Grass Roots North Carolina, P.O. Box 10684, Raleigh, NC 27605 919-664-8565, www.grnc.org GRNC Alert Hotline: (919) 562-4137

GRNC Alert 6-27-01:
ODOM REGISTRATION BILL HITS SENATE TODAY!!

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

Sen. Fountain Odom’s “gun show” bill hits the NC Senate floor for a vote TODAY (Wednesday, June 27). Whether or not you have already contacted the Senators below, DO SO IMMEDIATELY!

Please note that the NRA just lost its appeal to require the FBI to expunge transaction records from the National Instant Check System, meaning a nation registration of gun sales is now in place. In North Carolina, SB 680 will require that ALL PRIVATE GUN SALES be run through the NICS, effectively REGISTERING those sales with the FBI.

Using the talking points below, immediately:

· Use GRNC’s automated e-mail at http://www.grnc.org/alerts/email6_17_01.htm to contact all members of the NC Senate.

· CALL your state senator, whose contact iformation can be found at: http://capwiz.com/gunowners/officials/state/?lvl=C&state=nc

DELIVER THIS MESSAGE

Senate Democrats are claiming that SB 680: "Lawful Firearms Activities Protected" is intended to "protect" gun dealers from "unfair competition" by "out-of-state" dealers at gun shows who purportedly do not collect sales tax as required by law. Please note that in the SB 680 Committee Substitute distributed at the Finance Committee hearing on the bill, tax issues constituted but a small portion of its language.

In fact, the one constant in the many versions of the bill- originally drafted by lobbyists for North Carolinians "Against Gun Violence"- is the requirement that private sales between individuals (not dealers, since selling firearms for a profit requires a federal license) be run through the National Instant Check System. Ironically, the same NRA which claims to support this bill is suing the FBI for failing to expunge transaction records from the NICS system as required by the Brady Law. Because the FBI fails to destroy transfer records, SB 680 would indeed "register" private transfers. Worse, for the first time under either state or federal law, such background checks and registration would be required for black powder, muzzle-loading firearms (hardly the weapon of choice for criminals).

Given all of the above plus the still over-broad definition of what constitutes a "gun show," plus the fact that failure to report taxable transactions is already a crime, I am forced to conclude that the "unfair advantage of out-of-state dealers" angle is merely spin designed to sell the bill to NRA members and Second Amendment supporters within the Senate. Gun control supporters understand clearly that gun control legislation will fail unless cloaked in pro-gun trappings.

At present, the NRA itself is taking considerable heat from members for its position on SB 680; what is acceptable to them is not necessarily acceptable to gun rights supporters throughout the state. I join Grass Roots North Carolina in opposing any version of SB 680 containing language to restrict gun shows and register private gun sales with the FBI.

Respectfully,

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IF THE SENATE ISN’T BURIED IN E-MAIL AND PHONE CALLS TODAY, YOU AREN’T REALLY TRYING!

BTT

[size=3][b]DONE!![/b][/size=3]