Dudley Brown [above] was not entirely happy with TTAG’s story on a possible high-capacity magazines ban amendment to the FAA funding bill. The main man at the National Association for Gun Rights sent this email for publication, just before the Gun Owners of America added their voice to the chorus singing “No Way, FAA.” First Brown’s email, then GOA’s . . .
Here are some Facts:
1. As majority leader, Harry Reid is a part of ANY amendments offered on the Senate floor. That might be embarrassing to organizations who give him almost $5,000 in the last election (and pat him on the back in their publications), but that’s their problem, not ours.
2. My sources on the potential Durbin amendment are top-level Senate staffers, not rumors in the intern closet. Multiple offices contacted us and confirmed the intended amendment (and those offices confirmed that our alerts, along with the alerts of a dozen state-level gun rights groups, put enough heat to get Senators nervous).
3. Former V.P. Dick Cheney, “Republican” Sen. Richard Lugar, Peggy Noonan, and others have recently signaled their willingness to appease the media and gun-haters by suggesting a reauthorization of the Feinstein Ban (or some portion thereof).
4. The White House has been leaking information about a push for gun controls. Chris Matthews started talking about it a week after Tucson.
5. No, I’m not a Gucci-loafered K Street lobbyist on Capitol Hill, buying cocktails on an expense account. If NAGR had the resources of the NRA (literally hundreds of millions of dollars), we still wouldn’t employ a lobbyist like that.
5. I’m a live person, and have been in the trenches of the fight for gun rights since 1993 – and I haven’t sold gun owners out once.
6. TTAG called me, and got me on the phone in minutes. Try talking to the NRA types. Unless you’re stroking $20,000 checks, you’ll never get a call back from anyone but their low-level stooges… with a “just trust us” song and dance.
7. The real place to put pressure on politicians is not while sitting in Bullfeathers (a Capitol Hill tavern underneath the NRA-ILA’s federal lobbyist shop). It’s in the states, where grassroots gun owners are wary of the slick and only want to be left the hell alone. If you want change in Washington, go into their districts/states.
8. I’m an NFA weapon owner – any time Congress critters are amending legislation I get nervous, as machine gun owners are the first to be thrown under the bus (think “McClure-Volkmer”).
Dudley Brown
Executive Director
Here’s the GOA’s take.
Magazine Ban, Gun Show Ban and Even a Gun Ownership Ban…
— All this and more may come up in the Senate!Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408Friday, February 4, 2011
Since the Tucson tragedy, anti-gun Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has been hovering like a vulture, waiting to pick the bones of the victims for political advantage.
Now he has his chance.
The same Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization which provided a vote on the repeal of ObamaCare may well be the vehicle for a series of gun control proposals.
Right now, no one knows which amendments will be offered. Democratic leaders like Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) are threatening to offer anti-gun amendments, and pro-gun Senators like Tom Coburn (R-OK) are considering amendments to protect gun rights.
Now, it’s entirely possible that senators from both sides will simply retreat to their own corners. In fact, GOA’s sources inside the Senate indicate that gun amendments to the FAA bill are unlikely at this point, but there’s no way can we count on that — and risk being caught unprepared.
There are three amendments which Lautenberg and Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) have been nursing since Tucson.
The first would limit semi-automatic magazines to 10 rounds, in a reprise of the Clinton ban.
The second would effectively shut down all gun shows. It would do this by sending any gun show promoter to prison for up to two years if a SINGLE attendee were not informed of his Brady Law obligations. No one would dare sponsor a gun show under these circumstances.
The third anti-gun amendment would allow the Obama administration to seize guns from anyone they choose to place on a “watch list.” Millions and millions of pro-gun supporters could find their names on an ObamaList with no due process — and no way to get their names removed. Please note that this administration has already advised law enforcement to treat supporters of the Constitution and gun rights as possible domestic terrorists!
ACTION: Contact your two senators. Ask them to support any pro-gun amendments, and definitely insist they vote against the Lautenberg/Durbin amendments to ban semi-automatic magazines, shut down gun shows, and create a “no guns list” of Second Amendment activists. You can click on the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your senators a pre-written message.
