Gun Owners of America
Yesterday, we wrote to you about Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to exempt 4473’s and other gun records from the blanket information demands which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) can make under 9/11 legislation. An extension of three provisions of that legislation is currently pending on the Senate floor.
Without the exemption, it is possible that BATFE could go to a secret court, and, in a one-party (ex parte) proceeding, obtain an order to produce every 4473 in the country, ostensibly because a “terrorism investigation” requires it.
This is unacceptable. It is a violation of gun owner protections enacted in 1986 as part of the McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act. Not surprisingly, BATFE is already trying to violate McClure-Volkmer in its new proposed rules to require reporting of multiple semi-auto sales -– and to compile a gun registry from those reports.
Senate insiders report that Sen. Paul’s “gun issue” is the single remaining hang-up on the reauthorization. Not surprisingly, anti-gun Democrats running for reelection do not want to vote on this.
But YOU cannot allow them to escape accountability.
ACTION: Call your Senators. Tell them that you insist on a vote on the Rand Paul gun amendment to the 9/11 bill currently pending on the Senate floor.
Yesterday, we wrote to you about Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to exempt 4473’s and other gun records from the blanket information demands which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) can make under 9/11 legislation. An extension of three provisions of that legislation is currently pending on the Senate floor.
Without the exemption, it is possible that BATFE could go to a secret court, and, in a one-party (ex parte) proceeding, obtain an order to produce every 4473 in the country, ostensibly because a “terrorism investigation” requires it.
This is unacceptable. It is a violation of gun owner protections enacted in 1986 as part of the McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act. Not surprisingly, BATFE is already trying to violate McClure-Volkmer in its new proposed rules to require reporting of multiple semi-auto sales -– and to compile a gun registry from those reports.
Senate insiders report that Sen. Paul’s “gun issue” is the single remaining hang-up on the reauthorization. Not surprisingly, anti-gun Democrats running for reelection do not want to vote on this.
But YOU cannot allow them to escape accountability.
ACTION: Call your Senators. Tell them that you insist on a vote on the Rand Paul gun amendment to the 9/11 bill currently pending on the Senate floor.
I take no comfort in and am not impressed by Paul's "exemption". The entire piece of legislation needs to be abolished and I've encouraged our Texas senators to vote against renewal.
ReplyDeleteYoung Paul's proposal for amendment seems like a political ploy to me - perhaps an excuse for voting against the Act, or an opportunity to get his name in the paper, or a manufactured distraction. Either way, he 'signals' (to use one of the politician's words) to fellow congressmen and the people that he is otherwise on board with a renewal of the other provisions.