Lautenberg: Full Repeal Introduced

Chenoweth Introduces Full Lautenberg Repeal
— Your work helps deliver 11 Cosponsors!

(Wednesday, March 12) — Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID) yesterday introduced a full repeal of the Lautenberg gun ban. Thanks to your help, phones have been ringing off the hook on Capitol Hill, and 11 Representatives have signed on to her bill as original cosponsors.

[By contrast, the other leading bill to repeal the Lautenberg gun ban only had one original cosponsor when it was introduced earlier this year. That bill, introduced by Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), would only repeal the retroactive part of the gun ban, leaving the ban in place for the future. While opposing the retroactive part of the ban, Rep. Barr endorsed the underlying principle behind the Lautenberg gun ban last Thursday (3/6/97) in USA Today, calling it “important and worthwhile legislation.”]

Rep. Chenoweth’s bill (H.R. 1009) repeals the ENTIRE Lautenberg ban. Entitled the “States’ Rights and Second and Tenth Amendment Restoration Act of 1997,” the bill lays out 16 findings that help advance the pro-gun cause. For instance, the bill states that,

* “Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year. Of these self-defense cases, as many as 200,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual assault.”

* “The Lautenberg Amendment oversteps federal authority, violating states’ rights . . . [and] violates all notions of constitutional Due Process and constitutes an ex post facto law.”

* “The Lautenberg Amendment does not deal with a subject delegated to Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States and is therefore unconstitutional under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, as interpreted by United States v. Lopez.”

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

If you’re Representative is not listed below, keep on him. Get your friends, neighbors, family, gun clubs, etc. to support the Chenoweth repeal bill. And remember to emphasize that the Chenoweth bill (H.R. 1009) is the only bill to *completely* repeal the Lautenberg gun ban from the federal code. All the other half-baked repeals would still leave the ban in the federal code for the future.

WHO HAS COSPONSORED THE CHENOWETH BILL ALREADY?

1. Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

2. Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY)

3. Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)

4. Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV)

5. Rep. Virgil Goode (D-VA)

6. Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA)

7. Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN)

8. Rep. Ron Lewis (R-KY)

9. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)

10. Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM)

11. Rep. Don Young (R-AK)