Orrin Hatch, Henry Hyde and the FBI:
— Just three reasons why you need to call your Congressmen soon!

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

http://www.gunowners.org

“Juvenile justice is alive and well,” said an aide to Sen. Hatch.
“Hatch met as late as last week with some of the [Congressional]
leaders, and it is not dead.” — Associated Press, 11/2/99

(Friday, November 5, 1999) — The buzz in Washington right now is
that some of the moderates in the GOP leadership are desperately
trying to get a vote on the anti-gun juvenile crime bill before the
session ends next week. According to the Associated Press, Senator
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) are the chief culprits
behind this sellout.

“I remain optimistic that some compromise is possible,” said Hyde.
“Senator Hatch and I have pulled together a proposal that closes the
gun-show loophole and offers a number of other modest yet effective
gun safety provisions.” But the truth be known, these proposals are
neither modest nor effective– not to mention that they will not
result in additional safety.

While different drafts are being discussed, all have one thing in
common– they all contain gun control. One of the main sticking
points is a waiting period requirement for private sales at gun
shows. According to the New York Times, “The latest Republican
offer includes a provision giving [the FBI] 24 hours to conduct the
mandatory background checks, unless that check turns up a
disqualifying arrest…. In that event, the [FBI] would have three
days to complete the check” and find out the final disposition of
the arrest.

There are other proposals as well, including a young adult gun ban,
a trigger lock requirement, and an import ban on large-capacity ammo
mags among other things. But regardless of the specifics, gun
owners should urge their Congressman one last time to vote NO on the
juvenile crime bill. (See ACTION below).

GOA Members Criticized By FBI As It Tries To Divert Attention Away
From Its Dirty Laundry

Just a few miles away from Capitol Hill, the FBI issued an
interesting report on Monday entitled Project Megiddo. The report
tries to shift public attention away from the FBI’s long list of
scandals to a problem of their own invention– namely, the threat of
“right wing” terrorism at the turn of the century.

The report itself admits there are “very few indications” of
specific threats to domestic security. Nevertheless, the report
goes out of its way to take a whack at the President’s political
opponents. Having said that, guess who is listed in the report as
being crucial to “understanding the phenomenon of domestic
terrorism”? You guessed it. You are.

In an attempt to demonize Clinton’s political opposition, the FBI
has listed gun owners as part of the domestic terrorism equation.
In fact, the report accuses GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt of
helping to “fuel the already existing paranoia of militia and
patriot groups.”

Hogwash. If the FBI is serious about not fueling existing paranoia,
then it should stop maintaining files on leading Americans (remember
Filegate?), and come clean on what it knows about Waco. The FBI
took six years to discover they had withheld information about Waco
from Congress, including their own use of pyrotechnic devises and
the use of the military the day the Davidians were burned to death.
For more information on this report and GOA’s brief response to it,
go to http://www.gunowners.org/fs9904.htm at the GOA website. The
entire report is available at
http://www.fbi.gov/library/megiddo/publicmegiddo.pdf from the FBI;
you will need Adobe Acrobat to read it.

ACTION: Tell your Congressmen that, in contrast to what the FBI is
saying, decent gun owners are not the problem in this country. Let
them know that we don’t need gun control; we need government
control. Also, make sure they know that NO compromise gun
legislation is acceptable in the juvenile crime bill (S. 254 / H.R.
1501). You can reach your Senators and Representative at
202-225-3121 or toll-free at 877-722-7494.

Even the ACLU opposes the bill (albeit for different reasons). They
have established a free Congressional fax service that can be
accessed at http://www.aclu.org/action/juvenile106.html on their
website. GOA’s Auto-Mailer at http://www.gunowners.org/mailerx.html
can be used to send e-mail to Congress.

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GOA continues to seek online newspaper stories of citizens using a
gun in lawful self-defense. In particular, stories from smaller
market newspaper websites are needed. As you know, the national
media rarely picks up stories of this type. Please forward any such
stories you run across to GOA.