Immigration Bill Could Outlaw Gun Shops

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

Wednesday, May 23, 2007


First, there was the McCarthy-Dingell bill. The folks on Capitol
Hill have been telling you we need HR 297, a bill to greatly expand
the Brady Law. They say it will stop future Virginia Tech shootings.
And, oh yes, there's one more thing: they want you to believe the
McCarthy-Dingell gun control bill isn't really gun control.

Now, they want to bring you an anti-gun immigration amnesty bill.
Already you're hearing it's not really an amnesty bill. (Yeah,
right.) So don't be surprised if they tell you it's not an anti-gun
bill either.

Forget, for a moment, the fact that the immigration package
negotiated in the Senate could grant amnesty to up to a hundred
million illegal aliens who have flaunted our laws.

Forget, for a moment, that it would pull the rug out from under the
growing number of states that have vetoed the anti-gun National ID
bill passed by Congress in 2005.

Forget, for a moment, that the bill will strengthen existing laws by
requiring all legal Americans (like you) to own a National ID card
before you can get a job.

In addition to all these things, the bill could, in the hands of an
anti-gun administration, result in the closing of every major gun
store in America.

GUN CONTROL IN THE IMMIGRATION BILL

Senator Ted Kennedy and the anti-gun zealots who wrote the bill just
couldn't resist the temptation to get their hands on our guns. They
have included language that GOA has been able to defeat in the past.


When Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced these anti-gun provisions
in 1998, the GOA grassroots were able to convince seven senator
cosponsors to pull their names from Hatch's bill.

At the time, The Hill newspaper credited GOA with having "generated a
significant number of postcards" into Senate offices. "The
defecting
[seven] senators, echoing the concerns of the GOA, are apprehensive
about the violation of Second Amendment rights," reported The Hill.

The current language in the amnesty bill is only slightly different
from Hatch's original language almost 10 years ago, but it would
essentially do the same thing -- threaten every gun store in America.

In Section 205, for example, all it takes for the employees of a gun
shop (of five or more persons) to become a "criminal gang" is:

* For them to commit two or more violations of ANY federal felony gun
offense -- which includes virtually all gun offenses, including
paperwork violations; and

* For the anti-gunners to find that violating gun laws was a "primary
purpose" of the group.

So let's say your local gun store sells two or three firearms to
Mayor Bloomberg's thuggish agents under New York City's
extraterritorial "sting" operations. Your gun shop is now a
"criminal gang."

This provision could even be used against a family of five who drives
by two schools on the way to a movie with a gun in the glove
compartment. Certainly under a Hillary administration, it would not
be surprising to see them treat this infraction as a "felony" under
the weird language of Gun Free School Zones Act. Thus, you and your
family would become a "criminal gang."

OTHER PROBLEMS IN THE IMMIGRATION BILL

There is still no official immigration bill -- that is, the working
draft does not have an official senate number. The draft was
concocted by senators who put it together behind closed doors, all
the while bypassing the normal committee process.

While this unofficial draft has been "the buzz" around the country
this past week, several things have been overlooked. One thing, to
be sure, is the threat to gun owners' rights mentioned above. But
also ignored is the fact that the negotiating draft imposes draconian
penalties for those who live in states that have the audacity to veto
the National ID card (which passed as part of the REAL ID Act of
2005).

If you live in a state such as Montana, Maine, Idaho, etc. which has
passed legislation opposing the government's efforts to turn your
driver's license into a National ID card, YOU COULD BE DENIED
EMPLOYMENT OF ANY SORT.

Gun Owners was already concerned about this law -- which has yet to
be implemented -- because of the threat it poses to gun owners'
privacy. But now the immigration bill will go even further by
requiring all present and future private sector employees to be
screened by the Electronic Employee Verification System (EEVS).

And in Section 1(a)(4)(i) of the draft legislation, the bill allows
for EEVS approval of your continued employment only if your private
employer meets "strict standards for identification documents that
must be presented in the hiring process, including the use of secure
documentation that contains a photograph, biometrics and/or complies
with the requirements [of the] REAL ID Act...."

Hence, no National ID card... no job.

ACTION: Please use the letter below to contact your Senator. You can
use the pre-written message below and send it as an e-mail by
visiting the GOA Legislative Action Center at
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm (where phone and fax numbers
are also available).

-----Pre-written letter-----

Dear Senator:

Why does the Congress seem bent on pushing gun control every chance
it gets? First, there was the McCarthy-Dingell bill in the House (HR
297) that would greatly expand the Brady Law. We don't need more gun
control as a response to Virginia Tech shootings. We need to repeal
the gun free zones that turn people into mandatory victims!

Now, the Senate wants to sneak gun control past us in the form of an
immigration bill. The Senate immigration package is a horrid piece
of legislation in such a wide variety of respects.

But, in addition to everything else, section 205 could, in the hands
of an anti-gun administration, PUT EVERY MAJOR GUN SHOP OUT OF
BUSINESS.

All it would take is for the shop to commit two felony paperwork
violations -- and an anti-gun administration willing to find that
this was a "primary purpose."

Similarly, a family driving to church or to the movies -- with a gun
in the glove compartment -- could be a "criminal gang" if it passed
two schools, and an anti-gun administration determined that
protecting his family was one of the father's "primary purposes."

Again, I urge you to OPPOSE the immigration package as long as this
anti-gun language remains in the bill.


To subscribe to free, low-volume GOA alerts, go to
http://www.gunowners.org/ean.htm on the web. Change of e-mail
address may also be made at that location.

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