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OFF ALERT 03/31/07
DC COURT DECISION IN DANGER.
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The landmark decision of the DC
Court of Appeals stating that gun ownership is an individual
right is in grave danger. And that danger is coming from the
NRA.
As you know, the Appeals Court of the District of Columbia recently
ruled that DC's ban on guns was unconstitutional. It made clear,
that despite what anti-rights activists have claimed for years,
the Second Amendment means exactly what it says. The right to
keep and bear arms is a right of people, not some vaguely defined
"state militia."
But now that decision is under attack and that attack is coming
from the National Rifle Association.
In an alert,
dated March 28th 2007, the NRA tells its members "This
week, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) introduced S. 1001,
the Senate version of the “District of Columbia Personal
Protection Act,” with 41 original cosponsors! Like its
House counterpart -- H.R. 1399, introduced on March 8, by U.S.
Representatives Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and Mark Souder (R-Ind.)
-- the Senate legislation seeks to restore the constitutionally-guaranteed
Second Amendment rights of the residents of the District of
Columbia by repealing the District’s onerous gun ban."
What's wrong with that? Well if the politicians and the NRA
have their way, and this bill is passed, the Court's decision
becomes meaningless and moot.
According to the lead lawyer in the DC case, Alan Gura,
"If the D.C. gun ban is repealed before the appellate
process is completed, Parker will be vacated and dismissed.
It will have no precedential value. Whenever the Supreme Court
might consider the Second Amendment in the future, it would
likely be a criminal's case, not the upstanding plaintiffs in
the Parker case who
have been harmed by the DC ban."
Gura added: "If Hutchison's bill
were to pass, all of our hard work would be wasted."
In their March alert, NRA asks "all
freedom-loving Americans to ask their Senators to vote for this
bill. We will continue to work until we right this injustice
in our nation’s capital.”
The lawyers who worked so hard on this case made extraordinary
efforts to keep the NRA out of it, convinced that it was NRA's
intention to
torpedo the case.
In an alert from Gun
Owner's of America, Executive Director Larry Pratt said
"GOA is encouraged by Gura's report that the NRA shares
his concern about Hutchison's bill. Gura says that the NRA has
"given us their assurances that they are not interested
in ruining the case. And Wayne LaPierre, NRA's Executive Vice-President,
told me I can take that to the bank"
Gura and Pratt were too optimistic.
If the NRA is successful, this pivotal decision in favor of
gun rights will be trashed.
The NRA is talking out of both sides of its mouth, and the victim
of its deception will be you.
We will take a line out of their alert and urge you to follow
it:
"You can call your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121,
and your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121"
That's sound advice. But please tell your representatives to
oppose Hutchison's ill conceived bill, S 1001.
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© 2000 - 2008, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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