(Monday, August 5) — Gun Owners of America now has postcards supporting Rep. Steve Stockman’s bill to repeal the Brady registration act. Stockman’s bill, H.R. 2470, would put an end to the registration of gun owners by eliminating all background checks and by preventing the BATF from getting any more 4473 forms.

Already, all your efforts have helped to almost double the cosponsorship list. The current cosponsors are Bartlett (MD), Chenoweth (ID), Coburn (OK), Crapo (ID), Cubin (WY), Emerson (deceased), Funderburk (NC), Hayes (LA), Hostettler (IN), Lewis (KY), Stump (AZ), Wamp (TN), and Young (AK).

ACTION: Ask your Representative to get on this list! You can order postcards supporting H.R. 2470 by calling 1-800-417-1486. You can order the first set of 52 for $6.00 (the 2nd set is $4.00; others are $2.50). Distribute these postcards at gun shows and gun clubs, etc. And don’t forget you can still send a Western Union mailgram asking your Rep. to cosponsor the Brady registration repeal by calling 1-800-651-1486.

House Reps. help Schumer pass terror bill #2. The House passed another terror bill on Friday, when almost 390 Reps. voted with Charles Schumer (D-NY) to pass a bill that moved us another step away from our Second Amendment freedoms. This mini-terror bill (H.R. 3953) was much smaller than the one which passed in April, and it was substantially gutted from the version for which the President was pushing.

Nevertheless, the House did pass a study on tagging gunpowder. Gun Owners of America objected to the bill on these grounds, pointing out to Congressmen that they have no business ordering a study on an issue when there is no constitutional authority to regulate it. (The study will only be a first step, and could very well be the “ammunition” used to push for future regulations. Remember how Congress would order a study to temporarily kill the Brady bill in the late 80’s, only to have the anti-gunners come back the next year using the study’s findings against us?) GOA pointed out that in addition to being unsafe, putting tracers in gunpowder will inevitably lead to the registration of ammunition.

Some in Congress felt that the taggants study was written carefully enough to gut the provision. That is, they say the study will be conducted by private industries, rather than the government. While this is certainly to be preferred (rather than having the BATF conduct the study), it still amounts to a compromise. Gun owners need to hold accountable the legislators who voted for this “compromise.” Once these legislators have voted IN FAVOR of a taggants provision, it may be more difficult for them to vote against one in the future. Besides, what happens if technology improves one day and taggants really do become safe? Will these pro-gun Congressmen then swallow the idea of tracing gunpowder and registering ammunition?

If gunnies don’t hold their legislators accountable when they support gun control compromises, then they will become conditioned to thinking of the Second Amendment as protecting a privilege rather than a right. They will become used to voting for “compromise” gun control provisions, as long as such provisions are not as bad as the original gun control provisions that were offered. This piecemeal surrendering of our rights fits in perfectly with HCI’s agenda.

Wiretap provisions. GOA also objected to a provision which would have made it easier for the Clinton administration to illegally wiretap people’s homes (the so-called “digital telephony” provision). This provision was dropped. In the end, the bill did contain some minor improvements protecting against illegal wiretaps, but GOA argued this provision should have been passed as a separate measure — not as “sugar coating” to help swallow an otherwise bad terror bill. (But Senate leaders want to reinsert the harmful wiretapping provisions.)

The 22 champions who voted against the Clinton Terror Bill #2 are the following: Allard (CO), Bonilla (TX), Bono (CA), Coburn (OK), Cooley (OR), Costello (IL), Ehlers (MI), Hefley (CO), Hoekstra (MI), Hostettler (IN), Klink (PA), La Hood (IL), Mollohan (WV), Murtha (PA), Myers (IN), Radanovich (CA), Sanford (SC), Scarborough (FL), Souder (IN), Stockman (TX), Tiahrt (KS), and Young (AK).

ACTION: Please thank the above Reps. for voting against Schumer and Clinton, and for not sacrificing the Constitution on the altar of mass hysteria. Also, ask the Reps. who voted wrong (the rest of them) to vote against H.R. 3953 as long as the taggants provision remains in there. (Your Rep. will vote on this bill again if it comes back from a conference committee.) Call Reps. and Senators at 1-800-962-3524. Your Senators will probably vote on a worse version of this bill in September.