Your Efforts Have Scored An Enormous Pro-gun Victory In Congress
-- Please keep up the pressure
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.orgTuesday, January 10, 2006
You told Congress you didn't want the BATFE, FBI and other federal
agencies to go on fishing expeditions through your gun records. It
appears that Congress may actually be listening!
By a vote of 52-47, the Senate failed to shut down the
liberal/conservative filibuster of H.R. 3199 -- including a provision
which would allow BATFE to goosestep through your gun records
(4473's, etc.) WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF ANY COURT. Under the Senate
rules, 60 votes would have been needed to end the filibuster on this
PATRIOT Act reauthorization.
Instead, this so-called "terrorism" legislation -- some of which is
relatively non-controversial -- was extended until February 3 in
order to allow negotiations to continue.
You might remember that 16 provisions of the PATRIOT Act were set to
expire on New Year's Day. To prevent this, Congress extended the
deadline for five weeks, into early February. Even if these 16
provisions expire, the underlying PATRIOT Act will still remain in
force. GOA is second to none in its desire to protect this nation's
security and prevent terrorists from attacking American citizens.
But we believe the best way to do this is to abide by the
Constitution. Freedom works. The Second Amendment works. Guns in
the hands of airline pilots on 9-11 would have prevented the
terrorist hijackings that day. Restricting liberty only makes us
less safe... and letting the BATFE and other federal agencies to
conduct unlimited warrantless searches of firearms purchase records
is not going to make us safer.
Now, there've been some interesting developments over the last couple
of days.
At least one Senate office has suggested that negotiators may be
willing to "deal" in order to completely exempt 4473's and other gun
records from federal agents' warrantless search powers. Under this
deal -- which would be total victory for gun owners -- the provisions
of the pro-gun McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act would
govern what gun records BATFE can and can't see.
We will continue working to exempt gun records from the "snooping"
provisions of H.R. 3199. But we're asking you to strengthen our hand
by continuing to pressure Congress. Since Gun Owners of America is
fighting a lonely battle to exempt gun records from the clause of the
PATRIOT Act, your activism is crucial. While you might want to ask
the other groups what they're doing to fight these provisions, we
definitely need you to contact the Congress right now.
ACTION: Please write your senators. Urge them to insist that
pro-gun language be inserted into H.R. 3199 which ensures that BATFE
is prohibited from conducting unlimited warrantless searches of
firearms purchase records. The vote on this legislation will take
place in less than one month. Negotiations on this bill are
occurring right now. It's imperative that you contact your Senators
right away!
You can visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your Senators a
pre-written e-mail message such as the one below.
Or, you can call your Senators toll-free at 877-762-8762.
--- Pre-written letter ---
Dear Senator:
H.R. 3199 would, in its current form, allow BATFE -- and other
federal agencies -- to go on virtually unlimited fishing expeditions
through gun records without the approval of any court.
As a supporter of Second Amendment rights, I can tell you that this
is THE provision in this act which has gun owners extremely upset.
So before you vote for cloture, please insist that language is
inserted to protect 4473's and other gun records from BATFE snooping.
I would like to hear what you intend to do. Thank you.
Sincerely,
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