Sitting Duck Policy

Do you know who's policies are making you a Sitting Duck?
Home » Archive by category 'Activism'

I just sent this letter to the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee asking for their support of HB49

January 30th, 2012 Posted in Activism Tags: , ,

I just wrote the following letter to the members of the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee. Please feel free to use it, or any part of it you’d like when contacting our Legislators.

If you wish to voice your opinion, please do so quicky. It’s expected that this bill will be heard today, 1/30/2012 at 2pm.

To: coda@le.utah.gov, rgreenwood@le.utah.gov, parent@le.utah.gov, dbutterfield@le.utah.gov, cfrank@le.utah.gov, keithgrover@le.utah.gov, greghughes@le.utah.gov, dipson@le.utah.gov, dlitvack@le.utah.gov, dmccay@le.utah.gov, leeperry@le.utah.gov, jseelig@le.utah.gov, billwright@le.utah.gov

Subject: Please Support HB49, Firearm Possession Protection Bill

Dear Committee Members,

It’s unfortunate that people have worry about assaults of others carrying out unlawful and violent acts.

It’s unfortunate that Law Enforcement cannot prevent these terrible acts from happening. What’s more, courts have found that Police are not responsible to ensure the protection of The People.

What’s left is self-defense. A person not only should, but (given our current legal state and criminal climate) MUST provide for their own defense, and the defense of their family members.

Self-defense is a fundamental right and protected not only by the U.S. Constitution, but by the Utah Constitution as well. Furthermore, it’s clearly provided for in State statute.

It’s generally accepted that the best way to defend oneself or one’s family is by the lawful carry of a firearm — concealed or otherwise.

This lawful carry does not — and cannot by any logic — be considered a violation of Disorderly Conduct statutes. If simply carrying a sidearm on one’s hip was “Disorderly Conduct” all of our Police Officers would be in jail, would they not? But the Police are “the good guys” right? Statistics have shown (overwhelmingly) that those who choose to lawfully carry a firearm for self-defense are ALSO “the good guys”. Statistically speaking, the crime rates for those who choose to take on the added responsibility and liability of carrying a firearm for self-defense are SIGNIFICANTLY lower than that of the general populous.

Yet there is a problem in Utah that Law Enforcement in some jurisdictions are harassing and even ARRESTING people for openly carrying a sidearm —  when it is clearly NOT prohibited in statute.  These jurisdictions have sought creative ways to harass law-abiding firearm owners who are legally carrying unconcealed firearms for self-defense.

HB 49 bill would remove one of the ploys (charging the person with Disorderly Conduct) being used by some jurisdictions within Utah to circumvent State law and the Utah Constitution in an attempt to go after these law-abiding firearm owners.

Put simply, these jurisdictions are IGNORING YOU. They are ignoring the legislative process. They are violating the very Law they are sworn to uphold and defend — because of an ambiguity and someone’s misplaced definition of “Disorderly Conduct”.

HB 49 is your chance to tell these runaway Law Enforcement  jurisdictions that they are out of line and that the bills you pass are the Law — Law that, by definition they MUST enforce.

Please support HB 49 as it is written, and oppose any amendments or substitutions that would water down the fundamental Right of The People to defend themselves and their families.

With respect,

  • Joe Levi, SY08 Precinct Vice Chair & State Delegate
No Comments

Supreme Court: Gun Owners of America Victory in GPS Tracking Case

January 24th, 2012 Posted in Activism Tags: ,
The Supreme Court yesterday unanimously sided with Gun Owners of America in finding that the placement of a Global Positioning Device on an automobile constitutes a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment.
The majority opinion in U.S. v. Jones was written by Justice Antonin Scalia and follows GOA’s reasoning to throw out the “reasonable expectation of privacy” test which has been thought to be the dominant Fourth Amendment standard in recent years.
The Obama Administration argued that because the police could theoretically follow Antoine Jones’ car, he had no “reasonable expectation of privacy,” and thus, placing a GPS device on his car was justified. GOA argued, however, that this constituted an “unreasonable search and seizure” which violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.
This decision will have dramatic ramifications for gun owners. Indeed, the Court looked to the Founders’ intentions with respect to the Fourth Amendment, which, until the latter part of the 20thCentury, was understood to restrict the ability of police to “trespass” upon the persons or property of Americans.
“This is no less than a fundamental transformation of American jurisprudence concerning searches and seizures,” according to GOA’s Executive Director Larry Pratt. “And it is a transformation which throws out fake modern jurisprudence and restores the Founders’ intent.”
The “reasonable expectation of privacy” test flowed from a Justice Harlan concurring opinion in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967). Gun Owners of America had argued that the Supreme Court should jettison that decision by an activist court, and a majority of the justices agreed.
“The ‘expectation of privacy’ test for searches and seizures arose without support in the text or historical context of the Fourth Amendment, and has proven wholly inadequate to protect the American people from their government,” argued GOA.
Four members of the court — led by Samuel Alito, and joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan — argued for the continuation of the “reasonable expectation of privacy test,” but concluded that planting a GPS device on a car for 28 days constituted a Fourth Amendment “search” under that standard as well.

The Obama administration, which had argued that planting a GPS device on a car was not a “search” under the Harlan standard, was unanimously repudiated by the High Court. And the case is being cited by the mainstream media as a defeat for Obama and his Justice Department, which is led by Attorney General Eric Holder.
Said Pratt: “This is yet another failure by Eric Holder, the most corrupt and incompetent Attorney General in the history of the Republic.”
Gun Owners would like to thank its activists for their support. Your contributions helps GOA to assist in future cases like this at the Supreme Court.
No Comments

Senator Orrin Hatch Picks Up Two Pro-gun Challengers

January 13th, 2012 Posted in Activism

Two pro-gun conservatives recently announced they were running against Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.

This is welcome news for gun owners. In a Senate career that has lasted more than thirty five years, Hatch has not been a particularly good friend of the Second Amendment.

During negotiations over the 1986 McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act — designed to protect gun owners from abuses of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — Hatch sat at the negotiating table next to officials of the ATF and argued against the pro-gun positions of Sen. Jim McClure.

Though a senior member of the Senate, Hatch did nothing to block camels-nose legislation slammed through by Republican leader Bob Dole in the late 1980s to regulate armor-piercing bullets and outlaw non-existent “plastic guns.”

As ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1993-4, Hatch refused to filibuster the Brady Law, even though it would have been possible to kill it.

He supported the 1996 Lautenberg amendment to impose a lifetime gun ban on people guilty of “domestic misdemeanors” – a term so amorphous that it could apply to spanking your kid or engaging in a verbal argument.

In the wake of the Columbine shooting, Hatch voted for amendments which would have effectively banned gun shows, made it more difficult to keep a loaded gun in your home for self-defense, and codified the Bush-era semi-auto import ban.

This package of legislation was stopped in a conference committee only after Hatch and others were pummeled relentlessly by tens of thousands of GOA activists.

In 2007, Hatch supported the Veterans Disarmament Act—which could strip the Second Amendment rights of honorably discharged veterans who seek professional counseling following traumatic wartime experiences.

Over the following two years, while GOA was working with pro-gun Senators to repeal the gun ban in national parks, Hatch voted against repeal before voting for it in 2009.

Last year, Hatch opposed an amendment offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to exempt gun buyer information from the Obama administration’s virtually unlimited ability to seize “business records” under the reauthorization of post-9/11 legislation.

Sen. Hatch hasn’t exactly stood up to the Obama administration, either. He voted in favor of regulatory “czar” Cass Sunstein, who favors a ban on hunting and who would grant animals legal protections in court.

And, despite repeated pleas from GOA members, he voted to confirm Eric Holder as Attorney General. In addition to being mired in the Fast and Furious scandal, Holder was the point man on gun control for President Bill Clinton and is a vocal supporter of banning many semiautomatic firearms.

Thankfully, Orrin Hatch is facing a serious challenge in this year’s Republican convention.

Former State Senator Dan Liljenquist is a stalwart pro-gun conservative who understands the dangers of compromising with the likes of President Obama.

And State Rep. Chris Herrod also jumped in the race because, he said, “we don’t have much time to fix our challenges” as a nation. Both Herrod and Liljenquist are “A” rated on gun rights issues.

The candidates will face off in the state Republican convention in April. If no candidate receives more than 60 percent of the delegate votes, the top two vote-getters will run in a June primary.

Gun Owners of America welcomes the challenge to a Senator with a long history of compromising on Second Amendment rights

No Comments
1234567 ... Last