I had one of the most intense educational experience of my life this past weekend. It was the Appleseed shoot put on by a group with the unlikely (and maybe a little dangerous-sounding) name of Revolutionary War Veterans Association.
If you think you know how to shoot a rifle…
If you want to learn how to shoot a rifle…
If you own a rifle and only take it out for deer season…
If you don't own a rifle but think you might want one someday…
Here's how it was in Phoenix.
Well I just got my letter from my good buddy Mitt Romney, about his stance on the ATF's Back Door attack on the Second Amendment. I got my form letter but I was particularly concerned with what he defines as "extreme weapons, those which were not meant for hunting, sport, or self-defense, have no business being on the streets." I think Mitt may have beat Josh Sugarman to the punch on his coining of a new phrase to demonize certain weapons. I wonder if you can take extreme weapons hunting?
Dear Ryan:
Thank you for contacting me about the important issue of gun ownership and the right to keep and bear arms. I appreciate your interest in my campaign for President and would like to extend my sincere gratitude for taking the time to share your views with me.
I strongly support the Second Amendment right of Americans to keep and bear arms. I am proud to be among the many decent, law-abiding men and women who safely use firearms.
I firmly believe in the importance of responsible gun ownership and sales. As a member of the National Rifle Association, I do not believe that we need any more federal gun control laws. I also recognize that some types of extreme weapons, those which were not meant for hunting, sport, or self-defense, have no business being on the streets.
An individual’s right to keep and bear arms is a freedom guaranteed to all Americans by the United States Constitution. Together, we must ensure this freedom is protected. As Governor of one of the most liberal states in the country, I stood up for the rights of gun owners and sportsmen over burdensome bureaucratic regulation. I look forward to upholding these same ideals in Washington, D.C.
I am running for President because I fervently believe that I have the experience and vision to address the issues facing our country. Throughout my years in both the private and public sectors, I have been successful by pursuing innovation and transformation. If there ever was a time when innovation and transformation were needed in government, it is now.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to visit my website at www.MittRomney.com for updated information on 2nd Amendment rights and other issues that may be of interest to you. I look forward to hearing from you in the future, and earning your support.
Sincerely,
I just happened to receive the Appropriations Bill for 2008 which was passed by the House of Representatives. Take a look at the page titled 63: The Committee has heard reports that ATF has pursued violation revocations and denials against firearms dealers based on violations that consist largely of record keeping errors of various types that are unlikely to impede tracing investigations or prosecution of individuals who use firearms in crime. The Committee encourages ATF to consider lesser gradation of sanctions for record keeping errors. That sounds great but this is an agency that answers to no one! They were told to correct this problem in the 2004 OIG report but it is several years later with several less dealers. So under the ATF's own definition this disobedience is WILLFUL! If you have not already contacted your Senators, then I encourage you to do so. Their agenda to shut down our Second Amendment to justify their own existence has to stop.
The Knox Report
From the Firearms Coalition
Appleseed: Purpose Driven Riflery
By Chris Knox
(October 22, 2007) The Appleseed Project came to Phoenix this October. It was my privilege to strap into a hard-kicking .30-’06 bolt gun, lay down on a concrete floor, and, fire well over 200 rounds into the teeth of an Arizona sandstorm. It was among the most intense educational experiences of my life. By the end of the day, despite the tough conditions, I knew that my shooting had improved, but more important, I had a new perspective on what it means to shoot a rifle.
The Appleseed Project, a grassroots idea that seemingly came out of nowhere, has quietly grown nationwide and yet has stayed beneath the radar of the established shooting world. Behind it is a club with the unlikely title Revolutionary War Veterans Association. An Appleseed shoot is part history class, part rifle theory, and a whole lot of shooting. Last year a thousand people participated in Appleseed shoots around the country. This year’s goal is 2,000. For 2008, it’s 4,000. The longer term goal is to double the number of attendees every year.
Nonetheless, Appleseed is not about shooting.
The ATF has been scrutinizing and criticizing us over a .4% error rate that they deem to be willful, here is our now former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dodging questions on the ATF's record keeping on April 6, 2006 at a House Judiciary Committee Hearing:
REP. CHRIS CANNON (R-UT): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, Mr. Attorney General, we appreciate your being here. I want you to know that I share the concerns that have been expressed thus far, but would like to ask you a couple of programmatic questions. Since the 1970s, there have been significant questions about the accuracy of the National Firearms Act maintained by the ATF. The Gun Control Act of 1968 provided an amnesty whereby individuals could come forward and register weapons, which were often war trophies that they got from their parents who'd fought overseas. In 1998, an IG report found that the ATF contract employees had improperly destroyed NFA records, and ATF employees had not followed proper procedures during the registration. This bureaucratic mess has left many of my constituents with potentially illegal guns solely because of ATF mistakes. Would you support legislation allowing collectors to re-register so they are in compliance with the law, especially if they have the appropriate paperwork? And would you agree that an individual should not be faced with prosecution or the loss of a valuable weapon because of ATF's negligence?
ATTY GEN. GONZALES: Well, I don't want to prejudge whether or not there should or should not be prosecution, Congressman, without knowing the facts. I'm not familiar of the incident that you're describing, but I'd be happy to look into it.
REP. CANNON: Look, it's not an incident. There's a report that deals with MANY incidences.
ATTY GEN. GONZALES: I'm not familiar with the report, but I'm happy to discuss with you and look at legislation — I want to have the opportunity to look at that report.
REP. CANNON: Okay, thank you. We will follow up on it. It has a — I have just in my district many, many people who have this problem, and they have paperwork that came from the ATF that is — it's ignored by ATF.
ATTY GEN. GONZALES: That shouldn't be the case.
REP. CANNON: Thank you. I appreciate your stating on the record that it should not be the case, and we'll follow up with that.
Bobby Jindal, who has represented Louisiana in the US House of Representatives for the past several years, has won his bid to become the Governor of Louisiana.
Jindal has proven himself to be a good friend to gunowners and we look forward to his tenure as Governor.
During the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference I had the opportunity to chat for a few minutes with attorneys Alan Gura and Robert Levy, the co-councils in Parker v. DC, the Second Amendment case being considered for review by the Supreme Court.
Levy and Gura told me that we were placing too much significance on the recent DC Circuit statement about the limits of the case. Honestly, I can’t understand how our analysis is flawed, but there is much about America’s legal system that is completely incomprehensible – especially to laymen like me.
Levy and Gura say that the Circuit Court’s statement that their decision was only about handguns does not change the case at all and that the case will decide the fate of entire sections of the DC law, not some parsed sub-sections as we had feared. Continue reading DC Court Case Update
During the Gun Rights Policy Conference I met a group of very impressive young people dedicated to ending the stupidity of disarming students and faculty at our institutions of higher education. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is a grassroots effort by college students, for college students, and they are picking up momentum across the nation.
They have scheduled a nationwide week of protest for next week; here is the announcement:
During the week of October 22-26, 2007, college students throughout America, organized under the banner of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, will attend classes wearing empty holsters, in protest of state laws and campus policies that stack the odds in favor of armed killers by disarming law abiding citizens licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else.
I apologize for the late notice on this; I have been trying to get these folks hooked up with other organizations that can help them and to get others with e-mail lists like this one to help spread the word and neglected to let you guys know about it.
If you know any college students (or people who know college students), please let them know about this group and the planned protest. For more information go to: http://concealedcampus.org/
Let's do our best to help make this protest a success!
I wanted to updated everyone on the Red's Trading Post Challenge, I have had 10 people complete the challenge and several others indicate they are still working on it. That may not seem like a whole lot but that is over 1,000 letters sent so far. Evidently there are still members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that are still seeking questions of ATF Acting Director Michael J. Sullivan. If the Committee confirms Sullivan then he will go before the full Senate for confirmation to Director. If you write them also feel free to point them to our online petition that currently has over 4,900 signatures. I hope that you will take the time to help stop these back door attacks on our Second Amendment.
First, although this is about a veteran being denied, for psychological reasons, his Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms, it is not about H.R. 2640. I am passionately, vehemently opposed to the so-called NICS "Improvement" Act, but this brave man faces the same egregious treatment whether H.R. 2640 passes, or not.
You see, this man, who fought for our nation, who watched innumerable friends die for it, who suffered for it in ways that lesser men (myself, for example) will never comprehend, shares the disability from which I suffer. No–he's not paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair (as far as I know), but he is an Illinois resident. As anyone familiar with Illinois gun laws should know, this is a horrid affliction.
One of the symptoms of this condition is the state mandated requirement for a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card to purchase or possess firearms and/or ammunition. The application for the FOID contains the following question:
In the past 5 years, have you been a patient in any medical facility or part of any medical facility used primarily for the care or treatment of persons for mental illness?
When his FOID next comes up for renewal, he will have to answer "Yes" to that question (on pain of prison time). This is because he has sought treatment at a Veteran's Administration hospital for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He has no record of violence (or even threatening violence), and has not shown indications of suicidal tendencies. He sought medical help from the VA because he does suffer from nightmares, insomnia, and some depression.
That is enough to deny him a FOID. Because the horrors he witnessed still trouble him, he will be denied the means to defend his life. Because he sought treatment for suffering he endured (and still endures) on behalf of this country, Illinois law mandates that he be thrown upon the tender mercies of any thug who means him harm.
What message does this send to war veterans in Illinois whose souls are scarred by the horrors they have witnessed? Deal with it yourself, or be disarmed. It says that the Veteran's Administration is in league with the Illinois State Police to either deny you the care you are owed, or to rob you of your Constitutional rights.
This is an outrage. This is disgusting. This is evil.