|
|
UTGuns hates to have to say this, but perhaps the time has come.
In a perfect world, gun rights organizations would stick together.
They'd work to remove anti-gun politicians, and would oppose all unconstitutional
and anti-liberty legislation. Sadly, this is not the case.
Some organizations that claim to support gun rights nonetheless support
bad bills and bad politicians, despite the cost to our rights.
Of particular concern here are the National Rifle Association and the Utah Shooting Sports Council. Most USSC and NRA members are good, honest, pro-liberty people, who are truly dedicated to protecting gun rights. Unfortunately, their leaders often betray their trust by misinforming them and supporting bad legislation and policies. USSC is the de facto state affiliate of the NRA.
I'm not making personal attacks here. I've worked with the current Board members of USSC for years, as well as with Brian Judy of the NRA. I consider them all good people with the best of intentions. But recent events show that they are dangerously misguided, and are doing great harm to our cause.
USSC as an organization deserves credit for doing a lot of good over the years. Unfortunately, without people like Scott Engen and Shirley Spain, USSC has gone sharply downhill over the past few years.
This does not mean that everything USSC and the NRA does is wrong or counterproductive. They do many good things, particularly in the realm of firearms education. But would any of us tolerate an employee who "only" worked against our interests some of the time? Would we tolerate a spouse who "only" was unfaithful once in a while? Of course not! So why should we tolerate gun rights organizations who repeatedly betray our trust - even if the betrayal occurs "only" on some issues?
Both USSC and the NRA endorse Senator Orrin Hatch, the man responsible for the heinous S. 254, The Juvenile (in)Justice Bill. The NRA even flew in Executive Vice President Wayne La Pierre to stump for Hatch and defend his horrid bill. S. 254 would do the following:
S. 254 would also mandate background checks and allow unlimited regulation and taxation of shows. Gun shows would have to allow the BATF to register every person attending the show, regardless of whether that person buys or sells a firearm. This would effectively shut down gun shows completely.
Orrin Hatch previously proposed treating minor firearms offenses as major federal felonies under RICO laws designed for combatting organized crime. He voted FOR Lautenberg misdemeanor gun bans, refused to do anything to stop Brady, and shut down Sen. Bob Smith's filibuster of more gun control. But the NRA and USSC are actively supporting Hatch and rewarding him for his anti-gun legislation and activities!
Yet, USSC accused representatives of UTGuns (and Women Against Gun Control) of having "done more to dampen Congressional support for our cause in this single meeting than Sarah Brady has done in a year"! http://www.utahshootingsports.org/hatch.htm. The pot is calling the kettle black!
Then there's USSC's enthusiastic endorsement of HB 161, Utah's own ex post facto*, unconstitutional Juvenile Brady bill, which retroactively revokes rights, without a jury trial, for juvenile offenses. And USSC's equally enthusiastic support for HB 176, which enables and promotes revocation of rights for misdemeanor offenses.
The worst, however, was USSC's endorsement of SB
72, the unconstitutional, ex post facto*, "dead of night" bill
that includes Juvenile Brady and an expanded list of "prohibited persons",
and also paves the way for misdemeanor gun bans.
USSC testified in favor of this bill at committee hearings. Rob
Bishop, USSC's paid lobbyist, was actively pushing this bill right up until
the final vote, and assuring legislators that it was not only a good bill,
but that it was "essential" that they support it!
Experience shows that with SB 72 as a precedent, anti-gun politicians will come back each and every year and add to the list of "reported persons" and "prohibited persons". Every year we'll have to knock ourselves out trying to stop these bills. And every year, so-called gun rights organizations will sound the alarm and demand more of our money to "protect" us from problems they've helped to create by accommodating, or even supporting, bad laws. Perhaps SB 72 should be called the paid gun rights lobbyist employment protection act!
Elwood Powell, Chair of USSC recently wrote to a UTGuns subscriber:
"USSC reviews all legislation carefully. Based on our careful
review of both the content of SB72 with all amendments, all relevant statutes
concerning the mental health commitment process and protections, and other
areas related to the bill, we believe that the rights of gun owners
are not endangered by SB 72 as passed by the legislature... Since we
support the entire constitution, we respect the First Amendment rights
of people to make whatever statements and take positions based on their
beliefs."
Expanding prohibitions relating to handgun possession to include long gun possession doesn't endanger rights? Facilitating misdemeanor gun bans doesn't endanger rights? Supporting revocation of gun rights for LIFE for people merely accused of being "mentally ill" doesn't endanger rights? Juvenile Brady doesn't endanger rights? Agreeing to revocation of rights without a jury trial doesn't endanger rights?
Does "the entire Constitution" include Article I, Sections 9 and 10 which explicitly prohibit ex post facto laws? Does it include Article 1, Section 18 of the Utah Constitution? What about the Second Amendment and the rest of the Bill of Rights?
Unfortunately, there's a pattern here. Last week, Wayne LaPierre (again) joined forces with Jim Brady and other advocates of victim disarmament to promote the NRA's "Project Exile". Project Exile uses anonymous informants and federal asset forfeiture money to persecute gun owners. It provides for lengthy sentences in federal prison for technical violations of unconstitutional, and often arbitrary, firearms laws. And even when Exile deals with "real" criminals, it treats mere possession of a firearm as more serious than assault, rape and murder!
But the final straw for UTGuns was the NRA's donation of $10,000 to
none other than Governor "Gun Grab" Leavitt himself! See http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/0%2C1249%2C155008620%2C00.html
Gov. Leavitt has been a tireless advocate of gun control. He's
never met a gun control bill he didn't like, and even tried to abuse his
power as governor to call a special session just to enact more gun control.
He supports the ballot initiative to prohibit lawful self-defense in schools
and churches. He's Utah gun owners' worst nightmare!
Is the NRA trying to get him replaced as governor? Have they offered any assistance to the pro-gun candidates planning to challenge him? NO! They're rewarding Leavitt for his support of gun control! Mike Leavitt - poster child for the NRA! This is really too disgusting for words.
Why are organizations that claim to support gun rights going out of their way to help anti-gun politicians like Orrin Hatch and Mike Leavitt? Why are they endorsing anti-gun legislation and programs? What are they doing mugging for the cameras with our worst enemies, people like Jim and Sarah Brady?
The only way to get legislators to support and defend our rights is to communicate clearly what they're expected to do, reward pro-rights behavior and votes, and punish anti-rights behavior and votes. When so-called gun rights organizations reward legislators for their anti-gun behavior, they make it much harder for those activists insisting on pro-rights, pro-Constitution votes. It's not reasonable to expect very many elected officials to stand up to the wrath the left-wing media inflicts on those who support gun rights, when they can get paid, endorsed and praised by the NRA for giving our rights away!
USSC and NRA members are wonderful people who deserve far better than what they're getting from leadership. They don't deserve to have their hard-earned money spent to support anti-gun, millionaire politicians like Hatch and Leavitt. They don't need to support slick spinmeisters like Wayne La Pierre and Rob Bishop who loudly proclaim their support for gun rights - and then stab gun owners in the back with ever more gun control legislation and back-room deals.
Utah's gun owners are overwhelmingly good, honest, hard-working and
responsible people. They deserve good, honest, hard-working, responsible,
and
UNCOMPROMISING representation. UTGuns is sorry to report that
both USSC and the NRA are failing miserably in this task.
Just as citizens need to be involved and vigilant to ensure that government officials represent our interests, members of gun rights groups need to be involved and vigilant to ensure that these groups properly represent their interests. Educated, informed, grassroots involvement is the ONLY way to prevent, or reverse, corruption.
Whatever groups you belong to, it is YOUR responsibility to let them know how they're doing, what you like, what you don't like, and what can be done better. And yes, that includes UTGuns! Please speak out and encourage others to do so too!
Thanks!
Sarah
Full disclosure:
Sarah Thompson is a former member, and former member of the Board of
Trustees, of USSC. She resigned rather than support USSC's persistent
surrendering of gun rights. She is also a former member of the NRA
- and quit for the same reasons. (See Letter
to the NRA) She is a current member of Gun
Owners of America and Jews for the Preservation
of Firearms Ownership.
* An ex post facto law is one that punishes behavior that was legal at the time it was committed or retroactively increases the punishment for an act after the commission of that act. “A law implicates the Ex Post Facto Clause only if it criminalizes conduct that was not a crime when it was committed, increases the punishment for a crime beyond what it was at the time the act was committed, or deprives a person of a defense available at the time the act was committed.” Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U.S. 37, 42-43 (1990). Ex post facto laws violate Article 1, Sections 9 and 10 of the US Constitution, and Article 1, Section 18 of the Utah Constitution.
Leg-alerts is written and distributed by Sarah Thompson, M.D. All information contained in these alerts is the responsibility of the author, unless otherwise attributed.
Leg-alerts can also be found at UTGuns, http://www.UTguns.freeservers.com. Please check out the new site!
This is a one-way list. Please do NOT try to post to the list. It won't work, and repeat violations will result in your removal from the list. Comments may be sent to me at righter@therighter.com. Thanks!
Permission is granted for distribution of these alerts so long as no changes are made and this message is left intact.
To subscribe/unsubscribe from leg-alerts, send a message
to:
majordomo@aros.net
In the body put:
subscribe (or unsubscribe) leg-alerts