Legal Defenses Against Gun Confiscation Part 1

dZ

New member
this showed up in my email 2day...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We are offering methods besides writing your Congressman.
You may want to save this as reference material. The
following is applicable to California and other People's
Republic states such as Connecticut, New Jersey, and
Maryland. Coming will be other articles on the "how to"
defend yourself against the tyranny that is coming: Running
Campaigns, Unregistering Your Gun, and Effective Lobbying.

Just Say, "Go Away."

Rights are like muscles, you must exercise them or they
gradually weaken. The following information is provided as a
public service by The Lawyer's Second Amendment Society,
Inc.

Disclaimer: The following is not legal advice but is for
informational purposes only. You should use your own
judgment and/or consult an attorney before deciding what to
do.

August 20, 1999 The Attorney General of the State of
California ("AG") is embarking on a massive effort to
confiscate firearms (so-called "assault weapons") in the
possession of United States citizens residing in the State of
California. You may see evidence of this at http://www.sksbuyback.org. The Attorney General, Bill
Lockyer, plans to have his agents attempt to trick the citizens
into voluntarily handing over these firearms to them. Luckily
for the citizens, they have protections from such trickery. You
need to know how to assert your rights if you want to defeat
this trickery, whether in this instance or in the future as the
government becomes even more depraved as it tries to take
away more and more of our inalienable rights. Following is
some information about your rights that the government
hopes you don't know.

Our right to keep and bear arms is one of those inalienable
rights "endowed by [our] Creator," as set forth in the
Declaration of Independence. The GunTruths.com web site
(http://www.GunTruths.com) provides ample evidence that
our right to keep and bear arms is an inalienable, individual
right retained by the people and protected and guaranteed by
the Bill of Rights. We must use the Bill of Rights to preserve
and protect our rights. We must not voluntarily cede our
inalienable rights to the government. Inalienable rights, by
their nature, cannot be given, or taken, away.

The AG hopes that the good citizens residing in California will
voluntarily cede their right to keep and bear arms. The
government of California is embarking on a test of the
citizens residing in California to see whether they will
voluntarily turn in their SKS Sporters and register their
"assault weapons." If the good citizens residing in California
voluntarily turn in their SKS Sporters, and register these other
weapons voluntarily, the AG will have achieved its goal at
relatively little cost, and will have learned that even the gun-
owning citizens are weak and ignorant of their rights. The
ultimate goal of the current government of the State of
California is to slowly, incrementally, confiscate all firearms of
military pattern so that the citizens will no longer have the
means to be the "well regulated militia, necessary to the
security of a free State," referenced in the Second
Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The AG hopes that the good citizens residing in California will
not know, and assert, the rights their forefathers fought and
died for. The AG hopes it will be able to intimidate the good
people into voluntarily turning in, or registering, their weapons
by threatening them with felony prosecutions, and jail
sentences. These threats are being communicated on the
internet, in letters to selected individuals and through
advertisements on the radio and through other media.

What The Government Hopes Won't Happen

What if the good citizens did the following upon receiving a
knock on their doors?

The citizen calls through the door, "Who is it?"

The reply is, "I'm police officer/deputy sheriff/special agent
Smith."

The citizen replies, "Go away. I'm not interested in spending
any of my time talking to you. Get off my property."

That should do it. The agent of the government might be a
little more persistent, but if the good citizen understands, and
asserts, his rights against the government, the above
scenario is all that should happen.

Why? Because no citizen is required to talk to anyone from
the government unless he wants to. You have the right to be
left alone. Unless the government has probable cause to
suspect you of a crime, you are free to be left alone. You do
not even have to produce "identity papers." Yet. The Fifth
Amendment protects the citizen's right to be free from
incriminating himself in a criminal case.

What The Government Hopes Will Happen

Upon knocking on your door, and you opening it, the police
officer/deputy sheriff/special agent will say, "I'm Officer Smith
and this is my partner Officer Jones. We understand you are
in possession of an illegal assault weapon and we're here to
retrieve it." They may wave papers in your face, such as a
record of sale.

You say, "Oh, well in that case, come on in. I'll show you
where it is. I figured you'd find me."

Then they will confiscate your firearm and arrest you. Later,
when your attorney files a motion to suppress the evidence
before your trial, the judge will deny the motion on the
grounds that you volunteered the evidence to the police. You
will then be convicted of being in possession of an "illegal"
firearm.

Other Things You May Want To Think About

If you are in possession of a so-called "illegal" SKS Sporter
or "assault weapon," you should consider purchasing an
inexpensive dictation tape recorder and an inexpensive video
camera, and keeping it near your front door. When the
agents from the government (and they will come in pairs, as
they are cowardly) come to your door, you should be in a
position to gather evidence of their trickeries. They will try to
trick you.

For example, they may say, "We know you have an illegal
firearm in your house. We want it. It is illegal for you to have
it. You must let us in, pursuant to the new law." And, as
mentioned above, they may say they have "evidence" that a
certain weapon was sold to you.

One response would be the same as above, "Go away. I'm
not interested in spending any of my time talking to you. Get
off my property. I'm recording this."

Tell them you are recording this event. That will get their
attention. You may want to set up a system whereby you can
speed dial your phone to a neighbor who can also be
videotaping the officers outside your door.

Another alternative response could by, "Slide your search
warrant under my door." The government agents will almost
certainly not have a search warrant, provided you have been
very circumspect in the recent past about what firearms you
own. Why, then, would it be almost certain that the
government agents will not have a search warrant? Because,
according to the Fourth Amendment of the United States
Constitution, "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable
cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or
things to be seized." Did you know that Article 1 of the
California Constitution is a Declaration of Rights, and that
section 13 of the Declaration of Rights says: "The right of the
people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and
effects against unreasonable seizures and searches may not
be violated; and a warrant may not issue except on probable
cause, supported by oath or affirmation, particularly
describing the place to be searched and the persons and
things to be seized?" (The full text of the California
Constitution can be found at http://www.ca.gov/s/govt/govcode.html.

You must ask yourself this question, "What judge is going to
issue a search warrant to search my home for an allegedly
illegal firearm, if I haven't had anyone in my home recently
who might be a snitch, who would be able to say under oath,
'I saw this man in possession of an illegal firearm of a certain
type, and it was stored in this location in his house and I saw
it this morning?'" If the only "evidence" the government has
is that months earlier you purchased a certain weapon, that
in itself would only tell a judge that on that date you may have
been in possession of that firearm. In the meantime, you
could have disposed of it (you could have thrown it away in
your trash), you might have dismantled it, thrown it in a lake,
taken it out of state, etc., etc.

If you have not advertised to anyone your possession of your
"illegal" firearms, it is highly unlikely that the government will
have sufficient evidence that probable cause exists that you
are in possession of illegal contraband (that is, that you are in
possession of an "illegal" firearm). Thus, you must ask
yourself whether you are able to take the small risk that you
are wrong.

Even if the government agent has obtained a search warrant,
after complying with the search, you may challenge the legal
sufficiency of the search warrant. The government will have
to sustain its burden of proof that the required showing of
probable cause was actually based on credible, recent
evidence. This will be a heavy burden, because in every case
the eyewitness claiming that you were in possession of the
"illegal" firearm would have to make a showing that your
possession was close in time to the issuance of the warrant
and that the eyewitness was in a position to "particularly
describ[e] the place to be searched and the persons and
things to be seized" according to the dictates of the Fourth
Amendment of the United States Constitution and section 13
of the Declaration of Rights of the California Constitution. In
every case, the government will only have reason to suspect
that you are in possession of the "illegal" firearm based upon
some information they received many months ago. It is just
as likely that you are no longer in possession of the "illegal"
firearm as it is that it is still in your possession; therefore,
without more, there is no probable cause to believe you are
currently violating the law. Since you may not be required to
answer any of the government's questions about whether you
are in possession of an "illegal" firearm, the government has
no way of finding out whether its suspicions are correct.

If you really want to have some fun, and burn up some of the
government agents' time (taking away time they might
otherwise use to try to trick other citizens of their firearms),
you may want to do the following:

When they identify themselves outside your door, slide a
Public Servant Questionnaire under the door to each of them,
and tell them you'd be happy to talk to them if they will
answer each of the questions set forth on the form. You may
get a copy of the Public Servant Questionnaire at http://www.GunTruths.com (click on the cartridge above "I
Believe In Self Defense" and then scroll down to the "Get
Involved" heading). If you do this, it is doubtful they will
continue to talk to you. Probably, they will have been told not
to waste their time on citizens who seem to understand their
rights and they will leave and go to the next name and
address on their list.

Assuming they do fill out the form completely, you may want
to then ask them whether they are armed with loaded
firearms. If they say yes, you should tell them that you will let
them into your house to talk with them only if they will return
without their firearms. Then you should also tell them that
you'd like to first obtain some witnesses to eyewitness the
meeting in your home, and further explain that you'd like to
have them sit in front of your pre-positioned video camera
and near your tape recorder. If they tell you that you don't
have the right to audiotape and videotape them, they will be
lying. Remember, these are your public servants. Then let
them come into your house, unarmed, to ask your permission
to answer some questions. Let them ask whatever questions
they choose. In response to each, simply say, "I choose not
to answer that question." Or you might ask them, in response
to every question they ask, whether you are required to
answer the question. Again, you'll have this all on audio tape
and videotape and have at least one witness. When they are
finished, politely show them the door.

Use your imagination.

Another Right We Have At Our Disposal That The
Government Fears

Under Article VI of the United States Constitution, and
Sections 15 and 16 of the Declaration of Rights in the
California Constitution, all defendants in criminal
prosecutions shall enjoy the right to a speedy trial, by an
impartial jury of twelve jurors. The AG does not want to be
faced with overcoming the foregoing hurdles, plus having to
convince all twelve jurors on a jury that you ought to go to jail
just because you were in possession of what just a few
months earlier had been perfectly legal to own. The AG fears
fully informed jurors who know that they have the power to
judge both the law and the facts, and who will be willing to
acquit you of the victimless crime of possessing an "illegal"
firearm that was formerly perfectly legal to own. You should
learn more about the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA),
which is on the Links page at The Lawyer's Second
Amendment Society, Inc. web site, http://www.thelsas.org.

The Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution is short, to
the point and written in English. The Fourth Amendment is
easy to understand. The Attorney General hopes you don't
understand any of your rights. Don't let them trick you. If the
first one hundred attempts at trickery fail, the government will
give up. Don't be fooled. Learn your rights and exercise
them!

Disclaimer: The foregoing is not legal advice but is for
informational purposes only. You should use your own
judgment or consult an attorney before deciding what to do.

****************************
The 2ndAmendmentNews Team
The way to protect your own rights is to protect the rights of
others. Our right to own and use firearms is under attack.
This list was created in a hurry due to the emergency
presented by anti-gun politicians and the media dancing in
the blood of those who died in the Colorado massacre.

We receive e-mail addresses from various sources that
represent the recipients as receptive to our timely, low-to-
moderate volume gun-rights-related alerts (generally no more
than weekly, never more than daily, depending on legislative
and other circumstances). Occasionally recipients turn out to
be not interested, and we remove them immediately with our
sincere apology for any inconvenience. If you wish to be
removed send an e mail to 2ndamendmentnews-
owner@onelist.com and include "unsubscribe".

If you know anyone who would appreciate these alerts,
please let us know and we'll enroll them on a trial basis.
Also, feel free to forward our alerts.

If you've received this as a forward and wish to subscribe
please send a reply to me at luz.clark@prodigy.net or
behanna@fast.net

Cordially Yours,
The 2ndAmendmentNews Team

2ndAmendmentNews is published by volunteer activists who
support the full original individual rights intent of the 2nd
Amendment and oppose any appeasement on gun rights.
The moderators include Chris Behanna, Weldon Clark (an
NRA director) and Steve Cicero.


------------------
will you stand with me in DC on 10-2-99?
http://www.myplanet.net/jeffhead/LibMarch
 
Great post... however.... it has been my observation that it is REAL HARD to get one of these guys to look at, let alone, fill in a questionarre after they have entered....

------------------
Patriots are not revolutionaries trying to overthrow government. Patriots are counter-revolutionaries trying to prevent government from overthrowing the U.S. Constitution.
 
(snip)

Anti-Gun Hysteria, Go on the Offensive Part 2

By Russ Howard - For me, deja vu is a good way to describe
the climate since the Columbine massacre.

After the 1989 Stockton schoolyard massacre, many firearms
rights activists were horrified to see that NRA and the gun
industry - to the extent that they were not missing in action -
were engaged in active appeasement and pre-emptive
surrender. Bill Ruger, for example - now an official NRA "hero"
– proposed magazine size limits and cut special deals to get his
"sporting" guns exempted from the Roos-Roberti "assault
weapon" ban. 2nd Amendment supporters had to endure the
TV spectacle of NRA's lobbyist testifying that NRA couldn't
support the ban because it included too many "legitimate
sporting and hunting guns." The anti-gunners heard him,
reduced their opposition by removing some guns from the ban,
and passed it by one vote. Chess anyone?

Given the JFK, RFK, & MLK assassinations, the Texas Tower
shootings, the McDonalds Massacre, etc., pro-freedom activists
have known for decades that the anti-self-defense crowd
intended to use high-profile gun crimes as pretenses to
gradually disarm all decent citizens in America. As an NRA
member since 1979, I was astonished that NRA - an
organization that raises and spends 150 million dollars a year -
seemed so unprepared, defensive, and even apologetic after
such crimes. They acted as if each massacre was unique, as if
there would never be another one. At best, the people who
were so handsomely paid to be our best professional public
speakers were like deer in the headlights, as if no good
arguments had ever been written against gun control. Why
couldn't they be prepared?

Into that vacuum in 1989, dozens of grassroots groups sprang
up nationwide. I was involved in one of them, Californians
Against Corruption, the goal of which was to oust one-by-one
the politicians who violated their oath to defend the Constitution
and passed laws that left victims disarmed and vulnerable to
crime and mass public shootings. CAC ended the political
careers of both Roos and Roberti, and the "pain" message
dried up California's anti-gun torrent for several years.
Ultimately I was nominated to run for the Board of Directors of
the NRA, on which I served for over two years with the goal of
doing my part to help reform NRA and build up grassroots.

Reform proposals were fought tooth & nail by staff and either
killed or "implemented" in a such a way as to guarantee their
failure. For example, I developed a modest board policy
resolution to put an end to NRA's "thing" for giving "A" ratings
and awards to anti-gun politicians. Even though NRA would
still have been able to give them B ratings, money, and
endorsements, NRA's "Winning Team" fought the reform as if it
would've been the end of the world. It would not have been the
end of the world, but it would've been the end of the gravy train
for sellout Republicans who didn't want to ever have to take a
stand and earn their grades. Staff, as usual, revealed contempt
for membership, arguing that if NRA couldn't give phony
grades, members were too unsophisticated to volunteer for
lesser-of-two-evil Republicans.

As other reform-minded directors discovered, and as many of
you now know, NRA's ruling junta has no intention to allow itself
to be reformed. The reformers were purged in an illegal coup
d'etat lead by staff; by self-dealing, Feather bedding directors;
by "moderate" country club & Hollywood sport shooters; by
Republican Party operatives; and by the vendors who make
millions of dollars a year bleeding the membership white. Local
"activists" who had cozied up to NRA staff were put up to lying
about reform-minded NRA board members in a smear
campaign through the national "conservative" media. In at least
one case one of the smearers, known in activist circles as a
"thug", was immediately hired by NRA as an apparent reward
for his dirty work.

One of the much-vaunted changes that staff did supposedly
accept was a quick response team that would be prepared to
deal with situations like Columbine. Well, here we are 10 years
after Stockton. "Going Postal" has entered the lexicon, and
massacres have gone from a once-a-decade tragedy to annual,
quarterly, weekly. Yet NRA and the gun industry are still,
seemingly, unable or unwilling to deal with it.

If the "Quick Response" to Columbine had been any better it
would've been pathetic. Rather than taking the offensive and
explaining how gun control facilitates public shootings, the
annual meeting was curtailed as if we had something to be
ashamed of. Worse yet, Charlton Heston and Wayne LaPierre
both issued high-profile public endorsements of gun control,
including the very same unconstitutional "gun free" school
zones laws that help enable such massacres. LaPierre also
reiterated his support for instacheck, effectively gun owner
registration, flouting standing board policy that requires him to
look for an alternative that doesn't involve trusting the Waco
Killers not to keep the records illegally. And, of course, he
again endorsed "Project Exile," the anti-gunners' dream come
true of a Federal Gun Gulag System. NRA's lobbyist, Steve
Helsley, said that California's latest landmark gun confiscation
bills "weren't serious gun control" and we shouldn't bother
fighting them.

With exceptions, the gun rights community seems at best stuck
in perpetual defensive mode. The anti-gunners - the very
people whose anti-self-defense policies, media & video game
violence, and permissive parenting theories facilitate
massacres like Columbine - are allowed to accuse us of being
responsible for them. Suppose you knew a man was planning
to murder people and frame you for the crime. Would you go to
the police first and accuse him of murder? Or would you let him
go to the police first? Would you content yourself with trying to
prove that you didn't do it? Or would you finally accuse him of
murder and prove it? Would you let him frame you over and
over and over again, defending yourself but never accusing?
Or would you finally wake up, start going to the police first,
warning them, and saying, "I told you so" after each murder? If
you answered no, yes, yes, no, yes, no, then You're The NRA.

Whatever the reason, NRA effectively functions as a sterile bee
queen, leading the hive into oblivion. Millions of gun owners
trust and look to NRA for policy guidance, giving NRA the
power to gradually redefine what it means to be pro-gun, and
which gun controls are "reasonable" and tolerable. If Wayne
LaPierre and Charlton Heston say we need to help build the
new American police state, most gun owners will learn to
accept it.

So what do we do? I for one will not donate to NRA until the
entire current Board and top Staff is ousted and fired
respectively. But what about in the meantime? Join and
support other organizations that aren't selling us out.
For example, I recently rejoined JPFO.

Once again, as in 1989, new groups are being formed to fill the
vacuum. As before, a common theme of these startups is not
only preparedness, but also preparedness to go on the
offensive. There are many advantages to being on the
offensive. One is that it puts OUR assertions, facts, and
allegations under discussion, as opposed to the enemy's:
Make the enemies of freedom refute OUR accusations for a
change.

One of these new groups is called Citizens of America.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a small presentation for
Citizens of America, founded largely by leaders of the Lawyers
Second Amendment Society along with a seasoned,
successful, creative, pro-gun advertising writer named Jim
Houck. Houck was the one who came up with a highly
successful guerrilla ad campaign, which had gun activists
chalking outlines of crime scene bodies on sidewalks. Inside
the body is chalked "another unarmed victim" with a phone
number to join or donate. COA's goal is to do hard-hitting,
below-the-belt radio, TV, and guerrilla advertising designed to
make people think twice about giving up their right to effective
self-defense; to associate gun control with racism, genocide,
and victimization; and to make supporting gun control as
socially unacceptable as joining the Ku Klux Klan. From what
I've seen of the ads that've already been developed, it will work,
and may very likely be quickly self-funding.

But it's going to need some serious seed money to get off the
ground. Do yourself a favor and send them a check, even if it's
only $5 or $10. I'm sending in $100 now, but I'm also issuing a
"100-squared match" to raise $10,000: When 99 people on this
list e-mail me back with a pledge to send in $100, I'll forward
the e-mails to COA and send in another $100 too.

My e-mail address is russ.howard@usa.net

COA's address is:

PMB 447
2118 WILSHIRE BLVD.
SANTA MONICA, CA 90403

Please give generously.

Russ Howard

P.S. Please note that the opinions expressed above are my
own and do not reflect the views of COA. I'm including an e-
mail from COA below.
***********************

Citizens of America "We're In Charge"

Dear armed Americans,

Advertising Creative Director, Jim Houck, working with the
Lawyers Second Amendment Society (LSAS, www.rightguide.com/Links/lsas.htm), has formed a non-profit
corporation for the sole purpose of giving all American
firearms owners, big and small, a way to strike back and
strike back hard against the Rights Killers.

After repeated attempts to work with NRA and GOA, Mr.
Houck made the decision, along with the LSAS, to form an
elite commando-style organization in order to bypass
bureaucracy and time-consuming political red tape and get
into the fight. The NRA and GOA have a role in this fight and
are doing all they can and are to be credited with such. But
there is an overwhelming need for an operational group
which can strike fast, strike hard and strike without fear of
political reprisal. This is such a group.

Every dollar received will go into extremely aggressive
advertising, TV, print, radio, outdoor and guerilla, with a
single purpose, to destroy those who are tampering with 2nd
Amendment freedom. This campaign will not be apologetic,
it will not play fair, it will hit below the belt whenever the
opportunity presents itself, it will not take prisoners. In short,
it will be very aggressive and very effective.

There are some people out there who would like to get into
the fight, but for career reasons or political reasons cannot.

Here is your chance. There are many who would like to get
into the fight, but have no way of doing so. Now you can take
a swing directly at the teeth of people like Chuck Schumer,
impeached-President Bill Clinton, Sarah Brady, you name it.

The campaign will be created and managed by Creative
Director, Jim Houck, a career advertising professional who
has done work for bluechip clients like Toyota, DIESEL
Jeans, Mitusibishi, Procter & Gamble, Sony, The Miami Heat
Professional Basketball Team and Sunglass Hut
International, to name a few.

The company has been created by and will be managed by
attorney Dan Schultz of the LSAS.

Creative campaigns are in progress and will be operational
as soon as a budget has been amassed and media buys can
be made.

Please make copies and forward to all concerned parties.
Send your checks (NO CASH, WE'RE PLAYING BY THE
BOOK AND EXPECT AUDITS AND CLAIMS OF THEFT
FROM THE RIGHTS KILLERS) immediately...

[Write your check to Citizens of America.]

Going to war,

Jim Houck

Creative Director, Los Angeles
sazebra@earthlink.net

****************************
The 2ndAmendmentNews Team
The way to protect your own rights is to protect the rights of
others. Our right to own and use firearms is under attack.

We receive e-mail addresses from various sources that
represent the recipients as receptive to our timely, low-to-
moderate volume gun-rights-related alerts (generally no more
than weekly, never more than daily, depending on legislative
and other circumstances). Occasionally recipients turn out to be
not interested, and we remove them immediately with our
sincere apology for any inconvenience. If you wish to be
removed send an e mail to 2ndamendmentnews-
owner@onelist.com and include "unsubscribe".

If you know anyone who would appreciate these alerts, please
let us know and we'll enroll them on a trial basis.
Also, feel free to forward our alerts.

If you've received this as a forward and wish to subscribe
please send a reply to me at luz.clark@prodigy.net or
behanna@fast.net

Cordially Yours,
The 2ndAmendmentNews Team

2ndAmendmentNews is published by volunteer activists who
support the full original individual rights intent of the 2nd
Amendment and oppose any appeasement on gun rights. The
moderators include Chris Behanna, Weldon Clark (an NRA
director) and Steve Cicero.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us
in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and
lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon
you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. --
Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House,
August 1, 1776.
 
must be my company firewall
slow connection over the T1 causing these double taps

dZ

[This message has been edited by dZ (edited September 22, 1999).]
 
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