"Large numbers of Americans tote guns because they're assertive, self- reliant citizens, not docile subjects of a permanent governing class. The Second Amendment is philosophically consistent with the First Amendment…..Both amendments embody the American view that liberty is not the gift of the state, and its defense cannot be outsourced exclusively to the government."
-- Mark Steyn
Every winter, the Utah State Legislature meets for six weeks primarily to cause trouble and, occasionally, to undo some of its past mistakes and maybe even make an improvement or two to the existing laws every now and then. As usual, this presents us with challenges as well as opportunities.
The good news is that several bills are being drafted that could have the effect of protecting or expanding your right to own and carry weapons. The bad news is that several bills are being drafted that could have the effect of further restricting those rights. The only way that the good bills stand a chance of passing and the bad bills stand a chance of getting defeated is if individual citizens like you are willing to contribute a little bit of your time to contact the appropriate politicians.
One way in which GOUtah! differs from most other Second-Amendment groups is that we endeavor to keep an eye out for "backdoor" gun-control legislation, and to keep you informed about it. Just because a bill doesn’t contain the word "firearm" doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t have a direct effect on gun rights. In particular, we believe that one of the biggest perennial threats to Second-Amendment rights is something we call "felony creep". Here’s how it works:
There are three basic classifications of crimes: infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies. Throughout most of American history, felony status has been reserved for the most heinous crimes, such as murder, rape, robbery, and that sort of thing. In 1968, Congress passed a law that prohibits you from possessing firearms and ammunition for the rest of your life if you have any kind of felony record. When this law was passed, it was aimed at murderers, rapists, robbers, and other violent criminals who had been released from prison, as a way to discourage them from using guns and as a way to easily put them back in prison if they got caught with a gun.
Since then, however, all sorts of minor crimes have been elevated to felony status at both the state and federal levels. And each year, the Utah Legislature considers several well-intentioned bills that could enable prosecutors to bring felony charges against someone for a minor act. For example, one bill that was defeated a few years ago (due to opposition from gun owners) would have enabled prosecutors to bring felony charges against you if you changed the antifreeze in your car and allowed some of the antifreeze to spill onto the ground and form a puddle, and an animal subsequently drank the antifreeze and died. While we don’t condone such irresponsible behavior, we don’t think it should result in the permanent revocation of a person’s Second-Amendment rights.
If the Utah Legislature decided to elevate jaywalking to a felony, for example, and if you then got convicted of jaywalking, you would automatically and permanently lose your right to possess firearms and ammunition. You couldn’t even hold a gun in your hands for the rest of your life, let alone use one for target practice, hunting, self-defense, or collecting. If the Feds caught you possessing a gun at any time after you served your sentence for jaywalking – even decades later -- you could spend five years in federal prison (ten years if you also got caught with ammunition in your possession).
Of course, jaywalking is not yet a felony. But it seems we’re gradually moving in that general direction. In fact, a civil-liberties lawyer from Bostson named Harvey Silverglate did some extensive research on the subject and concluded that the average American citizen unknowingly commits three federal felonies every day, not counting any state felonies that he might also be unknowingly committing. Mr. Silverglate has published a book entitled "Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent" [Encounter Books, 2009].
Furthermore, under a federal program called "Operation Safe Neighborhoods" that was started around 2002, the U.S. Justice Department has been vigorously prosecuting and imprisoning people who possess firearms in violation of federal law. The last time we checked, an average of about 400 Utahns were being charged by the feds with illegal gun possession each year under Operation Safe Neighborhoods. While a certain number of violent felons are caught by Operation Safe Neighborhoods, our own rudimentary research indicates that the vast majority of people who get prosecuted and imprisoned under this program don’t have a violent felony record. The feds don’t appear to care whether a given gun owner actually poses a threat to public safety. All they care about is whether that person is technically eligible to possess a firearm under federal law. If jaywalking were a felony in Utah, we speculate that the feds would use Operation Safe Neighborhoods to go after convicted jaywalkers who own guns with the same enthusiasm with which they go after convicted murderers who own guns.
GOUtah! believes that you shouldn’t be permanently stripped of your Second-Amendment rights for a minor act. Thus, as long as the automatic lifetime ban on gun ownership for felons continues to exist, we’ll oppose any legislation that could have the effect of turning a minor act into a felony. We encourage you to contact your state senator, your state representative, and the Governor, asking them to oppose all such bills during this legislative session. Please see the Action Item below for details about how to do this.
Most voters never bother to write a letter or make a phone call to their elected officials. Thus, your willingness to write a few letters or send a few e-mails or make a few phone calls during the next six weeks will put you in an elite minority of gun owners who are willing to make a significant effort to protect the right to keep and bear arms. And you’ll be able to have a much greater impact on the legislative process than the thousands of gun owners who don’t do anything.
Since the fall of 2008, the prices of guns, ammunition, and reloading components have soared. People have been panic-buying because they believe that new restrictions will soon be enacted on guns and/or ammunition. However, based on our conversations with many gun owners, we’ve reached the sad conclusion that a lot of folks who are willing to plunk down hundreds or even thousands of dollars at a time on guns and ammo won’t lift a finger to oppose anti-gun legislation or to support pro-gun legislation.
In our experience in dealing with the Utah Legislature, we’ve often found that a few hundred letters to legislators from gun owners around the state can make the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome on a given piece of legislation. We hope that you’ll choose to be one of the tiny minority of gun owners in Utah willing to put forth some effort to defend the right to keep and bear arms, rather than being one of the hundreds of thousands who do nothing.
The Utah Legislature has a House of Representatives and a Senate. To find out which Utah State Senate district you live in, go to:
http://www.utahsenate.org/map.html
To find out which Utah State House of Representatives district you live in, go to:
http://www.le.state.ut.us/house/DistrictInfo/newMaps/State.htm
Once you know your two districts, you can find the name of your State Senator and State Representative, along with complete contact info including e-mail addresses, home phone numbers, and mailing addresses. Go to GOUtah!’s website here. Here is the Capitol Hill contact info for the Senate, the House, and the Governor’s Office. Please keep this in a handy location so you can use it in the future. For e-mail addresses and home phone numbers, please refer to the GOUtah! website as mentioned above.
[your senator’s name goes here]Letters to your State Senator, your State Representative, and the Governor can be sent to the State Capitol via regular mail, fax, or e-mail. Regular mail gets the most attention and is good to use for communications that aren’t time-critical. Faxes work well for time-critical stuff, but you need to make sure that you put the name of the legislator you are contacting at the top of the page where it’s easy to see. Also, you can phone your senator and representative at home in the evening during the week (if they live within commuting distance of the Capitol) or you can phone them at home on weekends, or you can leave a phone message for them at the Capitol during regular weekday business hours. E-mails are OK, but are not generally as effective as letters, faxes, or phone calls. But an e-mail message is certainly better than nothing, and in some cases when time is very limited it may be the best way to go. Each legislator has a laptop on his desk and gets frequent e-mail updates.
Bear in mind that legislators are very busy during the General Session. Often, legislators just scan the "subject" headings of incoming e-mail messages without actually taking time to open the message. So it’s important to put the main point of your message in the subject header when sending e-mail.
Please send a message this week to your State Senator and your State Representative asking them to support your right to own and carry firearms for lawful purposes, and asking them to oppose any legislation that would diminish that right for you or for any other law-abiding citizen. Ask them also to oppose any legislation that would elevate minor acts to felony status. A pre-written letter is included below. You may copy and paste the text, filling in the blanks as appropriate. Please feel free to modify the text if you wish, or send it as-is, or write your own letter. The important thing is to send a message in the next few days. If you really want to make extra impact, you can print out the letter, sign it, and mail it. Otherwise, you can fax it or e-mail it.
The GOUtah! position on the "Government Ethics Reform" ballot initiative, as stated in Alert #323, generated a spate of both reported "articles" and editorial disapproval of our position from both The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News. The Tribune article "Group fears gun grab" quotes Utahns for Ethical Government attorney David Irvine saying "If there are people out there doing that, I cannot imagine the world of paranoia in which they operate." The News article "Gun advocates question legislative ethics initiative" quotes attorney David Irvine, again, who helped draft the initiative's language, that GOUtah!'s argument "is just silly," and "outrageous, just crazy". The Tribune continued with a thumb editorial characterizing the GOUtah! position as "ludicrous".
GOUtah! still maintains that the citizens’ initiative sponsored by "Utahns for Ethical Government" has a de facto gun-registration clause, and opposes it for that reason.
There are those in the hoplophobe community who are terrified of having a firearm in the home. Even worse, in their opinion, is to have the weapon loaded. Their ultimate fear is to have a juvenile in the home with the loaded weapon.
The fact of the matter is that juveniles can use weapons responsibly. Take for instance the case, as reported by Action 4 News, of the homeowner and her 11-year-old son who were in bed when she heard banging coming from the front door a little after midnight. She got up to check and she saw two Hispanic males men wearing masks and armed with handguns (no, they weren't BATFE agents). She retreated to her bedroom, locked the door and refused to allow the men entrance. The home invaders shot through the door and hit her son on the left hip area. The son returned fire through the door with a .22 caliber rifle apparently hitting one of the invaders as the investigating deputies found blood all over the floor. A man with a gunshot wound to his neck was admitted to hospital and placed under arrest for the invasion.
On 19 January, 2010 our friends at Gun Owners of America (GOA) posted the following e-mail alert regarding the proposed Utah bill, SB 11, titled the Utah State-made Firearms Protection Act.
The 2010 session of the Utah State Legislature will begin less than one week from now. While there are several gun bills (both good and bad) already filed, one bill in particular should be of great interest to Beehive State gun owners.
The bill is SB 11, introduced by State Senator Margaret Dayton (R-15). Known as the Utah State-made Firearms Protection Act, the bill is modeled after similar legislation which has been successful in other states, including Montana -- the first state to pass such a law.
At GOA, we just call it the Firearms Freedom Act, because it has a simple concept. SB 11 states that if a gun was made in Utah, and then stays in Utah, the federal government may not regulate it under the Interstate Commerce Cause. (Because, you see, the gun was never part of any interstate commerce.)
This is important because the Commerce Clause is the "hook" that Congress has used to justify almost every single federal gun control law. But with the passage of SB 11, a stand will be taken that guns stamped with the words "Made in Utah" are no business of the federal government.
The session is just about to start, and Sen. Dayton is looking for other Senators to support her bill. The more on-record support the bill has, the more difficult it will be for the leadership to pretend SB 11 doesn't exist by letting it languish in some Death-Star committee.
ACTION: Please urge your state Senator to actively support SB 11.
"The Second Amendment was for the assertion and preservation of the God-given right of self-protection and as a check against tyranny. That is abundantly clear in the Founders' writings and records of deliberations and from the foundations of their ideas on law.
Now, studies show that well more than a million times a year, a firearm is
used by a citizen to thwart an assault or other crime in the United States. And every repressive, totalitarian government on earth, present and past, has total gun confiscation.
What is the result when only the criminals or tyrannical governments have
guns?
Go figure.
-- Allan South, in a letter printed in the Deseret News, 16 January 2010.
"In 'Cost of handguns' (Forum, Jan. 2), Tom Stephens condemned the civilian ownership of handguns because of the number of deaths attributed to their use. He challenged supporters of civilian ownership to justify the carnage.
At least 17 academic studies indicate that approximately 2 million-2.5 million violent attacks are prevented in this country each year due to gun ownership. Often the use of a firearm is not even required; simply indicating that you are armed encourages assailants to seek easier targets.
In this country, even home invasions occur less frequently than in many other countries because criminals worry that the potential victim might be armed. According to www.dailymail.co.uk, the violent crime rate per 100,000 residents is much higher in the United Kingdom (2,034), Australia (1,677) and even Canada (935) than in the United States (466).
Much of the violent crime that occurs in this country is by gangs protecting
turf. Criminals, by definition, do not obey laws. In Mexico, where personal ownership of firearms is strictly limited, the murder rate is 13 per 100,000 people; whereas, in the gun-toting United States, it is four!
We have made it illegal to possess most drugs. How well has that worked out?"
-- John Wangsgaard, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 January 2010.
Please create a copy for your Utah State Senator.
Date:
From:
To:
Dear :
As one of your constituents, I encourage you to support any legislation that protects and expands the right of decent citizens to own and carry firearms for lawful purposes, and to oppose any legislation that would diminish that right. In particular, I ask you to oppose all bills that could have the effect of elevating a minor offense to felony status. Federal law permanently strips a citizen of his right to possess a firearm if he has any sort of felony record.
When Congress passed this law in 1968, it was aimed at murderers, rapists, robbers, and other truly dangerous criminals who constituted the bulk of convicted felons at the time. Nowadays, however, all sorts of minor non-violent acts can result in a felony conviction, which in turn automatically results in a permanent loss of one’s gun rights.
The Utah Legislature annually considers several well-intentioned bills that would empower prosecutors to bring felony charges against an individual for minor acts that don’t result in injury to anyone. Such legislation could cause decent citizens to permanently lose their Second-Amendment rights. Until the federal gun laws get changed, I will view any such legislation as a form of back-door gun control, and I encourage you to oppose it. Thanks for taking time to consider my views.
Sincerely,
That concludes the GOUtah! Political and Legislative Alert #325 for 26 January, 2010. We hope this information will be of assistance to you in defending your firearms rights.
Remember that getting this information is meaningless unless You Act On It Today. If you just read it and dump it in the trash, your gun rights, and the gun rights of future generations go in the trash with it. Get involved, get active and get vocal!
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