(Friday, April 19, 2002) -- You stand before the judges, accused of
failing to register your firearms.  You look around the room, and
there are no civilians to try your case.  Trial by jury is absent in
this courtroom.  Not only that, there is no presumption of
innocence.  You look at the judges behind the bench and realize they
have been appointed by unelected bureaucrats from hostile and
repressive nations around the globe.

Is this a scene from a George Orwell book?  Unfortunately, this
scene could someday happen since a newly established International
Criminal Court (ICC) became a reality last week.  On his last day in
office, former President Clinton signed his name to an agreement
which authorized the ICC, a global court which was officially
instituted at the United Nations headquarters on April 11, after the
60th nation signed the treaty.

Thankfully, the United States Senate has still not ratified this
agreement.  And to ensure it never does, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
recently introduced legislation (H.R. 4169) that calls on President
Bush to revoke his predecessor's signature before the
Democrat-controlled Senate can ratify the treaty.

Among other things, H.R. 4169 would:

 * Call on the President to rescind the US approval of the
   International Criminal Court;

 * Prohibit federal funds from being used to establish or operate
   the ICC; and

 * Establish that any action taken by the ICC against an American
   serviceman shall be considered an act of aggression against
   the US.

The stakes in this battle are huge.  With the advent of the anti-gun
ICC, unelected bureaucrats at the UN will be able to override the
national sovereignty of the US and to bring us under their
thumbprint.  The consequences of this will be horrendous.

The ICC will be able to second-guess almost any decision our country
makes, and will claim it has the authority to haul our Presidents,
governors or military leaders into court.  Even our war in
Afghanistan -- or the execution of Timothy McVeigh -- could be
actions that would trigger the arrest and prosecution of American
citizens.  This is NOT speculation.  This is the authority that ICC
judges now have.

But this treaty could end up doing more than just hauling military
or elected officials into court.  Gun owners have much to fear from
these global tyrants.  It is no secret that at several of their
recent conventions, UN officials have been actively trying to get
the nations of the world to register firearms.  

In 1997, they
supervised the steamrolling of firearms (yes, using actual
steamrollers) in the streets of Brazil.  And to make their
intentions absolutely clear, they have even erected a statute of a
gun with a barrel twisted into a knot in front of their New York
headquarters.  To be sure, the UN has demonstrated its hatred for
civilians owning guns in a myriad of ways.

So what happens if, somewhere down the road, you don't comply with
UN gun registration or a firearms ban?  Will the UN be able to
prosecute you before the International Criminal Court?  Will UN
Blue Helmets be able to search your home for evidence?  (You can
forget about any Fourth Amendment protections that keep your home
from being searched without a warrant.)

The treaty which establishes the court claims jurisdiction to
prosecute gross human abuse.  But there's no reason to think that
this permanent court is going to limit itself to prosecuting real
dictators.  The judges on the court could be from Cuba, Iraq,
Russia or Red China.  Don't expect to read about ICC prosecutions of
folks like Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein.  Rather, one can fully
expect that, similar to judges in our country, these judges will
make law "from the bench" and expand the court's jurisdiction every
chance they get.

If you think we have a problem in this country with judges making up
the law and failing to respect your gun rights, how bad of a problem
do you think this will be at the UN level where these tyrants have
no concept of what the Second Amendment is?

Rep. Paul correctly notes the International Criminal Court is an
"illegitimate court" that was established contrary to the provisions
of the American Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.
The court puts United States citizens in jeopardy of "unlawful and
unconstitutional criminal prosecution," he says, "[and] especially
at risk of politically motivated arrests, prosecutions, fines, and
imprisonments."

ACTION:  Please ask your Representative to cosponsor Ron Paul's bill
(H.R. 4169) which will help keep our country from placing itself
under the jurisdiction of the anti-gun International Criminal Court.

You can use the pre-written letter below to help direct your
comments to Capitol Hill and call your Representative at
1-877-762-8762 (toll free) or at 202-225-3121.  To identify your
Representative, as well as to send a message via e-mail, see the
Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm
on the GOA website.

I already posted about this, and replied to my own thread three times, but nobody cared to respond.  Who knows.
This one seems rather important.

i must have missed that with all this traveling maybe we can get it tacked

Here it is:
[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?id=110344[/url]
Spin them guns around.

I don't know ... do you think the sheep will stand for this like they have for a hundred other cuts to our freedoms?

Displaying the Gadsden Flag constitutes Probable Cause for lawful search and seizure.
[stick]

Tom, click on the link I posted earlier in this thread, and it will take you to my thread.  My thread contains links to pages where you can write to your Congresscritter, with a form letter already typed for you.