Firearms Owners Against Crime
“The
constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the
people; that . . . it is their right and duty to be at all times armed. . . .” Letter
from Thomas Jefferson to Justice John Cartwright (June
5, 1824), 16 WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
45 (A.A. Lipscomb ed., 1907).
E-Newsletter & FOAC
Meeting Notice
March 9, 2008
Meeting Agenda Issues:
Chris Voccio (Rep.) Candidate for PA House of Representatives-72nd District
Tim Krieger (Rep.) Candidate for PA House of Representatives-57th District
9.0 New Business
9.1
Board
of Director Elections
9.2
Questionnaire
deployment
9.3
Anti-Gun
Group Developments
9.4
Philadelphia
Mayor and Council Plans to Control Guns
9.5
Pro-Gun
Agenda Developments
9.6
Political
Events Review and Summary
9.7
2008
Banquet Plan Developments
9.8
Membership
committee developments
9.9
PGOA
Communication –
Federal issues:
9.10
Heller
v. D.C. Court Case Arguments Scheduled for March
Events:
**Upcoming Banquet—ACSL: March 8th (Guest Speaker—Attorney General Tom Corbett)
**Upcoming Sport Show: March 29th & 30th (Laurel Highland Event Center-Westmoreland Mall)
**Upcoming Banquet—FOAC: April 6th (Greentree Radisson)
FOAC - 2008
Meeting Schedule
Jan 13, 2nd Sunday, Feb
10, 2nd Sunday, Mar 9, 2nd Sunday, Apr 13, 2nd Sunday, May 4, 1st Sunday, Jun 8, 2nd Sunday, Jul 13, 2nd Sunday, Aug 10, 2nd Sunday, Sep 14,
2nd Sunday, Oct 12, 2nd Sunday, Nov
2, 1st Sunday, Dec 14, 2nd
Sunday
**Time of Meeting: 10:00 AM
**Location:
****Coffee and Donuts will be
provided
***Primary Election – Apr. 22
***General Election – Nov. 4
Showdown in Supreme Court set for March
18th
by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
It may become the longest 90 minutes in American history: the amount of time scheduled Mar. 18 for the Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the meaning and intent of the Second Amendment is on the line.
Attorneys representing plaintiff Dick Heller and the District of Columbia (DC), and Solicitor General Paul Clement will each get 30 minutes before the nine justices to present their arguments. A ruling is expected in June, and attorney Alan Gura, who will argue the gun rights case for Heller, told Gun Week that this is probably the biggest case before the high court this year, and as a result, the ruling may not be issued until the court's final day this session.
"The big ones, they wait until
the end," Gura said.
"They want to have plenty of time to consider the case."
It was the same way several years ago when the Supreme Court waited until its final day to hand down the ruling that found part of the Brady Gun Control Law unconstitutional.
It is likely the arguments will be presented before a packed audience, but only the attorneys will be permitted to speak. During the 30-minute presentation by each attorney, justices will ask questions about key points, Gura said.
Attorney Walter Dellinger will argue DC's case, which seeks to uphold a 32-year-old handgun ban in the city, and also contends that the Second Amendment does not affirm an individual right, but only a collective right of the states to organize militias. That has also been the position of gun control organizations including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Gun rights organizations, including
the Second:• Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Citizens
Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Gun Owners of America have
filed amicus curiae briefs in the case. Additionally, 55
Attorneys general in 31 states, including Texas, Washington, Florida, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Michigan, throughout the South and along the Great Lakes and Ohio River valley agree that the handgun ban should be struck down, while attorneys general in New York, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland support the handgun ban.'
Attorneys general in
Clements' brief on behalf of the Bush Administration contends that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, but also argues that laws regulating firearms should be subject to a lower degree of scrutiny. The Clement brief wants the court to remand the '- case back to the appeals court, and also wants to protect all existing federal gun statutes.
The arguments come less than a month after USA Today published the results of a Gallup poll that found 73% of adult Americans believe the Second Amendment affirms an individual civil right, and that 91% of American gunowners insist that it is an individual right. The poll further showed that 63% of non- gunowners also believe it is an individual right. The survey was conducted Feb. 8-10 and contacted 1,016 adults with a 3% margin of error.
Dellinger will lead off the oral arguments, saving some of his 30 minutes for rebuttal. It is not yet clear who will follow, either Gura or Clement, but they will have a solid 30 minutes to present their arguments and answer questions from the justices.
The landmark case has been under
constant debate for months, essentially because it has the potential to alter
if not upend the political and judicial landscape regarding private gun ownership
in the
Conversely, gun rights advocates are hopeful for a ruling that upholds the individual right interpretation, as it will provide momentum to challenge those same restrictive gun laws.
An individual rights ruling will
reverse judicial attitudes about the right to keep and bear arms at the
appellate level. Federal appeals courts, including the 9th Circuit in
Gura told Gun Week that he has good feelings about his chances before the high court.
"I think it's a great case," he said, "and I think we're in great shape. I'm glad I don't have to be arguing the other side of it."
The ruling will come down at the height of the presidential campaign season as parties prepare for their nominating conventions this summer. It will bring the issue of gun rights to the fore in a campaign in which both sides have been doing everything possible to avoid the gun rights issue.
In recent months, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both considerably shifted earlier positions on gun rights, with both now insisting they support the Second Amendment as an individual right, but with "reasonable restrictions." Both Clinton and Obama have long records supporting restrictive gun control.
Ironically, the case has also caused the Bush Administration to soften its hardcore stand on the Second Amendment from the days when former Attorney General John Ashcroft made it the official Justice Department position that the amendment protects an individual right. With the Clements brief, the Administration now has taken the position that there is an individual right, but it is subject to "reasonable" regulation. The New GUN WEEK, March 15, 2008
********Mark your calendars Now: April 7, 2008**********
Gunowners Help Needed To Stop
Throughout the Rendell
administration gun owners have been the misdirected focus of efforts to control
and stop crime. With the willing help of the
Now we ask your help again as it is
ONCE AGAIN TIME for gun owners to step up and let your voices be heard in the
halls of power in the
On Monday, April 7, 2008 the Second Amendment-Second to
None Rally in Harrisburg starts at 10AM in the rotunda (plan on
being there at 9:00am) to celebrate our constitutional right to bear arms and
to advance our mutual interests in freedom and legislation we have asked to be
introduced that would achieve those goals. We cannot get there without
your help! Up until now we've managed to show an increasing interest in
the direct involvement of gun owners with each prior rally building upon the
last. What we are looking for this time is a dramatic example of the
desire of citizens to protect the freedoms that are an inseparable part of our
heritage. We would like to see thousands of gun owners devote one day of
their time in an election year to coming to
This is an opportunity for all of
us to be able to say to those in
In the end it is all up to you as
to whether or not you believe this right is important enough to turn off the TV
or push away from the keyboard and learn how to really fix politics
because at this rally each one of you will have the opportunity to join in the
team that goes around and personally makes a political statement to each
legislative office in the capital. This is a grassroots rally! It
is meant to be your presence that is important and that is why we are going to
show you how
Right now we have a slim majority
in the legislature who will act appropriately when gun control is brought
before them and the key leaders within this majority have worked tirelessly to
set up this rally and to advance and promote legislation that will achieve
those goals. This is a pivotal moment in
Please join with us on April 7 and we look forward to working with all of you!
**Here is how the events will unfold on April 7th:
9:00AM Sign up, get your
second amendment badges, and organize into groups under team leadership. Getting
gun owners organized is a lot like herding cats or stacking marbles on a moving
ship in the ocean.
10:00AM Press Conference with legislators and second amendment leaders (lasting approximately about 1 hour).
11:00AM After the press conference everyone will break up into smaller groups under team leadership. Your team leader will take you to specifically assigned state reps so that all 203 of them will hear from gun owners all across the state. Once these assigned legislators are visited then each team will float to other Representatives in the Senate and House including the personal representative of each attendee. The biggest issue is that ALL 203 Reps and 50 Senators hear from gun owners, especially the anti-gun legislators that introduce these bills intended to strip your rights away. Your team leader will break around lunch time, after lunch meet up with your team leader to finish up. We plan these legislative lobbying events to run between 9am and 3pm.
You can help even further by doing the following:
Download the flier, print lots of copies, take it to your gun clubs and post it, take it your local gun stores have them post it as well, email all of your gun owning friends and relatives, let the word go far and wide across PA -- shout it loudly so that everyone knows the Second Amendment Is Second to None. Also visit the ACSL & PFSC websites and view the list of proposed firearm laws pending in Harrisburg. (Courtesy of ACSL Legislative Committee)
CONSERVATIVES FOR OBAMA
By Dennis Pavlik
February 28, 2008
CopyRight All Rights Reserved
The fictional Sherlock Holmes once said: “When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left must be the truth no matter how improbable.” In this year’s presidential race all of the conservatives have been eliminated. I would recommend Mike Huckabee, as an acceptable alternative to the remaining field but fear it is too late for him to be elected. This leaves three candidates: John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, one of whom will be president: As a conservative, I pick Obama.
When I pick a president I evaluate three criteria: What are their policies on issues important to me; How will they lead the debate and other elected officials; And their effectiveness in implementing their policies.
Consider John McCain. He introduced and spearheaded McCain/Feingold
– The bill to silence grassroots activists and put the process in the hands of
the political elite, big donors, and liberal media. He indicated a favorable leaning toward
reintroducing the “Fairness Doctrine” which would eliminate the conservative
voices from the airwaves. He worked
diligently for Amnesty to Illegal Aliens and against border security. He is supporting “Hillary Light” socialized
medicine. He was against the Bush tax
cuts and simply doesn’t understand that you can lower tax rates and increase
revenue simultaneously.
For you conservative Pennsylvanians
– McCain is to the
McCain will be effective in getting his agenda through Congress. He knows how to use power and punish those that threaten. I believe a McCain presidency will destroy the conservative movement. His election would establish a low bar for the Republican Party – Simply put: All you gotta be is a little to the right of the leftists and they have to vote for you. The Republicans in Congress will have to support their president, so coupled with the Liberal Democrats he will be able to get his Globalist agenda passed. McCain is the slow boat to a Socialist America.
Now look at Hillary. Her policies are right out of the Socialist playbook. She is a jet plane to socialism. Like McCain she promotes socialized medicine, global warming, control of the economy, and banning your right to self-defense. She supports open borders and Amnesty to Illegals. She is for a faster surrender to the terrorists than McCain. Hillary’s masquerade as a middle of the roader would allow her to be a very effective president and advance her agenda. She demonstrated this to my satisfaction in her role as fixer in her husband’s administration. I believe she would use the full power of the government – like the IRS and FBI to destroy her political enemies. The Democrats will back her as the Republicans would back McCain.
This leaves Obama – He is the
rocket ship or “Star-gate” to the Socialist takeover of
In 1996 I was at a World Federalist Association Dinner. The speaker told the audience the presidential election was over, they won. Stop any efforts on that race and concentrate on the Congressional Races and continue establishing their agenda in the social fabric (schools, media, social organizations). I commented that it appears they had written off Dole and were confident of a Clinton Victory. The speaker said they hadn’t written off Dole, it’s that he is a Globalist as well as Clinton, just a slow boat compared to a jet plane, both are going to the same port.
Sun Tzu said if you present the enemy with only bad choices so he is forced to choose the lesser of defeats, you will have ultimate victory. This is what our enemies understand. This is the dilemma we are in. Unfortunately the presidential race is over. We have only evil to choose from. This is why we must write off our losses, choose the lesser of the evils, Obama. And concentrate on battles we can win.
© Copyright 2008, Dennis Pavlik, All Rights Reserved R7
(The
above article represents the private personal views of Dennis Pavlik and does
not represent any official position of FOAC regarding the upcoming Presidential
race. The material presented herein is
submitted to all gun owners for informational purposes and to educate gun
owners on the wildly varied views that currently exists regarding these
candidates in the public domain. As
always it is our position that we respect the right of each citizen to decide
on a candidate based on their own values and beliefs!)
Obama, Clinton say they support lawful
gun use, but with limits
by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
Democrat juggernaut Barack Obama, the less-than-one-term senator from Illinois who, when he served in that state's legislature supported stiff gun laws and a handgun ban, now insists he supports the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms... "for the purposes of hunting and target shooting."
It's right there near the top of his BarackObama.com campaign website, where he insists that if he is elected president, he will "will provide state game and fish agencies with additional resources and encouragement to reach out to young men and women to educate them about hunting and fishing opportunities, hunter safety, and the basic principles of fish and wildlife management.
Obama, who admits that he "did not grow up hunting and fishing, but he recognizes the great conservation legacy of America's hunters and anglers and has great respect for the passion that hunters and anglers have for their sport," has reportedly backed off—at least for the duration of the campaign— positions he took as an Illinois state senator in which he supported a ban on the sale or transfer of "all forms of semiautomatic weapons" and legislation that would "increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms."
He did not favor "allowing citizens to carry concealed firearms" and he would "require manufacturers to provide child- safety locks with firearms." This information was gathered by a Project Vote Smart questionnaire.
While Obama has largely avoided the gun issue, as has Sen. Hillary Clinton, during the campaign, that may change abruptly when the Supreme Court rules later this year on the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the challenge to the Washington, DC, handgun ban that will clarify the meaning of the Second Amendment.
Obama's campaign website insists that if he becomes president, he will work to expand access to places to hunt and fish. He supports the Open Fields Incentives legislation that "provides incentives to farmers and ranchers who voluntarily open their land to hunting, fishing and other wildlife-related activities."
Serious questions remain in the gun
rights community about Obama's sincerity on gun rights and hunting issues,
considering his lengthy track record and previous positions on firearms
ownership. According to a Dec. 22, 2007 story in USA Today, Obama, who hails
from the
However, he insists that
"reasonable restrictions" on the possession of handguns are feasible,
and he has maintained that the handgun ban in
When he served in the
On his website there is a statement about Obama's "respect" for the Second Amendment.
"Millions of hunters own and use guns each year," his statement reads. "Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama understands and believes in the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting."
There is not a word about self-defense, or the right to protect one's property, or right-to-carry laws.
Meanwhile, The Washington Bureau
Mouth of the Potomac reported that
That came up in the Q-and-A session after a woman asked about dealing with shootings such as the NIU shooting
She went on to propose:
"I believe we really should
have a summit where everybody comes together on all sides of this issue,"
Ammo registration proposed in 10 states
by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
Controversial ammunition coding
legislation introduced in at least 10 states that gun rights activists believe
will lead to creation of de facto state handgun registries can be traced to a
consulting firm in
Four anti-gun Democrat lawmakers in the Ever- green State are backing legislation that would require all pistol ammunition sold there to be coded begin- ning on Jan. 1, 2010.
Virtually identical legislation has been introduced by five anti-gun Democrats in the Arizona legislature, and the Washington state-based consulting firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell is offering "model lan- guage" for this legislation. The technology is being promoted as "a modern crime fighting tool." A note at the bottom of the draft legislation states, "Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs can also provide drafting guidance."
Gun Week contacted Briahna Taylor, a governmen- tal affairs consultant with Gordon Thomas Honeywell, but she referred us to Steve Mace, presi- dent of Ammunition Coding System (ACS), the Seattle-based firm that now has a patent pending on this bullet coding technology. Ultimately, we were contacted by Russ Ford, ACS vice president for research and development.
The Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs website lists ACS as one of its clients.
The same model bill language used
in
Ford said he and his partners
developed the original language for the sample statute, working "closely
with some legislators and a lobbyist, a retired deputy sheriff in
"The basic premise of the bill came out of Califor- nia," he said, adding that Gordon Thomas Honeywell had polished the language.
Anti-gun Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) recently introduced "The National Crime Gun Identification Act," which would mandate gun microstamping in all 50 states.
Coding and microstamping,
ACS acknowledges on its website that "The implementation of the ACS technology will require legislation to establish an ammunition sale database. In those states that have already developed and implemented bar-coding systems that include driver's licenses and other forms of identification, the integration of a database system to record ammunition sales will be relatively simple and inexpensive to implement."
Ford told Gun Week that his motivation for pushing this technology is to separate responsible firearms owners from people who are misusing guns.
He also acknowledged that "our ultimate goal is to license the technology" to ammunition companies. Both he and Mace have other jobs, and the ammunition coding venture actually involves four friends, including him and Mace, who attended high school together. All are gunowners, Ford said.
He claimed that tests conducted a couple of years ago showed that laser etching can be done very fast, so that it would not slow down ammunition assembly lines.
In a "Q&A" link on the ACS website, the company insists that ammunition coding does not violate the Second Amendment, nor does it amount to a "backdoor gun registration scheme."
The ACS website explains that, "State and federal legislative proposals to implement ACS would be based upon the existing firearm dealer licensing and gun tracing statutes enacted by Congress in 1968. The United States Supreme Court has, on numerous occasions, affirmed the constitutionality of the licensing and tracing provisions of the current federal law.
"Moreover, even the National Rifle Association supports the privacy protections contained in federal gun tracing regulations," ACS stated.
However, that does not mean the NRA supports cartridge etching. The NRA and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, both oppose cartridge coding legislation.
"Legislation could be carefully drafted to insure that any information acquired under an ACS program could not be used to single out gunowners or function as a gun registration scheme. When a bullet or cartridge case is recovered at a crime scene, only duly authorized law enforcement agencies would have access to ACS bullet coding information. The ACS 'trace' would be completed using the same proven methods used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies today in conducting crime gun traces. Only minimal personal identifying information is necessary to make ACS technology work (less personal information than is disclosed under normal circumstances by a person making a purchase by credit card or check)."
Activists Disagree
Many gun rights activists don't see it that way, however. Heated discussions about the legislation have erupted on both TheHighRoad.org and KeepAndBearArms.com Internet gun rights forums.
Some directed their wrath at Democrats, whose party has traditionally pushed gun control schemes while New Jersey gun rights activist Michael Everall suggested that all of these bills are being promoted "by a single vendor as a commercial enterprise; in effect using (state legislators) as their sales force (without paying them)."
Ford acknowledged that "We are decidedly in favor of recouping our investment in this. We are a for-profit enterprise... and we would like to turn a profit someday."
He said that Taylor, the consultant, had screened some nasty reactions from angry gunowners who have left threatening and/or obscene messages for ACS.
Ford insisted that the registration of ammunition purchases into a data base would not threaten anyone's gun rights. He scoffed at the notion that anti-gun politicians might one day introduce legislation holding gunowners responsible if ammunition they purchased that was later stolen, might subsequently be used in a crime. Similar laws have been pushed to hold gunowners responsible if their firearms were stolen and misused.
He said criminals steal cars, often out of rental lots, to later be used in crimes, and nobody holds the rental companies responsible for that.
"What ammunition coding technology does and only does is provide a possible lead for law enforcement to follow," Ford stated.
Besides, he asserted, "Gun registration already exists in this country, you know it, I know it."
Sponsoring HB-3359 in
Under provisions of their bill, the
State Department of Licensing would establish and maintain a central ammunition
database containing a registry of all pistol ammunition retailers who sell,
offer for sale, loan, distribute or otherwise transfer pistol ammunition within
the
Coded Ammunition
Every round of handgun ammunition sold in the state would have to be coded with an alphanumeric code etched to the inside of the cartridge case and the base of the bullet. The same number would be printed on the cartridge box, and every buyer of pistol ammunition would have to provide a driver's license or other identification, which would be recorded by the seller. The buyer's date of birth would also be recorded, along with the date of the transaction.
Sellers who do not comply with the procedures or who sell non-coded ammunition would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Meanwhile, in the
If passed, the law would take effect Jan. 1, 2009.
It would require that a unique serial number be etched or stamped on the bullet and inside each cartridge case of all calibers of handgun ammunition and cartridges for so-called assault weapons. Under this bill, the Arizona Department of Public Safety would maintain the ammunition records, and gunowners in the state would have until Jan. 1, 2011 to dispose of all current ammunition without the stamps.
In order for the
Funding to pay for the creation of state databases would come from a half-, cent "user fee" on each cartridge, which gun activists swiftly identified as an ammunition use tax.
"I understand people's frustrations with legislation," Ford admitted.
But he added that, "We, as firearms owners, everyday open up the newspaper, listen to radio, watch television and get news flashes about overwhelming misuse of firearms by people who are not going to attend legislative hearings and not vote on the issues and not be part of the process....As responsible gun owners we need to stand up and say 'it isn't us.' "
Continuing to stress that
law-abiding gunowners have nothing, to fear from coded ammunition mandates,
Ford offered a challenge to his critics: "Where in
"Coded ammunition puts me in the pond of people that will never be considered a suspect," he said. "That's all this really does."
Through the interview, Ford continued to acknowledge that profit is also a motivating factor.
"Certainly, we're a non-profit organization and we'd really like to have that changed," he said. The New GUN WEEK, March 1, 2008
NIU shooting renews focus on campus CCW
Following the tragic St. Valentine's Day shooting on the campus of Northern Illinois University (NIU), the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence launched a campaign demanding "strong gun laws," evidently ignoring the fact that the shooting occurred in a gun-free campus zone, in a state with some of the toughest gun laws in the nation.
Just as quickly, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCKRBA), issued a blistering statement to the press, calling gun-free zones a "giant loophole in public safety (that) is becoming a national disgrace."
"It is time to dramatically change our perspective on self-defense in this country," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M Gottlieb.
Gunman Steve Kazmierczak, 27, reportedly off his medication, purchased two of the four guns he carried onto the NIU campus just six days before the shooting, passing the mandatory Brady background check, and was in possession of a mandatory Illinois Firearms Owners Identification (FOID) card.
Perhaps most important, he had no criminal record or recorded history of mental illness that would have prohibited him from legally purchasing firearms.
Kazmierczak, whose mother died in
2006 and whose father lives in
It appeared that the gunman walked onto a stage in a lecture hall and fired at least 54 rounds, including 6 from a shotgun and 48 rounds from at least