The Russel Laing Story The R E S T of the Story!

If you liked the Lautenburg Bill/Domestic Violence erosion of our gun rights, you'll just LOVE the new wave of Pennsylvania-Style gun control laws that are about to become the next "model for the nation"!

FIRST PHASE-- PA Act 17 (1995): DEMONIZE GUNOWNERS;  PRE-EMPTIVE GUN CONFISCATION; AND ELIMINATION OF DUE PROCESS PROTECTIONS FOR GUNOWNERS

Pennsylvania, the "Keystone State" is getting ready to launch the next wave of progressive gun-ban laws, having successfully reduced gun ownership to a mere state-granted privilege in 1995. Passed in 1995, on the momentum of the "assault-weapon" gun hysteria, PA Act 17 (the Uniform Firearms Act) was sponsored by both NRA and
Handgun Control, Inc.. It was hailed as a "model for the nation", and was indeed unique in that Act 17 implemented the first-ever law that allowed the confiscation of lawfully owned firearms and the permanent loss of all fundamental 2nd amendment rights for anyone "suspected" of being dangerous. No warrant needed, no court or other hearing provided, no conviction or adjudication necessary -- just an automatic gun-grab and forfeiture of fundamental constitutional rights based on any undocumented suspicion.

On the heels of PA Act 17's "model legislation", the Federal Lautenburg Domestic Violence bill was passed and for the first time there was an automatic loss of gun-rights for misdemeanor convictions, potentially including the use of a loud voice or harsh language in family dispute. PA Act 17 and Lautenburg were just the first phase of a structured ongoing campaign to eliminate the right to keep and bear arms. They are the new "Pre-Emptive Laws" -- intended to take away your second amendment rights not based on actual adjudicated violent behaviors such as a felony conviction, but to progressively extend the gun-ban to lesser criminal offenses, or in the case of PA Act 17, to allow the ban even where no allegation (let alone conviction) of violent behavior is made...just an undocumented "suspicion" --not supported by a warrant, never adjudicated in a court or other formal hearing.

Following the success of Act 17 in 1995, the Keystone State legislature is now gearing up to unleash the next phase of gun-banning: rationing and intimidation. Upcoming sessions of legislature are expected to propose laws to limit gun purchases to one firearm per month. And we all know that once the rationing process is initially planted, it can be easily broadened to one gun every three months and eventually once a year, or five per household, etc.

Along with rationing, the new "model for the nation" legislation will require fingerprinting of those who purchase firearms. Many were surprised and outraged to find out that PA Act 17 began the creation of an electronic "mental health data base" by the PA State Police containing the mental health records of all citizens, whether they own guns or not. This invasion of privacy will now be supplemented with the fingerprinting of lawful gun buyers, thereby further demonizing those who wish to exercise a fundamental constitutional right -- a right specifically and
emphatically guaranteed by the Pennsylvania constitution until, that's right, I forgot -- PA Act 17 reduced this fundamental right to a weak, unprotected privilege. Remember when being fingerprinted meant that you were a criminal??

Law-abiding citizen and resident of Pennsylvania Russell Laing can tell you about what pre-emptive gun-hysteria laws do. In 1996 his home was invaded by gun-waiving members of a local township police department who later justified storming into his quiet suburban home without a warrant as being due their having learned that he did not report to work or call off sick with his employer. Having no criminal record, never even being ACCUSED of any
threatening or violent behavior, Russ Laing was jumped on in his bedroom where he was found sleeping -- and summarily marched out on the street in front of his neighbors to be taken to a local hospital for "observation" -- because the policeman who led the charge expressed the belief that Russ "was unable to care for himself". Not dangerous, not threatening, not even being awake when the "dynamic entry" was made into his home.

Of course, this was after the police noticed his locked gunsafe and made a clumsy, unsuccessful attempt to get his employer (where Russ continues to be employed as a highly successful financial director) to make a statement that Russ was believed to be "armed and dangerous". Without a warrant or any other authority --except Act 17-- these same police then dragged Russ Laing's locked gunsafe out of his home and away to their headquarters. Several years of court hearings later, a nearly bankrupted Russ Laing finally had his gunrights restored only upon a ruling by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms that PA Act 17 was unconstitutional in its lack of due-process protections. But rather than restore our rights taken by Act 17, the  legislators are getting ready to make EVEN MORE GOOD LAWS JUST LIKE IT!

Are you going to wait until they storm into your bedroom the next time your alarm clock malfunctions? Being quietly asleep in your bedroom  is the new standard to have your home invaded, your property seized and forever lose your fundamental constitutional rights in Pennsylvania. Sleeping in the privacy of your bedroom now constitutes sufficient dangerous behavior to be declared by your local policeman as "unable to care for yourself" -- which in turn automatically makes you too dangerous to own a firearm. Have you felt drowsy lately?

Variations of PA Act 17's "Model for the Nation" have been passed or are now being considered in state legislatures across the nation. "Pre-emptive law" like the Lautenburg Bill is broadening the population of citizens prohibited from the fundamental right to keep and bear arms, while state laws like Act 17 are passed to demonize the remaining lawful gunowners as a class of people so inherently dangerous that they need not be protected by the
constitutional right to due process of the law. We can now also look forward to being fingerprinted just like a convicted murderer and have that be entered into the same database that contains the record of all our visits to the marriage counselor.

Please FAX and then call your Representative in Harrisburg immediately. Then contact as many of the members of the House Judiciary Committee as you can before November 3, 1998. Anti-gunners are planning to force a vote and "pop" a very restrictive gun control bill out to the floor as early as November 9, 1998.

House Bill 2484 (L. Cohen) amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) to restrict firearms purchases to one firearm per 30 day period (gun rationing). HB 2484 also requires new restrictive paperwork to be filled out by gun buyers, a photo and fingerprints!

In addition, HB 2484 makes it a crime for you to not report a lost or stolen firearm within 14 days, even in cases where you don't own the firearm but "control" it.

Here's the House Judiciary Committee list: (All area codes are 717 unless noted otherwise.)

                            Phone #  / FAX #
Chm. Thomas Gannon (R-161)  783-6430 / 783-2867

Jerry Birmelin (R-139)      783-2037 / 772-9869
Scot Chadwick (R-110)       783-8238 / 787-5713
Dan Clark (R-82)            783-3850 / 783-3899
Lita Cohen (R-148)          783-2063 / 787-0860
Craig Dally (R-138)         783-8573 / 772-2468
Brett Feese (R-84)          787-5270 / 772-2468
Tim Hennessey (R-26)        787-3431 / 787-0860
Steve Maitland (R-91)       783-5217 / 783-3899
Al Masland (R-199)          772-2280 / 772-9869
Jane Orie (R-28)            772-9943 / 772-2470
Bob Reber (R-146)           787-2924 / 772-6952
Jere Shuler (R-43)          783-6422 / 772-6952
Chris Wogan (R-176)         787-3974 / 772-9905
Tom Caltagirone (D-127)     787-3525 / 772-5401
Andy Carn (D-197)           787-3542 / 787-7295
Pete Daley II (D-49)        783-933? / 783-7558
Frank Dermody (D-33)        787-3566 / 787-8060
Harold James (D-186)        787-9477 / 787-7517
B. Josephs (D-182)          787-8529 / 787-0861
Kate Manderino (D-194)      787-1254 / 787-0861
Dave Mayernik (D-29)        783-1654 / None Listed
Joe Petraca (D-55)          787-5142 / 705-2014
Don Walko (D-20)           787-5470 / 783-0407
L. Washington (D-200)       783-2175 / 783-8724

Call the phone numbers above to get district office phone and FAX numbers.

They're not just stopping you randomly at the armed checkpoints for drunk-driver-screening (instituted in PA in the past several years), now they will come into your home, your bedroom, your most private medical records (that used to be protected by Federal and State Privacy Laws).

All in the name of pre-emptive law. And they will not stop until they have "pre-empted" virtually every right that you still have left.

It's not just about guns anymore, it's about freedom.

Have you had enough? Or will you wait for your State to be the next to experience your very own "Act 17"? If PA can succeed in their latest attempt to further erode freedom in that State, surely it will be a green light for the anti's of every other State, to proceed with your very own "Act 17", in YOUR STATE! As Sarah Brady of Handgun Control, Inc.. said, It was hailed as a "model for the nation".
 

What will you do?

And now you know what the PA legislature is up to, even after the great victories Russell Laing has seen,

http://www.gunownersalliance.com/process2.htm

and now you know "The R E S T of the Story!"