GOA NL 11-4-04 · Owners to Fast & Furious Gun Owners of America was the first major organization...

Gun OwnersTHE

36 YEARS OF NO COMPROMISE – 1975-2011

by John VellecoOh what a difference a year can make. Gun

Owners of America played an extremely importantrole in dozens of races across the country in thelast election.

Most notably, the Gun Owners of AmericaPolitical Action Committee — funded solely bythe generous contributions of GOA members —was the only gun rights group last year to opposeso-called Blue Dog Democrats in 35 U.S. Houseraces.

The Blue Dogs claimed to be pro-gun, but asGOA pointed out, their very first vote would havebeen to make Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of theHouse. The GOA-supported candidate was victo-rious in 23 of these races.

Thanks to these successes, GOA went to workwith a lot of new faces in Washington in 2011.

GOA Leads the Way to Bring Back the Constitution

With the election barely over, GOA immediate-

Volume XXXI, Number 5 • December 20, 2011

Continued on page 2

by Erich PrattAs the nation’s early primaries are

set to commence in January, gun own-ers are hoping that Republicans will putforth a pro-gun supporter to challengePresident Obama.

During the Fall, most polls showedthat Herman Cain had a slight lead overMitt Romney. While Romney seems tohave found “religion” in recent yearswhen it comes to firearms issues, gunowners will remember that the formergovernor of Massachusetts does nothave a good Second Amendment recordat all.

Consider just some of Romney’spositions in past years:

• “We do have tough gun laws inMassachusetts; I support them,” hesaid during a gubernatorial debate.“I won’t chip away at them; Ibelieve they protect us and providefor our safety.”

• And when Romney ran for Senatein 1994, he told the Boston Heraldthat he supported the Brady gun-control law and a ban on scores ofsemi-automatic firearms.

In the Republican field, you findstrong pro-gun advocates such as RickPerry, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann— all of whom have pro-gun records torun on.

Herman Cain, however, is somethingof an enigma. He has no legislativerecord … no history in public office by

Republican Presidential Candidates Want Shot at Obama ––But will they defend gun rights?

Continued on page 3

A Look Back, A Look Ahead

GOA celebrates highlights of 2011

Inside:• GOA in the News

(page 4-5)

• GOA wins at theSupreme Court (page 6)

• Republican presidentialcandidate ratings (page 3)

In late October, GOA began pressing hard for the resignation of AttorneyGeneral Eric Holder (right). Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh (left) was the first toissue this call from Capitol Hill –– and he was quickly followed by three oth-ers. The next day, the number of Representatives calling for Holder’s resigna-tion officially doubled, and then it quadrupled over the following week. Cur-rently, more than 30 Representatives are demanding Holder’s resignation.Check GOA’s website at www.gunowners.org for continuing updates.

GOA Pressing for Holder’s Resignation

December 20, 2011 • The Gun Owners /Page 2

ly called on the new Congress to renewits respect for that document that eachand every member swears an oath toprotect and defend.

As a direct result, one of the first actsof the Congress in 2011 was to read theConstitution aloud, for the first time inhistory, on the floor of the United StatesHouse of Representatives.

“I want to thank Gun Owners ofAmerica for early support of the idea toread the U. S. Constitution on theHouse floor and for taking the lead torally the grassroots in support of theRead the Constitution effort,” said Rep.Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who organizedthe reading.

Of course, reading the Constitution isone thing, abiding by it is another. Andthat is a battle GOA brings to CapitolHill on a daily basis.

GOA Fights to Amend Patriot Act

One of the key allies for gun ownerswho won in the last election was Sen.Rand Paul of Kentucky. And he wastedno time going to battle with the Senateleadership over pro-gun legislation.

Sen. Paul tied the Senate in knots formore than a week fighting for a GOA-backed amendment which would haveprotected 4473’s and other gun recordsfrom blanket searches by the ATF underthe so-called PATRIOT Act.

Because many leaders in his ownparty refused to back him, Sen. Paulwas not successful this time, but he puta marker down that gun rights wouldnot be violated without a fight from thepro-gun community.

Sen. Paul thanked “Gun Owners ofAmerica for their strong support of myamendment to protect the privacy ofgun owners.”

GOA First to Alert Gun Owners to Fast & Furious

Gun Owners of America was the firstmajor organization to call for an investi-gation into the now well-publicized Fast& Furious scandal at the Department ofJustice.

At the very start of the year — whenmost people still thought Fast and Furi-ous was only a movie — GOA began

alerting grassroots activists that theAmerican government was allowingguns to be walked across the border toMexico in order to further the Obamagun control agenda.

The unfolding of the scandal hasgone on for nearly a year, but each con-gressional hearing and investigationbrings new information to light.

In countless radio and televisioninterviews, email alerts and Capitol Hillmeetings, GOA continues to aggressive-ly pursue this issue to ensure that theCongress does not let up until govern-ment bureaucrats are held accountable,fired and even prosecuted for criminalmisconduct.

The UN Arms Trade TreatyAmong the issues certain to play a

part in election year politics is the UN’ssmall arms treaty, officially titled theArms Trade Treaty (ATT). After morethan a decade of negotiating, the UN isscheduled to have a treaty finalized andready for ratification in 2012.

The ATT is the most comprehensiveweapons treaty ever taken up by theUN, regulating weapons trade through-out the world on everything from battle-ships to bullets. For U.S. gun owners, itwould entail, at the very least, licensingrequirements for individual gun ownersand a ban on most privately-ownedsemi-automatic firearms.

The Obama administration alreadysigned on in support of the treaty, but itstill must be ratified by a two-thirdsvote of the U.S. Senate.

Because the makeup of the Senate islikely to change drastically nextNovember, the pressure will be intenseto ratify the ATT before the next elec-tion, while the Senate is still led byanti-gun Democrat Harry Reid.

One Shooting Away From More Gun Control

The 2010 elections saw positivegains for gun owners, but the gun con-trol crowd has not grown complacent.

Anti-gunners shamelessly exploit thevictims of violence, so we are alwaysone high-profile shooting away frombeing faced with more gun control.Already, the groundwork has been laidfor the next round of massive gun con-trol following the shooting of Congress-woman Gabrielle Giffords.

For example, Rep. CarolynMcCarthy’s H.R. 1781 would regulateall private firearms sales (and therebyspell the end of gun shows) and banmany more people from owning gunsthrough a massive expansion of theBrady law. Anti-gunners are makingthe rounds on Capitol Hill pushing thisbill and have garnered 68 cosponsors.

Even with many allies in Congress,politicians must still be reminded thatgun control laws only make the popula-tion less safe.

Supreme Court JusticeGOA is also preparing for the possi-

bility of another Supreme Court justiceretirement. This is particularly impor-tant because of the Court’s landmark 5-4 rulings in Heller (that the SecondAmendment protects an individualright) and McDonald (incorporatingthat right to the states).

President Obama already has left amark on the Court that will last a gener-ation with anti-gun Justices Sotomayorand Kagan.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born in1933, is frequently discussed as a retire-ment possibility. If that happens, herreplacement will be in the same vein asObama’s other two justices (and thepresident knows he can rely on HarryReid’s Senate to deliver the votes.)

A retirement by one of the “conserv-ative” justices would put the 5-4 marginin Heller and McDonald on the line. IfObama can replace just one justice whowas in the majority, one of the many

GOA celebrateshighlights of 2011Continued from page 1

The Gun Owners is published by Gun Owners of America, Inc. 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 (703) 321-8585

Attorney General Eric Holder appearedto have perjured himself in May by saying he only learned about Fast &Furious “for the first time over the last few weeks,” when, in fact, he wasreceiving regular briefings on the operation as far back as July, 2010. To read the continuing CBS News coverage on this story, go to:http://www.cbsnews.com/sharylattkisson

Continued on page 7



which to judge him. We only have bits and pieces of speeches and inter-views that Cain has engaged in.

To be sure, he has taken a strong stand against gun control at the federallevel. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier this year, Cainexpressed support for gun rights:

I support, strongly support, the Second Amendment. I don’t supportonerous legislation that’s going to restrict people’s rights in order to beable to protect themselves as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.

Obviously, we would like to hear answers to specific policy issues thatMr. Cain would be faced with as President. And that is why GOA sent hima Second Amendment Presidential Survey. It asks about concealed carryrecognition, the renewal of the semi-auto ban and repealing gun restrictions(like the Brady law and various import bans).

Our survey also gets the candidates’ views on issues such as UN gun con-trol, undoing existing anti-gun Executive Orders and reining in the ATF.

Please stay tuned, we’ll let you know his answers as soon as we get hiscompleted survey. ■

For more detail on the Second Amendment-related records of the Republican contenders mentioned in this article — candidates such as Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich — please go to:http://gunowners.org/2012presidential.htm

Cain and Romney Duke it OutContinued from page 1

10042

Gun owners know they have a huge stake in the upcom-ing elections. The next President will be asked to repealrestrictive legislation, including ObamaCare –– a lawwhich could use medical information to bar millions ofAmericans from owning guns.

Republican Presidential CandidatesRon Paul A+Rick Perry AMichelle Bachmann ARick Santorum B-Newt Gingrich CMitt Romney D-Herman Cain NR



GOA spearheads effort to get the Constitution read in Congress. “Gun Owners of America [took] the lead to rallythe grassroots in support of the Read the Constitutioneffort.” –– Rep. Bob Goodlatte, January 2011

GOA working “fast and furiously” to expose Obama’smisdeeds. In June, Larry Pratt (right) met with the topcongressional investigator, Rep. Darrell Issa of California.

GOA has helped provide Issa’s committee with key infor-mation relating to Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-run-ning scheme where the Obama Administrationapproved –– and in some cases, helped fund –– the pur-chase and smuggling of firearms into Mexico. The appar-ent purpose of this gun running scandal was to use theincreased violence south of the border as a pretext formore gun control in this country.

Pratt interviews ATF Whistleblower

Larry Pratt interviewed ATF whistleblower Vince Cefalu(right) on his radio news program in October. Cefalureceived positive job performance ratings for 20 years, untilhe began exposing the Justice Department’s misdeeds ––including its role in helping guns “walk” across our south-ern border. As a result, Cefalu has been forced to turn inhis gun and his badge. Larry Pratt’s interview with Cefalu,who was instrumental in setting up CleanUpATF.org, can beheard by selecting the Oct. 15 interview at:http://tinyurl.com/3l38rk4

GOA in



GOA leads the way in forcing a vote on safeguard-ing gun records. “I want to thank Gun Owners ofAmerica for their strong support of my amendmentto protect the privacy of gun owners.”

–– Senator Rand Paul, May 2011

GOA’s message reaching millions of people. Beginning withthe Tucson shooting in January –– which left Rep. GabrielleGiffords injured –– GOA representatives appeared on severalhundred media outlets around the world throughout the year.Notable appearances included USA Today, Wall Street Journal,NPR, CNN, Fox News and many more.

GOA plays role in defeat of anti-gun judge. What a differ-ence an election makes. GOA’s Political Victory Fund workedhard last year to get pro-gun Senators elected to the Senate.These efforts bore fruit this year, especially in regard todefeating one of the President’s radical judicial nominations.GOA worked hard to alert Senators to Goodwin Liu’s extreme,anti-gun record. Like many radical progressives, Liu believesthat while our Second Amendment rights might have beennecessary in the 1700s, they are no longer needed today.

GOA targets Justice Dept. lies. In March, theObama Administration issued regulations requiringagencies to lie to the public under certain circum-stances. GOA alerted its grassroots in October tothese regs and urged Congress to defund the admin-istration’s ability to enforce them. The Administra-tion pulled the regulations within the week.

n 2011



GOA celebrates important precedent

Federalism Wins in the Supreme Court

by Larry PrattGun owners are certainly aware that

there has been a rampant increase in thenumber of federal crimes in recentyears. There are so many federalcrimes on the books … so many lawsthat contradict each other … one authorhas stated that Americans unknowinglycommit three felonies a day.

Of course, many of the laws Ameri-cans unwittingly break are gun laws.Allegedly selling a shotgun that wasroughly ¼ of an inch too short led to afederal raid upon Randy Weaver’s Idahoranch, resulting in the murder of hiswife and son in 1992. Similarly, DavidOlofson recently spent more than a yearin jail simply because his malfunction-ing semi-automatic rifle accidentallydischarged a three-round burst (andthen jammed) after he had loaned it to afriend.

Well, enough is enough. To help puta screeching halt to the unbridled feder-al overreach that has been occurring,Gun Owners of America briefed animportant case before the U.S. SupremeCourt this year — and we won!

The case is Bond v. United States,where the U.S. government had made a“federal case” out of a domestic disputeinvolving a Pennsylvania woman whoinjured her neighbor.

Mrs. Carol Ann Bond was convictedin a federal district court of violating afederal law passed by Congress toimplement this country’s obligationsunder the Chemical Weapons Conven-tion of 1993. This statute providesbroadly that “it shall be unlawful forany person knowingly ... to ... acquire[and] use ...any chemical weapon....”

There was absolutely no reason whythe federal government should havebeen prosecuting Carol Bond, asopposed to the local authorities.

So GOA argued that “the federalgovernment possesses only enumeratedpowers, enjoying no federal policepower [and thus] it is without authorityto criminalize any behavior without anexpress grant of authority found in thetext of the U.S. Constitution.”

The U.S. Attorney applied the law asif a treaty, which was designed to haltthe international spread of chemical

weapons by nation-states, and said itwas applicable to Pennsylvania house-wives — even a housewife like CarolBond who tried to poison her neighborafter it became known she was sleepingwith Carol’s husband.

To be clear, it would have been theresponsibility of state or local authori-ties to prosecute this case, rather thanthe U.S. government. Regardless, theDistrict Court ruled in favor of the fed-eral government.

On appeal, the Third Circuit nevergot around to addressing the merits ofBond’s claim. Instead, the appealscourt decided that Bond had no legalstanding to challenge her conviction.The Court believed that, while defen-dants generally can challenge the con-stitutionality of criminal statutes, aTenth Amendment challenge can onlybe brought by one of the 50 states.Thus, the appeals court concluded,Bond would need the State of Pennsyl-vania to join her in challenging the fed-eral law.

Bond case relevant to gun owners

Now, why does this matter to gunowners? Well, consider the amicusbrief GOA and GOF filed on behalf ofthe Montana Shooting Sports Founda-tion in a case now pending in the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.In it, we argued that federal gun lawsdo not apply to wholly intrastate trans-actions in firearms, and that any lawsregulating such transactions would vio-late the Tenth Amendment. If a firearmis made, shipped, sold, and used entire-ly within Montana, then there is no“interstate commerce” for Congress toregulate.

But under the Third Circuit’s rule inthe Bond case, Congress would be freeto unconstitutionally regulate whollyintrastate firearms. Then, prosecutorswould be free to charge gun ownerswith unconstitutional crimes, and thefederal courts (at least in the Third Cir-cuit) would put the icing on the cake byclaiming those gun owners had nostanding to challenge their convictions.

If a housewife can’t challenge herconviction as a proliferator of chemical

weapons, then perhaps owners ofintrastate firearms can’t challenge thefederal laws that have sent them toprison. Such a precedent cannot beallowed to stand.

The GOA amicus brief also discussesthe rampant increase in the number offederal crimes in recent years. Recentstudies have estimated the number offederal statutes with criminal penaltiesassociated with them to be over 4,000,with the exact number indeterminable.

Books such as Craig Roberts’ TheTyranny of Good Intentions highlightthis vast “federal overreaching.” Con-gress has lost sight of the founders’vision of a federal government withlimited, enumerated powers, which leftmost government business to statesunder their traditional police powers.The Constitution gives Congress theexplicit authority to criminalize certainactions — treason, counterfeiting, andpiracy — and not much more. It isclear that the federal government wasnever given the general “police powers”that Congress now presumes itself tohave.

Fortunately, the Supreme Courtstruck down the Third Circuit’s opinionin June, permitting Bond to challengeher conviction. The court held that theprinciple of federalism, as protected bythe Tenth Amendment, is designed notsimply to protect the states from federal

Continued on page 7

GOA submitted a brief in the Bond v.United States case. Anthony Kennedydelivered the unanimous opinion of thecourt.



Second Amendment cases currently inthe court system would quickly work itsway up to the Court and those decisionswould be reversed.

Election OutlookGiven the fate of the Supreme Court,

UN gun control, ObamaCare and otherissues, the main focus of the electionfor the next year will understandably beon the presidency. Freed from havingto face the electorate again, a secondterm for President Obama would belikely to unleash anti-gun ExecutiveOrders at a dizzying rate.

The mere possibility of another fouryears of Obama, however, makes theHouse and Senate elections all the moreimportant.

Barring some catastrophic misstepsby Republicans, the Democrats have lit-tle chance of taking over the House. Atthe same time, Republicans have anexcellent chance to remove Harry Reidfrom his post as Senate MajorityLeader.

Of the Senate seats that are on theballot next year, 23 must be defendedby Democrats, while Republicans haveto defend only 10. The Democrats cur-rently hold a slim majority of six seats(as there are two independents who cau-

cus with the Democrats). Because at least ten of the Democrat

seats are in “Republican friendly” terri-tory, Reid’s days as leader should benumbered.

Additionally, one of the Senate’smost anti-Second Amendment Republi-cans — Dick Lugar of Indiana — isfacing a stiff primary challenge fromconservative Richard Mourdock, whohas the support of Gun Owners ofAmerica.

Registered to Vote?The 2012 election year is the second

part of a four year voter referendumthat began in 2010. The gains of 2010will be for naught if Obama and HarryReid are still in power.

And don’t forget, primary electionswill be taking place in all the statesthroughout the year. Because most dis-tricts are gerrymandered to favor oneparty or the other, congressional racesare often decided on primary electionday.

If every person who owns a gun wereregistered to vote and showed up at thepolls, we would never lose an election.

Working TogetherAs you can see, GOA had a busy

2011 and we have an ambitious agendafor 2012.

In addition to the issues mentionedabove, GOA is also busy working torepeal the gun free schools zones gunban, to repeal a firearms ban on ArmyCorps of Engineers land, pushing Con-stitutional Carry and Firearms FreedomActs at the state level, and a host ofother initiatives to protect gun owners’rights.

But we can’t do it alone. GOA relieson its members to keep the emails, let-ters and phone calls pouring in to Capi-tol Hill and legislatures across the coun-try. When our lobbyists walk into alegislator’s office, they are frequentlygreeted with some version of, “We’rehearing from your members all thetime.”

That is what grassroots lobbying isall about, and it is the reason GOA isviewed as one the most effective lobby-ing organizations in America. ■

encroachment; rather, the whole point of pro-tecting the states is to thereby protect the lib-erty of citizens from an overreaching federalgovernment.

Thus, the Court determined that, whenBond challenged the federal law under theTenth Amendment, she was not assertingPennsylvania’s rights, but rather her own.

The best way to restore federalism inAmerica is to eliminate most of the federalcriminal code, which is now used to makeindividuals fearful of the federal government,and to restore the federal government to itsrole as the servant, not the master. ■

Erich Pratt also contributed to this article.

Federalism Wins in theSupreme CourtContinued from page 6

A retirement by Justice Ruth BaderGinsburg would give President Obamaone more opportunity to appoint anothermember to the Supreme Court .

GOA celebrateshighlights of 2011Continued from page 1

How to PlaceGOAin Your Will

GOA has received numerous inquiries from our members asking us how theycan place Gun Owners of America in their will or estate plans. Here are some sample instructions to share with your advisor or attorney:

I give, devise and bequeath to Gun Owners of America (tax ID # 52-1256643),a non-profit, corporation in Springfield, Virginia:A. The sum of $_________; orB. _________ percent of my estate; orC. Residue. I give my Residue to Gun Owners of America,

8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, Virginia 22151.


Shootout in Ruidosoby Larry Pratt

In September, I was involved ina shootout in the village of Rui-doso (Spanish for noisy) near oursouthern border. No, this time Iwas not using bullets.

I had been invited by GOAmembers in the New Mexico townto participate at a village councilmeeting. The chamber was filled

to overflowing. Folks were outraged that the villagemayor, Ray Alborn, had issued an executive order banningfirearms anywhere on village property.

Needless to say, half of us in attendance had hogs on ourhips. GOA member Dr. Ray Seidel came dressed with anAR-15. I knew right away I was not in San Francisco.

The mayor issued his edict in spite of Article II, Section6 of the New Mexico Constitution which prohibits munici-palities and counties from regulating “in any way, any inci-dent of the right to keep and bear arms.”

In spite of the state constitution’s clear language, thecity attorney, Harry “Pete” Connelly, wrote an opinion say-ing that state law permitted the ban.Calls for him to be fired erupted duringthe hearing.

The mayor was raised in Houston bya single mother and never had any con-tact with firearms. They scare him. Heoffered as justification for his executiveorder that he wanted to ensure that peo-ple remain safe.

At the Council’s previous meeting, acitizen approached the podium with asidearm in his holster and the Mayorhad him disarmed. KASA-TV in Albu-querque recorded the mayor’sresponse: “At that time I realized howunprotected we are in the front of theroom. There’s 11 of us, plus all of our citizens and employ-ees who were at the meeting. [It hit home] how unprotect-ed we were.”

When I testified at the hearing, the Mayor said that if hecould, he would ban firearms throughout Ruidoso.

Those from Ruidoso handled the legal and constitutionalissues well, so I addressed the historical aspect of gun freezones. Almost all of the mass murders in our country have

occurred in gun free zones. I told the Council that in Feb-ruary of 2008, an irate taxpayer charged into the Kirkwood,Missouri chamber, killed two police officers, three council-men and critically wounded the mayor before he was sub-dued by police who ran from other areas of the building.

Kirkwood’s council did not like the state’s concealedcarry law and exercised the option in the law to declaretheir chamber a gun free zone.

In contrast to the almost 100 percent opposition from thepublic, a young woman named Andrea Reed — along withher three kids — was presented to the Council as part of acelebration of International Peace Day. After receiving acertificate from the Mayor, Andrea and her kids cavortedaround as if they were dancing around a Maypole. Theysang a little ditty about how peace is nice.

She remained for the gun ban item on the agenda andtestified in favor of the Mayor’s position. She suggested acompromise — that gun owners leave their guns at homebecause such firepower made her nervous. I so wanted toassure her that every open carrier in the room was beingvery vigilant to ensure their guns did not jump out of theirholsters. We were successful and she did not get shot.

Whew!The Council did not take action on

the Mayor’s edict, but they scheduled avote for the following meeting.

I did an interview on a Ruidoso radiostation (KEDU 102.3 FM) from the GunOwners of America office in Spring-field, Virginia and urged listeners toattend the next village meeting —armed as before — as Councilors werethen expected to vote on the ban.

Gun owners didn’t have anything tofear because Police Chief Joe Magill isa sworn officer who is in the OathKeeper tradition. He told the Mayorthat he would not arrest anybody for

carrying in the Council chambers because such a ban —whether it’s a mere edict from the Mayor or an ordinancefrom the Council — is unconstitutional.

Thankfully, at the subsequent meeting in late September,the Village Council voted five to one to rescind theMayor’s edict. Councilman Rafael “Rifle” Salas was theonly negative vote, as the Mayor does not typically vote.

Looks like Mayor Alborn’s edict was stillborn. ■

Gun OwnersTHE

Sen. H.L. Richardson (Ret.)Founder and Chairman

Tim MacyVice-Chairman

The Gun Owners publication is not copyrighted.Copies may be made freely, but it is requestedthat attribution be made together with GOA’saddress, phone number and web site location.

GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102Springfield, Virginia 22151703-321-8585Web Site: http://www.gunowners.org

Larry PrattExecutive Director

Erich PrattDirector of Communications

John VellecoDirector of Federal Affairs


GOA Executive Director Larry Prattdefies the illegal gun ban with a sidearmstrapped to his side.

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