Why the next House/Senate/President elections are so important!!!

[gregt]

Hi All,

I've heard a lot about how the "assault weapon ban" supposedly sunsets after 10 years, so I did some research to find out the details. The information is published at http://thomas.loc.gov .

President Clinton signed H.R.3355, the "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994" into law on September 13, 1994. The part of that law that we have come to know as the "assault weapon ban" is Title XI, Subtitle A, "Assault Weapons".

Fortunately for us, Subtitle A contains Sec. 110105, which reads:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>SEC. 110105. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This subtitle and the amendments made by this subtitle--

(1) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act; and

(2) are repealed effective as of the date that is 10 years after that date.[/quote]

In other words, the "assault weapon ban" is repealed as of September 13, 2004.

Four things seem very apparent to me:

1. We better keep a close watch on Congress between now and when Clinton's term is over to make sure that they don't try to make the law permanent.

2. If we maintain a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, there is a good chance that the "assault weapon ban" will not be reinstated after 9/13/2004.

3. If we get a good conservative President elected (like Bush, McCain, Buchanan) there is no way that the "assault weapon ban" could be reinstated after 9/13/2004 due to a Presidential veto.

4. It is more important than ever to support the NRA. Let's face it, they are the 2nd Amendment lobby that gets noticed in DC.

Friends, we are in the home stretch. The end of the horrendously useless "assault weapon ban" must be our #1 priority.

 

[gregt]

How to find the text of the "assault weapon ban":

1. Pull up http://thomas.loc.gov . This is the Library of Congress' repository of legislative information on the Internet.
2. In the LEGISLATION column, under Public Laws By Law Number, click on Previous ( http://thomas.loc.gov/home/bdquery.html ). This will bring you to the index page of Legislation passed by previous Congresses.
3. In the Bill Summary section, click on 103 ( http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d103query.html ). This will bring up the Bill Summary & Status page for the 103rd Congress, which convened 1993-94.
4. I found the law by clicking on the Public Laws link at the bottom of the screen. This pulled up an index to the laws passed by that particular Congress. The law in question can be found by clicking on the "103-301 - 103-350" link and then scrolling down to the 322 bill that was signed into law under this Congress, H.R.3355.

NOTE: The easy way to find this law is to enter "H.R. 3355" in search option #3 (Bill/Amendment No.), and then click on the Search button next to it.

At this point, you will be at the Bill Summary and Status of H.R. 3355

5. You will then find the status of this piece of legislation at the top of the page, "Public Law: 103-322 (09/13/94)". You can see that it is Public Law, the 322 law passed by the 103rd Congress, enacted on 9/13/94.
6. At the bottom of the page, click on the "Text of Legislation" link, which will bring up the entire text of the "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994".
7. Use your brower's Find command (ctrl-f in Internet Explorer) to jump to the "assault weapons" section.

You will now be at the text of the "assault weapon ban". You can find the quotation I cited by clicking on the "SEC. 110105 EFFECTIVE DATE" link.

Hope that helps.

 

[Futo Inu]

Amen. Guys, if there was EVER a time to temporarily forsake your third-party candidate in the GENERAL election, it is 2000. I fully understand the vote for your principles thing and I have myself on a number of occasions voted for such "unwinnable" candidates. But this time it could be for all the marbles, not only because of the sunsetting of Bill's Crime against America, but more importantly because of Supreme Ct. appointments that may ultimately hear Emerson on further appeal. So, vote for Pat Buchanan or Alan Keyes or whoever you like in the Repub or Lib or Reform primaries. BUT, regardless of your party, PLEASE vote for the REPUBLICAN candidate (whoever that may be - George W?) in the general election in Nov 2000. If Pat Buchanan or Jesse the Mind run on the reform ticket, no matter how much you like them, in this one election, they must be forsaken to obtain a win against algore or the vehemently anti-gun Bradley.

 

[Dennis]

Okay, guys! You KNOW you're pulling my chain, so...

A block of 50% of all gun owners represents a greater number of votes than ANY recent Presidential candidate has received. If we vote for gun control, we deserve it. "But ifs" and "Al Gore" notwithstanding.

It is a shame that we can't unite for freedom even at the voting booth. And we should rely upon each other for a violent revolution? Riiiggght!

A non-Republican or a non-Democrat could:
- refuse to have his administration enforce gun control directives.
- veto gun control legislation.
- appoint REAL pro-gun judges to the Supreme Court

And non-Republican/Democrat legislators could:
- repeal gun control.
- return us to Constitutional Law
- reduce the size of our government
- (for Ivan: Kill the Federal Reserve!)
- eliminate the IRS, ATF, and a huge portion of our bureaucracy.

But that's too scary, "too impractical" for us to unite. So, one by one, to the ovens... oops, I mean to the Republicans.

Sheesh, guys, the difference between the pre-selected nominees "who have a chance of winning" is illusory. Wait and see.

The importance of this election will only be to determine HOW much gun control we get.

And we could avoid and rescind it all. What a shame.