--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 185 RIGHT/BEAR ARMS Ref: F3H00005Date: 03/11/98 From: EARNEST PADGETTE Time: 10:58pm \/To: GREG KURTH (Read 1 times) Subj: Roberti-Roos Is History GK>RB>APPEAL from the judgment of the Superior Court of Sacramento County. GK>RB>Ronald B. Robie, Judge. Reversed and remanded. GK> Does this mean the assault weapons ban has been eliminated, or is GK> being challenged? We won. Exactly what that means won't be clear for a while, but it looks like we took the whole thing down. Ernie P. --- X SLMR 2.1a X I was born free; I WILL die free. --- Maximus/2 2.02 * Origin: Air 'n Sun 703-319-0714 2nd Am: VOID WHERE PROHIBITED (1:109/120) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 185 RIGHT/BEAR ARMS Ref: F3H00006Date: 03/11/98 From: EARNEST PADGETTE Time: 11:06pm \/To: TIM HERBST (Read 1 times) Subj: Re: New Moderator or The TH> GG> Thanks, you learn something everyday :-) TH> PN> TH> PN> Yes, I try to. You can, too . TH>Just yesterday I had occasion to recall the aphorism: TH>Wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from lack of wisdom. But...as Bismarck said "Only a fool learns from experience. I prefer to learn from the experiences of others". Ernie P. --- X SLMR 2.1a X I was born free; I WILL die free. --- Maximus/2 2.02 * Origin: Air 'n Sun 703-319-0714 2nd Am: VOID WHERE PROHIBITED (1:109/120) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 185 RIGHT/BEAR ARMS Ref: F3H00007Date: 03/11/98 From: SCOTT SCHEIBE Time: 08:02pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Puerto Rico bill narrowly passes house *********** NOTICE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** ============================================================================ Grassroots Blitz Brings House Within One Vote of Killing "Seven Clones of Schumer" Bill by Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585, http://www.gunowners.org (Wednesday, March 11, 1998) Sarah Brady and Chuck Schumer are out of luck as Puerto Rico's narrow victory in the House could sink its chances in the Senate The House of Representatives voted narrowly last week (3/4/98) to initiate the process for Puerto Rico statehood. The razor-thin 209-208 vote came as a surprise to many statehood supporters who thought they would cruise to an easy victory. But that was before the grassroots blitz began. "Two weeks before the vote, Puerto Rico statehood would have won easily in the House," said Jim Boulet, head of the Coalition Against Puerto Rico Statehood. "But groups like Gun Owners of America made the crucial difference in getting Congressmen to reconsider their support for the bill." Indeed, many Congressmen were stunned at the last-minute outpouring of opposition against the bill. Some of the bill's supporters even did a complete 180 degrees turn. Several Congressmen -- who had cosponsored the bill or who had naively voted in committee in favor of bringing seven more anti-gun Schumers to Congress -- reversed themselves and voted against H.R. 856 on the floor of the House. The grassroots outpouring made the difference with these almost two dozen Congressmen. What are the bill's chances now that the House has passed the bill? According to press reports, the narrow House victory could very well put the brakes on the drive for Puerto Rico statehood. The Washington Times reported last Friday that "the slender 209-208 margin by which the House adopted the Puerto Rico bill further diminishes its chances" in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott mused that the House wandered needlessly into a "hornet's nest" -- a statement indicating he not only has little desire to get stung on this issue, but that he could very well just bury it indefinitely. Having said that, gun owners will have to remain vigilant and make sure that this "hornet's nest" does stay buried. Otherwise, gun owners will find the sting of "seven more Schumers" could be too much to bear. Incumbent Protection Bill dies in the Senate The Senate in February (2/26/98) failed to shut off a filibuster against the Incumbent Protection Bill, as Senate backers fell nine votes short of garnering the 60 that were needed to end debate on the provision. The McCain-Feingold amendment would have seriously hindered the ability of groups to help pro-gun candidates and to educate pro-gun voters, while at the same time, expanding the relative political power of the liberal media and other anti-gun forces. GOA will treat a Senator's vote in favor of the filibuster as a pro-gun vote. But all 44 Democrats voted against the filibuster and were joined by seven Republicans: Chafee (RI), Collins (ME), Jeffords (VT), McCain (AZ), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA), and Thompson (TN). More than 300 Reps. vote with Chuck Schumer on gun bill The House recently voted to apply mandatory minimum sentences for certain gun crimes. (The February 24 vote was 350 - 59 in favor of H.R. 424.) As stated in an earlier alert, there are serious problems with this bill. First and foremost, there are too many "Bernie Goetz's" who already get prosecuted for using a gun in self-defense. Now H.R. 424 gives federal prosecutors a powerful weapon that can send gun owners to jail from 15 to 35 years. While Democrats were split on this vote, only four Republicans stood-up for gun rights and voted against the bill: Reps. Ron Paul (TX), Joe Scarborough (FL), Linda Smith (WA) and J.C. Watts (OK). Three other Republicans did not vote: Reps. Benjamin Gilman (NY), Steve Schiff (NM) and Don Young (AK). Every other Republican voted for the bill. Pro-gun Democrat, Rep. Virgil Goode (VA), told GOA right after the vote that the leadership appeared to be "leaning" on the Republican members. Goode noted that some Republican members even switched their votes to the "Yes" side during the actual vote after being "talked to" by other Members on the House floor. [Incidentally, Rep. Goode voted against H.R. 424 for the right reasons.] Unfortunately, there was a lot of confusion on this vote. Many of the staffers that handled your calls on this issue were unfamiliar with the federal code which is being amended by H.R. 424. (We know because we have talked with these same staffers, too!) H.R. 424 will increase the prison sentence for using a gun during the commission of -- what the federal code defines to be -- a "crime of violence." While the layman might think that a "crime of violence" just refers to those bad guys who rape, murder and break into others homes, most people fail to realize this definition can cover a much broader array of persons. The federal code defines a "crime of violence" as a federal felony which "has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another." Two observations can be made at this point. First, prosecutors who harbor a narrow view of self-defense can use this language to prosecute gun owners within federal jurisdiction for using guns in self-defense. (Remember, what is self-defense to you can be considered a "crime of violence" by an anti-gun prosecutor. And under H.R. 424, this could mean anywhere from 15-35 years in jail.) Second, the definition of "crime of violence" can even include a joking or not so serious threat to damage someone else's property. Hence, assume that while you are on vacation in a federal park, a drunk driver rams into the back of your car, seriously injuring your four-year-old daughter. You get out of the car and threaten to shoot the drunk driver's [expletive deleted] tires out with an unloaded firearm which you are lawfully carrying in the glove compartment of your car. You never make any effort to retrieve the firearm or open the compartment. Under this scenario, the drunk driver could well get away with a suspended sentence. But you WILL be sent to prison for a MANDATORY minimum prison sentence of TEN YEARS under H.R. 424. This bill punishes with long mandatory prison sentences anyone who merely POSSESSES a firearm in connection with what is broadly defined as a federal "crime of violence." As mentioned above, such a "crime" can include a simple threat to damage property, whether the threat is serious, non-serious, or even joking. The firearm does not have to be anywhere in the vicinity of the "crime." *********************************************************** Are you receiving this as a cross-post? To be certain of getting up-to-the-minute information, please consider joining the GOA E-mail Alert Network directly. The service is free, your address remains confidential, and the volume is quite low: five messages a week would be a busy week indeed. To subscribe, simply send a message (or forward this notice) to goamail@gunowners.org and include your state of residence in either the subject line or the body. ... ******** NOTE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE ******** --- FMail 1.22 * Origin: CyberSupport Hq/Co.A (602)231-9377 PRN/SURV/FIDO/+ (1:114/428) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 185 RIGHT/BEAR ARMS Ref: F3H00008Date: 03/11/98 From: SCOTT SCHEIBE Time: 08:03pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: NRA RKBA Alert Digest 538 *********** NOTICE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** ============================================================================ RKBA-ALERT Digest 538 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) CORRECTION: TX - Incorrect Contact Number by NRA Alerts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Topic No. 1 Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 20:11:32 -0500 (EST) From: NRA Alerts To: rkba-alert-real.nra Subject: CORRECTION: TX - Incorrect Contact Number Message-ID: <199803100111.UAA01545@fs1.mainstream.net> March 9, 1998 TEXAS PLEASE NOTE: Important Correction. The Net posting on March 6 contained an INCORRECT phone number. The correct contact number for NRA-ILA's Grassroots Division is 1-800-392-8683. We apologize for any inconvenience this error may have caused. =+=+=+=+ This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA. This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org ------------------------------ End of RKBA-ALERT Digest 538 **************************** ... ******** NOTE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE ******** --- FMail 1.22 * Origin: CyberSupport Hq/Co.A (602)231-9377 PRN/SURV/FIDO/+ (1:114/428) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 185 RIGHT/BEAR ARMS Ref: F3H00009Date: 03/11/98 From: SCOTT SCHEIBE Time: 08:04pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: 1/2 NRA reacts *********** NOTICE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** ============================================================================ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Apparently using an official NRA channel, its NRA Alerts mailing list, NRA management has reacted to the charges that First Vice President Charlton Heston supported and lobbied for the 1968 Gun Control Act. I say "reacted" because the message fails to respond to any of the issues or implications raised by the historical fact of Heston's backing GCA '68 and his failure to repudiate his earlier stand on that law. Chris Knox http://www.NealKnox.com ====================================================================== From: alerts@Mainstream.net (NRA Alerts) Date: 3/6/98, 8:39:48 PM Subject: INFO: Charton Heston -- On the Record as NRA's First Vice President March 6, 1998 Charton Heston -- On the Record as NRA's First Vice President NOTE: A handful of dissidents have attempted to smear and impugn the integrity of NRA First Vice President Charlton Heston regarding the Second Amendment and Bill of Rights. As both friend and foe know, Mr. Heston has spent decades defending the Second Amendment civil rights of all law-abiding Americans. NRA members, gunowners, and even anti-gun groups and the national news media have long known of his very public political views and his very tireless work to promote our rights and political candidates who support those rights. In the interest of alleviating any confusion caused by a few minor dissidents, you are encouraged to review just a few of the public statements made by Mr. Heston in major television appearances, viewed by literally millions of Americans. Note that each of these directly quoted comments were made during the past year of Mr. Heston's term of service as your First Vice President. THE SECOND AMENDMENT "The First Amendment is crucial. Of course it is. So are all the others. And the Second Amendment is the one that guarantees that people can bear arms to protect themselves." (MSNBC TV / 9-14-97) THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA'S FIRST FREEDOM "I simply cannot stand by and watch a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States come under attack from those who either can't understand it, don't like the sound of it, or find themselves too philosophically squeamish to see why it remains the first among equals: Because it is the right we turn to when all else fails. That's why the Second Amendment is America's first freedom." (Speech to National Press Club / 9-11-97) THE FOLLY OF BANNING FIREARMS "There's no such thing as a good gun. There's no such thing as a bad gun. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a very dangerous thing. A gun in the hands of a good person is no danger to anyone except the bad guys." (FOX News Channel / 9-15-97) SO-CALLED "ASSAULT WEAPONS" ARE PROTECTED BY THE SECOND AMENDMENT "You could say that the paparazzi and the tabloids are sort of the `assault weapons' of the First Amendment. They're ugly, a lot of people don't like them, but they're protected by the First Amendment -- just as `assault weapons' are protected by the Second Amendment." (FOX News Channel / 9-15-97) CLINTON'S BRADY LAW IS INEFFECTIVE "He [President Clinton] boasts about 186,000 people denied firearms under the Brady Law rules. The Brady Law has been in force for three years. In that time, they have prosecuted seven people and put three of them in prison. You know, the President has entertained more felons than that at fundraising coffees in the White House, for Pete's sake." (FOX News Sunday / 5-18-97) NO REASON TO BAN ANY FIREARM "Let me make a short, opening, blanket comment. There are no good guns. There are no bad guns. Any gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a decent person is no threat to anybody -- except bad people." (NBC "Meet the Press" / 5-18-97) -=Continued in next post=- ... ******** NOTE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE ******** --- FMail 1.22 * Origin: CyberSupport Hq/Co.A (602)231-9377 PRN/SURV/FIDO/+ (1:114/428) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 185 RIGHT/BEAR ARMS Ref: F3H00010Date: 03/11/98 From: SCOTT SCHEIBE Time: 08:05pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: 2/2 NRA Reacts -=Continued from previous post=- NEWS MEDIA DEMONIZES SEMIAUTOMATIC FIREARMS "Teddy Roosevelt hunted in the last century with a semiautomatic rifle. Most deer rifles are semiautomatic ... it's become a demonized phrase. The media distorts that and the public ill understands it." (NBC "Meet the Press" / 5-18-97) GUN CONTROL LAWS IGNORE TRUTH OF FOUNDING FATHERS "You know, the Bill of Rights guarantees every citizen the right to own and bear firearms. It doesn't say anything about how many, how much you can pay for them. That's in the Bill of Rights. That's a sacred document in our country. There's no other country in the world that has such document. And you know what it's purpose is? To prevent the federal government from interfering with private citizens' rights ... If you will read what the Founding Fathers wrote when they were writing it -- Jefferson, Mason, Madison, Patrick Henry, Tom Paine -- every one of them wrote at great length that they were talking about the individual rights of individual citizens." (NBC "Meet the Press" / 5-18-97) MISSION TO PASS BILL OF RIGHTS TO THE NEXT GENERATION "We have to pass on to America in the 21st century the same Bill of Rights that those wise, old, dead white guys that invented this country passed on to us." (NBC "Meet the Press," / 5-18-97) HESTON TAKING ON TIME WARNER'S PROMOTION OF "COP KILLER" ALBUM (Conversation between host Tony Snow and Charlton Heston) SNOW: "You have one of the great voices in the entertainment world. A few years ago, you showed up at a Time Warner stockholders meeting and started reading the lyrics from a rap album and just froze everybody in their tracks." HESTON: "That was that terrible album by Ice T called `Cop Killer.' And I'm very proud of this, I really am. I owned some Time Warner stock and I went in and confronted their full board meeting and read the lyrics. I can't repeat them on television." SNOW: "No, you can't." HESTON: "And I shamed Time Warner, the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world, into firing Ice T and dropping the album. Now, he threatened to kill me. He hasn't done that yet." SNOW: "I believe your quote was something like, `Let him try.'" HESTON: "Well, maybe I scared him. And I haven't gotten a job from Warner Brothers since or a good notice in Time, but I'm as proud of that as anything I've ever done." CHASTISING NATIONAL NEWS MEDIA FOR THEIR ANTI-GUN BIAS "Now, I doubt any of you would prefer a rolled up newspaper as a weapon against a dictator or a criminal intruder. Yet in essence, that is what you have asked our loved ones to do, through an ill-contrived and totally naive campaign against the Second Amendment." (Speech to National Press Club / 9-11-97) In response to those self-serving dissidents who have criticized him, Mr. Heston said simply, "I stand by my record." We, too, stand on that record along with nearly three million NRA members committed to preserving our Second Amendment freedoms. =+=+=+=+ This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA. This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org - --- END OF FORWARDED MESSAGE - ------------------------------------------------ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNQJGnyGz4I2lBJDFAQG9JQP9HwUIG8rvXIwGujgFGT3vSoMxUxacP+Qk W/Zslwq7o3D/Sxdar0uP82NbrKDzXFXrrd01x8/ER4ZlPne6RaNV19KWbliDMMVb ODV1qCwNwpPcWDzqukZt2ytYAm+0qFCESkYcndod/KH2hHL3mE5RtocWL+mwpAfL J6CDn0ugvGY= =urOa -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ... ******** NOTE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE ******** --- FMail 1.22 * Origin: CyberSupport Hq/Co.A (602)231-9377 PRN/SURV/FIDO/+ (1:114/428) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 185 RIGHT/BEAR ARMS Ref: F3H00011Date: 03/11/98 From: SCOTT SCHEIBE Time: 08:06pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: NRA RKBA Alert Digest 539 *********** NOTICE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** ============================================================================ RKBA-ALERT Digest 539 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) ALERT: WV - State Preemption by NRA Alerts