Defense Department Blocked From Gun Confiscation
by
Larry Pratt

It’s nice to be able to report a battle with a happy ending. Had we lost, the consequences would have been catastrophic.

Defense Department authorization bills are not likely places to look for gun control, but that’s where a monster gun grab had been tucked away.

Supposedly the problem to be solved was an attempt to close the barn door after the horse was out. Namely, the administration allowed the sale of a fighter plane assembly line to the Communist regime of mainland China.

The solution involved using a wrecking ball to kill a bug. The Defense Department would have been authorized to confiscate and destroy any military surplus item that had ever been sold by the government.

19ll .45’s, MI-A’s, uniforms, ammo, scopes, antique planes, anti-aircraft guns in front of VFW posts — and much more. It was pretty sneaky, too, because the definition of munitions was not in the bill. All that one found was that munitions were defined as the same as in the Export Import Act. GOA had to go there to find the list. And it is a long one.

Gun Owners of America put out e-mail and fax alerts asking our members to contact their congressmen and demand removal of this incredible gun grab. The bill had already passed both houses of Congress by huge margins — nobody reads the bills — and was in a conference committee to iron out differences.

One of the members of that committee, anti-gun Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia, was crucial. GOA mailed postcards to our members in the state urging them to put the heat on Warner. Two days after the mail went out, Warner’s office called asking what was going on. We told them they were on the verge of angering not only gun owners, but veterans as well. The message evidently got through.

Thanks to the tireless members of Gun Owners of America who are always ready when called, Congress felt the heat. The Pearl Harbor attack on the Second Amendment was averted by the flood of calls and e-mail directed to Congress.