Article continued from above post #26:
And if you have any doubt that the NRA supports gun grabbers, don’t take my word for it, read the words of former NRA board member Russ Howard, who resigned from the board in 1997. “In the past 5 years I've become increasingly concerned over NRA's penchant for giving undeserved grades to politicians who trample on the 2nd Amendment.” This is an insider talking, folks. This is a man who knows the goings on inside the NRA’s boardrooms telling you that the NRA has been giving “A” and “A-“ grades to undeserving, freedom-trampling, gun grabbing politicians! And, as you can well see, the trend continues today.
The list of NRA betrayals goes on and on. In 2001, the NRA sold out North Carolina gun owners by allowing a bill to prevent cities from suing gun makers pass committee for a floor vote in the Senate. This bill is not what it appeared to be, according to Grass Roots North Carolina. While it restricted municipal suits against gun makers it also:
· Required peaceable gun owners to register private gun sales with the FBI through the National Instant Check System if they chose to sell a gun at a show.
· Would have allowed shooting competitions and wildlife clubs to be classified as "gun shows" if anyone sold a firearm at the event.
· Required registration of black powder firearms with the FBI via the NICS.
· Punished gun show promoters for illegal sales over which they have no control, offering them only an "affirmative defense" to keep them from being punished with a Class 1 misdemeanor.
According to the GRNC, the NRA sold North Carolinians out because “despite giving Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D-Dare, GRNC *) an ‘A’ and an endorsement, he has held their gun litigation bills hostage in the Senate. So they made a deal to include all of the gun show bill which GRNC has defeated for the last 3 years – a bill drafted by lobbyists for NC's Handgun Control affiliate, North Carolinians ‘Against Gun Violence.’ Translated, that means the NRA just got into bed with NCGV!”
The NRA also went on record as supporting CARA – the Conservation and Reinvestment Act – in 2001, a bill that made available billions of dollars to essentially condemn private property. Why? Apparently to appease Alaska Congressman Don Young– an NRA board member.
The NRA supports Project Exile and Project Safe Neighborhoods, which will allow the federal government to prosecute gun crimes – primarily a responsibility of the states. It violates the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution and could conceivably lead to a “mindless zero-tolerance policy toward technical infractions of the gun laws, resulting in long prison sentences for marginal offenders who do not deserve to be in jail,” according to Gene Healy of the CATO Institute. Project Safe Neighborhoods is enthusiastically backed by the NRA, which claims to hold the entire Constitution inviolate. Dozens of gun rights organizations and leading individuals came out, in a Coalition opposed to Project Exile. It tacks on extra jail time to anyone possessing a gun during the commission of a crime, regardless of whether or not the gun was actually used in the crime. It holds “gun” crime as more heinous than, say, a crime in which a woman pours gasoline on another and sets her on fire, rendering a gun more “evil” than a lighter and some gasoline for the purpose of harming another.
Last year the NRA supported a bill that would give away billions of taxpayer dollars to help states update the national database used for background checks on gun buyers. That bill was introduced by rabid anti-gunner Carolyn McCarthy – the same McCarthy who is now trying to shove yet another “assault” weapons ban down our throats – a ban that includes, among many other firearms, the widely-owned Ruger Mini-14 and Mini-30.
And speaking of “assault” weapons, THIS NRA member wants to know why the NRA has been transparently silent on President Bush’s promise to sign McCarthy’s ban into law! I’ve scoured their website top to bottom. I’ve done searches of major news outlets. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out one thing: Why has the NRA said nothing about Bush’s apparent support of this ridiculous “assault” weapons ban? Why, after a campaign of obsequious Bush ass-kissing in the last election, will the NRA say nothing negative about the President’s willingness to sell gun owners down the river?
I find it a bit hypocritical that the NRA is willing to consider revoking its support of the staunchest supporter of the Second Amendment in Congress, Rep. Ron Paul, because he refused to support their pet legislation on constitutional grounds, but they will not say a negative word about President Bush and his clearly political betrayal of gun owners. Ron Paul’s actions weren’t against gun owners. He didn’t do what he did to betray the Second Amendment. He rejected H.R. 1036 on clearly constitutional grounds – because he believed it violated the 10th Amendment. Yeah – another portion of the “inviolate” Constitution the NRA claims to protect. Meanwhile, a clearly political maneuver on the part of Bush in an effort to appear more moderate to clueless, uninformed, misguided anti-gun morons gets a pass from the NRA. Does this give you an indication where the NRA’s loyalties lie? It certainly doesn’t appear to be with the Second Amendment. Instead the NRA’s loyalties lie with the seat of power.
Some have suggested an even more insidious scenario: The NRA is poised to sell out gun owners. That’s why it won’t tell its members that Bush supports the extension of the present “assault” weapons ban. By staunchly opposing the much more sweeping legislation proposed by Carolyn McCarthy, the NRA could claim a victory when the present ban is extended or even made permanent by pointing out that they helped defeat the much more restrictive H.R.2038.
An anonymous Internet post reveals just such a scenario:
“PAY ATTENTION! What NRA DOESN'T SAY is just as important as what they do say. (Maybe MORE important!),” the alert says.
“NRA-ILA is conducting ‘spin control’ by omission. Nowhere …does NRA mention the fact that the so-called ‘assault weapon’ bill WILL sunset in Sept. 2004. The uninformed reader depending on the NRA for the ‘straight story’ on this issue has yet to be told of the sunset feature of Clinton’s gun ban. Neither has he been told of President Bush’s endorsement of the current gun ban. Furthermore, the ILA ‘report’ urges members to call and register opposition to the MORE RESTRICTIVE Feinstein / McCarthy bills. But, NRA-ILA fails to tell members to register opposition to the current gun ban.”
“Friends,” the alert continues, “two NRA Directors have personally contacted me. Both have implied that in secret executive session, the leadership (NRA BoD) has been informed that the situation is ‘under control.’” George Bush made his announcement in support of Bill Clinton’s gun ban just days after the anti-lawsuit bill passed its most daunting obstacle in Congress. Wayne (LaPierre) had placed the lawsuit protection bill as a ‘TOP PRIORITY’ for the NRA. By saying that in public, he placed the NRA's reputation on the line. He painted himself into a corner from which it is easy to see how he could have ‘dealt’ the ‘assault weapon’ ban off to gain protection for the gun industry.”
“My conclusion,” says this writer, “ is that NRA has ALREADY ‘struck a deal’ with George Bush and the Republican Party to use the smoke screen of Feinstein / McCarthy as the ‘windmill’ that NRA will direct its members to tilt at. Then, some Republican will propose a simple ‘extension’ of the current AWB. Wayne will claim ‘ANOTHER GREAT VICTORY’ for the so-called ‘Winning Team’ by passing the ‘compromise’ and ‘defeating’ Feinstein / McCarthy! And in return for selling out the Second Amendment, LaPierre and the gun industry will get their 30 pieces of silver in the form of protection from lawsuits.”
Dennis Jackson, an airline pilot, Second Amendment rights activist and advisor to Armed Females of America agrees. “I’ve been saying this for a long time,” he quips. “What they’re going to do is introduce a more sweeping bill that the NRA will oppose, but in the background they’ve already agreed to extend the existing ban.”
Angel Shamaya of KeepAndBearArms.com has two theories on the long and telling NRA silence on Bush’s support for renewals of the federal gun ban. “First, they may actually have inside information that says the bill will never hit Bush's desk -- and they want to let him and help him curry favor with gun prohibitionists. If that's the case, thinking gun prohibitionists will ever vote for Bush in 2004 is almost as stupid as thinking you're safer when you're defenseless. But maybe their inside information makes them think this is a sound strategy, by some kind of logic that eludes my logical mind.”
”Second,” he continues, “they are re-engaging their political cowardice and don't want to rock the boat by coming out against a president they helped put in office. NRA's managers are in fact political cowards with unfortunate frequency, so this is also likely. Perhaps the NRA Managers' yellow streak is at play here.”
While I won’t speculate about what is in the head of Wayne LaPierre and the NRA’s Board of Directors, I will say that this scenario isn’t as farfetched as I would like it to be. The NRA has been playing politics with our rights for far too long. They have compromised away gun owners’ rights in a transparent attempt to gain power in Washington. They have interfered, manipulated and tried to derail real and legitimate work on behalf of our Second Amendment rights.
For instance, note the NRA’s attempts to combine its lawsuit challenging the D.C. gun ban with another suit brought by the Cato Institute on behalf of five D.C. residents, claiming that the city’s gun ban violates the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Robert Levy, a Georgetown University law professor and constitutional scholar at the Cato Institute, told CNS News recently that his clients are “just perfectly situated to make the best case possible in the jurisdiction that has the worst laws possible.” But it seems the NRA just can’t stand being left out of a superior court case, so in an attempt to hog in on the action, it filed a motion to combine Levy’s suit with its own, far inferior one. The NRA’s suit doesn’t just address the Second Amendment violations in Washington, D.C., but it also claims the D.C. gun ban violates the Fifth Amendment protection against being deprived of property without due process, as well as the provision dealing with "equal protection" under the law. It also claims the ban violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and imposes regulations that are not "usual and reasonable" as required elsewhere in D.C. law. These extraneous and unnecessary claims will only serve to muddy the waters of the much more pure Second Amendment suit brought by Levy. It will give the court a way to once again avoid addressing the Second Amendment directly, and if combined with the Cato suit, it could cause it to fail.
CATO attorneys Alan Gura and Robert Levy even go so far as to accuse NRA’s attorney, Stephen Halbrook, of filing cases with a built in “trap door” in an effort to “give the court a basis, if it chose, to avoid a foursquare holding on the Second Amendment.” That’s one of many reasons the CATO attorneys gave the court – while trying to get NRA to stop sabotaging their case:
In a similar attempt to get in on the action, the NRA tried to convince its members to give money to a lawsuit that wasn’t theirs earlier this year. According to Gary Gorski, the lead attorney in Silveira vs. Lockyer, an NRA representative called his home asking him to renew his membership for the next three years to help take Silveira to the Supreme Court. “I asked him the name of the case,” writes Gorski, “and he said Silveira v. Lockyer. I then asked him specifically what the NRA's attorneys were doing on the case, and he said that "they were going to take the case to the Supreme Court" to get the decision overturned. I asked where he was calling from, and he said the NRA in Virginia (The NRA's legal counsel is in VA - 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, Va. 22030.) I then told him who I was, and he was dumfounded. He said it was a pleasure talking to me, and thanked me for all my hard work. I asked to speak to a manager, and he hung up the phone.”
The NRA representative had claimed that the NRA had “legions” of lawyers working to bring Silveira to the Supreme Court. But in fact, Gorski says NRA attorneys Stephen Holbrook and Chuck Michel had earlier asked him to drop the suit, because they claimed he couldn’t win, and because the suit would interfere with other projects the NRA was working on "behind the scenes." Why would they do this? Angel Shamaya has a viable theory. “If the Second Amendment were resolved by the Supreme Court in the way educated civil rights advocates demand that it be resolved, the largest percentage of NRA's "Save the Second Amendment" income would vanish. The fact that NRA has never once taken a Second Amendment case all the way to the Supreme Court speaks volumes -- they've been around since 1871, and they've been raising money on the Second Amendment for several decades.”
In the end, this strategy will serve to alienate numerous gun owners. When my column mentioned the NRA’s sellout of gun owners by their support of unconstitutional gun laws, I was informed that the NRA offices received numerous phone calls and emails demanding an explanation. Additionally, the fact that one of their lead attorneys has tried to kill a current 2A case and another of their lead attorneys is still trying to sabotage yet another current 2A case has inspired more people to resign their memberships from NRA, according to Shamaya.
Here’s the bottom line: Groups like Armed Females of America, KeepAndBearArms.com, Liberty Belles and many other state-level non-NRA organizations exist to preserve and protect your freedoms. The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action exists to protect its employees’ jobs. They’ve failed gun owners too many times to think otherwise. “I think the NRA, VPC, Brady, etc. they’re businesses,” says Dennis Jackson. “Without some degree of gun control there’s no need for them to exist.”
Angel Shamaya agrees. “If the NRA was doing its job, our organization would not exist,” he writes. “I could poll 30-odd non-NRA group leaders who'd likely echo a similar statement. NRA's charter calls for them to defend the Second Amendment, but they frequently attack the Second Amendment -- and we've got so much evidence to prove that statement it turns your stomach, when you look at it objectively.”
I’ll tell you the truth. I would rather be doing something else. I love to write. I want to write a novel. I used to do professional stage work while in college – musical theater – and I’d love to get back to it. Angel, Dennis, Carma Lewis of Armed Females of America and many others would love to spend their time doing something other than fighting this frustrating fight. “I'd love nothing more than to completely END the war being waged against our Second Amendment rights.” Shamaya says. “I have other things I'd like to do with my life -- this movement is an ongoing series of headaches, stresses and anxieties I'd be very happy to nullify.”
The Armed Females of America mission statement states unequivocally “A GOD GIVEN RIGHT cannot be legislated; cannot be turned into a privilege by a self-serving government who may then revoke it; cannot be judged or interpreted, and cannot be amended, added to a ballot, or repealed. OUR RIGHTS have no ‘loopholes.’ Any law restricting use, quantity owned or purchased, magazine capacity, configuration, caliber, firing operation, or age limits is unconstitutional.” This is a direct antithesis to the NRA’s actions, its constant pandering to power-hungry politicians, its compromising away of our God-given rights in exchange for political clout and its historical support of unconstitutional and immoral legislation. Enough is enough!
OUR RIGHTS ARE NOT FOR SALE. Our rights are not to be used as bargaining chips in power plays. They are not to be used as bait or manipulation. Our rights are not the NRA’s, President Bush’s or anyone else’s toys. They are inalienable and inviolate, and there will be consequences to those who try to sell our rights out for a few votes.
Nicki Fellenzer
Listen to Nicki on the Outdoor Talk Network with Jim Slinsky (you will need Windows Media Player)
Nicki is a US Army veteran, who spent nearly four years in Frankfurt, Germany on active duty at the American Forces Network. She is a former radio DJ and news anchor and a Featured Writer and Newslinks Director for Keepandbeararms.com. She is also a contributing editor to the National Rifle Association's newest monthly magazine, Women's Outlook and writes occasionally for the Libertarian Party. She resides in Virginia with her family. We are also proud to have Nicki as regular contributor to Armed Females of America.
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