Schoenbeck gun ban pushed as “good for gun owners”
South Dakota Gun Owners E-mail
Alert
PO Box 3845, Rapid City, SD 57709
(605) 737-5583
LibertyTeeth@sdgo.org
http://www.SDGO.org
(January 25, 2005) – A few years ago, anti-gun politicians tried to pass a state-level Lautenberg gun ban similar to the one Sen. Schoenbeck has sponsored this year.
But gun owners like you stopped them cold. Now the politicians have adopted a new tactic: they are trying to tell you that Sen. Lee Schoenbeck’s gun ban isn’t really a gun ban.
They claim that the Schoenbeck ban will only help gun owners, and that their shorter state-level ban will somehow preempt the federal life-time ban.
Larry Pratt, Executive director of Gun owners of America, refers to this as Schoenbeck’s Urban Legend.
“There is absolutely nothing in Federal law which would require Federal officials to lift the lifetime ban, based on the fact that a state had adopted a comparable shorter ban. The idea that a state version of Lautenberg will get the state out from under the Federal law is an Urban Legend,” Mr. Pratt stated last week in a memo to South Dakota Gun Owners.
“In years past, several states passed their own version of the Instant Background Check, and a leading argument was that the Feds would leave the matter to the state. But the citizens in states that chose to duplicate Federal law now suffer under double the restrictions. Obviously, this is part of the same Urban Legend,” says Pratt.
Click here to read Mr. Pratt’s memo.
For background on the Schoenbeck gun ban, click here.
Action:
SB 43 may come up in the Senate Judiciary committee within the next week. Please contact the members of the committee listed below and voice your opposition to the gun ban in section 269 of SB 43.
To leave a message for them at the Capitol, dial (605) 773-3821.
Ask them to oppose the misdemeanor gun ban, section 269 of SB 43.
You can leave a message for up to two legislators with one call. A legislative page will be there to take your call from 8am to 5pm, CST, and will deliver your messages to the legislators’ desks.
You can also use the sample letter to email them via the Legislator email system. Simply click on the name of each Senator and paste or type in your message and hit the “send message” button.
Senate Judiciary Committee
Gene Abdallah – Chair
Lee Schoenbeck – Vice-Chair
---Sample letter---
Dear Senator:
I am opposed to the misdemeanor gun ban that has been proposed as section 269 of SB 43.
The proponents of this state-level ban claim that it will actually restore gun rights to folks who have been victimized by the federal Lautenberg domestic violence gun ban. While I do appreciate this effort, I believe that the sec. 269 of SB 43 would be of very dubious benefit to the gun owners of this state.
The argument has been made that Federal officials will consider a one-year gun ban to be a loss and restoration of civil rights, pursuant to 18 USC 921 (a) (33) (B) (ii), and will therefore restore gun rights. However, this argument appears to be poorly founded.
The BATF does not include gun rights among civil rights listed in their position papers and other documents on the subject of relief from Federal firearms prohibitions. In fact, in the BATF memo used by proponents to support the state-level ban, BATF Firearms Programs Division Chief does not refer to gun rights, but to “firearms privileges.” So while I certainly believe that the right to bear arms should be included among our civil rights, it appears that the ATF may not.
Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that the right to bear arms as an individual right is being contested in court rooms across America. Clearly, the argument that gun rights are indeed a civil right is under attack on the Federal level.
I respectfully urge you to oppose section 269 of SB 43. It is not good for gun owners or the people of South Dakota.
Sincerely,
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