on the list if the current Veterans Disarmament bill
passes), if you continued to possess a firearm.
Now, there's a lot of legal verbiage in S. 456, which is quite large as
bills go. Feinstein and her anti-gun cronies will counter that the
situations listed above aren't enough -- you also have to commit a crime of
violence while engaging in them.
Oh yeah? Consider how many people defending themselves from carjackers or
their businesses from hold-ups are indicted by anti-gun prosecutors merely
for exercising their right to self-defense. And what judge is going to say
that the "gun crimes" in those instances aren't crimes of violence?
Further, any anti-gun prosecutor could simply state that family members or
gun shop employees are "co-conspirators" or are "aiding and abetting" actual
criminals using guns.
And of course, we have had plenty of warning of what happens when
prosecutorial powers are enormously expanded. Take the original RICO Act
itself, for example. We were told that it was needed to shut down the
Mafia -- a tool to be used in the fight against organized crime. But in the
years since its passage, the RICO Act has become the overzealous
prosecutor's version of going nuclear... wrapping everything up in one big
package of conspiracy charges and twenty years to life prison terms.
It just isn't right that you, your spouse, and your two teenage boys could
be treated like the Gambino family just because you brandished your firearm
to scare away a carjacker... without firing a shot! And prison terms of 10,
20, or even all of your remaining years aren't right in such instances,
either!
In short, section 215 of S. 456 is unacceptable. It must be deleted, period.
To our knowledge, the entire Second Amendment community -- spearheaded by
GOA and the NRA -- is adamantly opposed to Feinstein's scheme.
It should be noted that there is lots of talk on Capitol Hill about how to
"handle" the problems of S. 456 with a minimum of fuss. The most likely
scenario is that there would only be two amendments allowed -- one
Republican and one Democratic. Once that is done, the Senate would
immediately proceed to a vote on the bill... which may or may not be a
recorded vote. Gun owners should bear in mind that, regardless of which
politician is saying otherwise, there is NO GUARANTEE that the Republican
amendment would even attempt to totally strike section 215. The amendment
might not help matters that much, and might not pass anyway.
So this attempt to placate gun owners with a "roll of the dice" amendment
vote is nothing more than the usual smoke-and-mirrors designed to give
politicians cover from the wrath of a known activist constituency.
GOA doesn't believe in gambling with your rights. Our position is firm and
unalterable: section 215 must go away, now. The time to kill a snake is
before it strikes. And this snake could strike at any time; a vote on final
passage could occur as early as this week.
So here's what you can do to help kill the snake. Any individual senator can
place a "hold" on a particular piece of legislation until his or her
concerns are addressed; if the Leadership ignores those objections, it
becomes extremely difficult to move the legislation forward. The "hold" is a
legislative tactic that we have used to great advantage in the past. We need
at least one Senator to take that step and place a hold on S. 456.
ACTION:
Please contact your Senators right away and ask them to place a "hold" on S.
456 until such time as section 215 is deleted from the bill. You can use the
Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your Senators a pre-written
message by e-mail requesting they do so.
SPECIAL NOTE TO ACTIVISTS IN KANSAS, LOUISIANA, OKLAHOMA, AND SOUTH
CAROLINA:
GOA has determined that the most likely senators to agree to place a hold on
S. 456 are Sens. Jim DeMint (SC), David Vitter (LA), Tom Coburn (OK), and
Sam Brownback (KS). PLEASE... activists in those states, be sure respond to
this alert and send your messages. Also, it would be very helpful if you
could contact any other pro-gun people in your state and convince them to
take action as well.
Anti-gun California Senator Dianne Feinstein Is At It Again!
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
(703)321-8585
Monday, September 17, 2007
You may recall that in recent years, GOA has enlisted your aid in fighting
so-called "gang" legislation, which typically includes attempts to apply
federal RICO anti-racketeering statutes to minor gun infractions -- thus
harassing and prosecuting otherwise law-abiding gun owners as though they
were Mafia bosses.
Well, Feinstein's S. 456 is the latest vehicle for such underhandedness.
At issue is section 215 of the bill. In essence, your family, gun shop
employees, or even church bowling league would be considered an organized
"gang" and subjected to draconian prison sentences if you did any of a
number of things, such as:
having a gun (loaded OR unloaded) in your glovebox as you -- inevitably --
drive within 1,000 feet of a school, even if you didn't know the school was
there;
selling a gun out of your store while being entrapped in a Bloomberg-style
"sting" operation;
teaching your son to shoot without giving him a written letter of
permission (which must be on his actual person), even if you are standing
right behind him at the range the whole time; or,
simply being one the 83,000 veterans whose names were illegally added to
the Brady system by President Clinton (or, presumably, one of the thousands
more who will be on the list if the current Veterans Disarmament bill
passes), if you continued to possess a firearm.
Now, there's a lot of legal verbiage in S. 456, which is quite large as
bills go. Feinstein and her anti-gun cronies will counter that the
situations listed above aren't enough -- you also have to commit a crime of
violence while engaging in them.
Oh yeah? Consider how many people defending themselves from carjackers or
their businesses from hold-ups are indicted by anti-gun prosecutors merely
for exercising their right to self-defense. And what judge is going to say
that the "gun crimes" in those instances aren't crimes of violence?
Further, any anti-gun prosecutor could simply state that family members or
gun shop employees are "co-conspirators" or are "aiding and abetting" actual
criminals using guns.
And of course, we have had plenty of warning of what happens when
prosecutorial powers are enormously expanded. Take the original RICO Act
itself, for example. We were told that it was needed to shut down the
Mafia -- a tool to be used in the fight against organized crime. But in the
years since its passage, the RICO Act has become the overzealous
prosecutor's version of going nuclear... wrapping everything up in one big
package of conspiracy charges and twenty years to life prison terms.
It just isn't right that you, your spouse, and your two teenage boys could
be treated like the Gambino family just because you brandished your firearm
to scare away a carjacker... without firing a shot! And prison terms of 10,
20, or even all of your remaining years aren't right in such instances,
either!
In short, section 215 of S. 456 is unacceptable. It must be deleted, period.
To our knowledge, the entire Second Amendment community -- spearheaded by
GOA and the NRA -- is adamantly opposed to Feinstein's scheme.
It should be noted that there is lots of talk on Capitol Hill about how to
"handle" the problems of S. 456 with a minimum of fuss. The most likely
scenario is that there would only be two amendments allowed -- one
Republican and one Democratic. Once that is done, the Senate would
immediately proceed to a vote on the bill... which may or may not be a
recorded vote. Gun owners should bear in mind that, regardless of which
politician is saying otherwise, there is NO GUARANTEE that the Republican
amendment would even attempt to totally strike section 215. The amendment
might not help matters that much, and might not pass anyway.
So this attempt to placate gun owners with a "roll of the dice" amendment
vote is nothing more than the usual smoke-and-mirrors designed to give
politicians cover from the wrath of a known activist constituency.
GOA doesn't believe in gambling with your rights. Our position is firm and
unalterable: section 215 must go away, now. The time to kill a snake is
before it strikes. And this snake could strike at any time; a vote on final
passage could occur as early as this week.
So here's what you can do to help kill the snake. Any individual senator can
place a "hold" on a particular piece of legislation until his or her
concerns are addressed; if the Leadership ignores those objections, it
becomes extremely difficult to move the legislation forward. The "hold" is a
legislative tactic that we have used to great advantage in the past. We need
at least one Senator to take that step and place a hold on S. 456.
ACTION:
Please contact your Senators right away and ask them to place a "hold" on S.
456 until such time as section 215 is deleted from the bill. You can use the
Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your Senators a pre-written
message by e-mail requesting they do so.
SPECIAL NOTE TO ACTIVISTS IN KANSAS, LOUISIANA, OKLAHOMA, AND SOUTH
CAROLINA:
GOA has determined that the most likely senators to agree to place a hold on
S. 456 are Sens. Jim DeMint (SC), David Vitter (LA), Tom Coburn (OK), and
Sam Brownback (KS). PLEASE... activists in those states, be sure respond to
this alert and send your messages. Also, it would be very helpful if you
could contact any other pro-gun people in your state and convince them to
take action as well.