The Uninvited Ombudsman Report, No. 129 - New Federal Gun Law Coming Under Radar
2- New Federal Gun Law Coming Under Radar
Lobbyists Overlooked Dec. 3 Date
Will Expiring "Invisible Gun" Law Be Renewed?
Anti-Rights Plans Top Secret for Now
by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
The Uninvited Ombudsman
With Mr. Obama and his allies attacking the right to keep and bear arms from a dozen angles at once, the anti-rights forces in America have overlooked the Undetectable Handgun Law of 1988, set to expire on Dec. 3, less than six weeks away. (Google 18 USC §922(p) for the letter of the law.)
If the law expires as it is scheduled to do, airports and all secure areas could be exposed to guns that metal detectors cannot identify.
Although no such guns exist (in the commercial world) and have never been available to the public, the "news" media created a furor over the non-existent firearms when the polymer-framed Glock pistol was introduced, spreading fear that such weapons could be smuggled into airports past all known screening devices. The Glock and all similar polymer-framed firearms contain large amounts of steel and are easily spotted by metal detectors.
The chances that Congress will let the statute expire are near zero, a quick survey of industry experts indicates. But the subject hasn't hit the public radar yet, and simple reenactment of a federal gun law is a risky bet, given the present administration's penchant for introducing gun mandates at any opportunity.
Any bill that must get through both houses of Congress becomes a magnet for amendments and agenda-driven add-ons. A gun bill will be particularly susceptible to that pressure. Only one tiny change will be needed, the same one made last time this expiration came up. The number of years in the sunset clause on this 1988 law, now "25," will have to increase to whatever new date Congress chooses. They went from 15 to 25 last time.
However -- no plans for renewal of the expiring "invisible" gun ban have been announced by either major political party. The expiration date, however, is set in stone by the existing law. If the law does expire, someone somewhere is likely to try to develop and introduce an undetectable gun (outside the world of superspies).
Two bills were introduced, one back in April, HR1474, which extended the ban for another 10 years and added undetectable ammo magazines, and S1149 in June, which also extends the ban for 10 years with similar conditions. Neither bill has gone anywhere. Undetectable guns and magazines doesn't say much about undetectable ammo, but no one expects Congress to be very logical about any of this.
Sensitive Date
The expiration date is just 11 days prior to nationwide events planned to recognize the calamity surrounding the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Both pro-rights and anti-rights groups have announced intentions to use that date to press for action on gun rights in America. Efforts to restrict Americans' right to arms, using the actions of the psychopath on that day as a motivation, have thus far failed.
Second Event Also on Dec. 3
By coincidence, Dec. 3 has been set by the Arizona Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments in the Guns Save Lives censorship case, with the Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation representing plaintiff Alan Korwin and TrainMeAZ, LLC. TrainMeAZ is a coalition of firearm industry firms working together to promote gun safety. http://www.trainmeaz.com
The red-heart Guns Save Lives logo at the center of the case has been adopted as a theme for Gun Save Lives Day, a response to the events planned for restricting gun rights timed around the Newtown demonstrations. When this counter protest was announced, the lamestream media went apoplectic, spewing bile and vitriol at the pro-rights people.
Politico reported Monday Oct. 28 that weekly sessions on gun control have been held between the White House Office of Public Engagement and representatives from Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Guns, the Brady Campaign to Promote Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action, the Center for American Progress, Organizing for Action and Americans for Responsible Solutions. It is understood that demonstrations and calls for new restrictions on gun rights tied to the Newtown date are part of those planning sessions.
To the extent government operatives are at work compromising the Second Amendment instead of supporting it, they violate their oath and should be removed from office or brought up on charges. This may seem quaint but it matters. No one in government is taking any action against this fifth column-type of activity.
4- Gun Rights Policy Conference
The lamestream media told you:
Nothing.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Nothing shows the blatant prejudice of the dominant media more than the coverage it gave to one of the most significant firearms events of the year, the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Houston -- which is basically -- none. The American public essentially doesn't even know it was held, let alone know anything about what went on there. Dozens of scholars and leaders of the firearms-rights movement attended.
When compared with the saturation coverage even minor poorly attended amateurishly staged insignificant protests in backwater hovels receive, the bias of so-called reporters and their outlets is plainly evident. I plan to do a report on the conference -- I took copious notes -- but hey, I'm busy, and if it was important, it would have made the news, right?
Media Matters did a lengthy report, with a tone sometimes approximating the end of the world, and introducing a new word to watch. Apparently the anti-rights left will be dropping the phrase "gun control," now recognized as an abject loser, because it is recognized as synonymous with "disarming the public." The new term permeating the Media Matters report is "GUN REFORM." The left-wing online service singled me out (inaccurately) saying:
"Alan Korwin, author of 13 books on guns (I write books on gun laws, not guns, big difference, and it's 10 books, so far), said reformers (there's that word) 'want to treat gun owners like the Negroes at the lunch counter.' It's worth noting that Korwin is considered the Frank Luntz of the pro-gun movement. Lauded by multiple speakers, he is the author of a 'politically corrected' gun glossary designed to focus the gun debate around a language of rights."
The idea of "Negroes at the lunch counter" is an important metaphor, because modern-day anti-rights bigots would prevent people from exercising their specific enumerated right to bear arms by simply putting up signs, like they used to do to "coloreds" and other "undesirables." This is not only offensive and an affront to humanity, it creates known-to-be dangerous make-believe gun-free zones, which have been shown to be reckless and negligent. "Specific enumerated right" is what the U.S. Supreme Court called the right to keep and bear arms.
Responding to the significant threat of defenseless zones, the preferred targets for psychopathic murderers, states are responding by introducing gun-free-zone liability acts. These proposals respect private property rights by leaving property owners free to create pretend gun-free zones by posting signs if they wish (with no other form of security provided), but holds the people posting the signs liable for any harm they cause.
You can ask your local representatives to introduce a gun-free-zone liability bill yourself, model language is here, with talking points: http://www.gunlaws.com/ModelLegislation.htm
Media Matters continues: "The notion that gun rights are basic civil and human rights is today at the very center of the movement's political and legal strategies. The idea literally hung over last weekend's GRPC proceedings in the form of a stage banner reading, 'EQUAL GUN RIGHTS.' Under it, speakers compared gun-policy reformers to segregationists and Nazis. Massad Ayoob, a Second Amendment Foundation board member, ended a defense of Stand Your Ground laws with Blackstone's statement that 'self-defense is the highest of all human rights.' John Lott, the pro-gun academic, spoke of gun taxes as modern day poll taxes. 'We need a document on how high fees and licensing taxes reduce gun ownership and are discriminatory,' he said."
Media Matters and I agree, this is about rights. Firearms are the litmus test of freedom. The degree to which a politician or a citizen can fully embrace the idea of firearm ownership, possession and use is the ultimate gauge of a person's comfort level with ultimate freedom. That then gets us into the role and rule of law, justice and the righteous use of force, the non-aggression principle, the proper role of force in self defense, preemptive law... This is a discussion far to involved to get into here. Maybe I'll get it into a book one day.
In the meanwhile, I do intend to pull a report together summarizing the best parts of the conference. But then, I intend to do a lot of things, far more than I can ever possibly do. Such is my fate. Now, it's time to chill, and get ready for the gun show tomorrow. If I don't cut this off right here, instead of larding it up with all the other amazing stuff I thought I would put into this Page Nine, you'll never see it.
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Alan Korwin
The Uninvited Ombudsman
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