States with updates this issue: California, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Virginia.
THE PASSING OF A PATRIOT
The pro-Second Amendment community lost a true friend last week, with the passing of Herman Richard Daniel of Irmo, S.C. “Rick” died due to complications from aortal heart issues. He was 45.
An NRA Life Member, Rick’s pro-gun résumé was long and distinguished and included:
· 10 years as President, and currently Legislative Director, of Gun Owners of South Carolina, NRA’s state affiliate;
· NRA-ILA Election Volunteer Coordinator for South Carolina’s First, Second, and Fourth congressional districts;
· Being appointed by NRA President Sandy Froman to serve on the NRA Board of Directors’ Grassroots Development Committee;
· First ever America’s 1st Freedom magazine’s "NRA Member of The Year;"
· Only non-legislator in South Carolina to be named "Defender of Freedom" by NRA;
· Honored by South Carolina Senate and House in 2001 with Resolutions recognizing Rick’s "efforts to ensure that future generations of South Carolinians will enjoy the Right to Keep and Bear Arms through his support of responsible gun ownership and gun safety legislation and to congratulate him for being chosen" as the first recipient of the America’s 1st Freedom magazine’s "NRA Member of The Year;"
· Second Amendment Foundation’s 2006 "James Madison Award" winner for excellence in writing;
· Panelist, 2006 Gun Rights Policy Conference;
· Member, S.C. Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus Board of Advisors;
· Founding Member, Mid-Carolina Friends of NRA Committee;
· NRA Certified Firearms Instructor and State Certified Concealed Weapons Permit Instructor;
· NRA "Refuse to be a Victim®" instructor;
· Taught Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program at schools and churches.
In addition to practicing what NRA preaches on volunteerism, Rick also dedicated his professional life to public service, as he served four statewide elected officials, including serving in the former S.C. Attorney General’s Office as an investigator. Additionally, at the time of his passing, Rick served as a State Constable Officer in S.C. State Guard (Special Liaison Unit) and was a longtime aide to South Carolina Comptroller General, Richard Eckstrom (R). He was eulogized by, among others, Lt. Governor Andre Bauer (R), and the service was attended by other elected officials.
Not only was Rick among the top pro-gun activists in the country, but he was a friend to many of us in the NRA family. His activism, wit, friendship, guidance, and professionalism will be sorely missed, and our thoughts and prayers remain with his family and friends.
The son of Evelyn Spires and the late Herman Daniel, Rick is survived by his loving wife Esther and two daughters, Heather Rhea and Kara Nina; his brother Jim and wife Tonette, with niece Jamie; and sister Linda and her husband Charley Butler.
VISIT NRA-PVF SITE BEFORE ELECTION DAY
FOR CANDIDATE GRADES & ENDORSEMENTS!
Election Day, November 7, is now less than three weeks away! For up-to-the-minute campaign information, and to see what more you can do to help elect pro-Second Amendment candidates to office, NRA members are strongly encouraged to visit the NRA-Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) website, www.NRAPVF.org. This official NRA campaign site will serve as your one-stop campaign reference guide this election season. The site is loaded with all of the critical information you’ll need to make informed decisions on Election Day, November 7. Included on the site are news stories, articles from NRA’s magazines, NRA-PVF press releases, and a complete listing of NRA-PVF candidate grades and endorsements!
In addition to all of the late-breaking campaign news, candidate grades and endorsements, EVC contact information, and firearm issue background information, you will also find our multimedia section-- www.nrapvf.org/Multimedia/Default.aspx -- that houses easy-to-access ads that are perfectly suited for distribution among your fellow NRA Members!
Early and absentee voting is currently underway in several states. If you are voting early or by absentee ballot, please be sure to visit www.NRAPVF.org before casting your ballot.
With so few days between now and Election Day, November 7, please be sure that you leave no stone unturned and, on November 7, join us on “Freedom’s Frontline” and “Vote Freedom First”!
“GIVE THEM BACK”
As you’ve read in previous Grassroots Alerts, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, law-abiding citizens had their lawfully owned firearms confiscated by local officials! When citizens needed protection the most, they were stripped of their right to self-defense. As you’ve also read, President Bush recently signed NRA-backed legislation to ensure such travesties are never repeated.
NRA has launched a new web site--http://www.givethemback.com/--with shocking video coverage of New Orleans gun confiscations that you’ll never see on ABC, CBS, or NBC. This site gives gun owners a stark and brutal reminder of why we must defend our firearm freedoms with passion and vigilance, in Congress, in state legislatures, in the courts…AND ON ELECTION DAY.
This site makes it clear why gun owners can never, ever sit on the sidelines during an election, and serves as a slap-in-the-face wake up call for every gun owner who thinks anti-gun politicians don’t have the nerve or the will to confiscate our guns. And why they must be defeated before they ever get their hands on power!
Please be sure to visit http://www.givethemback.com/ today, and forward the link to your friends, family, and fellow gun owners. Remember what happened in New Orleans, and let your voice be heard on Election Day--Vote Freedom First on November 7! With your help, we’re going to make the first time in New Orleans the LAST time in America.
HALBROOK DEMOLISHES ANTI-GUN PROPAGANDA
When it comes to the debate over the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, few, if any, have contributed more than constitutional scholar and attorney, Stephen Halbrook. His books and law review articles are “must reading” for all (including other scholars) who are interested in the origin of the right to arms and the Second Amendment.
Now, Halbrook has come to the defense of the right to arms once again. This time, he responds to arguments currently being pushed by Ohio State University (OSU) history professor, Saul Cornell.
Most of the academics who once believed that the Second Amendment protects something other than an individual right have changed their minds or gone silent, due to the overwhelming evidence presented by Halbrook, Joyce Lee Malcolm, David Hardy, Don Kates, Sanford Levinson, Robert Cottrol, William van Alstyne, Akhil Reed Amar, Nelson Lund, and many others over the last 20-odd years.
Not Cornell. He is trying to create a niche for himself as a conspicuous dissenter, heading up the Second Amendment Research Center (SARC) at OSU. While the SARC purports to be a “nonpartisan center promoting scholarship on issues concerning the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and firearms regulation,” it receives funding from the radically anti-gun Joyce Foundation.
Cornell is pushing the idea that the Second Amendment requires gun control and imposes a civic duty to possess arms while serving in a militia. And he says that those who believe that the amendment protects an individual right misinterpret the writings of Judge St. George Tucker, author of the first and foremost treatise on our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
To the contrary, Halbrook points out, Tucker considered the Second Amendment the “palladium of liberty” and self-defense “the first law of nature.” Tucker lamented that under the infamous British Game Laws, only well-to-do Englishmen were permitted to hunt, but “no others can keep a gun for their defense; so that the whole nation are completely disarmed, and left at the mercy of the government, under the pretext of preserving the breed of hares and partridges, for the exclusive use of the independent country gentlemen.”
By comparison, Tucker said, under the Second Amendment our Congress has “no power to regulate, or interfere with the domestic concerns, or police of any state,” “nor will the constitution permit any prohibition of arms to the people.”
DEER MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR
CUYAHOGA VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, OHIO
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park announced that it will be preparing a management plan to address overpopulation of white-tailed deer. An environmental impact statement (EIS) will be prepared and the preliminary management options are: landscape management, fencing, reproductive control, direct reduction, or a combination of these options. The use of hunters is not mentioned because hunting is not permitted in the Park. However, the Park should “contract” people with hunting skills to assist them in any reduction plan. The Park is accepting comments on the preliminary options until November 6. The Park will be holding public meetings and when a draft EIS is prepared, it will be made available for public comment. Hunter participation in wildlife management has proven to be the most cost effective tool available. Let the Park hear your thoughts by sending comments to: Resource Management, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 15610 Vaughn Road, Brecksville, Ohio 44141 or on line at http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/cuva. Click on the link titled Cuyahoga Valley National Park Deer Management Plan/EIS. You can also go to http://www.nps.gov/cuva to see when public meetings will be held.
A LOOK AT THE STATES
(***For all of the action items below, you can find contact information for your legislators by visiting www.NRAILA.org, clicking the “Take Action” icon, and then clicking the “Write Your Representatives” icon. For information on NRA-PVF candidate endorsements, NRA members are encouraged to call the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-VOTE (8683), or visit www.NRAPVF.org. As always, thank you for your support.***)
States with updates this issue: California, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Virginia.
Please note: Early and absentee voting for the Tuesday, November 7 General Election is already underway in many states across the country. For more information on early/absentee voting, please contact your state’s Board of Elections office. Be sure to “Vote Freedom First” on Tuesday, November 7!
CALIFORNIA
On Tuesday, October 10, the City of Santa Clara withdrew its proposal to ban gun shows on city property. The City Council claimed it received a “huge volume” of e-mails from NRA Members across the State of California. A special thank you to all NRA members for your calls and e-mails against this threat to your Right to Keep and Bear Arms!
Also, on Saturday, October 21, at 9:00 a.m., the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), with assistance from PLINK, a cooperative program of the NRA Members Council, El Dorado Rod & Gun Club, and the USFS, will be cleaning up shot shells and targets from Tiger Creek Quarry. Volunteers are needed to preserve this valuable shooting sports resource. Volunteers will gather at the Firehouse Café in Diamond Springs at 7:30 a.m., for a complimentary breakfast prior to caravanning to the site. If you are unable to attend for breakfast, but can help with the clean-up, take Highway 88 about 18 miles east of Jackson to Buckorn, then turn south (right) on Tiger Creek Road. At the Reservoir, keep driving east above the PG&E houses on the one lane paved Salt Springs Road for a bit over one mile, then turn right 500 yards down into the quarry. To RSVP, please contact Steve Morgan at (530) 620-3946 or by e-mail at [email protected].
ILLINOIS
When Cook County voters go to the polls this Election Day, November 7, they will be faced with the opportunity to vote on Countywide Advisory Referendum 1¾a non-binding referendum that seeks to urge the State of Illinois to ban countless semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns, as well as all .50 caliber rifles. The Cook County Board could just as easily have given the voters of Cook County an opportunity to voice their support for any number of proven crime-fighting measures, but certain anti-gun extremists on the Board have chosen to promote a statewide version of the federal gun ban that was such a complete failure in combating violent crime that Congress allowed it to expire two years ago. Targeting law-abiding gun owners instead, the referendum uses buzzwords and phrases (“For the health and safety of children...”) that could have been lifted directly from the websites of gun-ban extremists such as the Brady Campaign, which has endorsed the proposal. Joining the Brady Bunch in support of the referendum at a September event were several anti-gun politicians, including Cook County Commissioners Larry Suffredin (D-13) and John Daley (D-11); State Senator Antonio Munoz (D-1); State Representatives Edward Acevedo (D-2) and Esther Golar (D-6); and Alderman Todd Stroger (D-8). NRA opposes passage of Countywide Advisory Referendum 1, urges its members in Cook County to vote against it, and to spread the word to oppose this effort to prohibit the law-abiding citizens of Illinois from possessing firearms commonly used for personal protection, hunting, and sporting purposes.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R), and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D), are personally contacting every mayor in New Hampshire asking them to sign onto Mayor Bloomberg’s New York-style gun control agenda. Please call your Mayor and find out if he/she has received such a call, then, discourage your mayor from signing onto this outrageous attack on our Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Then, please call the Gun Owners of New Hampshire at (603) 225-4664, and let them know whether or not your Mayor received that call. The following online links will help you find the contact information for your Mayor: www.newhampshire.com/nh-towns/rochester.aspx, www.directorynh.com/NHCities-Towns/NHCities&Towns.html, and www.nh.gov/municipal/index.html. Citizens throughout New Hampshire are counting on you to contact your Mayor TODAY!
VIRGINIA
The Loudoun County Friends of NRA Committee invites you to attend its annual banquet and auction. This event includes a live auction, silent auction, games, raffles, and prize drawings. Proceeds benefit The NRA Foundation and provide funding for shooting-sports-related grants. Come out and join your fellow NRA supporters for an evening of fun while raising money for Friends of NRA. The event is scheduled for Thursday, November 9, at the Leesburg Holiday Inn-Carradoc Hall, 1500 East Market Street, in Leesburg. Tickets are limited and are on sale now, $40 per person and $70 per couple. Sponsorships are also available. For additional information or to purchase tickets, please contact Brooke Berthelsen by phone at 703-267-1354 or by e-mail at [email protected].
In addition, the Virginia Shooting Sports Association presents: “Methods of Concealed Carry with Tom Marx.” Please join us on October 28, from 8:30 a.m., to 4:30 p.m., at the Izaak Walton League of America, 14708 Mount Olive Road, Centreville, VA, for the full-day version of the program Tom has done for several years at the NRA Annual Meeting. Space is limited, and advanced registration is recommended. The cost is $15 for members and $20 for non-members. For more information and to register, please call (703) 599-9399 or visit www.myvssa.org/methodsofconcealedcarry.pdf.
