McClure-Volkmer FOPA

1979 BATF Senate Oversight Hearings

The following is a transcript of hearings held in July of 1979 before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee tasked with overseeing the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. These hearings, chaired by Senator Dennis DeConcini (D, AZ), formed much of the cornerstone of the McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act. 

“For a number of years we have sought redress for a variety of forms of persecution, often involving outright violation of the law, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. We believe that when the full picture is seen by the Congress, it will become apparent that the BATF has become a rogue agency, one which has gone completely outside the limitations of statute, regulations, or lawful authority.”
Neal Knox Testimony – July 11, 1979

The issues raised in 1979 are similar to today’s issues.  The law has been reformed, but that reform was incomplete.  

[fiche cite CIS 1980 S181-2]               OVERSIGHT HEARINGS ON BUREAU OF ALCOHOL,                       TOBACCO AND FIREARMS       -----------------------------------------------------

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Alerts List

Updateed — SB 249 pulled California on verge of banning most semi-autos

Update: 

California State Senator Leland Yee’s horrible SB 249, which would have essentially banned possession of thousands, if not millions of common semi-automatic firearms in California, has been removed from the Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing calendar.  The bill is dead for this year.  Great work, Calguns.net, Gun Owners California, NRA, and other California activists.  It’s critical that this kind of bill be slapped down quickly and firmly.  As we all know, every bad idea that comes out of California eventually spreads across the rest of the country.  One great piece of news coming out of this is that there are several hard up-or-down votes to move the bill along.  Here’s hoping that California activists can put a dent in their re-election hopes.

There was some controversy within the gun rights community with Gun Owners California reporting as early as Tuesday afternoon that the bill was dead.  Calguns and other groups tweeted that the news was being reported prematurely and that activists should keep the pressure on.  We’ll refrain from taking sides in a local dispute, but will point out that there is no downside that we can see with the California state senate phone lines being tied up for a few hours longer.  Better the dogs bark too long than be called off too early. 

Altogether a good day’s work for the state of California, and the nation!  Thanks to everyone!

Chris Knox


Our friend Jim Shults (Shults Media Relations, LLC) has forwarded a note calling attention to S.B. 249.  Yes, we checked, and yes, it’s bad.  The bill would essentially outlaw any gun with a removable box magazine and do away with the “bullet button” workaround that California activists were able to enact a couple of years ago.  Not only would S.B. 249 make common guns illegal, it would require a massive gun turn-in.  If the gun turn-in is found legal, it’s a massive violation of the Fifth Amendment as well as the Second.  On the other hand if gun owners were to be compensated for their confiscated property, it would drive the state further into a fiscal crisis. 

What to do
Friends unfortunate enough to live in the People’s Democratic Republic of California should immediately contact their legislators.  A good source of information is http://calguns.net and its special page, http://stopsb249.org/.  You can also follow their Twitter feed @stopsb249.

The Knox Update

Olympic Athlete Cory Cogdell

Animal Rights Crazies Attack US Olympic Athlete

           Animal rights advocates launched a vicious social media attack on US Olympic trap shooter Corey Cogdell, just days before the 24-year old Alaska native’s effort to best her 2008 Bronze Medal performance in Women’s International Trap.  Her Facebook page and Twitter accounts were inundated with comments calling the beautiful young athlete a bitch, psychopath, and murderer, and suggesting that she should shoot herself, be used as a target, or be physically assaulted.  Some of the commenter’s went so far as to directly threaten physical violence on Corey, while others stuck to name calling and expressing their hope that she would fail in her Olympic efforts.

The reason for the nasty assaults is that along with being a world-class trap shooter, Corey Cogdell is an avid hunter and outdoorswoman.  Photographs of Cogdell with game she had taken were spread among animal rights networks along with outrageous claims of animal cruelty and waste.  As the photo’s and lies spread, the threats and viciousness escalated and the lies grew bigger. 

Along with direct attacks on Cogdell, the anti-hunting extremists began lobbying the International Olympic Committee to have Cogdell – and any other athlete who engages in the lawful, and long-honored tradition of hunting – banned from Olympic competition.  While the idea of banning hunters from the Olympics may seem a bit far-fetched, there is a strong anti-gun / anti-hunting sentiment among the elites who run the IOC.  Just look at the outrageous reaction when a couple of members of the Australian swim team posted a picture of themselves holding guns in a California gun shop.  The two were threatened with expulsion from the team, but, after contrite apologies, they were allowed to compete.  They were, however, required to leave London as soon as their events were over rather than staying for the conclusion of the games with the rest of the team.

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The Knox Update

Reese Family Not Guilty on 24 of 28 Counts

Jury rejects Conspiracy,  Smuggling, and Money Laundering charges

           After almost a year in jail and a three week trial, a jury has declared the members of the Reese family to be not guilty on 24 of the 28 counts against them.  The jury did convict Rick Reese and his wife Terri on one count each of making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms.  Eldest son Ryin was convicted on two counts of the same charge, and younger son Remington was acquitted of all charges.  The convictions are expected to result in sentences of about one year for each count, but harsher penalties are possible.  Sentencing is scheduled for early October.  Rick and Ryin will stay in jail until then, but Terri will remain out on bail until sentence is passed.  Remington was released from custody at the conclusion of the trial.

As reported previously in this column, Rick Reese and his family ran a gun shop outside of Deming, New Mexico for over 17 years.  Over that time they built up the business into a profitable enterprise and Rick had planned to retire and close the store.  His son, Ryin, 24, was in the process of obtaining an FFL to open a store of his own in nearby Las Cruces.  In August of last year, local ATF agents asked the family to come down to their offices to discuss Ryin’s FFL application.  When the Reeses showed up at the ATF office, they were arrested on charges of conspiring to illegally sell firearms and assist in smuggling them to Mexico, money laundering (because the money paying for the guns was from illegal activities), and making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms – lying on the 4473.  Almost all of those charges were thrown out or returned as Not Guilty.

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The Knox Update

Mass-Murder Cash Machine

How mass murder fuels debate and feeds lobbyists

 By Jeff Knox and Chris Knox

         The images are all too familiar – police tape around blood-spattered pavement, horror-struck onlookers, friends of victims bent over in grief, ambulances lined up like cabs at an airport.  Atrocities like the one that took at least a dozen lives and left scores more injured in Aurora, Colorado last week are unfathomable.  As a community and a nation we grieve with the families and friends of the dead and wounded and do our best to understand their pain.  It is our empathy and realization that what befalls others could be visited upon us that defines our humanity and guides our actions.  As we discuss what happened in Aurora, we must remember that we’re talking about real people, not empty statistics or fictional characters in a movie.  They loved and were loved, and the horror of what happened to them cannot be overstated.  We all should take a moment to put ourselves in the shoes of the survivors and the families of the victims and imagine the pain we would go through if this happened to our loved ones.  We should also resolve to maintain civility and respect as we engage in the debates that are already flowing from this terrible crime.

Hard on the heels of condolences, finger pointing, and calls to “do something,” have come the pleas for money.  Barely 12 hours after the most recent attack took place, the Brady Bunch was skipping over the formalities and using the atrocity as a fundraiser.  Brady president Dan Gross barely even bothered to acknowledge the tragedy of the situation when he said; “When I heard the news this morning, first I felt tremendous sadness for the victims’ families.  But then I felt enormous anger.  Anger because once again America’s horrendous gun laws have robbed Americans of our basic freedom – the right to live in safety.” 

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The Knox Update

The UN’s Latest Attack on Liberty

Arms Trade Treaty promises US harm

           I have to admit that I was skeptical about the UN ever getting their act together enough to construct an Arms Trade Treaty that they could all agree on, but I underestimated the level of cooperation attainable by that body when their target is liberty.  With the terrorist-exporting state of Iran in a leadership role, the committee has been plowing down obstacles and rapidly moving toward an agreement.  The final treaty language is expected to be released by the end of July, and the Obama administration has committed to supporting it – if it doesn’t interfere with their interpretation of the Second Amendment.

That’s not a very big “if” when you consider that we’re talking about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both of whom have expressed support for the Second Amendment and in the same breath endorsed the idea of banning entire classes of firearms.

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The Knox Update

UN-Palatable Arms Trade Treaty

Message from Jeff Knox regarding the pending UN Arms Trade Treaty
It is important to understand two things:
1. Unlike cloture or many other procedures in the Senate requiring a 2/3 vote, the vote to ratify a treaty is not 2/3 of the full Senate, but rather 2/3 of senators present and voting (assuming a quorum is present).  That means that sneaky politicians could stage a midnight vote when most senators who oppose the treaty were not present.  It’s a long-shot, and there are procedural protections to try and keep such things from happening, but remember how the healthcare bill was passed.  Ratification of this treaty, while still very unlikely, is much more possible than most people think.
2. More importantly, the immediate impact of this treaty would very likely mean an end to surplus ammo availability and an almost certain end to parts kits of military arms.  It would also have a devastating impact on numerous countries teetering on the brink of social upheaval.  The right to arms is part and parcel of the right to self-defense and it is a basic, fundamental human right that should be universally recognized and respected.  The US should actively oppose any treaty that diminishes the right to arms for any people anywhere, and should also oppose any treaty that is going to negatively impact US citizens’ ability to acquire the ammo, guns, and parts we want.
The Second Amendment recognizes Americans’ God given right to arms.  The spirit and principles of the Second Amendment apply to all peoples in all nations.
Don’t just ask Senators not to ratify this treaty, demand that they vehemently reject it and do everything they can to derail this aberration before it is foisted on an unsuspecting world.
Jeff Knox

The Knox Update

Unresolved Contempt

Unresolved Contempt

The US House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents related to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scheme and its cover-up.  The Department of Justice, which Holder heads, promptly responded with a statement that they didn’t find anything criminal in their boss’s actions, and that they were not going to prosecute. 

Now the matter will be debated and brokered, and perhaps eventually argued in court, but it doesn’t look like we will soon get answers to the core questions of the case: Who knew about the tactic of allowing guns to be recklessly transferred to operatives of Mexican drug cartels?  Who authorized those tactics?   What were the actual objectives of the operation?  And who did what to conceal the answers to those questions and why?  That is why I have repeatedly called for the creation of a Special Prosecutor’s office to initiate an independent, non-partisan investigation into the matter.

Defenders of Holder in Congress and the media have painted the whole mess as political theater generated by NRA and Republicans as a way to embarrass Holder and Obama in an election year.  This presumes that Republicans knew that the investigation would be stymied and blocked for over a year by Mr. Holder and his minions so that it would actually be fought out in an election year rather than the mid-term year in which the investigation began.

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The Knox Update

4th Annual Celebration

National Training Week

On Independence Day 2012 we will celebrate several things.  In addition to celebrating the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we at The Firearms Coalition will be celebrating our 28th anniversary as an organization, and the 4th anniversary of the release of the book Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War, a compilation by my brother Chris of highlights from our father, Neal Knox’s, extensive writings on the gun rights movement stretching from 1966 to 2000.

July 4 also marks the 4th annual celebration of National Training Week.  A week set aside in conjunction with Independence Day to remind people that liberty and independence are closely tied to responsible possession of firearms.  Every American owes a debt of thanks to our forefathers who had the courage to secure liberty through the force of arms, and then saw fit to enshrine the right to arms in our Constitution, thus securing liberty by forcing government to look over its shoulder at an armed populace. 

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Ammunition for the grassroots gun rights movement