From firearms-alert-owner Thu Jul 7 22:52:48 1994 Received: from localhost (chan@localhost) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.5) id WAA02189 for firearms-alert-outgoing; Thu, 7 Jul 1994 22:42:51 -0700 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.5) with ESMTP id WAA02159 for ; Thu, 7 Jul 1994 22:42:47 -0700 Received: from gatekeeper.nra.org ([192.156.97.62]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.7/8.6.5) with SMTP id WAA00475 for ; Thu, 7 Jul 1994 22:42:35 -0700 Received: by gatekeeper.nra.org (5.65/DEC-Ultrix/4.3) id AA19931; Fri, 8 Jul 1994 01:41:04 -0400 Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 01:41:04 -0400 Message-Id: <9407080541.AA19931@gatekeeper.nra.org> Reply-To: alerts@gatekeeper.nra.org Originator: rkba-alert@nra.org From: alerts@gatekeeper.nra.org (NRA Alerts) To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com Subject: NEWSLETTER: FL X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: NRA Alerts list Sender: firearms-alert-owner@shell.portal.com Precedence: bulk Status: RO UNIFIED SPORTSMEN OF FLORIDA NEWSLETTER - FLORIDA FIRING LINE VOL. 16 NO. 7 - JUNE 1994 PAGE 1 OF 2 FLORIDA SPECIAL SESSION ENDS The Special Session of the Florida Legislature ended June 9th -- three days after it began. Eighty nine (89) bills were filed for the special session -- and NOTHING PASSED! The session is reported to have cost taxpayers over $160,000 -- BUT don't complain that nothing passed. That basically means they didn't take away any more of your rights. Anytime the Legislature goes home without taking something else away from you it's cause for celebration. U.S CRIME BILL CONFEREES NAMED Both the U.S. House and Senate have now named their members to the Crime Bill Conference Committee. The principal members from each body are: SENATE: Joseph Biden (D-DE), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Strom Thurmond (R-SC), Alan Simpson (R-WY), and Charles Grassley (R-IA). HOUSE: Jack Brooks (D-TX), Don Edwards (D-CA), William Hughes (D- NJ), Charles Schumer (D-NY), John Conyers (D-MI), Mike Synar (D- OK), Carlos Moorhead (R-CA), Henry Hyde (R-CA), James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), and Bill McCollum (R-FL). The Conference Committee will work on trying to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House Crime Bills in order to develop one bill from the two. The Bill that comes out of the Conference Committee will then have to go to both the Senate and House. Final passage only occurs if both the Senate and the House pass identical bills. Procedurally, there are a number of things that can happen: (1) Either body can defeat the bill if a majority of the members vote against it, or either body can amend the bill if the majority votes to amend it. If that happens, the bill could go back to conference with instructions from the body that defeated or amended it, or the bill could just die with no further action. (2) Members of the Senate could mount a filibuster on the bill to keep it from coming to a vote. If that happens the Senate could be prevented from voting on the bill or taking up any other Senate business until the session ends or unless the leadership determines that the filibuster cannot be broken and passes over the bill -- effectively killing the bill. (Only the Senate can filibuster.) In order to sustain a filibuster, the senators participating in the filibuster must continue talking, around the clock if necessary. If they stop talking, the filibuster is broken. The other way the filibuster can be broken is for a vote for "cloture" to succeed. Cloture means to close debate and call for a vote on the bill. There are 100 members of the U.S. Senate. It takes 60 votes for cloture to pass, and that number never changes. In other words, it only takes 41 members of the Senate to refuse to support cloture -- to effectively kill the bill. As long as those 41 stand firm and don't buckle under pressure from the Senate leadership or Clinton Administration tactics, the bill cannot pass. Obviously, we want the gun ban language stripped from the Crime Bill in Conference Committee. If the pro-gun members of the Conference Committee are not successful in stripping out the gun ban, then we want congressmen and senators to do anything they can to either amend the gun ban out on the floor, filibuster, or vote against the bill. The Crime Bill is a sham. It is not a tough crime package. It is nothing more than a SYMBOL, dreamed up by the Clinton Administration to pretend Clinton is doing something about crime. Anybody who votes in favor of the Crime Bill is merely playing election year politics. It is therefore inconceivable that SMART REPUBLICANS would want to hand Clinton a symbolic victory to parade in the media right before the election. Clinton's disastrous health care package is in trouble, his foreign policy is in shambles, his D-Day "play acting" was embarrassing to patriotic Americans, and his conduct and morals have been called into question by many suspicious occurrences. Why would any Republican or sincere Democrat be a party to passing a "pretend" crime control bill to make him look good? Your message to your Congressmen/women and Senators is simple: NO GUN BAN PERIOD. Don't sell out the Second Amendment, Freedom and Liberty for political grandstanding. We'll be watching. And on election day, November 8, 1994, YOU GET THE LAST WORD. HAMMER MOVES UP TO NRA 1ST VP Marion P. Hammer (USF's Executive Director) was elected NRA 1st Vice President at the NRA Annual Convention in Minneapolis last month. Having served the customary two years as 2nd Vice President, Hammer moved up the ladder to the new position where she is expected to serve two years and then become NRA's President in 1996. These are volunteer non-paid positions and do not effect Hammer's work for USF in Florida and do not require her to move out of Florida. She will still be here in Florida helping hold the line against gun control as well as bringing her talents and expertise to NRA. Robert Corbin of Arizona, having finished his two years as President was elected to the Executive Council, and Thomas Washington of Michigan moved up from 1st Vice President to President. Neal Knox of Maryland was elected 2nd Vice President, moving into the chairs to fill the spot vacated when Marion Hammer moved up. 2 COURTS: BRADY BILL UNCONSTITUTIONAL The Brady Bill is an unfunded federal mandate for state administration of a federal program. It is a clear violation of Article 1, Section 8 and the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. President Clinton signed the Brady Bill with great publicity and fanfare. The media practically hailed it as the greatest legislation of the century. It is clear their agenda is to disarm law-abiding Americans. The Constitution is an aggravation to them. TOUGH! The U.S. District Court in Montana ruled on May 16, 1994, that the provision of the Brady Bill that requires a check of criminal records is a violation of the Constitution and is unenforceable anywhere in the country -- because it substantially commandeers state officials to administer a federal program -- the Clinton administration and the media have all but ignored this decision. On May 31, 1994, a federal judge in Texas attempted to "find a way around" the Constitution for the Clinton administration by ruling that if the legislation is found to be unreasonable, law enforcement is under no obligation to conduct the background checks. The Court attempted to avoid and negate the question of constitutionality and effectively did nothing because the opinion fails to stipulate who may decide whether or not the legislation is unreasonable. The Texas ruling is nothing more than an attempt to leave an unconstitutional law in place by avoiding the central and primary issue -- constitutionality. On June 2, 1994, a U.S. District Court in Mississippi ruled the Brady Bill unconstitutional. While the media have widely publicized and crowed about the Texas ruling, they have been relatively silent on the two rulings against the Brady Bill -- does that tell you something? Lawsuits have also been filed in Louisiana and Arizona and they are still pending. MEMBERSHIP IN UNIFIED SPORTSMEN OF FLORIDA IS $25 PER YEAR. STAY INFORMED AND HELP PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS! Make checks payable to "USF" and mail to P.O. Box 6565, Tallahassee, Florida 32314-6565, OR CALL (904) 222-9518 WITH VISA OR MASTERCARD.