We Take Another Hit Part II

And Now for the Rest of the Story . . .

Special GOA Alert on recent gun bans (Part II)
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(Friday, October 4, 1996) — These are truly interesting times. Office after office is telling you guys that they never would vote for a bill that had the Kohl and Lautenberg gun bans. Of course, in almost 100% of the cases, they themselves can’t find the provisions in the bill. Most of them didn’t even know what was in the recent appropriations bill that was signed by the President!

Indeed, consider these statements made on the Senate floor on September 30 in regard to the appropriations bill that passed: Sen. Robert Byrd (WV): “I dare say no staff person, has had the time to carefully review the thousands of programs funded in this resolution, or to read and comprehend the many nonappropriations, legislative matters contained in this resolution.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK): “This is the 2,000-plus pages that have been put together . . . . I would suggest there is not one Member of this body who has read this. But we go through that quite often and quite often we vote on things that we have not read in their entirety.”

GOA inundates the Hill. Folks, realize that what you’re hearing from offices is either lies or incompetence. From September 19 through September 27 (the day before the House vote), GOA inundated the Congress with letters and other materials in opposition to the Kohl and Lautenberg gun bans. They were warned about what was in the bill — they have no excuse for being ignorant.

Having said that, GOA has been able to document some cases where certain leadership offices were lying (or “misspoke”) to their fellow Congressmen. In one case, a Congressman stated that because of the information GOA had delivered to his office, he could not vote for the appropriations bill. He would not vote for a bill that established “gun free zones” near every school. One high-ranking Congressman (on the Appropriations Committee) told the Congressman that there was no such provision in the bill! Relying on that “information,” the Congressman voted for the bill.

Well, this alert will give you the resources to show your Congressman what is in the new law. We need to demand — and right before the elections is a good time to make the request — that they repeal this legislation. We need to get their written promise that they will support a repeal.

Visit the GOA Web page to get the full text of the Lautenberg and Kohl gun bans

* The URL of the file is http://www.gunowners.org/amd96930.htm, and it will be made available by 10:00 P.M. tonight (E.S.T.). In the mean time, the section below will give you the page numbers for the worst parts of H.R. 3610.

* One note regarding H.R. 3610: some have been confused because THOMAS (on the Internet) is lagging behind on reporting the final version of the bill. H.R. 3610 passed as a Defense appropriation bill on June 13 in the House and on July 18 in the Senate. At this point, it was sent to a conference committee.

But on September 28, this bill became more than just a Defense bill, as the conference committee used a parliamentary maneuver to roll six other bills into H.R. 3610. Thus, H.R. 3610 became an “omnibus” spending bill, containing the appropriations for several other departments — including Treasury, Justice, Commerce, HHS and others. The Defense bill had became a “Christmas tree.” (In fact, after the recorded vote on H.R. 3610, this bill was rolled into another bill (H.R. 4278) by unanimous consent.)

The Congressional Record for September 28 does have this bill printed in full. While GOA has obtained a copy of this, however, one should realize that this issue of the Congressional Record is not easy to get. They are not giving any issues out to outside organizations — GOA had to get a Congressional office to pick up a copy for us.

How to show your Congressmen the worst parts of the recent appropriations bill

* Gun Free Zones (Source: Cong. Record, 9/28/96, p. H11743, Sec. 657 of the Treasury-Postal portion of H.R. 3610.)

* Domestic Confiscation (Source: Cong. Rec., 9/28/96, p. H11743, Sec. 658 of the Treasury-Postal portion of H.R. 3610.)

* Study on placing taggants in black and smokeless powders — a provision that sets the wheels in motion for registering ammunition. (Source: Congressional Record, 9/28/96, p. H11650, Sec. 113(2) of the general provisions of the Justice Department Title in H.R. 3610.)

* BATF pay INCREASE of almost $100 million dollars for next year — $16 million in the regular budget plus an additional $66 million for anti-terrorism efforts. (Source: Cong. Record, 9/28/96, p. H11729, H11747,H12015.) u Continuing restriction on the ability of non-violent offenders who lose their gun rights to get their rights restored. (Source: Congressional Record, 9/28/96, p. H11729.)

How they voted in the Senate

* The Senate voted on September 30 to pass the omnibus spending bill. This bill, H.R. 4278 (a bill containing the text of H.R. 3610), passed by a vote of 84-15. The 15 “good guys” (many of them voting against the bill for fiscal or other reasons) are as follows: Ashcroft (MO), Brown (CO), Burns (MT), Coats (IN), Faircloth (NC), Feingold (WI), Frahm (KS), Gramm (TX), Grams (MN), Gregg (NH), Inhofe (OK), Kyl (AZ), McCain (AZ), Specter (PA), and Thomas (WY). Not voting: Campbell (CO). Hold the others accountable!