🚀 go-pugleaf

     May 5 Neal Knox Update -- There's a high probability that the
1999 Lautenberg gun show amendment and other gun provisions that
passed the Senate as part of the Juvenile Justice bill will be on
the Senate floor this coming week.

     Sen. Jack Reed, who has 19 co-sponsors including one
Republican (Chafee [R.I.]) on a bill supposedly identical to the
Senate-passed 1999 gun amendments, is "contemplating" offering it
on S.1, the Education funding authorization bill which has been on
the floor all week.

     The Lautenberg language would require background checks, which
could extend up to three working days, on private gun show sales --
the same as guns now sold by dealers.  If "any part" of the
transaction -- including seeing a gun, or rejecting it because of
price -- took place at a show, a purchase of the gun a year later
would require bringing a dealer into the sale to perform a NICS
check.

     The biggest impact of Lautenberg would be the paperwork
demanded of show promoters, who would have to be licensed.
Promoters would have to report the names of all sellers to BATF,
including an individual who came to a show with something to trade.

     The definition of "gun show" is so broad that it could apply
to shooting competitions, or when two or three collectors met to
trade guns at one of their homes -- of which BATF would have to be
notified a month in advance.

       Other provisions include a ban on over 10-rd. magazines, a
requirement to sell trigger-locks with ever handgun, increasing the
age of gun owners and other provisions.

     Reed is a freshman who last year offered S. 2099, a "political
statement" that sought to put all handguns under the 1934 National
Firearms Act.  This softer bill is far more dangerous because it is
likely to pass the Senate.

     Most of it -- including the softer gun show definition and 24-hour
background check that NRA endorsed in 1999 -- was approved by
the House, and was endorsed by President Bush during the campaign.

     The Schumer-Feinstein strategy behind Reed's "identical"
Lautenberg bill is to embarrass Senators who voted for it two years
ago just after Columbine, and now wish they hadn't because of
pounding by their gun-owning constituents.
-------------

     Good friend Kevin Jamison, long a key figure in the Western
Missouri Shooters Alliance, this week lost his challenge to BATF's
Feb. 9 ruling that "Streetsweeper" type shotguns had to be
registered as "destructive devices."

     A Kansas City attorney, Kevin challenged the ruling out of his
own pocket, "because someone had to at least try."

     On April 10 BATF sent an "open letter" to FFL's stating "ATF
believes that sufficient time has been afforded" for registration
and advising that after May 1, 2001, "any unregistered
Streetsweeper, Striker-12, or USAS-12, will be subject to the
seizure and forfeiture provisions of the law."  They noted that
"criminal penalties may also be imposed."
----------------

     Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), who sometimes plays a leading
role for gun control (and once threatened to sue me) is in serious
trouble for campaign law violations.

     A major contributor has pleaded guilty to giving him some
$50,000 worth of illegal gifts.  One prominent New Jersey Democrat
told Roll Call he wouldn't be a Senator by September.

     That was before word leaked out this week that Torricelli's
top aides had arranged and surreptitiously paid for a $50,000
mailing from the Coalition of New Jersey Sportsmen in which
President Rich Miller lambasted Torricelli's opponent in the last
election, anti-gun Republican Rep. Richard Zimmer.

     Miller told FBI investigators he had written the letter last
summer, pointing out Zimmer was no better on the gun issue than
Torricelli, and urging them to vote for a minor candidate or sit
out the election.

     The letter had only limited circulation until Torricelli's
campaign staff arranged with Miller to deliver a proof copy and a
list of 144,000 known pro-gunners to his regular printer.
According to records inspected by the New York Times, printing and
mailing were paid for with a combination of cash, postage stamps
and a check.

     Torricelli's campaign didn't report the expenditure, and the
letter said it was sent without authorization from any campaign.
---------------------

     Although the Second Amendment Sisters (http://www.sas-
aim.org/home.htm) are arranging Mother's Day rallies all over the
country, the struggling Million Mom March -- which spent millions
on a rally that drew at most 60-80,000 to the Washington Mall -- is
reduced to a "cybermarch."

     President Mary Leigh Blek wants the Misinformed Moms to sign
an email petition to First Lady Laura Bush.
---------------------

     Dave Hardy, who pried loose much of the FBI Freedom of
Information Act material used in Mike McNulty's "The FLIR Project"
video ($19.95 from 866-688-3547) and his own soon-available new
book on Waco, has some juicy new info on his web page,
www.indirect.com/www/dhardy/waco.html.

-----------------------

     In a replay of last year's Citibank flap in Nevada, someone in
Bank of America decided they didn't want to do business with an
Arizona gunsmith.

     He informed a few friends and it went rocketing around the
internet last week, resulting in much criticism, and cancellations
of credit cards and accounts.

      BoA promptly revised its policies.  The only question is
whether it was a local official or the national office which made
the decision to discriminate against gun businesses.

     Good job folks.
-----------------------

     Thursday evening Jay and I went to John Thoburn's golf driving
range for a fundraiser for his lawsuit, which was to be filed
yesterday morning by Defenders of Property Rights.

     Thoburn's case has nothing to do with guns -- directly.  But
it has everything to do with government run amok.

     He's the guy who has been in Fairfax County, Virginia, jail
for over two months for alleged violation of the county planning
and zoning ordinances.  He didn't plant the trees exactly where the
county wanted, or between the range and his dad's home, because his
dad didn't want them.

     The range is a beautiful, tranquil place, screened from his
neighbors and the six-lane lane Dulles toll road.

     With a lawsuit in progress, the family is pretty close-
mouthed, but I think I found out why Fairfax County is harassing
him, not letting him serve drinks in cups, or have a generator for
night lights, or hassling him because his huge berm is too high or
too low (they wouldn't say which), or threatening to also put his
wife in jail (she's hiding out in Texas).

     The county has a nearby treeless, not-as-nice driving range
that competes with Thoburn's.  And Thoburn's dad and supporer
is a former Baptist preacher who has started many Christian
schools, advising parents not to send their kids to Fairfax public
schools.

     The father committed the cardinal sin of relating his earlier
adventures with the county in a book, including Fairfax's
requirement that he write himself a letter saying he gave himself
permission to divert water from his property to an adjacent
property he owned.

     Bureaucrats don't like to be laughed at.


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