We realize it sounds like old news.

     The Obama administration -- the one that, during the campaign, “was not going to go after our guns” -- 
has nominated yet another anti-gun crazy for a high federal post. 

     This one is Harold Hongju Koh, a Yale Law Professor nominated to be chief legal guru for Hillary Clinton’s State Department. 

     And, even by the standards of liberal craziness (and tax evasion) that we have come to expect from Obama administration officials, this guy is off the charts.

     He wants to apply Sharia law here, proposes to send U.S. citizens for trial by international tribunals, and blasts American conduct in international forums. 

     Koh has also gone out of his way to be at the front of the cheerleading squad to get the UN into the business of regulating Second Amendment-protected conduct in the United States.

     Specifically, in a lecture reprinted in the Fordham Law Review, he excoriates former UN Ambassador John Bolton for insisting that any UN regulation of guns not contain “measures abrogating the Constitutional right to bear arms.”  This assertion that our international agreements should actually protect the Second Amendment was, in Koh’s words, “most amazing to a student of American constitutional law.”

     Koh went on to argue that it was ridiculous to insist that UN agreements protect the Second Amendment because “the Second Amendment had never been used to overturn any American federal gun law.”  Besides, protested Koh, the conference documents of the anti-gun conference had made it “amply clear” that they would not impede legal gun ownership. 

     Well, it’s time we make it “amply clear” that anti-gun crazies should not be in positions where they can negotiate away Second Amendment rights in international conventions.

Gun Owners of America urges the Senate to reject this radical, anti-gun nominee.

In early May, Gun Owners of America slammed Senator Orrin Hatch for meddling in a Pennsylvania election.

Senator Hatch this week assailed the candidacy of pro-gun former Representative Pat Toomey, claiming that Toomey could not get elected in Pennsylvania in a race against liberal Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter.

"Orrin Hatch seems more interested in protecting his liberal anti-gun buddy Arlen Specter than he is in electing a real pro-gun conservative," said Tim Macy, Vice-Chairman of Gun Owners of America. 

Hatch also predicted that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, of which he is vice chairman, will not support Toomey.

"Orrin Hatch needs step down from having anything to do with NRSC because he clearly is not mirroring Republican principles," said Mr. Macy.  The person who can't win reelection, if he keeps on the same path, is Orrin Hatch in his next election.

"Orrin Hatch is completely out of touch with average voters, who believe in overwhelming numbers in the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.  Gun owners and sportsmen in Pennsylvania will come out in droves against Arlen Specter."

GOA points to two recent events that spark gun owners' ire.

First, Arlen Specter, along with Orrin Hatch, provided the instrumental Republican support to get anti-gun Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed by the Senate.

"Every time Eric Holder opens his mouth and talks about banning so-called 'assault weapons,' gun owners know they have Specter and Hatch to blame," said Mr. Macy.

Specter was also the Republican most responsible for the massive one trillion dollar bailout, the so-called stimulus bill.

The bailout contains language that can fund anti-gun activist organizations like ACORN and Moveon.org to the tune of hundreds of millions -- even billions -- of taxpayer dollars.

Did you hear the latest excuse by the anti-gun lobby why America needs to resurrect Clinton’s so-called “assault weapons ban?”   It’s that America’s lax gun laws are responsible for all the violence in Mexico!

That’s right.  The drug cartels that have the resources to build submarines and pilotless drones to transport drugs into the United States would be wiped out if only America would pass a semi-auto ban.  At least that’s what President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder would have us believe.

Speaking at a press conference in Phoenix, Holder said, “… there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico at a minimum."

Quick to jump on the bandwagon was notorious gun grabber Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).  “I was thrilled by it,” said McCarthy, who went on to credit President Obama for this initiative, saying “We’ll continue to work with him. The president realizes this is real.”

What is interesting, however, was the response from Democratic Congressmen, 65 of whom sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi urging her to reject the gun ban. 

So what’s going on?  It means that the warnings we have issued recently -- that any attack on America’s gun rights would prompt early retirements for those Congressmen involved -- are being taken seriously.

It means that the Democrats aren’t stupid and they know that the last time they tried to attack our gun rights, more than a few anti-gun Congressmen suffered defeat at the polls.

And they know that many of the seats now held by Democrats are in districts that are strongly pro-gun.  The last thing Pelosi wants is to get into a serious battle over gun rights because, even if they win, they will likely lose their majority at the next election.

Please understand that we are not saying we are in the clear on this.  Far from it!  What we are  saying is that our strategy of sending postcards and email to Congress reminding them of what happened the last time they attacked our gun rights… and promising to do the same thing once again should they be so foolish as try it again ... is working!

Bottom line: You and I need to keep the pressure on all year because if they see any weakness in our resolve, they will act.  And they have the votes to do it! 

Click here to join Gun Owners of America today! 

-- Measure seeks to end gun ban on Amtrak
by John Velleco

April 3, 2009

An amendment that seeks to reverse a gun prohibition on Amtrak trains passed the U.S. Senate late Thursday evening as part of the enormous budget bill.

Amtrak regulations prohibit firearms on both checked and carry on baggage.   Sportsmen who wish to use an Amtrak carrier for a hunting trip cannot include a shotgun even in their checked luggage.

Likewise, travelers who have a permit to carry a concealed firearm cannot include a self-defense handgun in their checked luggage, even if they are allowed to carry in both the state of origin and destination.

But if such travelers were to take the trip by air, they could at least check a gun onto the aircraft by simply declaring the firearm.

No such policy exists for Amtrak passengers.  

“Gun owners should not be penalized for seeking alternative means of travel,” Sen. Wicker said. 

The Wicker amendment prohibits any funds from the newly established infrastructure reserve fund from being appropriated to Amtrak until it revises its check-in policy to allow law-abiding Americans to include firearms in their checked luggage.

Americans should not be denied their Second Amendment rights when they travel by train.  Furthermore, a transportation entity that receives billions of federal taxpayer dollars should not be allowed to prevent Americans from hunting or defending themselves when they travel on vacation or personal business.

It’s bad enough that law-abiding citizens are disarmed on-board a train, where they are vulnerable to criminal attack.  But it is just plain absurd not to let American citizens merely transport a firearm in checked baggage.

The Wicker amendment is now part of the Senate passed version of the budget bill, but it is not in the House version.  Anti-gun members of the conference committee who will reconcile the two bills are expected to try to strip out the Wicker amendment.

GOA supports the efforts of Sen. Wicker to keep this language attached to the final bill that will be sent to President Obama.