The following is a C&P of a Gun Owners of America email alert. I can’t say it any better.

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/ordergoamem.htm

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Be looking for an upcoming alert to the U.S. Senate. GOA will give
you the particulars of the bill that passed the House, and we will
provide you suggested language for a pre-written letter to your two
senators.

So much for an honest and open Congress under the leadership, and I use that term loosely, Nancy Pelosi. Now for the questions that I have; Did the NRA actually cut a deal with the House leadership? If they thought they could get this passed, why did they suborn the process and do it with a voice vote. The answer is really very simple; it would not have passed if each representative would have it on record how he/she actually voted.

Fortunately, it still has to pass in the Senate, so that is where we must take aim and call, write, fax, and email our senators to let them know how onerous the actions of the House were. At the same time, we need to communicate directly with the White House and let the President know how we feel on the subject. And ask him to veto it should it clear the Senate.

I am going to do both, and I’m going to call my representative and ask him how this happened. He will know by my tone and questions that I am not a happy camper. The people in Congress work for us, not vice versa, so it’s time to let them know who the boss is.

Got an update from GOA, Gun Owners of America, concerning Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and her anti-gun legislation. Upon hearing of her proposed legislation, HR-1022, we sent a message to Capital Hill letting them know that this bill was not acceptable in any shape, manner, fashion, or form. That said, she has now introduced new legislation, H.R. 2640. The language it is reported to contain is a “compromise” between Democrat members of Congress. This legislation is so new that it has not yet been posted on The Thomas Legislative Service.

As I understand it, federal tax dollars will be “given” to the states to assist them in adding names of people who they feel shouldn’t be able to purchase or legally own a firearm of any kind. This legislation, while onerous, has been agreed to by pro-gun Democrats who want to be shown on the record as having done something in the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

On Saturday, June 9, 2007, the Washington Post reported that the language of the legislation had been agreed to, in principle, by Democrat legislators and the NRA. While all the legislative particulars are not yet available, one thing is clear: it is, as reported by the Post, a deal with Democrats. And it involves legislation introduced by the most anti-gun member of the House, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).

The Post says that, under the new language, the federal government would pay (that is, spend taxpayers’ money) to help the states send more names of individual Americans to the FBI for inclusion in the background check system. If a state fails to do this, then the feds could cut various law enforcement grants to that state. In essence, this is a restatement of what the original McCarthy bill does. The states will be bribed (again, with your money) to send more names, many of them innocent gun owners, to the FBI in West Virginia — and perhaps lots of other personal information on you as well.

Under the terms of this compromise, the Post says, “individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records.”

Oh really? The Brady law already contains a procedure for cleaning up records. But it hasn’t worked for the 83,000 veterans that are currently prohibited from buying guns. Gun Owners of America is aware of many people who have tried to invoke this procedure in the Brady Law, only to get the run around — and a form letter — from the FBI. The simple truth is that the FBI and the BATFE think the 83,000 veterans, and many other law-abiding Americans, should be in the NICS system. Under the terms of this compromise, the Post says, “individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records.”

Oh really? The Brady law already contains a procedure for cleaning up records. But it hasn’t worked for the 83,000 veterans that are currently prohibited from buying guns. Gun Owners of America is aware of many people who have tried to invoke this procedure in the Brady Law, only to get the run around — and a form letter — from the FBI. The simple truth is that the FBI and the BATFE think the 83,000 veterans, and many other law-abiding Americans, should be in the NICS system. Unless these regs are changed, Congress can create as many redundant procedures for cleaning up these records as it wants, but the bottom line is, there is nothing that will force the FBI to scrub gun owners’ name from the NICS system.

Not only that, there is a Schumer amendment in federal law which prevents the BATFE from restoring the rights of individuals who are barred from purchasing firearms. If that amendment is not repealed, then it doesn’t matter if your state stops sending your name for inclusion in the FBI’s NICS system… you are still going to be a disqualified purchaser when you try to buy a gun.

Moreover, will gun owners who are currently being denied the ability to purchase firearms — such as the military veterans who have suffered from post-traumatic stress — be recompensed in any way for their efforts to “clean their records”? They will, no doubt, have to spend thousands of dollars going to a shrink for a positive recommendation, for hiring lawyers to take their case to court, etc.

It is time again to start bombarding our elected officials with letters, phone calls, emails, and faxes stating our position on this poisonous piece of legislation. We shut down Ms. McCarthy’s last attempt, so we know it can be done, but it will take each and every one of us to make this happen.

While I am still researching the NRA’s role in this, GOA has a “form” letter you can copy and paste into an email, or you can simply put it forth in your own language. I do not agree with everything that the NRA does, and in this case, it certainly seems that something is afoot, but, that said, I am relying on what was printed in the Washington Post, which is not a news outlet that I have a lot of faith in publishing the whole truth.

Parts of this post were C&P’d from the GOA alert.

Representative William Jefferson, (D-LA) was just indicted in federal court on 16 counts that include bribery and consipiracy. Those are the two main counts against him. And the indictment was a long, long time in coming. At his arraignment, he entered a plea of not guilty to all charges. However, two members of his congressional staff have already pleaded guilty to charges of their involvement and are currently serving their terms in prison.

For those who are not in the know, Rep. Jefferson was the focul point of a long investigation, and after the FBI searched his New Orleans home, found $90,000 in cash, wrapped in aluminum foil in his freezer. Talk about cold, hard cash.

Included in the judges orders at Rep. Jefferson’s arraignment, he had to surrender his passport to his attorney. Also, two bank accounts were frozen, both of these accounts were savings accounts, and the total value of these two accounts was in excess of $470,000. He was also asked if he had any firearms. He replied that he did, admitting to owning several rifles and shotguns that he used for hunting, stating that he had been hunting since he was ten years old. He no longer has access to those firearms.

What makes this case so interesting is that he is an elected official, elected by the voters of a section of New Orleans, where, if you remember, guns were confiscated from law abiding citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. What is even more confounding, at least to me, is that Rep. Jefferson has voted for every piece of federal gun control legislation since he has been in Congress. He is rated at an A+ by the Brady Bunch. The NRA gives him an F. But he owns guns, by his own admission, yet wants to limit OUR right to own them. I am curious as to whether any of the rifles and shotguns he owns would be considered “assault” style weapons under Rep. Carolyn McCarthy’s legislation, and if so, would he turn his guns in?

Another tidbit for you to ponder….in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, he managed to fly into New Orleans where he commandeered an Army National Guard truck, along with five Guardsmen, and ordered them to drive him to his house. Since the water was high, he had them drive up to the steps of his house so he could get out of the truck and into the house without getting his shoes wet. He was in the house for close to an hour, and finally returned with a laptop computer and a box or two of other items. When they went to drive away, they discovered that the truck had sunk in the soft ground. At that point, another truck was ordered in to pull the stuck truck out of the mud. What I find particularly despicable about this is the fact that both trucks and men involved were taken away from search and rescue operations to accomodate the whims of this congressman.

In Louisiana politics, his arrogance is legend. There have been whispers of other irregularities, most notable among these is vote buying. His campaign staff and volunteers going to get people to vote, driving them to the polls, and paying them from $5.00 to $10.00 each. It has been explained away as “compensation” for time away from work. In a pig’s eye.

Louisiana’s politics has been notorious for decades for corruption. In recent years a couple of insurance commissioners have been indicted for corruption, stood trial, and found guilty. Perhaps the most famous, or notorious, case was when former governor Edwin Edwards was found guilty of bribery and corruption and is currently serving time in a federal prison in Texas.

The people of Louisiana have a choice in the upcoming gubernatorial election. They can keep electing the same type of politicians, those who are in it for themselves, or they can elect a new group of representatives and senators to the state legislature that care about the state, and it’s future. We can no longer stand the corruption and the complacency.