Help Stop Eric Holder From Becoming Attorney General

[Pepsi]

The incoming President's choice for U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is an anti-gun extremist who has assailed gun owners since his days in the Bill Clinton administration.

Holder, who served as Deputy Attorney General from 1997-2001,supports a 3-day waiting period for handgun purchases,one-gun-a-month rationing, licensing and registration of all gun owners, mandatory so-called smart gun technology, a lifetime gun ban for certain juvenile offenses and regulating gun shows out of existence.

As Janet Reno's top deputy, Eric Holder was the go to guy on gun control issues. In a 1999 statement, Holder told members of Congress not to cave in to "the special interest that value the cold hard
steel of guns more than the lives of children, neighbors and police officers," and urged them to pass legislation that would have destroyed the gun show industry.

Gun Owners of America members flooded the Congress with postcards and e-mails and stopped Holder's gun control plan.

In 2000, Holder was instrumental in the Clinton Administration's effort to strong arm firearms manufacturers into voluntarily accepting regulations that had stalled in the Congress.

In a brazen legislation-by-extortion plot, the federal government filed suit against gun makers but offered to drop the suit if the companies would bow to the administration's demands.

Again, GOA and its members took the lead in opposing Holder and the Clinton Administration and slowed down implementation of the agreement until it completely went away when Clinton left office.

One company went along with the deal but after intense pressure from gun owners, no others joined the unholy alliance.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in an op-ed in the Washington Post, Holder pushed for more gun control and greater restrictions on gun shows, even though the terrorists were armed with box cutters that could be purchased at any hardware store.

Just last year, Holder joined Janet Reno and 11 other former Justice Department officials in an amicus brief before the Supreme Court arguing in favor of the gun ban in Washington D.C.

The Holder/Reno brief also took the position that the Second Amendment protects a collective government right, not an individual right.

GOA and its members have defeated Eric Holder and his agenda in the past, and we need to do it again. The Holder nomination is subject to Senate confirmation in a vote which is set to occur at any time.

Gun Owners of America has asked all members of the U.S. Senate to reject this anti-Second Amendment activist.

Now we're urging gun owners across the country to contact their own Senators and insist that they vote "NO" on Eric Holder.

ACTION: Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center

http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm

[Kludge]

one-gun-a-month rationing

:confused: Wtf is that going to do besides piss people off?

[Pepsi]

It gets worst

H.R.45 "Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009"


Sponsor: Rep Rush, Bobby L. [IL-1] (introduced 1/6/2009)
Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to House committee.

SUMMARY AS OF: 1/6/2009--Introduced.

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 - Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm unless that person has been issued a firearm license under this Act or a state system certified under this Act and such license has not been invalidated or revoked. Prescribes license application, issuance, and renewal requirements.

Prohibits transferring or receiving a qualifying firearm unless the recipient presents a valid firearms license, the license is verified, and the dealer records a tracking authorization number. Prescribes firearms transfer reporting and record keeping requirements. Directs the Attorney General to establish and maintain a federal record of sale system.

Prohibits: (1) transferring a firearm to any person other than a licensee, unless the transfer is processed through a licensed dealer in accordance with national instant criminal background check system requirements, with exceptions; (2) a licensed manufacturer or dealer from failing to comply with reporting and record keeping requirements of this Act; (3) failing to report the loss or theft of the firearm to the Attorney General within 72 hours; (4) failing to report to the Attorney General an address change within 60 days; or (5) keeping a loaded firearm, or an unloaded firearm and ammunition for the firearm, knowingly or recklessly disregarding the risk that a child is capable of gaining access, if a child uses the firearm and causes death or serious bodily injury.

Prescribes criminal penalties for violations of firearms provisions covered by this Act.

Directs the Attorney General to: (1) establish and maintain a firearm injury information clearinghouse; (2) conduct continuing studies and investigations of firearm-related deaths and injuries; and (3) collect and maintain current production and sales figures of each licensed manufacturer.

Authorizes the Attorney General to certify state firearm licensing or record of sale systems.

http://www.rightparty.org/

[Pepsi]

A perfect storm is developing for Second Amendment opponents that could allow President-elect Barack Obama's choice for attorney general – Eric Holder – to "ban guns at will" despite the 2008 affirmation from the U.S. Supreme Court that U.S. citizens have a right to bear arms.

The situation was described with alarm by Alan Korwin, author of Gun Laws of America, in a recent commentary.

He cited Holder's known support for gun bans – the former Clinton administration official endorsed the District of Columbia's complete ban on functional guns in residents' homes before it was overturned by the Supreme Court.

And Korwin pointed to overwhelming Democratic majorities in Congress as well as Obama's known support for gun restrictions and his presence in the Oval Office.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=85507

[nullvalu]

It gets worst

H.R.45 "Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009"


Sponsor: Rep Rush, Bobby L. [IL-1] (introduced 1/6/2009)
Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to House committee.

SUMMARY AS OF: 1/6/2009--Introduced.

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 - Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm unless that person has been issued a firearm license under this Act or a state system certified under this Act and such license has not been invalidated or revoked. Prescribes license application, issuance, and renewal requirements.

Prohibits transferring or receiving a qualifying firearm unless the recipient presents a valid firearms license, the license is verified, and the dealer records a tracking authorization number. Prescribes firearms transfer reporting and record keeping requirements. Directs the Attorney General to establish and maintain a federal record of sale system.

Prohibits: (1) transferring a firearm to any person other than a licensee, unless the transfer is processed through a licensed dealer in accordance with national instant criminal background check system requirements, with exceptions; (2) a licensed manufacturer or dealer from failing to comply with reporting and record keeping requirements of this Act; (3) failing to report the loss or theft of the firearm to the Attorney General within 72 hours; (4) failing to report to the Attorney General an address change within 60 days; or (5) keeping a loaded firearm, or an unloaded firearm and ammunition for the firearm, knowingly or recklessly disregarding the risk that a child is capable of gaining access, if a child uses the firearm and causes death or serious bodily injury.

Prescribes criminal penalties for violations of firearms provisions covered by this Act.

Directs the Attorney General to: (1) establish and maintain a firearm injury information clearinghouse; (2) conduct continuing studies and investigations of firearm-related deaths and injuries; and (3) collect and maintain current production and sales figures of each licensed manufacturer.

Authorizes the Attorney General to certify state firearm licensing or record of sale systems.

http://www.rightparty.org/

Not just worse... this is much, much worse. This can never be allowed to pass.

[Cowlesy]

This is another bill that if it even got to the floor for a vote, my head would explode (in addition to the removing presidential term limits bill).

[Kotin]

yes, this guy is bad news.. he subscribes to the "Collective Right Theory" of the second amendment...

which is complete bs.

[Pepsi]

You can also use this action center to send Faxes

http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/

[qh4dotcom]

If Holder becomes AG, then the NRA deserves all the headaches and nightmares Holder and Obama have in store for them.

The NRA should have been smart enough to realize that their stupid endorsement of C+ rated McCain wasn't going to keep Obama out of the White House. They should have done the right thing and endorsed A+ rated board member Bob Barr or A+ rated Chuck Baldwin. Also they should have endorsed A+ rated Ron Paul during the primaries. Same goes for all dumb gun owners who voted for McCain. I don't feel the least bit sorry for any dumb gun owner voter who's going to suffer during the next 4 years.

I don't even have a gun and I did the right thing and voted for an A+ rated 3rd party candidate. My insignificant vote wasn't going to keep Obama out of the White House.

[Pepsi]

bump

[nobody's_hero]

If Holder becomes AG, then the NRA deserves all the headaches and nightmares Holder and Obama have in store for them.

The NRA should have been smart enough to realize that their stupid endorsement of C+ rated McCain wasn't going to keep Obama out of the White House. They should have done the right thing and endorsed A+ rated board member Bob Barr or A+ rated Chuck Baldwin. Also they should have endorsed A+ rated Ron Paul during the primaries. Same goes for all dumb gun owners who voted for McCain. I don't feel the least bit sorry for any dumb gun owner voter who's going to suffer during the next 4 years.

I don't even have a gun and I did the right thing and voted for an A+ rated 3rd party candidate. My insignificant vote wasn't going to keep Obama out of the White House.

+1!

(Get a gun, though :D)

I too am getting tired of gun owners who would rather give up a little more each election to keep their guns. It started with, "Well, okay, I guess I don't really need sawn off shotguns or full-auto firearms."

Now we're approaching, "Well, okay, I guess we can endure micro-stamped ammunition, as long as they don't totally take our guns away."

How about: "Well, no. Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and I do not consent to any infringement of liberty, no matter how minor. I'll be keeping my guns, you see."

[CurtisLow]

Bump write your reps

[qh4dotcom]

Bump

[Knightskye]

I sent one.

[Pepsi]

Attorney General-designate Eric Holder faces the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday at his confirmation hearing. Republican committee members say they will challenge Holder on his involvement in controversial pardons by President Clinton, but analysts expect him to be confirmed without much trouble.

Despite strong bipartisan support from the legal and law enforcement community, U.S. attorney general nominee Eric Holder can expect some roughing up Thursday when his confirmation hearing opens before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has promised to quiz Holder about his role in decisions made by the Clinton Justice Department during the four years he was deputy attorney general — from President Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, to clemency and sentence reductions granted to members of a violent Puerto Rican nationalist group.

But committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, has launched a full-court press to beat back criticism of President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be the nation's top law enforcement official.

On Tuesday, Leahy challenged Specter to justify his objections in light of the unwavering support he gave to Alberto Gonzales after President Bush nominated the now-discredited former attorney general to the post.

"If [Specter] could strongly support Mr. Gonzales, who turned out to be a disaster as attorney general, I would think that he would be very happy to support Eric Holder," Leahy said. He later referred obliquely to Specter as a "spear carrier" for Gonzales and pondered whether it was coincidence that Specter's criticisms of Holder echoed those of GOP political operative Karl Rove.

Democrats Line Up GOP Supporters

Leahy was joined on Tuesday's call by two prominent Republicans: former Sen. John Danforth, who also served as U.N. ambassador, and former three-term Congressman Asa Hutchinson, who once headed the Drug Enforcement Agency and was a top official at the Department of Homeland Security. Both gave Holder unqualified endorsements.

They are among a growing circle of Republicans who have gotten behind Holder. Their ranks include former Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who remains a committee member; former Attorney General William Barr, appointed by President George H.W. Bush; and Victoria Toensing, who was a deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh is scheduled to testify on Holder's behalf Thursday, as are the president of the National Fraternal Order of Police and the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

It is telling that Democrats have worked to line up such significant public and across-the-aisle support for Holder, who would be the first African-American attorney general. His nomination at first blush appeared to be on a glide path, even despite early criticism about his role in the Rich pardon. (In an opinion to then-President Clinton, Holder said he was "neutral, leaning toward favorable" on the controversial pardon, which the president executed just hours before leaving office.)

Republicans Prepare To Grill Holder

Those who know Holder from his days at the Justice Department describe him as an unflappable, fair leader whose credentials — prosecutor, judge, criminal defense attorney, deputy attorney general — make him, on paper, better qualified than at least the past three attorneys general. Holder has been in private practice since 2001 and served as an adviser to the Obama campaign.

But the nomination's course was clearly altered last week, when Specter delivered a blistering speech on the Senate floor in which he called into question Holder's ability to "say no" to his boss if law and judgment dictate.

Specter questioned why Holder, as deputy attorney general, opposed naming a special prosecutor to look into campaign finance allegations that then-Vice President Al Gore was raising money in the White House. And the senator took aim at Holder's role in securing clemency in 1999 for members of Puerto Rican separatist groups, including four members convicted of being involved in robbing a Wells Fargo office in Connecticut of $7.2 million. Some of that money was traced to Cuba, according to published reports. In all, 16 radical Puerto Rican nationalists belonging to two groups involved in bombings, murders and robberies received offers of clemency that Holder recommended.

"The actions of Deputy Attorney General Holder were very extensive in what eventuated in the granting of clemency," Specter said.

Clemency was opposed at the time not just by Specter, but also, he noted, by Leahy, as well as the FBI and two U.S. attorney's offices. Many critics saw it as a political move by Clinton intended to help his wife's standing with the Puerto Rican community in New York, where she was running for Senate.

Republican witnesses include two with personal interest in the Puerto Rican clemency issue: Joseph Connor, the son of a man killed in a 1975 New York City bombing attributed to the violent Puerto Rican nationalists, and Richard Hahn, a former FBI agent who spent more than a dozen years investigating one of the two radical groups. A third GOP witness is a pro-gun attorney.

Leahy's office Tuesday night announced more witnesses to counteract testimony expected from the Republican panel. Leahy's addition includes Frances Townsend, a former Homeland Security adviser to President Bush.

Leahy charged that Specter and others may be trying to use Holder's confirmation as a "backdoor way to go after Bill Clinton."

"Don't make this a hearing at which you're trying to get to Bill Clinton, who's no longer in office," Leahy said.

Leahy defended Holder's independence, noting that he supported an expansion of special prosecutor Ken Starr's investigation of Clinton and oversaw the corruption prosecution of powerful Democratic congressman Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois.

But with his most public acts stemming from his time as deputy to Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, Holder will have some tough questions to answer.

Still, no one is predicting that his nomination will fail to pass out of Leahy's committee with a recommendation for approval by the Senate.

Specter says, however, that Holder will "have his day in court, so to speak."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99361682&ft=1&f=1001

[Pepsi]

bump

[gilliganscorner]

+1!

(Get a gun, though :D)

I too am getting tired of gun owners who would rather give up a little more each election to keep their guns. It started with, "Well, okay, I guess I don't really need sawn off shotguns or full-auto firearms."

Now we're approaching, "Well, okay, I guess we can endure micro-stamped ammunition, as long as they don't totally take our guns away."

How about: "Well, no. Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and I do not consent to any infringement of liberty, no matter how minor. I'll be keeping my guns, you see."

+1


"The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other - until one day when they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology." - Ayn Rand

[Pepsi]

If you all ready sent a message, good send another one, than another and another...

http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/

[Pepsi]

bump

[Minlawc]

"If [Specter] could strongly support Mr. Gonzales, who turned out to be a disaster as attorney general, I would think that he would be very happy to support Eric Holder," Leahy said.

This is stupid.
If Spector supported someone who screwed up after the fact, and Leahy supports someone who already showed his colors, it makes Leahy look like a d-bag.

Well, at least he knows what he's getting, approving Holder. There should be no surprises.

[Pepsi]

At lot has happened since you received our alert last week. GOA was asked by the Judiciary Committee to testify at the Senate hearings on Eric Holder, as we were the ONLY national gun group that has told Senators we will rate their vote on confirming Holder.

We also "hammered" one of the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee -- Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah -- in his home state after he announced his support of the Holder nomination.

Last week, GOA issued a stinging alert and mobilized its members in the state of Utah after The Hill reported on January 12 that Hatch "will support Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general, giving him a major boost toward confirmation."

GOA is never timid about putting the heat on faltering legislators, no matter what their party affiliation. Strangely, GOA was disinvited from appearing before the Judiciary Committee, and not allowed to present testimony.

Well, the Committee might try to squelch our voice, but they cannot squelch yours. Your Senators have to answer to you -- and they need to hear that an Attorney General who just argued (in the DC v. Heller case) that there is no individual right to keep and bear arms does NOT deserve to be confirmed.

Please take the recommended action suggested below, even if you have already contacted your Senators. This is just too important.

And now for some good news... Bush commutes the sentences of Ramos and Compean!

You might remember that, last month, GOA and its members issued a strong plea to President Bush, urging him to pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Antonio Compean -- two Border Patrol agents who were sentenced to ten years in prison in 2007 for shooting a smuggler. Their conviction was fraudulent, as there is no such crime as "using a gun in a federal crime."

Because this precedent could greatly impact all gun owners, GOA got involved in this case and submitted amicus briefs in the courts. If the feds can prosecute its own agents on trumped up charges for "using" a gun in a crime, then why not also a mom or dad who is driving their kids through a gun free school zone while armed?

Well, good news arrived yesterday when President Bush -- as one of his last acts in office -- listened to GOA members and commuted the two agents' sentences! We wish a full pardon had been granted, erasing their felony conviction, but at least they will be home soon with their families.

ACTION: Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your Senators the pre-written e-mail message below.


----- Prewritten Letter -----

Dear Senator:

I urge you to vote AGAINST Eric Holder for U.S. Attorney General.

Holder has been a long-time gun control activist. Most recently, he joined 12 other former Justice Department officials in SUPPORTING the DC gun ban and arguing the Second Amendment does NOT protect an individual right.

Thankfully, the Supreme Court ruled against Holder in the DC v. Heller case. But this is a man who will try any means to enforce gun control.

Remember his attempts -- as an official in the Clinton Administration -- to make an end-run around Congress and use the courts (through litigation) to impose gun control? He strongly approved of the HUD lawsuits against the gun industry, where through a system of extortion, HUD only promised to drop the lawsuits if gun makers would impose certain gun restrictions.

Eric Holder is tremendously out of step with the American people. In February, 2008, a USA Today/Gallup poll reported that 73% of all Americans support the INDIVIDUAL right to keep and bear arms. Eric Holder is in the extreme minority. Please don't vote to put him into a position where he will be able to use the force of government to discourage gun ownership in America.

Please vote NO on Eric Holder for Attorney General

http://gunowners.org/take-action.htm

[sluggo]

I sent the email and made the call to my Senators yesterday.

This Holder really bothers me.