Libertarians are starting to look good... not just for President, but for all levels of government. There are more than 1500 Libertarians running for local, state and national office. Libertarians support the 2nd Amendment. We need to support them and all other gun friendly candidates.
The article below appeared in The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, on September 27, 2000. Here is the URL:
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=092700&ID=s857425&cat=
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Gun enthusiasts take note: Several Northeast and Midwest Democrats are sponsoring bills you don't want passed, Jill Labbe warns, and Republicans back 20,000 existing laws.
By Jill Labbe, Knight-Ridder
The gun rights community has been burning up the Internet the past few weeks after getting wind of Senate Bill 2099.
Folks, the Handgun Safety and Registration Act is the least of your worries right now but it does point out the need to pay close attention to the names associated with this kind of lawmaking.
SB 2099, drafted by Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, calls for all handguns that don't fall under registration in the National Firearms Act to be registered under an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code. It
also has provisions for taxation -- gee, what a surprise.
Contrary to the hype, the bill does not require the IRS to enforce the new regulations, nor does it mean that handguns have to be listed on income tax Form 1040. The bill has been sitting since February in the Senate Finance Committee, where it will die a well-deserved death this session.
This proposal is neither a first nor unique. The retiring senior senator from New York -- may Daniel Patrick Moynihan have a long life outside public service, because his life inside it was spent squashing gun rights -- is famous for legislation like this. Take, for example, his Real Cost of Destructive Ammunition Act, under which certain types of handgun ammunition would be "taxable at 10,000 percent."
A quick search of legislation on the Library of Congress' legislative Web site (http://thomas.loc.gov) using the words "handgun registration" netted a plethora of proposed laws:
- The Handgun Licensing Act, sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., would require people to "obtain a State license before receiving a handgun or handgun ammunition."
- The Handgun Licensing and Record of Sale Act, sponsored by Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., calls for licensing handgun purchasers and devising a system to record sales.
- The Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- alif., is similar to the House bill but would cover all firearms, not just handguns.
- The Gun Show Accountability Act, sponsored by Rep. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., would regulate the sale of firearms at gun shows.
- The Childproof Handgun Act, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., would provide for childproof handguns.
- The Stop Gun Trafficking Act, also a Lautenberg special, seeks to reduce gun trafficking by prohibiting bulk purchases of handguns.
- The Pocket Rocket Elimination Act, brought to you by Illinois' Blagojevich, would prohibit the possession or transfer of the easily concealable pistols known as "pocket rockets."
Notice the common thread running through each proposal: It's being sponsored by a Democrat.
And this is just a sampling of the proposed legislation that is sitting in various House and Senate committees. It should serve to galvanize rights advocates to pay serious attention not just to the men vying to sit in the big leather chair behind the big wooden desk in the big Oval Office in the big White House but also to the men and women asking to be sent to Congress.
"2099 has ignited people's fire like nothing else," said Alan Korwin, author of a number of books on gun rights. "They really, at last, see it as a threat, even though it's old news, revived. It should be used as a rallying cry, not dismissed as the temporarily stalled measure it is."
The more I read about these so-called crime initiatives, the more I start to look seriously at Libertarian Party candidates for Congress. What the Democrats want is obvious: more laws, because somehow 20,001 will be more effective than the 20,000 that the country already has. The Republicans keep harping on enforcement of those existing laws, but in reality, those laws do more to keep citizens of good intent from being able to protect themselves than they keep criminals from getting guns.
So take note, you hunters, sportsmen and sportswomen, target shooters and believers in the notion of a citizen's right to self- efense. On Nov. 7, you'll have the opportunity to cast votes for more than just the president and vice president. Do your homework. Check out the names listed as sponsors and co-sponsors of proposed gun control legislation before Congress. "If there was ever doubt about the anti-rights agenda, it evaporates here," Korwin said. "Use it to get voters voting, activists active, sleepers awake, etc. Your phones are finally ringing off the hook; the advice should not be: `Forget about it; go back to sleep."'
Jill "J.R." Labbe is senior editorial writer and columnist for the Fort Worth Star- Telegram.
------------------
dogloose
Illegitimati non carborundum:
Don't let the bastards grind you down.
Carborundi non illegitimatum:
Don't let the grind make a bastard out of you.
The article below appeared in The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, on September 27, 2000. Here is the URL:
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=092700&ID=s857425&cat=
=============================================
Gun enthusiasts take note: Several Northeast and Midwest Democrats are sponsoring bills you don't want passed, Jill Labbe warns, and Republicans back 20,000 existing laws.
By Jill Labbe, Knight-Ridder
The gun rights community has been burning up the Internet the past few weeks after getting wind of Senate Bill 2099.
Folks, the Handgun Safety and Registration Act is the least of your worries right now but it does point out the need to pay close attention to the names associated with this kind of lawmaking.
SB 2099, drafted by Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, calls for all handguns that don't fall under registration in the National Firearms Act to be registered under an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code. It
also has provisions for taxation -- gee, what a surprise.
Contrary to the hype, the bill does not require the IRS to enforce the new regulations, nor does it mean that handguns have to be listed on income tax Form 1040. The bill has been sitting since February in the Senate Finance Committee, where it will die a well-deserved death this session.
This proposal is neither a first nor unique. The retiring senior senator from New York -- may Daniel Patrick Moynihan have a long life outside public service, because his life inside it was spent squashing gun rights -- is famous for legislation like this. Take, for example, his Real Cost of Destructive Ammunition Act, under which certain types of handgun ammunition would be "taxable at 10,000 percent."
A quick search of legislation on the Library of Congress' legislative Web site (http://thomas.loc.gov) using the words "handgun registration" netted a plethora of proposed laws:
- The Handgun Licensing Act, sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., would require people to "obtain a State license before receiving a handgun or handgun ammunition."
- The Handgun Licensing and Record of Sale Act, sponsored by Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., calls for licensing handgun purchasers and devising a system to record sales.
- The Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- alif., is similar to the House bill but would cover all firearms, not just handguns.
- The Gun Show Accountability Act, sponsored by Rep. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., would regulate the sale of firearms at gun shows.
- The Childproof Handgun Act, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., would provide for childproof handguns.
- The Stop Gun Trafficking Act, also a Lautenberg special, seeks to reduce gun trafficking by prohibiting bulk purchases of handguns.
- The Pocket Rocket Elimination Act, brought to you by Illinois' Blagojevich, would prohibit the possession or transfer of the easily concealable pistols known as "pocket rockets."
Notice the common thread running through each proposal: It's being sponsored by a Democrat.
And this is just a sampling of the proposed legislation that is sitting in various House and Senate committees. It should serve to galvanize rights advocates to pay serious attention not just to the men vying to sit in the big leather chair behind the big wooden desk in the big Oval Office in the big White House but also to the men and women asking to be sent to Congress.
"2099 has ignited people's fire like nothing else," said Alan Korwin, author of a number of books on gun rights. "They really, at last, see it as a threat, even though it's old news, revived. It should be used as a rallying cry, not dismissed as the temporarily stalled measure it is."
The more I read about these so-called crime initiatives, the more I start to look seriously at Libertarian Party candidates for Congress. What the Democrats want is obvious: more laws, because somehow 20,001 will be more effective than the 20,000 that the country already has. The Republicans keep harping on enforcement of those existing laws, but in reality, those laws do more to keep citizens of good intent from being able to protect themselves than they keep criminals from getting guns.
So take note, you hunters, sportsmen and sportswomen, target shooters and believers in the notion of a citizen's right to self- efense. On Nov. 7, you'll have the opportunity to cast votes for more than just the president and vice president. Do your homework. Check out the names listed as sponsors and co-sponsors of proposed gun control legislation before Congress. "If there was ever doubt about the anti-rights agenda, it evaporates here," Korwin said. "Use it to get voters voting, activists active, sleepers awake, etc. Your phones are finally ringing off the hook; the advice should not be: `Forget about it; go back to sleep."'
Jill "J.R." Labbe is senior editorial writer and columnist for the Fort Worth Star- Telegram.
------------------
dogloose
Illegitimati non carborundum:
Don't let the bastards grind you down.
Carborundi non illegitimatum:
Don't let the grind make a bastard out of you.
