RSS
Home
Are state level rights orgs important?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
There are many state level rights organizations that involve the tools of self-defense. Some are affiliated with NRA, many are not.
At the national level, there is GOA (Gun Owners of America www.goa.org ), JPFO (Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, www.jpfo.org ),and The Citizens Committee for The Right to Keep and Bear Arms (http://www.saf.org/ . While USCCA (United States Concealed Carry Association http://www.usconcealedcarry.com/ ), is not a pure rights organization, they are in the fight. So is Students For Concealed Campus Carry, (http://concealedcampus.org/ ) as are others.
Some folks see them as in competition to the NRA. Nothing could be less true. We are all force multipliers for each other. If you are going to join one, join them all. Each has a slightly different function in the panoply of our rights.
Think of all those civil rights organizations as a fleet, steaming in the direction of freedom. One is the battle ship or carrier, the rest are vessels that are smaller but potent for their size, and sometimes can move more efficiently at the state level than the larger ones. Sometimes the state level organizations begin a movement that the larger orgs later support and push.
An example of that is the recent (January 9th, 2009) rule change regarding guns in the national parks. Where previously it was against the law to have a loaded gun in a national park, now it must simply be concealed, with your state concealed weapons permit on you. If your state law allows you to be in a state park with your concealed weapon, you can now be In a national park or monument with it.
That rule change to 36 CFR, 2.4, was initiated by the Virginia Citizens Defense League. As it gathered momentum, it was picked up and championed by other organizations, and members of those organizations put pressure on their legislators at both the state and federal levels to have their representatives in turn apply pressure to the Department of The Interior to make federal rules conform to state laws. That process is known as “coordination,” and the general idea is that if it is legal to be in a state park with a concealed weapon and a concealed weapons permit, it should be legal to do same in the adjoining or nearby federal park.
VCDL began the process that resulted in the rule change, and applied pressure to its state representatives to pressure the Interior Department.
Now if the Obamunists can only keep the thieving hand of government off our rights, we should be able to carry the tools of self defense in the national parks, provided your state allows those tools in your state parks. (And if not, is that not a clarion call to lobby your state legislature to do so???)
Some have put forth the idea that we should enact national reciprocity carry laws that force states to respect each other’s CCW permits. Some, such as legendary self-defense civil rights tool advocate Alan Korwin ( www.gunlaws.com ) advocate against such national laws, because what the government gives, it can take away. Under the tenets of federalism, it is up to the states to form compacts with each other vis a vis reciprocity, rather than up to Big Brother to force them to it.
The hammer that the feds have used against the states is highway and transportation funds, the withholding of which can cause even strong advocates of federalism to go weak in the financial knees. Would that some state would develop the testicular fortitude to resist the honey-dripping offer of “free” money, and regain the sovereignty they once had by refusing those funds. (Remember it is that states who formed the federal government, not the other way around.)
Doing so would probably be very costly politically, as few can resist the temptation of money. South Carolina’s Governor Mark Sanford has made some rattling noises about refusing some of the governments stimulus package, (http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/03/13/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4864550.shtml ) and it has caused a minor uproar. So to has Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19092.html ). Chances are that neither will be able to resist the federal leviathan.
So how does that relate to state level rights organizations about the tools of defense, freedom, and sport? The reason is that the states are microcosms of legal jurisdiction, and actions taken there can be adopted by the House and Senate of the united States. [No, that is not a capitalization mistake.]
Have you ever noticed that sometimes legislation from bell-weather states can pop up as proposed federal law? Well in the same way, local civil rights organizations can move the federal government towards the enforcement of our right to keep and bear arms, just as it did the civil rights movements for Blacks in the 1960’s. That’s what VCDL did in starting a petition for a rule change with the Department of Interior in 2004. (http://www2.vcdl.org/cgi-bin/wspd_cgi.sh/vcdl/vadetail.html?RECID=200289&FILTER=national%20parks%20petition ) .
Although their initial petition was rejected “for specious reasons,” according to VCDL President Phil Van Cleave, “we corrected and used those very same reasons in our next petition that was eventually accepted,” said Van Cleave in a 3/19/09 interview. As that petition gained momentum, national and state organizations piled on and put the Department of The Interior under tremendous pressure to give us back our rights.
CCRKBA Founder Alan Gottleib has repeatedly made that point at the last few Gun Rights Policy Conferences, that we ought to treat the struggle for our right to keep and bear arms just as did the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. State level organizations do a much better job at the local level than do most federal lobbyists at the Houses of States.
State level organizations are the boots on the ground, and have to live with the legislation they enact. National groups, while tremendously valuable in the power and influence they wield, have a stake in getting a deal done. In between those realities lies the battlefield for our rights, and the political casualties of that battle should be the anti-freedom bigots.
Did I just call people who are against our rights to the tools of self-defense, “bigots?” You bet I did!
Let’s Korwinize our language a bit. By definition, a person who stands against our rights, and wishes to deny them to us, is a bigot. Let’s call them what they are. Anyone who stands against an enumerated right by virtue of prejudice is a BIGOT! Tar and feather those people with the term.
Now back to state level rights organizations. Please take a minute to look at www.azcdl.org . If you live in Arizona, or if you want to make a difference in our rights, consider joining us. It’s less than the price of a box of most good ammo these days. Then, if you live in another state, look up your state level rights organization, and join it.
The Supreme Court ruled in Buckley vs. Vallejo, that money is speech. Let’s get our money & mouths in concert!
We even have members in the PRC! (People’s Republic of California.)
In summation, state level self defense tool civil rights organizations (VCDL, Buckeye Firearms Association, TCDL, and many others are leading the state level fight, with support from NRA and others. Though our forces vary in size and strength, lets join the forces of all of them in the direction of our rights, and not worry about who gets credit, as long as we all get freedom.
In Liberty,
Charles Heller
Charles Heller
Liberty Watch Examiner
Tucson, Az.
www.libertywatchradio.com/listen
charles@libertywatchradio.com
Related Articles:
Comments
Is it time for Atlas to shrug? Congress is now working on Continuing Resolution 85, Setting forth the congressional budget for the United States …
Today I interviewed Dr. Edgar K. “Butch” Browning, PhD, professor of economics at Texas A & M University, and author of …
