Support Building Up in Congress to Repeal D.C. Post-Heller Rules

[FCFC]

This is an interesting press release by John Snyder. If he's right, looks like Adrian Fenty and company are about to get spanked with the passage (relatively quickly?) of H.R. 1399 and S. 1001 which would repeal the new D.C. rules.

Old Heller will register his 1911 yet.




Gun Rights Dean Anticipates National Support for Capitol Hill Effort to Torpedo Washington, D.C. Assault on United States Supreme Court Heller Decision


July 22, 2008
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ --

"America's 80 million law-abiding gun owners will support a developing congressional effort to thwart politicians in the Nation's Capital seeking to undermine the Supreme Court decision in the historic District of Columbia v. Heller case," right to self-defense advocate John M. Snyder said here today.

"After the Court threw out the D.C. handgun ban as an unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment individual right to keep and bear arms, D.C. officials thumbed their noses at the Court," continued Snyder, Manager of Telum Associates, LL.C., and Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. "They acted recently to continue the ban on semiautomatic handguns. They told Dick Anthony Heller, who won the case, he still cannot register his .45 caliber Colt 1911 handgun."

Snyder, named "dean of gun lobbyists" by The Washington Post and The New York Times, noted that, "H.R. 1399, the proposed Second Amendment Enforcement Act introduced by Reps. Mike Ross (AR) and Mark Souder (IN), to repeal D.C. provisions at issue in the case, already has 247 cosponsors -- well over half the membership of the House of Representatives. H. Res. 1331, by Congressman Souder, would force early consideration of a modified version of the bill if activated by the signatures of 218 Representatives on a discharge petition the Hoosier lawmaker plans to file.

"Since the D.C. government thinks it's superior to the Supreme Court, Congress ought to tell gun-grabbing D.C. politicians to take a hike. Souder's move would do the trick. Concerned citizens around the country can support Souder by urging their own U.S. Representatives to endorse H. Res. 1331."

The Senate companion measure, S. 1001, by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, already has 47 cosponsors, Snyder reported.

"D.C. politicians have treated the Supreme Court with contempt," said Snyder. "They have refused to recognize appropriately the right to self-protection. They have refused to honor freedom of choice of appropriate arms for self-defense by Dick Anthony Heller and others. Congress must not allow the District to get away with it. It should move the proposed Second Amendment Enforcement Act and it should move it soon."

Contact: John Snyder 703-212-9863

SOURCE Telum Associates, LL.C.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...59A1AF-05FB-4020-B6B0-62956FE67C1B}&dist=hppr

 

[ozwyn]

I'd be happy if I see but I don't expect it to go through in an election year.

would love to be wrong though.

 

[Psywarrior13]

Done, and done.... Both my Senator and my Rep contacted. Now to wait for the responses...

 

[everallm]

Interesting but probably leavened with a soupcon of political grandstanding.

For those who aren't up to the arcana of the political process.

A discharge petition is a means of bringing a bill out of committee and to the floor for consideration without a report from a Committee and usually without cooperation of the leadership. Discharge petitions are most often associated with the U.S. House of Representatives, though many state legislatures have similar procedures. They are used when the chair of a committee refuses to place a bill or resolution on the Committee's agenda; by never reporting a bill, the matter will never leave the committee and the full House will not be able to consider it. A successful petition "discharges" the committee from further consideration of a bill or resolution and brings it directly to the floor. The discharge petition, and the threat of one, gives more power to individual members of the House and usurps a small amount of power from the leadership and committee chairs. The modern discharge petition requires the signature of an absolute majority of House members (218 members).


Basically the bill or variants there of has been battling around in committee for a long while and is going nowhere slowly.

Even if the pre-requisite 218 sign off it then has to be scheduled for a vote over other "worthy" pork barrel and vanity project bills that are being rammed through.

Nice thought but let us say, somewhat optimistic....

 

[riverdog]

What types of roadblocks should we expect from Nancy Pelosi? As a self-righteous anti, can she stop this legislation from getting to a House vote?

 

[XD Fan]

I looked up the Senate bill and it was introduced in March of 2007. Can it still be active and viable?

 

[everallm]

XDfan

Like I said, It's been in committee and blocked from release for a long while now. Heller is simply the latest pressure tactic to get it moved out of committee and onto the floor for a vote.

Even if the bill is released from committee, the Speaker (Nancy Pelosi) a well known guns rights supporter....... isn't about to give it air time.

The blocking tactics could vary from, but not limited to,

Not recognizing the discharge
Dropping the bill to the bottom of the debate and vote stack
Selectively refusing to recognize debaters or only recognizing those who she feels should be heard
Referring the bill back to committee
Raising points of order
Etc

The only way it could get moved forward is if the Speaker sees some overwhelmingly positive (read financial or lobby support) to her reason.

Like I said, nice thought but let us say, somewhat optimistic....

 

[Jim K]

There must be some concern among the "no guns" gang. The Wash Post had an editorial to the effect that Congress should not interfere in local business.

Strange, they supported the Voting Rights Act. It was definitely interference in state business when the state "business" was denying people their rights. I guess there are rights and then there are rights.

Jim

 

[LAR-15]

HA!

Souder has enough votes for a discharge petition.

If he gets one its going to come up for a vote and Pelosi cannot do anything.

Remember Peter Rodino and the FOPA of 1986?

BTW my rep has been contacted on this.

 

[shdwfx]

God bless Rep. Mark Souder!

I used to live in Indiana and am proud to say my family voted and campaigned for him. It's nice to hear he's still keeping up the good fight.

 

[dalepres]

The District of Columbia will thumb their nose at any law passed by Congress just as they did at the Sumpreme Court. Congress has spent the last 8 years, and even more so since the Democrats took over, demonstrating that there are no consequences to thumbing your nose at Congress, that they do not have the political will to lead or to fight - even to defend their own constitutional place in our society. The only thing they care about is getting re-elected.

 

[Right Wing Wacko]

My Senators are Murry and Cantwell. There is no chance of getting them to support this bill. It will be easier to just vote them out of office (which will itself be difficult in this nanny state of WA).

 

[Titan6]

You mean the same congress who refused for 32 years to repeal the gun ban? I am sure they will be right on it. Everybody just sit back and relax.....

 

[F4GIB]

Actually, the D.C. Council should welcome Congressional action limiting their "home rule" powers. The ban doesn't work anyway.

This will allow them to tell their constituents that "Congress did it!" They can duck the blame for running a city that doesn't work.

 

[Sam Adams]

I'm not so sure that I want the feds to pass this bill. If it passes and isn't full 2A-friendly, it'll be friendly enough that the Supremes will never talk about DC and guns again. If it doesn't pass, the Fenty's "machine gun" ban and onerous registration requirements will go before the Court in the next couple of years. I'd rather see a severe slap down by the Court, and perhaps another significant restoration of our rights, than a mere law passed by Congress (which can be replaced with something else when theres a Dem Congress and a Dem President.

 

[jaholder1971]

It should be amended to cover all states and municipalities and torpedo the 86 MG ban while we're at it.

Call it a Civil Rights bill.

 

[Sam Adams]

Don't hold your breath - not that I wouldn't like to see such a bill, but it'd never get out of committee, wouldn't reach a floor vote, and wouldn't pass this Congress (or any other in quite some time). I think that we have to win in the courts, step-by-step.