GOA Activists Make Big Splash On Capitol Hill

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Mountainman, Dec 14, 2007.


  1. Mountainman

    Mountainman Großes Mitglied Site Supporter+++

    GOA Activists Make Big Splash On Capitol Hill
    -- Gun rights report for 2007

    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

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    "Gun Owners of America has remained a steadfast ally. Their
    unwavering defense of our rights as Americans is commendable." --
    Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), November 2007
    ------------------------------------------------------------------

    Thursday, December 13, 2007

    When people look back on 2007, they may remember the several, notable
    shootings that took place: the massacre at Virginia Tech in April,
    the slayings at the Nebraska and Utah malls, and the most recent
    killings in Colorado -- a shooting that could have eclipsed all of
    the previous ones if one courageous lady, Jeanne Assam, had not been
    armed with a gun.

    Gun Owners of America has been there each step of the way, sometimes
    serving as the only national gun group which has regularly appeared
    on national television, arguing for the right to keep and bear arms.

    Just this week, GOA's Larry Pratt appeared on Fox News to debate the
    Brady Campaign in the aftermath of the Colorado-church shooting.
    Pratt hailed Assam as a hero and called for the elimination of gun
    free zones which leave victims defenseless.

    While GOA considers it very important to inform the general public on
    the practical value of the Second Amendment, there's much more that
    we have done to defend our freedoms in the legislative and judicial
    halls around the country. The following is just a glimpse of what
    GOA has been able to accomplish this year with YOUR HELP. So let's
    take a look at our work together, month by month.


    January

    * As the year dawns, Gun Owners of America is headed for the U.S.
    Supreme Court! GOA begins preparing its amicus brief in the FEC v.
    Wisconsin RTL case -- a case that became important to gun owners
    shortly after last year's elections when the Brady Campaign asked the
    Federal Election Commission to shut down GOA's ability to post its
    candidate ratings on the Internet.

    In this amicus brief, Gun Owners of America led a coalition of
    organizations to argue before the Supreme Court, realizing that a
    victory at the nation's highest court would take the wind out of
    Brady's sails and protect the right of GOA members and the public to
    read our candidate ratings on the Internet. (See "June Part 2" for
    the final resolution of this case.)

    * In Congress, GOA wins an early battle against legislation
    introduced by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) that would have required GOA to
    monitor and report on its communications with its members and friends
    (like you). GOA helps produce an outpouring of calls against this
    anti-speech language (S. 1), and the pernicious text is subsequently
    dropped from the bill.


    February -- March

    * GOA spends a lot of time in the state legislatures during the early
    part of the year lobbying for bills that would protect the right of
    self-defense (a.k.a., the Castle Doctrine) and would allow
    law-abiding gun owners to carry firearms without getting permission
    from the government (known as Vermont-style carry).

    * GOA also begins lobbying for bills that would outlaw gun
    confiscations during declared emergencies. Gun Owners helps citizens
    of Arizona and Montana to become the most recent states to outlaw the
    type of gun thefts that occurred in New Orleans after Hurricane
    Katrina. More than a dozen states have now enacted such laws.

    * In the nation's capital, GOA begins its campaign against the
    Veterans Disarmament Act and activates its members all over the
    country to oppose the legislation introduced by the Queen of Gun
    Control, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D) of New York. (More on this
    below.)


    April -- May

    * As the nation watches the horrifying images coming from Virginia
    Tech on April 16, gun control advocates heighten their calls for
    greater restrictions. GOA spokesmen spend countless hours on Capitol
    Hill and in the media. In just the first two weeks following the
    shooting, GOA appeared in several hundred news outlets across the
    country (newspaper articles, radio talk shows and TV debates).

    * The April shooting jumpstarts anti-gun legislation sponsored by
    Rep. McCarthy and Senator Chuck Schumer. In the name of stopping bad
    guys like the Virginia Tech gunman, the Veterans Disarmament Act
    would disarm hundreds of thousands of military veterans who are
    suffering the ailments that frequently follow combat stress.

    * Gun Owners of America begins activating its grassroots network on a
    weekly basis (sometimes more), generating thousands upon thousands of
    e-mails and phone calls into the House of Representatives in
    opposition to the Veterans Disarmament Act.


    June (Part 1)

    * Betrayal! The House Democrat leadership secretly conspires to
    bring up the Veterans Disarmament Act. Republicans find out the bill
    is coming to the floor with only a couple of hours lead time. On
    June 13, the bill passes without a recorded vote, and very few
    Representatives are even present on the floor of the House.

    As the bill moves to the Senate, GOA continues fighting the bill and
    works to get other groups to join the battle. On June 18, the
    Military Order of the Purple Heart takes a strong position against
    the McCarthy-Schumer text.

    * In other legislative battles, GOA helps kill an anti-gun
    immigration bill that was introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA).
    The bill contains harmful language which, in the hands of a future
    anti-gun administration, would allow gun shops to be shut down and
    classified as "criminal gangs."

    GOA gins up the grassroots in favor of a killer amendment that brings
    the huge debate over the amnesty bill to a screeching halt. That one
    amendment is credited by Capitol Hill insiders as being the biggest
    reason this anti-gun bill was defeated by a 53-46 vote in the Senate.


    June (Part 2)

    * Big news. GOA's Political Victory Fund raises thousands of dollars
    for GOA Life Member Dr. Paul Broun, who is running to replace the
    late Charlie Norwood in Georgia. The Republican Broun wins the
    special election by 373 votes and is now a member of the U.S. House
    of Representatives!

    * More big news. The Supreme Court rules in favor of GOA in the FEC
    v. Wisconsin RTL case! This victory makes it almost certain that GOA
    will receive a favorable ruling from the Federal Election Commission
    in August, thus allowing GOA to continue posting its candidate
    ratings on the Internet.


    July -- August

    * As the Congress prepares to go on recess, GOA registers its
    complaints with an executive agency (Occupational Safety and Health
    Administration) after it proposed regulations that could bring the
    sale and transportation of ammunition in this country to a halt.
    Less than two weeks later, the Labor Department (which oversees OSHA)
    withdraws the regulations and states that, "OSHA is taking prompt
    action to revise [and] clarify the purpose of the regulation."

    * GOA beats the Brady Campaign in the battle at the Federal Election
    Commission! The FEC dismisses the Brady Bunch's complaint against
    Gun Owners and states that we have broken no laws in posting our
    candidate ratings which educate the public.


    September

    * With Congress returning from their summer break, GOA continues to
    generate a flood of e-mails, postcards, letters and faxes into
    Senatorial offices -- all in opposition to the Veterans Disarmament
    Act.

    * The fight against the McCarthy-Schumer bill is gaining steam, and
    GOA announces two key allies are joining the fight against the
    Veterans Disarmament Act. First, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) places a
    hold on the Schumer bill -- a "hold" being a parliamentary maneuver
    which stalls the legislation and keeps it from easily advancing. The
    Coburn hold has continued to bottle up the bill until this very day.

    Second, the American Legion informs Senator Coburn that it is opposed
    to the Veterans Disarmament Act, as it would "abrogate the rights of
    certain service-connected disabled veterans to own firearms, a right
    guaranteed by the Second Amendment."

    * In other issues, GOA works closely with Senator David Vitter (R-LA)
    to craft language which stipulates that no U.S. funds can be used by
    the United Nations -- or organizations affiliated with the UN -- to
    restrict or tax our gun rights. Sen. Vitter pushes the pro-gun
    language through the U.S. Senate on an 81-10 vote, as an amendment to
    the Department of State appropriations bill.


    October

    * GOA's founder and chairman, Sen. H.L. "Bill" Richardson (ret.),
    issues an open letter to the gun community urging them to encourage
    ALL PRO-GUN groups to stand united in opposition to the Veterans
    Disarmament Act. You can see the letter at
    http://www.gunowners.org/a100407.htm on the GOA website.

    The letter states unequivocally that no compromise is acceptable on
    the McCarthy-Schumer legislation.

    * GOA activates its supporters in opposition to the Law of the Sea
    Treaty (LOST), as it could allow the UN to force the closing of
    firing ranges based on the bogus argument that runoff from these
    ranges pollutes the world's oceans.


    November -- December

    * Gun Owners Foundation begins preparing an amicus brief for the U.S.
    Supreme Court after the justices decide to take up Washington, D.C.'s
    appeal after its gun ban is declared unconstitutional. An appellate
    court ruled in March that the city's draconian gun ban violated the
    Second Amendment of the Constitution. The DC v. Heller case will
    likely be heard next spring.

    * Gun Owners Foundation is also continuing its defense of Ignacio
    Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean -- the two border patrol agents who
    were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler on the U.S. side
    of the border. GOF attorneys filed an amicus brief earlier in the
    year which argued that Ramos and Compean were falsely convicted of
    "firing a gun during the commission of a crime" -- a crime that
    doesn't even exist in federal law.

    While the "firing a gun" charge can serve as a sentence enhancement
    to an underlying crime, the prosecutor would have to show that the
    two border agents were unlawfully carrying firearms -- a ludicrous
    idea! It became very clear in December that two of the three judges
    hearing the agents' appeal were very familiar with GOF's arguments,
    as their questions to the prosecutor repeatedly focused on this
    particular area of federal law. Prospects look good for a decision
    reversing their conviction next year.

    * When the Senate recently came within a couple of hours of
    unanimously approving the anti-gun Michael Sullivan for the position
    of BATFE Director, GOA sent an emergency fax to every Senate office,
    urging them to oppose the Sullivan nomination. Thankfully, one
    senator filed an official objection to Sullivan, and his nomination
    was temporarily stalled.

    GOA then generated a massive outpouring of opposition from its
    activists, which resulted in yet another Senator placing a
    "hold" on
    the Sullivan nomination. The anti-gun appointment has now been put
    off until next year.


    PLEASE CONTINUE TO STAND WITH GOA IN 2008!

    The ability of GOA to continue putting pressure on politicians
    depends on loyal activists like you. GOA has been the national
    leader when it comes to opposing the Veterans Disarmament Act.

    In October, The Politico stated, "Gun Owners of America... has
    launched grassroots efforts across the nation, backed by military
    groups such as the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the
    American Legion."

    Even as far back as April, Newsweek noted that, "The Gun Owners of
    America [has] already launched a public campaign to block the
    [McCarthy] legislation that the NRA supports, warning that the
    proposal could 'block millions of additional, honest gun owners from
    buying firearms.'"

    We can only continue fighting this pernicious legislation as long as
    you continue to stand with us. You can stand with us today by
    joining GOA at http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm (or renewing
    your existing membership there).

    Thank you for your support.
     
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