Alan: Regrettably, this is NOT a matter on which "checking voting records" helps; Everyone in Congress with the exception of a few sneaks on a conference committe could be in our corner, and they could still pull this off... Because most members wouldn't KNOW that there was an anti-gun provision in the bill they were voting on!
The language is already drafted, you can be quite certain of that, and they're just waiting for the right time, and the right vehicle. They need a bill which is large enough nobody is likely to sit down and read through from start to finish, and which is going to be pushed through in enough of a hurry that the final vote takes place BEFORE copies of the bill have been distributed. And then it's got to be done at a time when the potential of a '94 style uprising is minimal.
They almost certainly will NOT do this before the fall election, as they don't want every gun owner in the country pissed off on election day. If Bush gets elected, they'll do it during the lame duck session after the election; Not the best time to be sneaking things through, as everybody is on the look out, but they'll need an anti-gun President to sign it. If Gore wins, look for it in one of those mammoth appropriations bills next year. [On second thought, it occurs to me that the Republican leadership MIGHT cooperate with the Democrats in doing this before the election, in the hope of replicating '94. They're unprincipled enough, but would the Democrats be stupid enough to go along? Maybe.]
And, as I said, checking voting records doesn't stop something like this, as most members would have no way of knowing what they were voting for. There's only ONE way of stopping this, and that's reforming Congressional rules so that bills ABSOLUTELY have to be made available to read, (Or better still, be posted on the internet.) long enough in advance of the final vote to have time to check them over. Something the "leadership" of Congress will fight tooth and nail, because sneaking things into conference bills, and then lying about it, is one of the "perks" of their positions.
By the way, this isn't just a RKBA issue, either; They can screw ANY group this way, and have.
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Sic semper tyrannis!
[This message has been edited by Brett Bellmore (edited March 05, 2000).]