Fellow American,
The NRA is about to make a deal with the ATF that will be catastrophic!
Now, I want to preface this by saying I am a member of the National Rifle Association. After a few more monthly payments, I will become a Life Member and be able to vote for board members.
I care about gun rights in this country and I believe the NRA does as good a job as anyone at protecting them.
But right now, we are receiving word of a dangerous compromise that will set us far back. The NRA is ready to agree that the government has the authority to decide whether you should be allowed to own certain guns! Not only that, but they are prepared to allow Congress to ban certain ammunition imports!
I don’t want to bore you with all the specifics and intricacies of American firearm laws. But what is important for you to know is that in 1968, Congress gave the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) the power to ban the importation or manufacture of certain firearms not used for “sporting purposes.”
Congress never defined what “sporting purposes” meant, so for the last five decades, the ATF has been making it up as it goes along. Over time, the phrase has come to mean firearms used for hunting or skeet shooting. This has allowed for the Department of Treasury to arbitrarily ban the importation of many rifles, pistols, and shotguns.
More important than the importation restrictions is the way the phrase “sporting purposes” is used to define what are known as “destructive devices.” These are generally weapons like grenades, artillery, or rocket launchers.
When Congress wrote the Gun Control Act, they wanted to make it harder for Americans to own grenade launchers or artillery pieces. To accomplish this, they made sure that weapons with a bore of more than a half-inch in diameter (.50 caliber) were harder to obtain. They crafted an exemption for shotguns, but also allowed for the Executive Branch to make the ultimate decision of whether the gun was “generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes..."
Over time, this sporting purposes test spread and infected every aspect of American firearms laws. Today, it is estimated that millions of Americans own shotguns that exist in this grey area and could easily be banned.
The Second Amendment wasn’t written to protect hunters or skeet shooters… It was written to ensure that the American people were well armed to protect the nation against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
But both Congress and the ATF have bastardized the Second Amendment to stop Americans from owning defensive firearms.
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Heller v District of Columbia that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own firearms for self-defense. The Court said nothing about hunting… nothing about sport shooting… they talked about DEFENSE.
So why on earth should the Federal government be allowed to restrict the importation and manufacture of defensive firearms? The only reason this happens is because We the People allow it to.
Let’s be honest: there’s nothing attractive about technicalities in our firearm laws. No one really pays attention to this stuff. But that is what makes this more important than ever before!
Instead of attacking this “sporting purposes” requirement and protecting Americans’ rights to own defensive firearms, the NRA has reportedly struck a deal with the ATF and Congressional Democrats to expand the definition of “sporting purposes!”
Tell Congress that the government has no right to decide what types of guns Americans can own!
Restricting gun ownership by requiring that sellable guns have a “sporting purpose” is completely unconstitutional.
The only sport the Founders cared about was hunting tyrants!
The court cases are firmly on our side one this. Yet instead of fighting to win, the NRA and Congressional Republicans are about to cave.
Not only are they going to affirm that the Second Amendment only really applies to sport, they are going to accept a ban on certain types of imported ammunition in order to appease Democrats! We just went through this. Democrats tried to ban lawful AR-15 ammunition and, with your help, we stopped it. Now the NRA wants to accept an ammunition import ban?
No more surrender! We have given up enough. Every time gun control rears its ugly head, the Democrats declare that Conservatives need to compromise! No way!
Tell Congress the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with “sport” and it is treason to propose that!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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