Larry Pratt to speak at
Friends of the Second Amendment Dinner
to be held in Detriot, Michigan on March 27.

The following article appeared in the USA TODAY on March 3, 2010

Opposing view: Gun controls cost lives

It's unconstitutional to enact restrictions on law-abiding people
By Erich Pratt

Chicago resident Ronyale White called 911 four times in 2002 when her estranged husband was trying to kill her. When the police finally arrived, they found this mother of three dead on the floor--a mute testimony to the failure of gun control.

That same, tragic story has been repeated many times over in a city that frequently competes for the title of being the nation's murder capital. But all that could end if the Supreme Court rules against Chicago's handgun ban in McDonald v. Chicago.

Gun Owners of America hopes this will be the case.

Support for gun control is at its lowest level in recent memory, according to the latest polls. But gun control supporters -- like those at USA TODAY -- want to walk a tightrope, claiming that Americans can enjoy the right to keep and bear arms while being subjected to "reasonable" gun controls. That's like saying that African Americans in the 1950s could enjoy the right to vote--as long as they paid a little old poll tax.

The fact is, a right delayed is a right denied. And those denials have cost people their lives. Thousands of Ronyale Whites have suffered because their gun rights were denied to them. Yet the Second Amendment says nothing of "reasonable" gun control.

What it does say is that our gun rights "shall not be infringed." Translation: It is constitutionally invalid to enact any bans, licensing requirements or carry restrictions on law-abiding persons who simply want to protect themselves and their families.

Every day, armed gun owners successfully defend their lives all across the country. Recently, a store owner in Louisiana shot and killed an attacker who jumped him in the parking lot; a thug was fatally shot in Kansas after assaulting a man at a car wash; and in Arizona, a gun owner defended himself against four attackers who police said were beating him with a baseball bat.

Without the right to carry firearms away from home, all of these cases would have turned out differently.

Guns save lives -- the lives of the law-abiding.

Erich Pratt is the director of communications for Gun Owners of America.

 Oral Arguments This Week in Historic Supreme Court Case

On Tuesday, March 2, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case McDonald v. Chicago, which presented to the Court the question of whether the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is incorporated as against the States by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities or Due Process Clauses.

Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Chicago residents who are seeking to invalidate a city ordinance prohibiting them from owning or possessing a handgun in their own home. 

The GOA/GOF brief argues that the privileges or immunities clause of the 14th Amendment is the correct basis for ruling that the Second Amendment protects the individual right of all Americans, not just those living in Washington, D.C.  This brief also points out the pitfalls of using the due process clause to reach this conclusion.

For more information about the case, and to read the GOF Brief, click HERE.

Feathering Your Nest? 
Written by Sen. H.L. Richardson (ret.)     
 
Having been in the California Senate for twenty-two years, invitations were occasionally forthcoming from University and State Colleges to address their political science classes. I was never invited back.

More often than not, the professor -- the inviter -- was tilted to the port side while I leaned slightly to the right. It was a fair assumption that the invitee, that's me, was therefore to be easily challenged by the preponderance of the professor’s class. "Wild Bill" is what the mainstream press often called me.  I should be easy pickings for his students!

To read the entire article, Click HERE.

Get a Florida Carry Permit

GOA is partnering with the Right to Carry Road Show and the national team organizing the April 19 Second Amendment March (on the Mall in Washington) to facilitate getting a Florida concealed carry permit.  In about an hour, you can have everything taken care of for getting your Florida permit which is recognized in 33 states at last count.  Go here for more information: http://njcsd.org/rtcrs.

Get a free Nobel Peace prize
with every new paid GOA Life Membership.

By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
November 24, 2009

The Senate's 2,074-page health care bill doesn't mention guns, but some gun owners are worried certain provisions could eventually be used to discourage or even restrict gun ownership as part of a government effort to influence behavior as it broadens its control over the health care system.

The day before the Senate passed the $848 billion health bill on a party-line vote, the Virginia-based Gun Owners of America sent out a mass alert to its 300,000 members, warning them that the legislation "will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government database. ... This includes any firearms-related information your doctor has gleaned or any determination of post traumatic stress disorder or something similar, that can preclude you from owning firearms."
[View Complete Article at WashingtonExaminer.com]

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Attorney General Holder Reveals Aggressive Gun Control In Response to Ft. Hood Terror Attack

On Wednesday, November 18, Eric Holder testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on the Obama administration decision to treat terrorists who committed war crimes as civilians and hold their trial in New York City.  The Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim jihadi, Major Nidal Hassan, was also before the committee. Click here to read excerpts from that hearing.

Rep. Conyers Sees No Point in Reading the Bills

Years ago, GOA's Founder and Chairman H.L. "Bill" Richardson wrote a book entitled, What Makes You Think We Read the Bills?  As a former state senator, Richardson knew of the antics and dirty tricks that go on in our legislatures across the country.

Today, Americans are beginning to demand that their legislators read the bills.  But despite the appeals to do so, some legislators -- like Democrat Rep. John Conyers of Michigan -- are digging in their heels.

Take a look at this video and see for yourself.

In What Makes You Think We Read the Bills, you'll be both amused and outraged at Sen. Richardson's tales of the day to day shenanigans in your state and national capitols.

Does your legislator suddenly stop being your representative?  He's just suffered Peer-Group Shift (see Chapter 12).  Does the majority elect? (find the answer in Chapter 18).  There are wildly funny chapters -- Ze Mooz (4), Burros and the Pill (9), Gangrene and the Board of Education (16) -- as well as plenty of straight talk about how and why our legislators are no longer ours.

Throughout, Sen. Richardson's breezy text is the underlying theme that "this can't go on much longer, enough is enough!"  He offers many thoughtful reflections on why our legislatures have gone off the tracks, and scores of helpful suggestions how to put things right.

You can order your copy of  What Makes You Think We Read the Bills at a special price of $4.95 plus shipping and handling.  To order your copy today, please go to: http://www.gunowners.com/bookst.htm 

Legislation in the 111th Congress