The Gun Lobby's Stealth Assault on Small-Town America

[Ranchemp.]

This past spring, strangely similar pieces of mail started arriving at the offices of city attorneys in 28 Maryland communities. The tersely worded letters, many dated March 26, warned each town that some of its firearms laws were illegal and needed to be repealed immediately. Takoma Park's letter claimed that ordinances against carrying unlocked guns and possessing or selling guns in public places "grossly" exceeded state law and should be taken off the books, "out of respect for the rule of law." All of the letters warned that failure to comply would put the towns "at risk for a lawsuit."

"Once in a blue moon we get these kinds of letters from activist organizations," says Ryan Spiegel, vice president of the Montgomery County chapter of the Maryland Municipal League and a member of the Gaithersburg city council. What felt different this time, he says, was the coordination—and the timing: Just a month earlier, the Maryland Senate had passed some of the country's toughest gun control measures in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

The letters came from the Second Amendment Foundation, a prominent pro-gun legal-defense organization, as part of a quiet but mounting campaign to strike down local gun laws across the country. So far, SAF has sent out about 425 letters to cities, towns, and counties in Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington and has announced plans to target hundreds more local laws.

Though they may be obscure and not always enforced, local gun laws have become low-hanging fruit for anti-gun-control activists since Sandy Hook. The strategy rests on the legal concept of "preemption," which restricts local lawmakers' authority to regulate firearms beyond what's in state law. For more than 30 years, the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups have successfully lobbied for preemption laws nationwide: In 1979, 7 states had them, but today, 45 do. Some states, such as Alabama, Idaho, and Maine, make exceptions for local restrictions on when and where people can shoot; some, like California, let localities control where and how guns are sold. All of them, however, set some limits to municipalities' ability to regulate guns, and that's where the Second Amendment Foundation comes in.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/gun-laws-second-amendment-foundation

xposted from the other group.

[MicaelS]

1. I am all in favor of preemption.

I think it a terrific idea.

[Ranchemp.]

2. I am too.

The state should be the only one setting firearms laws, that way, there is no conflict from city to city/county/town.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Apparently, changing gun laws is OK if it's to restrict, but it's a "Stealth Assault"...

If you're trying to preserve one of the Ten Amendments and trying to keep regulation uniform and purposeful.

I get it now.

[Ranchemp.]

4. Confusing, ain't it?

As long as gun laws are changed to further restrict gun rights, that's ok, but heaven forbid that gun rights orgs. attempt to expand gun rights.

[Electric Monk]

5. "the Ten Amendments" ? The "Ten" is the Ten Commandments, Skippy. The 2nd Amendment is

not from the Bible, but that's a lovely Freudian slip of yours in getting them mixed up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution
(there are 27, fyi)

[NYC_SKP]

6. Doncha love it?

I capitalized it and everything!

Frankly, I honor the Ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights, well above the ten commandments (which are nowhere in the Constitution).

See, Monk, the Bill of Rights was a significant addendum to the Constitution, the conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added.

There were, originally, twelve amendments proposed in the Bill of Rights, but only ten were adopted. http://www.constitution.org/bor/amd_cong.htm

Did you know that?

Did you have a point other than that?

[Helen Highwater]

7. May I suggest

http://www.godisimaginary.com/video2.htm

[Electric Monk]

8. Welcome to DU. If that's what you want to talk about, may I suggest you try DU's Religion group?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1218

[Eleanors38]

9. "Stealth?" Now the "gun lobby" is stealth? Yeah, like a Freightliner.

Since when does a term as conspiratorial, even graceful, as "stealth" get applied to SAF?

The controllers can expect "mopping up actions," but why the fog-like-cats-paws description? Makes it more nasty, I guess.

[NYC_SKP]

10. As if MAIG and MDAGSA (moms) isn't stealthy. This action is the reasonable response to them.

Bloomberg and the moms are trying to work around the US Constitution one city at a time.

U.S. Mayors' gun control group merges with Moms Demand Action

NEW YORK Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:03pm EST

(Reuters) - Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a gun control group founded and financed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced on Thursday it will merge with another gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

The mayors' group will unite its grassroots, policy and field forces with the mothers' group "to enact common-sense policies that respect the rights of gun owners while keeping firearms out of dangerous hands," the groups said in a statement.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns was formed in 2006 as the brainchild of Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, both of whom will leave office at the end of the year. They argued that mayors were uniquely sensitive to gun violence as it often falls to them to comfort the families of slain police officers.

The group now includes more than 1,000 mayors.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/19/us-usa-politics-guns-idUSBRE9BI0XF20131219