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Burdick Takes Her Show On The Road. |
 Senator
Ginny Burdick,(left) not content with her incessant
attacks on Oregon's gun owners, has taken her show on the road
to Washington State.
On February 8th, 2007, Burdick appeared in the Washington Legislature
to add her support to SB
5197. This bill is an attempt to damage gun shows in Washington
as much as Burdick's efforts have damaged them in Oregon. (For
an interesting article that mentions gun shows, click here.
The Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University
reports: "Predominately handguns were used in the assaults
on officers and all but one were obtained illegally, usually
in street transactions or in thefts. In contrast to
media myth, none of the firearms in the study was obtained from
gun shows.")
Burdick was joined by the usual suspects, who, in addition to
promoting new restrictions on gun purchases at gun shows, warned
legislators about "rifles that would shoot down commercial
airliners," and other guns that Americans are simply too
untrustworthy to own. Also in attendance was Bob Ricker.The
name may be familiar to you.
Ricker is the mouthpiece for a totally bogus organization calling
itself The American
Hunters and Shooters Association. A quick visit to their
website reveals that they are, in fact, just another anti-gun
front group like "Americans
For Gun Safety" with no real members but a well funded
agenda to eliminate gun ownership.
More on him later.
The hearing was everything gun owners have come to expect from
anti-gun legislators. The Chair of the committee hearing the
bill was typically rude and snide to opponents of the bill.
Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles,(Right below) the chair
and sponsor of the bill, cut short and interrupted those who
came to testify against it.
Comments to Senator Welles can be addressed to Kohl-Welles.Jeanne@leg.wa.gov
Oregon gun owners will recall in 2005 when Burdick held a hearing
on one of her bills to make schools "no self defense zones,"
that she held the hearing in a courthouse to deny access to
those who have concealed handgun licenses, and then arranged
for "reserved seating" for those who supported the
bill. Something she had no authority to do. So maybe the Washington
Senators are taking a page from Burdick's book.
The entire hearing can be heard here.
To just hear Burdick's testimony, click here.
(We find her characterization of a rural Oregon town as "the
belly of the beast" especially enlightening.)
Burdick makes several interesting comments that, as you would
imagine, are intended to mislead. One of her comments is that
she has no "grudge" against gun owners and that her
gun show bill was just "common sense" and "anti-crime."
But of course, her grudge against gun owners is well known and
documented.
In the past, Burdick has sponsored bills
that would send you to jail for ten years and fine you a quarter
of a million dollars for owning a semi-automatic firearm. She
has pushed bills
that would require that your self defense firearms be kept locked
up and useless. She has argued
against allowing license holders from other states to carry
in Oregon. She has bragged,on the Senate floor, about "rolling
the gun lobby". And of course, she has pushed her perennial
favorite, bills
to make you a criminal if you had a self defense firearm anywhere
school children showed up.
All this from a woman with no "grudge" against gun
owners. Imagine if she didn't like us.
(On Feb.26th, Burdick sent out a press release lauding the passage
of this bill out of the committee that heard it. One quote from
the release was "This bill is just common sense,”
Senator Burdick said. “Neither I nor the Washington
State Legislature is in the business of taking away the right
to own firearms. It is strictly about crime prevention
for me.”
Anyone with a passing familiarity with Burdick's record knows
this nonsense.)
Another telling comment from Burdick was how she passed her
gun show ballot measure in spite of a "million dollar "campaign
against it by the gun lobby. We don't know where that figure
came from, but it does ignore the three million
dollars she got, mostly from Andrew
McKelvey, a dot.com billionaire and founder of "Americans
For Gun Safety." Nor did she mention the fact that
every major newspaper in Oregon lied about the contents of the
bill. One would think that would have been worth commenting
on.,
Of course, no mention was made of the TV commercials starring
(now) presidential candidate John McCain. McCain used untold
thousands of out-of-state money to attack Oregon gun shows at
a time he was condemning others for using out of state money.
The hypocrisy of the anti-gun nuts truly knows no bounds.
Now back to Bob
Ricker. (Below left) Let's have a look at what
his "shooters" organization believes.
From their website,
"AHSA supports legislative efforts to regulate .50 caliber
BMG sniper rifles in the same manner as machine guns are regulated
under the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934."
"Modern .50 caliber BMG sniper rifles possess no reasonable
utility for hunting or self-defense. "
"The American Hunters and Shooters Association does
not promote nor do we discourage keeping a firearm in the
home for self-protection. We believe it is inappropriate for
anyone to make a one-size-fits-all recommendation that an individual
in Maryland, Texas, California or Massachusetts should or should
not keep a firearm in the home."
"Many
parents declare their homes a "no gun" zone free from
real or toy guns. That's a legitimate choice."
Ricker comments at the hearing, that although there are over
60 million gun owners, only 4 million are NRA members. (Ricker
is a former NRA employee.) This proves, according to Ricker,
that the vast majority of gun owners reject the NRA. Regardless
what you think of the NRA, this is sophistry and absurd.
Much like Burdick's canard, Ricker fails to mention that his
organization has virtually no members. It is no more than a
website with funding from anti-gun zealots. Clearly then, virtually
all gun owners have rejected Ricker's phony front group.
Initial news stories indicate that the bill has little chance
of passage. Let's hope the truth about Burdick and Ricker will
help hasten its demise. Contact info for some pro-gun Washington
legislators follows:
Senator Jim Clements
clements.james@leg.wa.gov
Senator Janéa Holmquist
holmquist.janea@leg.wa.gov
Senator Pam Roach
roach.pam@leg.wa.gov
E-mails for the entire Washington Senate are available here.
A list of Washington gun bills is available here.
03.16.07 Addendum
This bill FAILED for the 2007 session.
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© 2000 - 2008, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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