nra

The United States House of Representatives passed HR 822 yesterday. That's the NRA-backed bill to force the states to recognize concealed weapons permits from other states.

While Congress claims authority under the Commerce Clause, the Commerce Clause offers no such authority. Like the push for Second Amendment incorporation through Due Process rather than more responsible means, this is another way for the NRA to ensure their need to exist for Second Amendment litigation purposes.

Every Congressman who chose to vote for the bill also chose to ignore the rest of the Constitution. That includes Oklahoma Congressmen Dan Boren (D), Tom Cole (R), James Lankford (R), Frank Lucas (R), and John Sullivan (R).

The NRA-ILA sent an email yesterday urging NRA members to call their Congressmen and Senators and ask them to support HR 822. That bill would force the states to recognize concealed carry permits from other states.

The NRA wrongly leads members to believe that this bill would be just like driver's license reciprocity. In fact, driver's license reciprocity is conducted in a completely different way with zero federal involvement. While HR 822 would force the states into reciprocity, states currently choose to join into a compact between themselves to recognize other licenses and, in some cases, report infractions to the license holder's state. With concealed carry, the states choose whose permits to recognize, generally based on similarities between training courses.

I just checked my mailbox and found a bumper sticker inside from the NRA. According to the letter that accompanies it, the NRA is endorsing Mary Fallin over Jari Askins.

This doesn't surprise me at all and seems to be the logical endorsement for any "pro gun rights" organization. (Yes, the quotes are intentional.)

A friend of a friend received an email back from Sen. Tom Coburn that has some good tidbits on how Coburn feels about the NRA (edited for length, innocent names redacted, and emphasis mine).

From: Senator_Coburn@coburn.senate.gov [mailto:Senator_Coburn@coburn.senate.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 3:07 PM
To: ________.net
Subject: Correspondence from Senator Coburn

July 7, 2010

Mr. ________

 

Dear Mr. ________,

...

From the National Shooting Sports Foundation:

U.S. Congressman Dan Boren introduced legislation this week (H.R. 5667) to direct the U.S. Attorney General to work with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive study of firearm microstamping. NSSF supports this bipartisan legislation as a means of ensuring adequate research of microstamping is completed, and the concept is proven to work reliably, prior to states mandating microstamping through the legislative process.

Thanks, Mr. Boren, for working toward another way for the government to usurp our freedoms!  At least now you have plainly put out in public the NRA's true position on microstamping.

The National Rifle Association has lost a member after their change in stance on HR 5175 (DISCLOSE Act).  The DISCLOSE Act was designed to require 501(c)(4) organizations to disclose all donors and funding sources for any campaign advertisement for any issue or candidate.  It would make it unreasonable for an organization to participate in the political process.  This was a legislative response to the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United.

The NRA took a strong opposition to this bill because it would silence political speech, which I agree with that stance.  They also were strongly opposed to the Schuler Amendment which would have exempted ALL 501(c)(4) organizations.