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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION NEWS Stop Obama's Planned Gag Order on Firearm-Related Speech | |
| It's happening again— President Obama is using his imperial pen and telephone to curb your rights and bypass Congress through executive action. Even as news reports have been highlighting the gun control provisions of the Administration's "Unified Agenda" of regulatory objectives (see accompanying story), the Obama State Department has been quietly moving ahead with a proposal that could censor online speech related to firearms. This latest regulatory assault, published in the June 3 issue of the Federal Register, is as much an affront to the First Amendment as it is to the Second. Your action is urgently needed to ensure that online blogs, videos, and web forums devoted to the technical aspects of firearms and ammunition do not become subject to prior review by State Department bureaucrats before they can be published. | |
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| NEWS Serious About 2016, Ruger Issues "Two Million Gun Challenge" | |
| In a very big way, the nation's largest gun manufacturer, the manufacturer's largest distributor, gun owners, and the NRA are going to be working together to get America moving in the right direction on Election Day 2016. NRA's American Rifleman membership magazine reports that for every new Ruger rifle, handgun and shotgun bought between the 2015 and 2016 NRA Annual Meetings, Ruger is donating $2 to the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). Additionally, Ruger's largest distributor, Davidson's, is donating $1 for every Ruger that it sells. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION USA FREEDOM Act Becomes Law, Enhances Privacy for Law-Abiding Americans | |
| On Tuesday, the USA FREEDOM Act was signed into law. As we reported when the bill passed the House in May, this important legislation will bring to an end NSA's mass, undifferentiated collection of telephone metadata under the USA PATRIOT Act. The NRA has opposed this broad surveillance program because of its potential to chill our members' communication, particularly given the Obama Administration's well-publicized antagonism against Second Amendment freedoms. We also noted that the availability of sophisticated means of analyzing the metadata to create detailed profiles of individuals could effectively create an end-run around federal prohibitions on firearm registries. | |
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| NEWS NEWS NRA-Backed Measures Aimed at Reversing Obama Administration's Implementation of Gun Control Through Executive Action | |
| The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) today lauded the passage of H.R. 2578, the Fiscal Year 2016 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Act (CJS), which contained strong pro-Second Amendment provisions aimed at stopping the Obama Administration from enacting its gun control agenda through executive action. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION Elections Matter: Pro-Second Amendment House Stands Up for Your Rights in Funding Bill | |
| On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives showed its strong support for the Second Amendment by sending H.R. 2578 -- the Fiscal Year Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (CJS) -- to the Senate with numerous pro-gun, pro-liberty provisions. While a number of these are listed in our accompanying press release, a few deserve special mention. All show Congress asserting its role as the peoples' representatives against a president and administrative state that has embarked on a lawless crusade to suppress the right to keep and bear arms. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION Fanciful "Smart Gun" Bill Seeks to Make Law Out of Wishful Thinking | |
| We all have our hopes for the future. In that regard, we're not so different from Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren (both D-Mass.). Where we're just a little bit different, however, is that while we recognize some people might wish to replace travel by automobiles with on-demand flight via pollution-free unicorns, we're not sure a law to that affect is really necessary. Similarly, while some people might want guns to be designed like "Kitt," the taking car in the David Hasselhoff series "Knight Rider," it takes a special kind of dreamer to turn that dream into federal legislation. Enter the senators from Massachusetts. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION NEWS Obama's "Unified Agenda" of Regulatory Objectives Causes Fear, Confusion | |
| The Internet has been buzzing this past week with stories of the Obama Administration's "Unified Agenda" on gun control. An article published in The Hill magazine, for example, sported the ominous headline, "Administration preps new gun regulations." It stated, "The regulations range from new restrictions on high-powered pistols to gun storage requirements. Chief among them is a renewed effort to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable or have been convicted of domestic abuse." | |
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| NEWS Actor Vince Vaughn Departs from PC Script, Spotlights Second Amendment Rights | |
| Earlier this week, the British version of GQ magazine released part of an interview with actor Vince Vaughn that featured the movie and television star making a vigorous defense of the right to keep and bear arms. While an American expressing appreciation for guns is usually not an especially remarkable event, the conviction that Vaughn displayed and his willingness to buck typical Hollywood dogma are indeed noteworthy. "I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home," Vaughn told the interviewer. "We don't have the right to bear arms because of burglars; we have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government. It's not about duck hunting; it's about the ability of the individual. It's the same reason we have freedom of speech." | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION Lummis Introduces "Collectible Firearms Protection Act" | |
| On Wednesday, June 3, 2015, U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) introduced H.R. 2611, the "Collectible Firearms Protection Act." This bill would aim to reverse a State Department decision blocking the importation of wildly popular and historic M1 Garand rifles and M1 carbines from South Korea. The United States exported these firearms to South Korea at the onset of the Korean War in the 1950s. The M1 Garand and M1 carbine have become collector's items and are perfectly legal to manufacture in the United States and, like all firearm imports, they would be subject to the federal rules and regulations governing retail firearm sales. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION NEWS Legislation Proposes $60 Million for Anti-Gun Research | |
| On Monday, NRA F-rated Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation to authorize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to give $60 million of the taxpayers' money to anti-gun activists over the next six years, to conduct "research" promoting gun control. The two longtime anti-gun legislators say that their bill is necessary for two reasons, both of which are hokum: | |
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| NEWS Trent Kelly Wins Congressional Seat in Mississippi Special Election | |
| On Tuesday, June 2, 2015, District Attorney Trent Kelly won the special election to fill Mississippi's first congressional seat which was vacated by the untimely passing of Representative Alan Nunnelee. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION Everytown Loses Big in Nevada | |
| Say goodbye to handgun registration in and around Las Vegas, Nevada. On Monday, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed Senate Bill 175, abolishing Clark County's "blue card" handgun registration system while ushering in a host of other pro-gun changes to state law. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION Rep. Carolyn Maloney Flies Anti-gun Flag in U.S. House | |
| Reliably anti-gun Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has introduced two new rights-restricting bills in the U.S. House of Representatives. May 15 saw the introduction of H.R. 2380, the so-called “Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2015.” This bill would require background checks on all firearms transactions occurring at gun shows. In the 1990s, gun control supporters began claiming that criminals were acquiring firearms at gun shows without having to go through background checks. However, repeated surveys of prison inmates who possessed firearms at the time of their offenses revealed that less than one percent acquired their firearms at gun shows. This bill would do nothing more than burden lawful firearm transactions and take us one step closer to a national gun registry. | |
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| LEGAL & LEGISLATION Rep. Steve Scalise Introduces Bill to Relax Restrictions on Interstate Firearm Sales | |
| Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) has introduced a bill to modernize certain aspects of interstate firearms commerce. The Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act, H.R. 2246, would yield increased convenience and choice for consumers, while continuing to allow states to set their own policy regarding transfer and possession of firearms within their borders. | |
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| TAKE ACTION Seeking Nominations for 2014 NRA-ILA Volunteer Awards | |
| The NRA-ILA "Jay M. Littlefield Memorial Volunteer of the Year Award" is an annual honor that recognizes an NRA member who demonstrates exceptionally meritorious activism in defense of our Second Amendment rights. Similarly, the "NRA-ILA Volunteer Organization of the Year Award" is bestowed upon a group that has gone above and beyond in defending and promoting our rights over the past year. | |
VIDEOS
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In this News Minute from the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, Jennifer Zahrn reports on the latest attempt by President Obama to bypass Congress and impose his failed gun control schemes on America. |
| STATE GRASSROOTS ROUND-UP |
