Saturday, March 16, 2013

It's Time to Act in Defense of Our 2nd Amendment Rights

February 15, 2013


Feb 15, 2013: An email I wrote to a broad distribution list of friends. My red text highlights in the email don't work here in FB, sorry.

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Friends,

If you think the current gun control debate is a lot of noise and will blow over, please think again. I believe it is time to act in defense of our 2nd Amendment rights that “shall not be infringed” by contacting our federal and state lawmakers. I think we all know that federal legislation has been proposed that may not even come to a vote without being drastically reduced from Senator Dianne Feinstein’s S. 150 (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113s150is/pdf/BILLS-113s150is.pdf). What many people are not as aware of are the recent state-level proposals and, in the case of New York, new laws that are happening all around us RIGHT NOW. I’ve provided a little bit of summary and some links below. This is NOT all that’s going on. I didn’t include New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland or Delaware that I know of and there may be others.

I am opposed to the proposed federal and state gun control legislation and new laws in New York. I believe them to be ‘feel good’ actions that have nothing to do with solving any of the real problems associated with “gun violence” or “mass murder” and everything to do with the long-time agenda of gun control advocates, dating back for decades. I have spent a large amount of time following the pertinent issues since the tragic event in Newtown and will gladly discuss any of them with any of you. There are MANY problems with the current proposals that you will not hear about in most of the media coverage.

Regardless of my opinion, whether you agree or disagree with me or any of these proposals, I strongly encourage you to voice your opinion and not allow a vote in our state or federal legislatures without hearing your voice.

This website makes it easy to contact your federal representatives (http://www.congress.org/congressorg/mail/?alertid=61046526&type=ML). I don’t know of equivalent sites for the states, unfortunately, but contact info or webpages should be available through state government websites.

In addition to my summaries, below, here is an NRA website that lists gun control proposals by state:http://www.nraila.org/legislation/state-legislation.aspx

[Signature]


Washington (state):

There are 3 bills in the Washington (state) legislature being considered RIGHT NOW! (2/14/2013) Per this article, http://www.nraila.org/legislation/state-legislation/2013/2/washington-your-state-legislators-must-hear-from-you-today.aspx?s&st&ps : (red emphasis added)

Yesterday, House Bill 1588 was heard by the House Judiciary Committee. Sponsored by state Representatives Jamie Pederson (D-43), Mike Hope (R-44) and thirty-six other state representatives, HB 1588 could criminalize all private sales of firearms. This bill mandates a $20 fee (tax) to conduct a background check. All private firearm sales would be required to be brokered by licensed gun dealers and it is unlikely that $20 would cover their cost.  A likely outcome is dealers refusing to process these transactions, potentially bringing all legal private firearm sales to a halt.

HB 1588 is scheduled for vote in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, February 19 at 10:00 a.m.

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Also heard yesterday was House Bill 1676, sponsored by state Representative Ruth Kagi (D-32) and thirteen other state representatives. This so-called “child access prevention” bill would single out the storage of firearms for criminalization under certain circumstances.  Today, fatal firearms accidents are at an all-time low and are at the bottom of the list of causes of accidental harm to children.
Washington’s current reckless endangerment statute already provides a remedy to address the rare incident of negligent storage and, more significantly, there is a civil remedy available that provides for civil action by the parents of a minor child who is injured or killed.
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The latest attack on law-abiding gun owners comes in the form of a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and magazines that hold more than ten rounds. Senate Bill 5737, just introduced by state Senators Ed Murray (D-43) and Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36), would ban the sale of commonly owned semi-automatic firearms.  This bill would ban the manufacture, transfer, possession, purchase and sale of firearms arbitrarily defined as “assault weapons”, semi-automatic firearms commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for self-defense, based on mainly cosmetic features!
SB 5737 would also ban the possession of any semiautomatic firearm along with a magazine that holds more than ten rounds. A violation of these, and other provisions listed in the bill, is a class C felony.  Owners of these firearms could keep them IF they subjected themselves to annual in-home inspections by law enforcement and complied with stringent and impractical storage and transportation requirements.

California:

All semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines would be banned, all guns would be registered and no ammunition could be bought without a special permit in California under a sweeping list of bills rolled out Thursday by state Senate Democrats.
The 10-bill package constitutes the single largest gun control push in decades in the Golden State, which already boasts some of the nation's strictest gun laws. It joins equally controversial proposals from Assembly Democrats that would regulate and tax ammunition sales and consider taking the state's 166,000 registered assault weapons from their owners.

Missouri:
Aside from these links about MO, this was covered by television media today (2/15/2013).



4. Any person who, prior to the effective date of this law, was legally in possession of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine shall have ninety days from such effective date to do any of the following without being subject to prosecution:
(1) Remove the assault weapon or large capacity magazine from the state of Missouri;
(2) Render the assault weapon permanently inoperable; or
(3) Surrender the assault weapon or large capacity magazine to the appropriate law enforcement agency for destruction, subject to specific agency regulations.
5. Unlawful manufacture, import, possession, purchase, sale, or transfer of an assault weapon or a large capacity magazine is a class C felony.

Minnesota:
This article says the exact working of the Missouri proposal is being considered in Minnesota.


New York:
Many of you are aware that New York has already passed new gun control legislation, just 1 month after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, that includes bans on so-called “assault weapons” and magazines with a capacity of more than 7 rounds, among other things. Do you know what those other things are? Do you know the even other things that were considered?


and http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/15/bill-called-toughest-gun-control-package-in-nation-passed-by-new-york-state/),

“The Democrat-led Assembly gaveled out before midnight and planned to take the issue up at 10 a.m. Tuesday. It is expected to pass easily.”

I may have misrepresented this to one or more of you as a “vote” occurring at midnight. It seems there are conflicting reports. I don’t know what the significance of “gaveled out before midnight” is except that it means they were working on this UNTIL MIDNIGHT, as if this was so urgent that it couldn’t be done within normal working hours. The above article states the actual vote took place at 10:00am the following day. But this article (http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2013/1/first-state-salvo-on-gun-control-fired-in-ny.aspx) says:

Late Monday, as the clock approached midnight, the public was introduced to S. 2230, a hastily drafted bill that includes bans on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms and magazines, gun registration, and restrictions on ammunition purchases.  This bill was released to legislators a scant 20 minutes prior to the Senate vote and quickly passed without proper vetting or debate.

S. 2230 faced the state Assembly on Tuesday, where it passed by a 104 to 43 vote and was signed into law by the Governor within an hour of its passage.  During Assembly debate, it became obvious that the haste with which the bill was drafted and passed resulted in innumerable errors and flaws, damaging gun owners even worse than bill authors probably intended.  The NRA-ILA lobbyist spent several days in Albany meeting with lawmakers, but this deal was quickly and quietly being forged behind closed doors.  Lawmakers from both political parties were critical of Cuomo's abuse of the legislative process.


Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature orchestrated a secretive end-run around the legislative and democratic process and passed sweeping anti-gun measures with no committee hearings and no public input.
Hammered out in a backroom in Albany, S. 2230 was quickly drafted and released 20 minutes prior to the Senate vote. It passed as the clock ticked toward midnight.


Gun rights advocates lashed out at Cuomo and New York's law, decrying the speed at which the legislation moved through New York's statehouse. The state's lawmakers have been back at work for less than a week.


The bill passed the Democratic-led Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, a day after sprinting through the Republican-majority Senate. State lawmakers have been in session for just a matter of days.
…
Assemblyman Raymond Walter, a Republican from upstate New York, said New York's violent crime statistics show the state has a murder rate of just four people per 100,000, but "rifles account for .03 of that."
Were comparable legislation in place in Connecticut, "it would not have stopped that horrible and tragic crime," said Assemblyman Joseph Saladino, a Republican from Long Island.
The new legislation would also increase monitoring of high-volume ammunition purchases, in-person or over the Internet, and current owners of assault weapons would be required to register them, as is required with handguns.
This week, officials in Maryland and Delaware also vowed to press for their own state legislation to tighten bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.


Governor Andrew Cuomo, in stunningly brazen fashion, took a hatchet to gun rights in New York with lightning speed.  By cutting secret deals behind closed doors, eliminating public input and circumventing normal legislative processes, the Governor and state Senate passed sweeping anti-gun measures just before the stroke of midnight yesterday.  Within 24 hours, Cuomo had his new gun control laws.  Cuomo utilized a rarely-used executive trick, a "message of necessity" to bypass normal legislative procedures that are strictly followed on hundreds of bills each legislative session.  Late last night as the clock approached midnight, the public was introduced to S. 2230,a hastily drafted bill that includes bans on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms and magazines, registration, and restrictions on ammunition purchases.  This bill was released to legislators a scant twenty minutes prior to the Senate vote and quickly passed without proper vetting, committee consideration and debate, as previously reported on here.

Which is also mentioned here (http://www.opencarry.org/?p=779):

New York state law requires that new bills have a 3 day ‘aging period’ before they can be acted upon. This aging period is designed to allow citizen input to legislators and to prevent emotional votes.

However, Governor Cuomo decided to ignore this requirement. And he isn’t even trying to hide the fact that he did so to avoid public comment and opposition.

He told reporters that he did so “to give the bill the best chance of passing.”


on its first day in session; the Assembly, controlled by Democrats, followed suit the next day, and the governor signed the legislation into law

The weeks between the mass shooting and the bill signing illustrated the classic Cuomo formula, honed over years in public life and refined during his first two years as governor. Eggs are broken, speed rules, an open process is sacrificed, and results are achieved — sometimes triumphant, often jagged and imperfect. Before New York’s new gun control law was even passed, lawmakers were acknowledging that they would have to pass a second measure to clean up some of its errors.
…
First, there were threats, delivered in phone calls or through intermediaries: He would seek to dissolve their fledgling coalition by pressuring his fellow Democrats to reunite; pummel recalcitrant Republican senators for months with a seven-figure advertising blitz backed by national groups like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; and campaign on Long Island, where 9 of the 30 Republican senators live, and across the state. [My note: This is a state Governor “threatening” his state’s Assembly – “my way or the highway.”]
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Mr. Cuomo had been a longtime supporter of gun control, and after the mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., last summer, he instructed his aides to begin developing new gun control proposals. But he had done little publicly, other than making an occasional comment at a news conference, until Newtown.

“I think for me, like for people all across this country, that was it,” the governor said in an interview last week. “You said, ‘Enough.’ That was it. It’s not an intellectual response; it was more emotional, visceral. Just, it was enough.”
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For a time, Mr. Cuomo and his team were so eager to act that they contemplated calling the Legislature into special session in December. By the time a few dozen lawmakers had assembled in Albany the week before Christmas for an economic development meeting, negotiations were moving so rapidly that the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, instructed his members not to leave the capital until they had called his office — just in case a gun control deal was ready.

The Assembly was clearly ready to support new gun control, so Mr. Cuomo focused his lobbying on the Senate, where the outcome was less certain.

A few days after the shooting, the Senate Democrats had chosen a new leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Westchester County. Mr. Cuomo invited her to visit. When she arrived, he offered his congratulations and then turned to gun control. By the end of the session, Senator Stewart-Cousins had pledged that all 26 members of her caucus would support his effort.

Some of those “errors” are the omission of exclusions for law enforcement officers to carry more than 7 rounds or possess magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

As bad and “infringing” as New York’s law is, it was intended to be much worse. According to this article, these control measures were stripped out of the legislation. This list was leaked from a Democratic Assemblyman to a Republican. (http://www.policymic.com/articles/23757/new-york-gun-control-law-exposed-15-more-measures-left-out-of-final-bill). Here’s the list:

  1. 1.       Confiscation of "assault weapons" 2. Confiscation of ten round clips 3. Statewide database forALL Guns 4. Continue to allow pistol permit holder's information to be replaced to the public 5. Label semiautomatic shotguns with more than 5 rounds or pistol grips as "assault weapons” 6. Limit the number of rounds in a magazine to 5 and confiscation and forfeiture of banned magazines 7. Limit possession to no more than two (2) magazines 8. Limit purchase of guns to one gun per person per month 9. Require re-licensing of all pistol permit owners 10. Require renewal of all pistol permits every five years 11. State issued pistol permits 12. Micro-stamping of all guns in New York State 13. Require licensing of all gun ammo dealers 14. Mandatory locking of guns at home 15. Fee for licensing, registering weapons


This article about the New York law (http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/15/16515653-new-york-passes-major-gun-control-law-first-since-newtown-massacre?lite) also makes reference to these other states’ proposals.

In New Jersey, one of 18 new gun bills submitted to the legislature would require gun buyers to submit to a psychological evaluation. A bill requiring gun owners to register annually, and another requiring all guns to be kept in lock boxes when not in use may be introduced in California. In Connecticut, state Sen. Beth Bye wants to limit access to assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and require that firearms be registered by model and serial number.

On a personal note, I laughed at the below comment in this article (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324595704578242253004271978.html).

"I voted no, and I only wish I could have done it twice," said Sen. Greg Ball, a Republican.

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Related blogs:
Firearms Blog Collections

Gun CONFISCATION Blogs

California Firearms Blogs
Colorado Firearms Blogs
New Jersey Firearms Blogs
New York Firearms Blogs

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