I know I promised no politics, but this was sitting in my inbox:
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URGENT ACTION ITEM!
FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
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Watergate Office Building
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
E-Mail: pressreleases@hq.LP.org
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For release: April 24, 2003
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Tell George Bush what you think about renewing Bill Clinton’s gun ban
Dear Friends:
Gun-rights supporters around the country are flooding the White House with e-mails demanding that President Bush reverse his position on banning “assault weapons.”
Wouldn’t you like to join in?
This Action Item contains brief background information, and directs you to a website where you can send a pre-written e-mail to the White House. Please read this immediately and take the action at the bottom.
BACKGROUND:
On April 12, White House spokesman Scott McClellan set off a furor when he announced that Bush supports renewing the federal ban on certain semi-automatic rifles. That law, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and then-Rep. Charles Schumer, was signed by President Clinton in 1994.
However, it contains a 10-year sunset provision and is set to expire in September 2004 unless reauthorized by Congress and signed again by the president.
Knight-Ridder newspapers quoted McClellan as saying Bush “supports the current law, and he supports reauthorization of the current law.”
The Gun Owners of America immediately alerted its e-mail list, and generated over 10,000 e-mails and calls to the White House in the first 24 hours, according to GOA’s executive director, Larry Pratt.
Amazingly, some White House operators claimed there was no Scott McClellan working at the White House, according to callers ?- even though both The Washington Post and WorldNetDaily carried articles identifying McClellan as a White House spokesman. Some operators also accused callers of being “confused,” or refused to discuss the issue unless they were provided the exact section number from the U.S. code.
Imagine how embarrassed the White House was when Feinstein and Schumer wrote a joint letter praising Bush for supporting the ban!
Their April 16 statement “welcomed the announcement that President George W. Bush supports the reauthorization of the 1994 assault-weapons ban. . . . In 1994, we fought hard to win passage of the original ban, and shortly after Congress returns from the spring recess we plan to introduce legislation that would reauthorize it. We welcome your support and look forward to working with you to gain swift passage of this legislation.”
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that Republicans and Democrats worked in swift, bipartisan harmony to sell out your gun rights.
But if we succeed, it wouldn’t be the first time that Bush caved in to pressure on the gun issue and did the right thing. Recall that last year Bush reversed his original position and ended up supporting a bill to allow guns in the cockpit.
Let’s try to get Bush to do another flip-flop in the direction of freedom! Tell President Bush that the government has no business dictating what kind of gun you can own. Let him know that your constitutional rights aren’t negotiable — and that you won’t tolerate this Bush-Clinton gun ban!
WHAT TO DO:
Click on this link to send a pre-written e-mail to President Bush:
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm
Then let us know if you appreciate being kept up-to-date on projects like this. One of the most important things the Libertarian Party does is to keep you informed about threats to your freedom and provide a way for you to fight back. After you e-mail the White House, consider making a small donation to the Libertarian Party at:
http://www.lp.org/action/contribute.html
Thank you,
Geoffrey Neale
Chair
Libertarian Party
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The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008
Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072
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