Showing posts with label GOA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GOA. Show all posts
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Are Senate Offices Lying To You?
-- Some are claiming there is no Veterans Disarmament Act!
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place Suite 102
Springfield VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
ACTION:
Please use the Take Action feature at the bottom of this alert to send your Senators a pre-written letter asking them to read the Veterans Disarmament Act for themselves. They must be urged to read the ENTIRE BILL, not just a few lines here and there. They dare not vote for this bill without having read the text -- and the underlying law and regulations -- for themselves! This alert will address some of the most frequently misunderstood points about the Veterans Disarmament Act and give you the material you need to set your Senators straight.
Friday, October 26, 2007
It's either an enormous bald-faced lie, or it's ignorance at its worst. But then again, whether it's deception or just plain ignorance ... either scenario is found quite commonly on Capitol Hill.
Some senate offices are telling people the Leahy-Schumer bill is only a bill about "school safety" and not a bill about disarming veterans.
"This is not a Veterans Disarmament Act," some offices have told GOA staff. "The bill doesn't say anything about veterans." And one particular office -- that of Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah -- is selectively quoting provisions in the bill to justify his support for the Veterans Disarmament Act.
These arguments have been repeated in different places and at different times. There is even a military website where a broadcast journalist makes the same outlandish claim that, "There is no such thing as the 'Veterans Disarmament Act.'"
But just like journalists shouldn't attempt brain surgery, neither should they try to understand difficult pieces of legislation without an intimate knowledge of the federal code and regulations which are referenced in those bills.
After all, it takes more digging than just doing a word search for the word "veteran" to understand there are dangers hidden in the McCarthy-Schumer bill which would ban hundreds of thousands of military veterans from owning guns. While it's not surprising that a journalist would fail to do this kind of homework, it is surprising that congressional offices would use such an amateurish argument to deflect criticism of a bill.
Of course, the bill doesn't say "Veterans Disarmament Act." (That's a phrase that was coined by Gun Owners of America.) Does anyone really think that Schumer & Co. are going to tell us that their true intentions are to disarm veterans! Heck no. They call it a "school safety" bill, when the real goal of their measure is to disarm gun owners and veterans around the country. The history of legislation in the 20th Century has taught us that legislation -- if not carefully crafted -- can be easily twisted and abused. Remember how the RICO Act, originally enacted to help combat the Mafia, was later used to crack down on peaceful pro-life protesters?
And who would have thought, when the original Brady law was passed in 1993, that it would be used to keep people with outstanding traffic tickets from buying guns... or couples with marriage problems from buying guns... or military vets with nightmares from buying guns?
Those who want to claim that there is no "Veterans Disarmament Act" ignore, first of all, that up to 140,000 veterans have ALREADY BEEN DISARMED by using twisted interpretations of the federal code! That figure was released on August 1 by Congress' own research team -- the Congressional Research Service.
Furthermore, the so-called "school safety" bill that Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Schumer are pushing would LEGITIMIZE the very practice that began with President Clinton, when his administration began adding military vets onto the NICS roles. (The bill is numbered H.R. 2640 in the House and S. 2084 in the Senate.)
The Veterans Disarmament Act *Does Change* Federal Law
The fact is, this legislation rubber-stamps regulations that have been issued by the BATFE over the years. The net result is that Section 203(2) of S. 2084 ends up outlawing guns for millions of people (including veterans) who are not "currently prohibited" from owning guns.
You can go to http://www.gunowners.org/ne07013.htm to see in greater detail how these regulations will drive the implementation of the Veterans Disarmament Act.
The bottom line is that this bill will ban a person from owning guns because he or she was merely diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer's, ADHD or bipolar disorder by a government psychologist or psychiatrist in the VA, Medicare, or the IDEA program. This is because the Veterans Disarmament Act will CODIFY regulations that BATFE has issued. (Again, see the URL above for more details.)
False Attempts At Defending The Veterans Gun Ban
Nevertheless, those who merely do word searches for "veteran" -- and thus conclude a bill has nothing to say about veterans -- try to defend what the Clinton administration did. Take Senator Hatch. He says, the Veterans Disarmament Act specifically excludes "any finding of mental illness that consists only of a medical diagnoses [sic] from being included in the NICS."
What Hatch is doing is quoting (or referencing) half a sentence in the bill to make the supposed argument that veterans who are only suffering from PTSD will not fall prey to the gun ban, since they are only subject to a "medical finding of disability."
This is a partial quote from Section 211(c)(1)(C) of S. 2084, which is duplicated in the House bill. But to say this -- that people can't lose their gun rights based solely on a "medical finding of disability" -- is to engage in an outright fraud... because the rest of the sentence in the bill says that they can be added into the NICS system if they represent a miniscule danger to themselves or others or are unable to handle their own affairs.
The legislation states that a person can't lose their gun rights "based solely on a medical finding of disability, WITHOUT A FINDING THAT THE PERSON IS A DANGER TO HIMSELF OR TO OTHERS." (Emphasis added.) You see that? What little freedom is protected with the one hand, is destroyed with the other. What government shrink isn't going to say that a person suffering from PTSD is a potential danger -- even a teensy, weensy danger -- to himself or others?
A BATFE letter from May 9 of this year indicates that this danger does not have to be a substantial threat; it can be just a MINISCULE danger. (This letter can be read on the GOA website at the URL below.)
Yes, this gets slightly technical. But it helps to actually read entire sentences in the bill, rather than to selectively quote a passage here or there; and it especially helps to read the underlying federal code and regulations.
That's why Gun Owners of America has posted the entire bill -- and a scholarly point-by-point analysis of the Veterans Disarmament Act -- on its website. By going to http://www.gunowners.org/netb.htm and reading this information for yourself, you can stay informed on the very real threat posed by this legislation.
When you read through this section, you will understand why the American Legion and the Military Order Of The Purple Heart have both opposed this bill. You will also see the PDF copies of their two letters of opposition, and see Sen. Tom Coburn's letter which GOA reported on last week. Sen. Coburn sent his letter to Veterans Affairs and asked them to explain how they plan to prevent even more veterans from being disarmed without due process.
Earlier this week, USA Today stated that veterans are seeking mental health treatment in increasing numbers... by an almost 70% jump in a recent 12-month period. Can you see why Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy want this legislation so bad? Hundreds of thousands of veterans are going to be unknowingly sucked into the gun control dragnet.
This is outrageous and is why your Senators need to keep hearing from you on this issue.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Abuse of Veterans' Rights
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Senator Tom Coburn isn't going to go away quietly. As you know from previous GOA alerts, the Republican Senator from Oklahoma has placed a hold on the noxious legislation that is being pushed by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.
Because of his actions, the Veterans Disarmament Act (HR 2640 and S2084) has been stalled in the Senate for a few weeks. But not content to remain silent, Sen. Coburn sent a pointed letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs, asking them to justify their actions.
Coburn states in his letter that the Veterans Affairs continues to send the names of "approximately 1,000 additional veterans" to the Department of Justice every month. According to the Congressional Research Service, Coburn says, this has resulted in "approximately 140,000 Veterans" being added into the NICS background check system.
"This situation is concerning to me," he continues, "as the vast majority of these veterans have committed no crime." Coburn correctly notes that if these veterans should continue to own a firearm, they could "unknowingly be in violation" of federal law.
Interestingly, Coburn notes that the VA gun ban for veterans is not based on their being a "danger to him/herself or others" but rather that they supposedly can't manage their own financial affairs.
Coburn ends his letter with a very pointed request: "I respectfully request that you share with me your plans to prevent the release of more veterans' names without due process."
That's the key: these brave souls are being denied their gun rights WITHOUT DUE PROCESS. Some have claimed that this bill would provide relief for those who are being unjustly denied. Of course, this is very questionable since Congress has, since 1993, defunded the ability of the BATFE to restore the rights of veterans and other victims of gun control. (This is the result of a Chuck Schumer amendment.)
Certainly, GOA would support avenues to provide relief. But the Veterans Disarmament Act is not the vehicle to do this, since the bill actually CHANGES federal law to LEGALLY BAN those 140,000 veterans from owning firearms. (1) Once the bill is enacted and those veterans and other Americans are LEGALLY DISARMED, the bill
then provides some limited avenues for pursuing relief -- although Americans will face an uphill battle as they will have to spend tens of thousands of dollars pressing their case in court where THEY WILL HAVE THE BURDEN of proving their innocence.
Even if these expensive court battles prove s uccessful, they are still not guaranteed to get their gun rights back. Sen. Schumer can simply offer another amendment which prevents the FBI from removing names from the NICS system, just as his 1993 amendment still defunds the ability of the federal government to grant relief TO THIS DAY.
Sarah Brady Is Lobbying Hard For The McCarthy-Schumer Bill
It's no wonder that the Brady Bunch is plugging so hard for this bill. Several news agencies have stated that passage of this bill would represent the "first major gun control law in more than a decade". (2)
Sarah Brady wants this bill bad. Her organization led a bunch of Virginia Tech survivors to Chuck Schumer's office this week to get media attention in favor of the Veterans Disarmament Act.
And she sent out an e-mail last week urging members to donate to her organization, thus helping to get the McCarthy-Schumer bill passed. "In July, the U.S. House of Representatives took a courageous first step to keep guns out of the wrong hands by passing HR 2640, the NICS Improvement Act," Brady said. "The Brady Campaign is working full force to convince the U.S. Senate to pass this bill immediately."
Those who would disarm us are working hard to diminish your rights.
Have you written your Senators recently?
Footnotes:
(1) See GOA's extensive write-up on the Veterans Disarmament Act. By going to http://www.gunowners.org/netb.htm on the GOA website, one can read an analysis of the bill, plus see what others are saying about it as well.
(2) "NRA, Democrats Team Up To Pass Gun Bill", CBSNews.com, June 13,
2007; and "House Tempers Background Checks for Guns," Associated Press, June 14, 2007.
ACTION: Please use the letter below to contact your Senators and urge them to join Sen. Coburn in putting a hold on the Veterans Disarmament Act. You can use the pre-written message below and send it as an e-mail by visiting the GOA Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm (where phone and fax numbers
are also available).
----- Pre-written letter -----
Dear Senator:
I urge you to OPPOSE the efforts of the Brady Campaign. This organization, led by Sarah Brady, is PLUGGING HARD for the Veterans Disarmament Act which has been opposed by the American Legion and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Have you told Senator Tom Coburn yet that you will join him in putting a hold on this legislation (HR 2640 and S 2084) which is being actively pushed by one of the most anti-Second Amendment legislators in the entire Congress -- Senator Chuck Schumer?
If you have not yet added your name and placed a hold on this noxious
bill, please tell me why.
Also, Senator Coburn has authored a letter (addressed to the Veteran Affairs) which asks them to justify why they have determined more than 140,000 veterans ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED TO OWN A GUN!
These veterans have been denied WITHOUT DUE PROCESS and even without a determination that they are a danger to society. They have been denied simply because they supposedly lack the ability to "manage [their] own financial affairs."
Please let me know when you have joined the Coburn "hold" on the Veterans Disarmament Act. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Monday, October 8, 2007
An Open Letter To The Pro-gun Community
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585
Thursday, October 4, 2007
It may be a cliche, but it is true: This letter is written not in anger, but in sorrow and concern. It is written to our friends about NRA staff who, tragically, have taken a course which, we believe, would be disastrous for the Second Amendment and the pro-gun movement.
Two of us are Life Members of the NRA -- one of whom was an NRA board member for over ten years. And our legislative counsel was a paid consultant for the NRA.
So we certainly have no animus against the NRA staff, much less our wonderful friends who are NRA members.
In fact, over the last thirty years, GOA and its staff have worked with NRA to facilitate most of our pro-gun victories -- from McClure-Volkmer to the death of post-Columbine gun control to a gun liability bill free of anti-gun "killer amendments."
But those who staff the NRA, without consulting the membership, have now made a series of strange and dangerous alliances with the likes of Chuck Schumer, Carolyn McCarthy, and Pat Leahy. And we believe that, if allowed to continue, this will produce anti-gun policies which the NRA staff will bitterly regret.
Christ said, in the Sermon on the Mount, that "by their fruits, ye shall know them." And, frankly, these fruits are not likely to produce much pro-gun legislation.
Substantively, the Leahy/McCarthy/Schumer bill, which NRA's staff has vigorously supported without consulting with its membership, would rubber-stamp the illegal and non-statutory BATFE regulations which have already been used to strip gun rights from 110,000 veterans. It would also allow an anti-gun administration to turn over Americans' most private medical records to the federal instant check system without a court order.
But perhaps even worse, the bill was hatched in secret, without hearings or testimony, and passed out of the House without even a roll call. And now, the sponsors are trying to do the same thing in the Senate -- in an effort to ram the bill through without votes or floor debate, led by anti-gun Senator Chuck Schumer. If it is good legislation, as its proponents claim, why such fears of a roll call vote or debate in committee?
Indeed, in the face of horrific dissent from the NRA's own membership, its staff has tragically ignored arguments and dug in its heels -- in an almost "because-we-say-so" attitude.
Understand this:
* Passage of McCarthy/Leahy/Schumer will not quell the calls for gun control. To the contrary, it will embolden our enemies to push for the abolition of even more of our Second Amendment rights. Already, the Brady Campaign has indicated its intent to follow up this "victory" with a push for an effective ban on gun shows.
* Passage of McCarthy/Leahy/Schumer will not be viewed as an "NRA victory." To the contrary, once the liberal media has used the NRA staff for its purposes, it will throw them away like a used Kleenex. Already, an over-confident press is crowing that this is the "first major gun control measure in over a decade."
* Taking the BATFE's horrifically expansive unlawful regulations dealing with veterans' loss of gun rights and making them unchangeable congressionally-endorsed statutory law is NOT "maintaining the status quo."
* We are told that the McCarthy/Leahy/Schumer bill should be passed because it contains special provisions to allow persons prohibited from owning guns to get their rights restored. But there is already such a provision in the law; it is 18 U.S.C. 925(c). And the reason why no one has been able to get their rights restored under CURRENT LAW is that funds for the system have been blocked by Chuck Schumer. It is no favor to gun owners for Chuck Schumer -- the man who has blocked funding for McClure-Volkmer's "relief from disability" provisions for 15 years -- to now offer to give us back a tepid version of the provisions of current law which he has tried so hard to destroy.
Finally, there is the cost, which ranges from $1 billion in the cheapest draft to $5 billion -- to one bill which places no limits whatsoever on spending. Thus, we would be drastically increasing funding for gun control -- at a time when BATFE, which has done so much damage to the Second Amendment, should be punished, rather than rewarded.
We would now respectfully ask the NRA staff to step back from a battle with its membership -- and to join with us in opposing McCarthy/Leahy/Schumer gun control, rather than supporting it.
And, to our friends and NRA members, we would ask that you take this letter and pass it onto your friends and colleagues.
Sincerely,
Senator H.L. "Bill" Richardson (ret.)
Founder and Chairman
Larry Pratt
Executive Director
Michael E. Hammond
Legislative Counsel Sphere: Related Content
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
NRA Members, please sign this petition now
Are you a member of the NRA? I am, and I'm not pleased with Joaquin Jackson being on the Board of Directors. Remember this guy: NRA Director Says Five Rounds is Enough ?
(see the poster and video at the bottom of the page for more info)
If you're as disgusted as I am, please sign the Petition to Recall Joaquin Jackson and send it to the provided address. And tell all your shooting buddies. Here's a link to a PDF version: Petition JJ Recall.pdf
Please send them to the Petition Sponsor at:
JJ Recall c/o Jeff Reed
P.O. Box 14118
Newport News, VA 23608
And while you're at it, consider joining Gun Owners of America, it's only $20 and they promise a no-compromise approach:
Membership Info
Join, Renew Or Contribute Online
They have a very convenient legislative action center: Legislative Action Center
Thank you.
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