Hearing on Schoenbeck gun ban held today, vote to come on Friday
South Dakota Gun Owners E-mail
Alert
PO Box 3845, Rapid City, SD 57709
(605) 737-5583
LibertyTeeth@sdgo.org
http://www.SDGO.org
(February 23, 2005) – The Schoenbeck gun ban is scheduled for a vote in the House Judiciary committee on the morning of Friday, February 25.
Some of the politicians are trying to tell us that the Schoenbeck gun ban isn’t really a gun ban at all. They claim that it will somehow help victims of the federal Lautenberg ban. In reality, Sen. Lee Schoenbeck’s anti-gun measure will make things worse for these folks by creating a new state-level penalty for violating the onerous “domestic violence” gun ban. No one can deny that the Schoenbeck ban is a shorter version of the hated Lautenberg ban, pure and simple.
As you may remember, the Schoenbeck ban is contained in Section 269 of the massive Senate Bill 43, which revises much of the criminal code. SB 43 passed the Senate last week, but is now facing stiffer opposition in the House. This is our opportunity to send the Schoenbeck ban where it belongs.
For more on this issue, click here.
Action:
1. The committee vote on SB 43 will likely be held first thing Friday morning. If you have not yet had a chance to contact the members of the committee listed below, please do so this evening or tomorrow.
To leave a message at the Capitol for two committee members at a time, call (605) 773-3851. A legislative page should be there to take your call from 8am to 5pm, CST, and will deliver your messages to the legislators’ desks. Your message can be as simple as “Please vote NO on SB 43.”
You can also email the committee members at the addresses below, or click on their names to use an online email form. Feel free to use the sample message below to direct your comments.
2. Please contact your two Representatives. You can leave the same message for both of them, with one call to the same number, (605) 773-3851. To email them, simply replace “NAME” in the following address with your Representative’s last name: rep.NAME@state.sd.us Example: rep.cutler@state.sd.us
To identify your Representatives, click here, chose state and search by ZIP code.
Or, if you know what Legislative district you are in, you can find your Legislators here. Choose your district number and click on the “Find My Legislators” button. To access their contact info, including the online email form, simply click on his or her name.
House Judiciary Committee
----- Sample message -----
Dear Representative:
There is a lot of misinformation being spread about the gun ban proposed in
section 269 of SB 43. The bottom line is that this gun control measure
duplicates the onerous federal Lautenberg ban, passed in 1996, which imposes a
lifetime gun ban on those who have committed minor infractions in the home --
"offenses" as slight as shoving a spouse or spanking a child.
Some think that federal officials would lift the federal Lautenberg ban if the
Schoenbeck ban were passed. But this is based on nothing more than a wish and a
prayer. There is no promise from BATF that its agents won't enforce the federal
gun ban if the state enacts the Schoenbeck ban. It is simply foolish for anyone
to buy this argument or to support a state ban that is simply a shorter version
of the federal law.
BATF documents, such as the yellow form 4473, state that a
person “who has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is
not prohibited from purchasing, receiving or possessing a firearm if the person
has had civil rights (the right to vote, sit on a jury and hold public office)
restored.”
If the real objective of Schoenbeck’s legislation is to exempt South Dakota citizens from the federal lifetime ban, why not follow BATF guidelines? These guidelines clearly recognize the loss and restoration of the rights to vote, sit on a jury and hold public office as a qualification for exemption from the Lautenberg ban.
Not only is
the Schoenbeck gun ban a complete infringement of the right to bear arms, it is
absolutely unnecessary to the stated goal of helping victims of the federal
Lautenberg ban. South Dakotans don't need gun control. Please oppose
section 269 of SB 43.
Please defend the people who have been victimized by the Lautenberg gun ban by
voting NO on SB 43. Don't entrench this bad federal law in
South Dakota.
Sincerely,
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