ACTION ALERT
Election Year Politics
On Gun Ban Repeal
Monday, September 22, 2008
By Larry Pratt
Your hard work is reaping benefits once again!
Last week, we told you how the U.S. House of Representatives had
overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill repealing the D.C. gun ban (HR 6842).
But we also warned you that there was not much time left in the legislative
session, and that Majority Leader Harry Reid might try to kill the bill.
That's why we asked you to petition your Senators to urge Reid for a vote in
the Senate.
Well, the good news is that 47 Senators have listened to you and have
cosigned a letter addressed to the Majority Leader from Senator Kay Bailey
Hutchison. These signatures were obtained in two short days with Senators
getting ready to leave town.
The bad news is that our predictions have come true. Sen. Reid is trying to
use procedural maneuvers to keep the bill from coming to the Senate floor
for a vote.
Without a vote in the Senate, it becomes clear that the House vote was an
election year ploy... a deal cut by two anti-gunners: House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Put another way, the House vote merely provides "cover" for
many "F" rated
Democrats.
After all, 47 congressmen who voted in favor of the bill are rated
"F" by
Gun Owners of America. Included in this number are three Democrats who are
running statewide for open U.S. Senate seats (Tom Udall in New Mexico, Mark
Udall in Colorado and Tom Allen in Maine).
Four congressmen who voted to repeal D.C.'s gun laws also cosponsored a bill
to ban so-called assault weapons!
So after giving "F" rated Democrats in the House a chance to
vote pro-gun,
the Democrat leadership is keeping their party members in the Senate from
voting on the bill (to prevent the bill from being signed into law by the
President).
It is vital that more Senators support the Hutchison effort. Her letter
states that, "For more than thirty years, the District of Columbia has
subjected residents to the most prohibitive gun control laws of any city in
the nation, requiring rifles and shotguns to be registered, stored unloaded,
and either locked or disassembled. Despite the Court's ruling in June, the
District of Columbia city council has continued to exact onerous and
unconstitutional firearm regulations on law-abiding residents."
That's why HR 6842 is needed. Time is of the essence.
ACTION:
1) Please contact your Senators again and make sure they continue to put
pressure on Majority Leader Harry Reid, to force him to bring up HR 6842
(the D.C. gun ban repeal) for a vote.
2) GOA is the only national group that both has a plan for pushing this bill
through the Senate and is actively working to get cosignatories on the
Hutchison letter. Please ask other groups to join this effort to get
signatures on the letter and, ultimately, to get Reid to schedule a vote in
the Senate on repealing the D.C. gun ban.
CONTACT INFORMATION: You can visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your Senators the
pre-written e-mail message below. And, you can call your Senators at
202-224-3121 or toll-free at 1-877-762-8762.
----- Prewritten letter -----
Dear Senator:
If you have already signed on to the Kay Bailey Hutchison letter -- directed
to Sen. Harry Reid -- then I want to thank you. If you have done that, then
please keep urging him to bring up the D.C. gun ban repeal (HR 6842) for a
vote.
If you have not joined on to this letter yet, I urge you to cosign it right
away. This important letter urges Reid "to ensure that D.C. residents do
not have to wait any longer to realize their constitutional rights by
allowing the full Senate to consider H.R. 6842 before the 110th Congress
concludes."
This is an issue that I strongly believe in, and if you support the Second
Amendment, then you should support the rights of D.C. residents by signing
on to this letter, as well.
Gun Owners of America will score the signing of this letter in its upcoming
congressional rating. Please let me know how you intend to act.
Sincerely,
Larry Pratt has been Executive Director of Gun Owners of America for 27 years. GOA is a national membership organization of 300,000 Americans dedicated to promoting their second amendment freedom to keep and bear arms.
He published a book, Armed People Victorious
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