National Coalition To Stop The Gun Ban: Open Letter to Members of Congress

National Coalition To Stop The Gun Ban: Open Letter to Members of Congress
National Coalition To Stop The Gun Ban: Open Letter to Members of Congress
AmmoLand Gun News
AmmoLand Gun News

USA –-(Ammoland.com)- In coming weeks, you will face pressure from the Obama administration and others to implement a ban on semi-automatic firearms and certain ammunition feeding devices, and to pass laws requiring private gun transfers to be processed via the National Instant Check System.

Yet the “assault weapon” misnomer is a myth perpetuated by gun control advocates who seek to confuse the public about the difference between millions of semi-automatic firearms, which are functionally identical to hunting rifles, and military “assault rifles” which are machine guns virtually unavailable to the public since implementation of the National Firearms Act of 1934.

The Truth About Modern Rifles
The modern rifles Senator Dianne Feinstein has, by her own admission, waited decades to ban differ from others primarily by cosmetic features such as barrel shrouds, threaded barrels, flash suppressors, pistol grips and adjustable stocks ¡V things which do not affect function. The notion being promulgated by gun control advocates that such features increase lethality by allowing guns to be “fired from the hip” is absurd: Any firearms expert will attest that rifles can only be effectively utilized from the shoulder.

Although you are being told that ammunition used by modern rifles is excessively destructive, in truth it is ballistically inferior to common .30-06 hunting ammunition and was selected by the military not for its lethality, but instead for light weight and low recoil.

And when you hear how “high capacity” magazines increase mortality in mass shootings, understand that Seung-Hui Cho carried no fewer than nineteen magazines for the Virginia Tech rampage, and that nearly all mass murderers who use guns carry multiple firearms, rendering magazine capacity moot. Like the misnomer “assault weapon”, the “high capacity” designation of more than ten rounds for magazines represents nothing more than an arbitrary limit set on devices which have been in common possession since the early Twentieth Century.

Moreover, attempts to process private gun sales through the National Instant Check System represent nothing less than a stepping stone to national gun registration; under the Clinton administration, the FBI retained NICS transaction records in violation of the Brady Act, creating a defacto national registration system.

Most outrageous, however, is Sen. Feinstein¡¦s proposal to regulate “grandfathered” modern rifles under the National Firearms Act. Doing so would not only entail registering millions of existing firearms, but would represent unprecedented expansion of police powers through the BATFE by requiring millions of gun owners to be fingerprinted and photographed like common criminals.

Because a large percentage will refuse to comply, the scheme, if implemented, will make felons of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Semi-Auto Ban: No Impact On Violence
Neither have such laws been effective. From 1994 to 2004, the previous ban on semi-automatic firearms and magazines had no impact on school shootings, which actually increased during that period. Indeed, some of the worst school shootings, including Columbine High School, took place during the ban. Despite predictions from gun control advocates that violent crime would increase after the ban expired, it has actually dropped: According to FBI Uniform Crime Reports, between expiration of the ban in 2004 and the most recent for which data is available (2011), violent crime dropped by 17% and homicide, by 15%.

Meanwhile, weapons use in homicide has remained unchanged and, significantly, use of rifles (including those targeted for bans) declined slightly from 2.7% of homicides in 2004 to 2.5% of homicides in 2011. Clearly, rifles of any type, including those with features targeted by semi-auto bans, are rarely used in crimes.

The “Gun Free School Zones Act” increased killings What does appear to have impacted school shootings was implementation of the latest version of the “Gun Free School Zones Act” (GFSZA), which is associated with a dramatic increase in school murders. Between the first significant school shooting, in 1966, and enactment of the 1996 GFSZA, media summaries reveal 8 shootings with 134 victims killed or wounded – a rate of 4.3 victims per year. Between 1996 and 2012, the review finds 62 shootings and 367 victims – a fivefold increase to 23 victims per year. Yet, during the same period, FBI Uniform Crime Reports indicate homicide nationwide dropped by 14%.

While media summaries may not be comprehensive, the GFSZA has clearly been an abject failure. Worse, evidence suggests it may actually create “kill zones” which attract violent predators.

Researchers John Lott and William Landes, then at Yale and the University of Chicago, respectively, studied multiple victim public shootings. Said Lott, “Gun prohibitionists concede that banning guns around schools has not quite worked as intended” but their response has been to call for more regulation of guns. Yet what might appear to be the most obvious policy may actually cost lives. When gun-control laws are passed, it is lawabiding citizens, not would-be criminals, who adhere to them.

Examining data from 1976 to 1995, they discovered that mass homicides in states adopting concealed handgun laws declined by 84%, deaths plummeted by 90% and injuries by 82.5%. Crediting the reductions to deterrence (even suicidal maniacs avoid armed victims), Lott and Landes called their findings “dramatic,” concluding: “[T]he only policy factor to have a consistently significant influence on multiple victim public shootings is the passage of concealed handgun laws.”

Coalition Position
Members of the National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban demand that Congress refuse to use lawful gun owners as political scapegoats and instead reduce school violence by:

  • Defeating any attempt to pass gun control including, but not limited to, banning semi-automatic firearms or magazines, or requiring private gun transfers to be registered through the National Instant Check System; and
  • Repealing the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1996.

No compromises Some will urge you to “compromise,” perhaps even the National Rifle Association. The many thousands of gun rights supporters represented by the Coalition, however, regard “compromise,” as our opposition defines it, to be a process in which we lose slightly fewer of our rights than under the original proposal. Consequently, any legislation which registers or bans firearms; limits magazine capacity; registers private transactions through NICS; or restricts time, place or manner of self-defense is unacceptable.

Members of Congress who support gun owners by opposing all gun control will, in turn, benefit from support by Coalition organizations. Members of Congress who support gun control by any means, procedural or substantive, will be targeted for defeat by Coalition members. They will be subject to picketing, leaflet drops at events in their districts, phone and mail campaigns, and political action committee opposition. NRA ratings and endorsements will have no impact on Coalition actions.

In coming weeks, we look forward to working with you to reduce school violence by allowing lawful citizens in schools and elsewhere to defend themselves against violent predators.

Respectfully,
The National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban

Signatories

National Organizations:

  • The Firearms Coalition
  • Gun Owners of America
  • Rights Watch International
  • Second Amendment Sisters
  • USRKBA.org

State Organizations:

  • Arizona Citizens Defense League
  • Arkansas Carry
  • Florida Carry, Inc.
  • Grass Roots North Carolina
  • Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance of Minnesota
  • Gun Owners of California
  • Gun Owners of Maine
  • Gun Owners of Utah
  • Gun Owners of Vermont
  • Michigan Gun Owners
  • Montana Shooting Sports Association
  • New Hampshire Firearms Coalition
  • New Jersey 2nd Amendment Society
  • Nebraska Firearms Owners Association
  • Oregon Firearms Federation
  • Peaceable Texans for Firearms Rights
  • Utah Shooting Sports Council
  • Virginia Citizens Defense League
  • West Virginia Citizens Defense League
  • Western Missouri Shooters Alliance
  • Wisconsin Carry, Inc.
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james vincent

they need too stop this ban and obamo how can the people stop this

PSL54R

rebelyell, what is reasonable? When I took my oath to defend the Constitution I did’nt swear “reasonably” I swore with all my heart to defend it in its entirety including your right to free speech, so why should I settle for what someone who has never even owned a guns idea of what is reasonable! MOLOM LABE!!

rebellyell

You guys are being unbeleivably selfish!!!! Reasonable gun restrictions are needed now more than ever. Incidentally, restrictions are legal per the Heller decision by the Supreme Court.

Curt

I wouldn't mind if I thought it would work but as indicated above these actions actually increase the crime.

Stuart heady

Your extreme selfishness cannot be supported by the larger majority. You will have to be a part of the solution because that is what being civilized means.

Pepe

Bonnie. Do you feel the need to register to use your RIGHT to free speech? Ban on assault weapons, which no one needs. I'm glad I have you to make that decision for me, I don't know where I would be if I didn't have people making decisions for me. The fewer guns, fewer murders??? How about some stats from the real world? The only thing you anti gun nuts offer is hysterical emotions and unproven theory. The facts speak for themselves, more guns=less crime, period!

Bonnie Crawford

What utter nonsense that two common sense measures would be so unsupported by the gun nuts, i.e. registration of guns (we have to register our cars, you know!) and a ban on assault weapons, which NO ONE needs, for heavens sake! The fewer guns out there, the fewer murders there will be. All who oppose these logical measures are nuts.

DaveGinOly

Another figure for you to consider: Taking figures from 2010: Approximately 30,000 firearms deaths in the US Approximately 80,000,000 firearms owners (this was the high figure from one estimate I saw, but very low compared to others, so I am using the high figure from a conservative estimate) If each firearms death was caused by a different person (i.e., 30,000 different shooters) and if all of those shooters were legally in possession of firearms (which isn't true, but it serves to place them within the 80,000,000 firearms owners, which I presume to represent legal owners), then these crimes were committed… Read more »

CHUCK PANOFF

Great letter.

I'm with you 100%

Tim

I am copying your letter and sending it to all my representatives!!

Brice

The use of other weapons is left out of the equation when it comes to murder, or homicide of any kind. More people die from straggling, knife stabs, and hit and runs than there are by guns. To blame guns for isolated events as that which took place in Connecticut only reveals that the government has it's own monotonous agenda against the people and not for the people. Why is it that they blame the tool, and not the user? Cause that tool is what protects them from foreign and domestic threats. Wake up America, the government wants to subjugate… Read more »

Wayne Van Atta

I urge all members of Congress to vote NO on any Gun Ban votes

The Eagle Has Died

I have written both of my senators and my representative. I donate to the NRA. I don't know what more I can do. I know I don't deserve the way my government is treating me. When someone says, "The government would never take anything away from you, abuse you, herd you into FEMA camps…GET REAL!" And then I tell them to go read about how the federal government misused, lied to, stole from, murdered and imprisoned the Plains Indians and you then realize yes they will do it to us too. Thats why we have the 2nd Amendment. And if… Read more »

David

Not just no on any gun ban but HELL NO