From: [j r h] at [mustang.us.dell.com] (Randy Howard) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: NRA fails, SAF cleans it up? Date: 2 Jun 1994 22:55:58 GMT I was interested by my mail last night. A got a letter from the NRA asking for more money to lobby politicians with. The basic content was that they needed more cash to bribe the politicians because HCI and their cohorts are now spending more than the NRA is. In the same mailbox was a note from the Second Amendment Foundation. They were asking for money to help fund a Supreme Court constitutional challenge to the right of Congress to ban the possession of guns and put gun owners in jail. Before I give a summary of the details, I'll make an editorial comment. I see these two organizations as not overlapping. SAF makes little or no effort on the front end at election time, all of their work is basically legal. The NRA on the other hand puts no effort on the back end trying to reverse laws that are unconstitutional or just blatantly wrong. Short answer "When the NRA fails, the SAF tries to clean up the mess". I'm a member of both, and intend to stay that way, until they make that illegal too. :-() Ok, here's the scoop on what they're up to: "The case is an appeal by the anti-gun Clinton Administration from a Federal Appellate Court ruling that invalidated the Gun Free Zones Act of 1990 which made it a federal crime to possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. "The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New Orleans, ruled that Congress has failed to specify that it had the power to enact the law. "The Appellate Court also suggested more broadly that the law intruded into the realm of gun ownership and might be unconstitutional for Congress to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms. "THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FEDERAL COURT RULING IN SUPPORT OF OUR GUN RIGHTS THAT HAS COME DOWN IN OUR LIFE TIME...AND I BELIEVE WE MUST DEFEND IT ALL THE WAY TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT. "In his opinion declaring the law unconstitutional, Judge William Garwood of the 5th circuit gave this description of the statute's scope: The Gun Free School Zones Act extends to criminalize any person's carrying of an unloaded shotgun, in an unlocked pickup truck gun rack, while driving on a country road that at one turn happens to come within 950 feet of the boundary of the grounds of a one-room church kindergarten located on the other side of a river, even during the summer session when the kindergarten is not in session." "Other anti-gun measures pending in Congress could well be found deficient and unconstitutional under the 5th Circuit Court's approach." "I have been told by a source close to Sarah Brady that her anti-gun rights group is preparing a "friend of the court" amicus curiae brief to file with the Supreme Court arguing that we have no right to keep and bear arms. "It was a brief of this kind that they filed and a U.S. Court of Appeals read that helped them get a 2 to 1 decision to uphold the Morton Grove, Illinoiss handgun ban." --- back to me --- Ok, they claim they'll need about $60,000 to file the brief properly for the Supreme Court. Donations to the SAF are tax deductible. I REALLY enjoy putting an itemized deduction to "Second Amendment Foundation" on my income tax return each year. If you interested in helping to reverse some of these laws, instead of just trying (and sometimes failing to prevent them in the first place) contact the SAF at: Second Amendment Foundation James Madison Building 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA 98005 (206) 454-7012 -- Randy Howard ([j r h] at [mustang.us.dell.com]) Dell Computer Corp. Politicians and diapers are similar ... they both require frequent changing, and for the same reason.