Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://gunowners.org

Friday, February 26, 2010

Great news! Last month we alerted you to a superb pro-gun bill pending in the Virginia General Assembly.

HB 69 recently passed the House of Delegates overwhelmingly (70-29) and is now before the Senate’s Courts of Justice Committee.

Introduced by Del. Charles Carrico (R-5) and known as the Virginia Firearms Freedom Act, HB 69 is modeled after similar legislation which has been successful in other states, including Montana — the first state to pass such a law.

The Firearms Freedom Act has a simple concept. HB 69 states that if a gun was made in Virginia, and then stays in the Commonwealth, the federal government may not regulate it under the Interstate Commerce Clause. (Because, you see, the gun was never part of interstate commerce.)

This is important because the Commerce Clause is the “hook” that Congress has used to justify almost every single federal gun control law. But with the passage of HB 69, the Commonwealth will take a stand that guns stamped with the words “Made in Virginia” are no business of the federal government.

Now that we’ve breezed through the House, we can expect anti-gun forces to try and kill this excellent measure in the Senate. Therefore, it is imperative that we make it impossible for senators to do the bidding of the enemies of freedom.

ACTION: Please urge your State Senator to actively support HB 69.

To identify and contact your senator, go to http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform and enter your address in the form provided. When the results display, clicking on the “More about” link will lead you to your senator’s e-mail address. (Using the “Send a message” link on the results page is not recommended, as that will automatically send the message to your delegate as well.)

Note: If you already know your senate district, you can simply e-mail your senator using the format districtXX@senate.virginia.gov — where XX is your district number. Use a lead zero for single-digit districts (e.g. the 1st district, Sen. Miller, would be district01).

A pre-written letter is provided below for you to copy-and-paste, or you may type your own comments when you e-mail your senator.

—– Pre-written letter —–

Dear Senator:

Please actively support HB 69, the Virginia Firearms Freedom Act. This bill provides that if a gun is manufactured in Virginia — and the firearm stays in the Commonwealth — it is exempt from federal gun control laws. HB 69 is modeled after laws that were recently passed in Montana and Tennessee.

This is one of the most important bills that you will vote on in 2010. This is more than just a Tenth Amendment resolution — it is a bill that has teeth!

Note that HB 69 passed the House overwhelmingly (70-29). I expect an even better showing in the Senate.

It’s time that we send a message to the U.S. Congress and tell them to start legislating within the authority given them by the Constitution. Please help continue the movement that began in Montana by getting on board with HB 69.

Sincerely,

By Alan M. Gottlieb

Executive Vice President

Second Amendment Foundation

The Washington State Supreme Court has issued a precedent-setting opinion in the case of State v. Christopher William Sieyes which holds that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights “applies to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment”

This outstanding opinion was authored by Justice Richard B. Sanders, a Supreme Court veteran who clearly understands the history of both the state and federal constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Perhaps what makes the Sanders opinion so remarkable is that it places the Washington Supreme Court ahead of the United States Supreme Court in recognition that the U.S. Constitution’s recognition of the right to keep and bear arms applies to all citizens, and should also place limits on state and local governments, as it does on Congress.

Quoting Justice Sanders, “Lower courts need not wait for the Supreme Court the Constitution is the rule of all courts both state and federal judiciaries wield power to strike down unconstitutional government acts.”

The Sanders opinion was issued February 18, 2010 and its significance quickly registered with gun rights organizations and activists across the map. For example, the National Shooting Sports Foundation hailed the ruling. NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane called it “a welcome development and victory for the rights of law-abiding firearms owners.”

This state high court opinion, among other things, effectively “puts on notice” anti-gun groups in the Evergreen State that their continued efforts to impair the rights of legally-armed citizens will face not only growing legislative resistance, but intense legal scrutiny. Though not binding on other states, it clears a path for other state supreme courts to follow.

Despite its brevity at only 24 pages, Justice Sanders’ opinion – which was co-signed by five of his colleagues, including Chief Justice Barbara A. Madsen – thoroughly and proactively debunks any suggestion that the authors of Article 1, Section 24 of the Washington State Constitution did not mean specifically what they wrote: “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.”

Perhaps Justice Sanders put it best when he noted, “This right is necessary to an Anglo-American regime of ordered liberty and fundamental to the American scheme of justice.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nations oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

< Please e-mail, distribute, and circulate to friends and family >

Copyright © 2010 Second Amendment Foundation, All Rights Reserved.

Tools of the Trade is now a dealer of ACE cases. Browse there selection here, I can guarantee you a good price, let us know what you are looking for!

Got my custom built rig out yesterday for some shooting, and think I did some of my best shooting to date.
The rifle is a Model 1 sales (24″ stainless bull barrel/free floated varmint kit) built with a mega machine lower, I also added a few thing of my own. It is topped with a Barska scope that I decided to try to see how good they are (or aren’t).


The group measured is 5 shots, The handloads I used for this group are 25gr of Varget pushing a 77gr Sierra MK bullet at about 2714 fps. brass is R-P nickel virgin.
Shooting conditions were calm 0 wind and about 35 degrees out, range was 200yds.

President fails to deliver on campaign promises, gun control advocates say

By Ian Urbina
updated 5:58 a.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 24, 2010

When President Obama took office, gun rights advocates sounded the alarm, warning that he intended to strip them of their arms and ammunition.

And yet the opposite is happening. Mr. Obama has been largely silent on the issue while states are engaged in a new and largely successful push for expanded gun rights, even passing measures that have been rejected in the past.

In Virginia, the General Assembly approved a bill last week that allows people to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, and the House of Delegates voted to repeal a 17-year-old ban on buying more than one handgun a month. The actions came less than three years after the shootings at Virginia Tech that claimed 33 lives and prompted a major national push for increased gun control.
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Arizona and Wyoming lawmakers are considering nearly a half dozen pro-gun measures, including one that would allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. And lawmakers in Montana and Tennessee passed measures last year — the first of their kind — to exempt their states from federal regulation of firearms and ammunition that are made, sold and used in state. Similar bills have been proposed in at least three other states.

Assault weapons ban
In the meantime, gun control advocates say, Mr. Obama has failed to deliver on campaign promises to close a loophole that allows unlicensed dealers at gun shows to sell firearms without background checks; to revive the assault weapons ban; and to push states to release data about guns used in crimes.

He also signed bills last year allowing guns to be carried in national parks and in luggage on Amtrak trains.

“We expected a very different picture at this stage,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control group that last month issued a report card failing the administration in all seven of the group’s major indicators.

Gun control advocates have had some successes recently, Mr. Helmke said. Proposed bills to allow students to carry guns on college campuses have been blocked in the 20 or so states where they have been proposed since the Virginia Tech shootings. Last year, New Jersey limited gun purchases to one a month, a law similar to the one Virginia may revoke.

But recent setbacks to gun control have been many.

Last month, the Indiana legislature passed bills that block private employers from forbidding workers to keep firearms in their vehicles on company property.

Gun rights supporters also showed their strength last year by blocking legislation to give District of Columbia residents a full vote in Congress by attaching an amendment to repeal Washington’s ban on handguns.

‘Common-sense steps’
Asked by reporters about the Brady group’s critical report on the Obama administration, a White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, pointed out that the latest F.B.I. statistics showed that violent crime dropped in the first half of 2009 to its lowest levels since the 1960s.

“The president supports and respects the Second Amendment,” Mr. LaBolt said, “and he believes we can take common-sense steps to keep our streets safe and to stem the flow of illegal guns to criminals.”

Still, gun rights groups remain skeptical of the administration.

“The watchword for gun owners is stay ready,” said Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association. “We have had some successes, but we know that the first chance Obama gets, he will pounce on us.”

That Mr. Obama signed legislation allowing guns in national parks and on Amtrak trains should not be seen as respect for the Second Amendment, Mr. LaPierre said. The two measures had been attached as amendments to larger pieces of legislation — a bill cracking down on credit card companies and a transportation appropriations bill, respectively — that the president wanted passed, Mr. LaPierre said.
CONTINUED : Dealers reap benefits
Regardless of Mr. Obama’s agenda, gun dealers seem to be reaping the benefits of fears surrounding it.

Federal background checks for gun purchases rose to 14 million in 2009, up from 12.7 million in 2008 and 11.2 million in 2007. But from November 2009 to January 2010, the number of background checks fell 12 percent, compared with the same months a year earlier.

In Virginia, the success of new pro-gun laws is partly a result of the Republican Party’s taking the governor’s office after eight years of Democratic control.
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A major setback for state gun control advocates was this week’s House vote repealing the one-gun-per-month law, which was passed in 1993 under Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat, and has long been upheld as the state’s signature gun control restriction.

Supporters of limiting gun purchases to one a month said the law was important to avoid Virginia’s becoming the East Coast’s top gun-running hub. Opponents dismissed the concern.

“We shouldn’t get rid of our Second Amendment rights because some people in New York City want to abuse theirs,” Robert G. Marshall, a Republican delegate from Manassas who supported repeal of the one-gun-a-month limit, told reporters.

Guns-in-bars bill
Gun control advocates hoped to win new restrictions after the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, in which a student, Seung-Hui Cho, shot and killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself.

After the shooting, Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, pushed for stronger gun control measures. But last year the legislature rejected a bill requiring background checks for private sales at gun shows and repealed a law that Mr. Kaine had supported to prohibit anyone from carrying concealed weapons into a club or restaurant where alcohol is served.

In previous years, the guns-in-bars bill cleared both chambers but was vetoed by Mr. Kaine. But the new governor, Robert F. McDonnell, has said he supports the measure.

Virginia is also considering a measure adopted in Montana and Tennessee that declares that firearms made and retained in-state are beyond the authority of Congress. The measure is primarily a challenge to Congress’s power to regulate commerce among the states.

The Montana law is being challenged in federal court, and the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has sent a letter to Tennessee and Montana gun dealers stating that federal law supersedes the state measure.

This story, “Fearing Obama Agenda, States Push to Loosen Gun Laws,” first appeared in The New York Times.

Carlos Norman Hathcock II
May 20, 1942(1942-05-20) – February 23, 1999 (aged 56)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carlos Hathcock DM-SD-98-02324.JPG
Carlos Hathcock in 1996
Nickname Lông Trắng du Kich (White Feather Sniper)
Place of birth Little Rock, Arkansas
Place of death Virginia Beach, Virginia
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Marine Corps
Years of service 1959-1979
Rank USMC-E7.svg Gunnery Sergeant
Battles/wars Vietnam War
Awards Silver Star
Purple Heart

Carlos Norman Hathcock II (May 20, 1942 – February 23, 1999) was a United States Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills. Hathcock’s record and the extraordinary details of the missions he undertook made him a legend in the Marine Corps. His fame as a sniper and his dedication to long distance shooting led him to become a major developer of the United States Marine Corps Sniper training program. He has, in recent years, had the honor of having a rifle named after him: a variant of the M21 dubbed the Springfield Armory M25 White Feather.[1]

Carlos Hathcock

Complex gun regulations led to owner’s violation, his attorney says
by Robert Anglen – Feb. 22, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

A Gilbert firearms manufacturer will cease its gun operations after the company’s owner pleaded guilty to illegally selling rifles, shotguns and handguns.
Cavalry Arms Corp. says on its Web site that it has been “engaged in an ongoing dispute” with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, for two years over “regulatory and compliance mistakes.”

But in federal court last week, owner Shawn Nealon admitted that he and his company illegally sold as many as 40 weapons to an out-of state buyer, and he voluntarily surrendered his federal firearms licenses, meaning Cavalry will no longer be able to import, manufacture or deal in weapons or ammunition.
“This is not some individual setting up a stand at a gun show,” U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke said Friday. “These are the preliminary steps that individuals take to get around federal laws in order to traffic in illegal firearms.”
Although none of the Cavalry guns has been linked to a crime, Burke said such cases are a particular concern for the agency.
Illegal-firearms sales are steadily increasing in Arizona, with much of the market driven by demand in Mexico, said Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona.
“The activity – southbound guns into Mexico – is very robust,” he said. “We have (several) very active investigations going on now.”
Nealon’s lawyer, Mark Vincent of Chandler, called the charges against his client ridiculous.
“This is by no means a great victory for the government,” he said, describing federal gun regulations as arcane. “In my opinion, no gun dealer in the United States could comply with the myriad of regulations. . . . It’s almost impossible to determine what the law is.”
Vincent said as much as 90 percent of the government’s original case against Cavalry was dismissed, leaving his client pleading guilty to selling to an out-of-state buyer.
“It’s a minor problem. . . . If that had been the only (charge), I don’t know that they would have bothered with it,” he said, adding: “Nobody was hurt. Nobody was almost hurt.”
Nealon faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in April.
But authorities say the bigger victory in this case is stripping Nealon of his firearms license.
Cavalry’s primary gun operation involved creating a polymer mold of a part for the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. The “lower receiver,” the piece between the barrel and the stock, contains the firing mechanism. It is defined by the government as a firearm. The receivers were sold to the public and to other manufacturers for commercial and law-enforcement use.
According to a memo from Cavalry’s lawyers included in court documents, Cavalry employed six people and sold as many as 6,000 receivers between 2000 and 2006.
In a criminal complaint in 2008, ATF agents accused Nealon of illegal-weapons manufacturing for making the receivers. In addition, he was accused of illegal sales and export of other guns and possession of unlicensed firearms.
“To cover up this widespread illegal activity, Cavalry Arms and Nealon have failed to keep records, falsified records and lied to ATF,” the complaint states.
The ATF cited violations dating to 2000, including failure to keep a weapons inventory, failure to conduct background checks on at least 25 purchasers and failure to report a multiple-handgun sale.
Another problem: The ATF said Cavalry had outsourced the production of its molded receivers to an unlicensed company.
Following a search of Cavalry’s offices and Nealon’s Mesa home in 2008, agents said Nealon had illegally sold weapons to out-of-state buyers, more than 40 of those to a California resident who often stored those weapons at Nealon’s home.
Those weapons included: nine 9mm handguns, five .45-caliber handguns, five .22-caliber handguns, five .223 rifles, three 12-gauge shotguns, two .38-caliber handguns, two .44-caliber handguns, a .380-caliber handgun, a .308 rifle, a 7.62x39mm rifle, a 5.45x39mm rifle and a .357 rifle.
“Given Cavalry Arms’ . . . willingness to falsify records to cover up illegal activities, including illegal sales, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine exactly how many illegal sales Cavalry Arms and Nealon have made to out-of-state residents,” the criminal complaint states.
Nealon on Friday referred questions about the case to his lawyer. But he said Cavalry is not shutting its doors.
He said the company will sell off its inventory of weapons, which it will be allowed to do with ATF oversight, and concentrate on developing firearm accessories and medical products.
“The firearms portion of our business doesn’t make up a large part of what we do,” Nealon said.
However, news of the shutdown prompted posts of outrage and well-wishes on Cavalry’s Web page.
“CavArms has some righteous dudes working there and the ATF has screwed you over since they don’t have the guts to take on street and prison gangs,” one person said in an online post.
Burke had another take on the subject.
“This isn’t the first or the last time a defendant is going to try and redefine his culpability,” the U.S. attorney said. “For the rest of the gun industry, it’s a sign to other bad actors that we are going to focus on them.”

Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Pl, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
http://www.goapvf.org
February 19, 2010

John McCain has gone out of his way to earn the ire of conservatives and gun owners in his 20-plus years as a U.S. Senator from Arizona.

Perhaps his crowning legislative achievement was so-called campaign finance reform, or the McCain-Feingold law. This law put the muzzle on organizations such as GOA, prohibiting any broadcast advertisements within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days of a general election that even mention the name of a candidate for federal office.

Not surprisingly, there is frequently a flurry of activity in Congress in the months right before an election, as politicians try to ram bills through at the end of a session. Forbidding criticism of sitting legislators during these crucial times (although media corporations were exempt) made McCain’s bill the perfect “Incumbent Protection” act.

McCain’s bill prohibited the most important form of speech the Founding Fathers meant to protect with the First Amendment — political speech — so it was welcome news when the Supreme Court recently repudiated much of the McCain bill as an assault on liberty.

But it should not come as a surprise that McCain does not want voters hear about what he’s up to in Washington, because the same person who holds the First Amendment in contempt would also like to run the Second Amendment through a shredder.

John McCain may have begun as a pro-gun legislator, but when he decided to become a gun control “maverick,” he went all out.

Since his conversion to a gun control advocate over the last ten years, McCain has favored a ban on small and inexpensive handguns and considered a ban on certain semi-automatic firearms (so-called assault weapons).

In what was his boldest move against American gun owners, however, McCain authored a bill to that could only have been designed to close down gun shows. In addition to regulating all private sales at gun shows, his bill would have placed onerous licensing requirements on gun show promoters and would essentially have registered the millions of people who attend gun shows. Under the burdens of the McCain bill, no promoter in the country would put on a gun show and, if they did, gun owners would likely not attend.

Thanks to McCain, the inaccurate and misleading phrase “gun show loophole” became a part of the anti-Second Amendment crowd’s lexicon. The truth is, there is no gun show loophole; firearms transactions are conducted the same inside a gun show as they are anyplace else.

In 2000, McCain became a spokesman for a gun control organization (now defunct) called Americans for Gun Safety, a group that advocated licensing and registering all gun owners. The group ran radio and TV ads with McCain supporting ballot initiatives in Colorado and Oregon that would impose McCain’s favorite restrictions on gun shows.

These ads were a way for McCain to “stick it” to gun owners, after a gun show bill stalled in the Congress. “I think that if the Congress won’t act, the least I can do is support the initiative in states where it’s on the ballot,” McCain said in an interview.

In 2001, the group ran advertisements in movie theaters featuring McCain urging people to keep their guns locked up “for the sake of the children.” In the ads, he greatly exaggerated the risks of children gaining access to firearms in the home, and at the same time completely ignored the danger of having guns locked away if they are needed to thwart a criminal attack.

After the 2001 terror attacks, when Gun Owners of America and tens of thousands of commercial airline pilots were pushing legislation to arm pilots as a defense against terrorism, McCain prepared an amendment that would have replaced “firearms” with “stun guns.” GOA pointed out at the time how stun guns would not be effective against the type of attacks that could occur in a cockpit.

John McCain may pretend to be pro-gun (especially in election years) but he has plunged his dagger deep into the backs of gun rights supporters. He may fancy himself as a “maverick” in shining armor, riding to rescue the American people, but all the while he has trampled the Bill of Rights underfoot.

Thankfully, this year gun owners have a choice. Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who was “A” rated by Gun Owners of America in his twelve years in the House of Representatives, is challenging McCain in the 2010 Republican primary.

J.D. respects the Constitution and understands that the Second Amendment was put there by the Founding Fathers to always ensure that the people would have the means to preserve their liberty.

During his time in the Congress, J.D. Hayworth did not vote one way in election years and another way when in nonelection years. J.D. consistently supported the Second Amendment, and that is just the type of leadership gun owners in Arizona will vote for in November.

Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund is proud to endorse J.D. Hayworth for U.S. Senate and urges gun owners and sportsmen from across America to help defeat anti-gunner McCain.

Please visit J.D. on the web at http://www.jdforsenate.com to make the most generous contribution possible. Working together, we can win this fight and gain a Second Amendment ally in the U.S. Senate.

Sincerely,

Tim Macy
Vice Chairman

________________________________________

Paid for by Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund is a project of Gun Owners of America.

Guy Savage CEO

Sabre Defence Industries

NASHVILLE, Tenn., February 17, 2010 – Sabre Defence Industries LLC, an established manufacturer of firearms and weapon systems to the United States military, state and local law enforcement, and worldwide commercial markets, is fully cooperating with federal agents in an ongoing investigation into potential criminal misuse of certain non-saleable firearms produced by Sabre and purchased by some its employees. Sabre has received information that employee(s) involved in inventory control may have obtained and re-sold some items without appropriate licenses. Sabre is and has been cooperating with federal agents in this investigation.

Sabre has more than 120 employees in its Nashville plant. Sabre’s biggest customer is the United States military. Sabre products used by United States armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan include .50 caliber barrels and components of the M2 Browning machine gun, 7.62 mm mini-gun barrels, and M-16A3 and A4 rifles. Sabre is the only non-public company in the world ever to be awarded a contract for a military spec M-16 rifle. Sabre is dedicated to continuing to provide high quality firearms to the United States military, state and local law enforcement, and Sabre’s commercial customers.

By Ken Whitehouse

02-17-2010 10:39 AM —

Federal law enforcement agents, led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, descended on Nashville’s Sabre Defence Industries this morning and closed down the facility for at least the day.

Sabre manufactures firearms and firearm parts and accessories. It is contracted by the U.S. armed forces for parts and mounts for the M2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun and Minigun. In addition to its government contracts, it produces the XR15 rifle, non-standard M4 Carbines, and non-standard M16A4s.

Law enforcement officials were seen escorting employees one by one of the company out of their 35,000-square-foot facility on Allied Drive. Each employee was searched next to their personal vehicle, had their vehicle searched and, when cleared, were allowed to leave the premises. No individuals were witnessed being arrested.

After almost all of the employees had left the premises, agents brought in a trailer and backed it up to the company’s loading dock.

Reached for comment, federal law enforcement officials declined to comment on their actions and would not specify what the focus of their investigation is.

United Kingdom-based Sabre acquired the Nashville facility in 2002 but had been making military 0.50-caliber barrels and guns since 1979, as well as commercial rifle barrels for various companies. Guy Savage is the CEO and owner of the company, and the Nashville facility is managed by Charles Shearon.

In December of last year, Aerospace Manufacturing Services of Colorado filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee claiming that it is owed $1.05 million for 2,400 .50-calibre machine gun firing bolts.

According to previous media reports, the company employed approximately 85 individuals at its Nashville facility.