Legislative Update from Metro Defense Training - HF 953 (Paymar Backdoor Gun registry) being heard FRI MAR 6

This being the legislative season, I thought I'd share the latest news about our rights.

This is the backdoor gun registration that will raise all of our costs and, in some cases, make it impossible to take possession of an inherited gun. This will be for no net gain on crime. Gun control is not about guns, it is about control.

HF 953 (Paymar Backdoor Gun registry) being heard FRI MAR 6

The bill will be heard in the Crime Victims/Criminal Records Division committee FRIDAY, March 6, 2009.
The meeting starts at 10:30 AM
Room: Room 5 of the State Office Building
Chair: Rep. John Lesch
Agenda: HF573 (Juhnke) Minnesota Puppy and Kitten Mill Cruelty Prevention Act; Dog and cat breeder required permit created;
HF647 (Mullery) Sex trafficking provisions clarified by providing definitions of sexual trafficking and sexual trafficking victim;
HF953 (Paymar) Transfer of pistols or semiautomatic military-style assault weapons provisions modified.

Here's the Bill text:
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0953.0.html&session=ls86

Here are the committee members:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committeemembers.asp?comm=86131

Committee Member Phone Number E-mail Address
Chair: John Lesch (DFL) 651-296-4224 rep.john.lesch@house.mn
Vice Chair: Ron Shimanski (R) 651-296-1534 rep.ron.shimanski@house.mn
Debra Hilstrom (DFL) 651-296-3709 rep.debra.hilstrom@house.mn
Kory Kath (DFL) 651-296-5368 rep.kory.kath@house.mn
Paul Kohls (R) 651-296-4282 rep.paul.kohls@house.mn
Jenifer Loon (R) 651-296-7449 rep.jenifer.loon@house.mn
Dave Olin (DFL) 651-296-9635 rep.dave.olin@house.mn
Michael Paymar (DFL) 651-296-4199 rep.michael.paymar@house.mn

Committee Staff
Committee Administrator: Patrick Baldwin 296-4283
Committee Legislative Assistant: Erin Huppert 651-296-2585


GOCRA encourages you to OPPOSE this bill.

"[Paymar's bill] is pure harassment of legitimate gun owners and their non-commercial disposition of their property because, as a 2008 empirical study by university Criminologists demonstrates , it will have NO EFFECT on homicides or suicides and provide NO REDUCTION in firearm-related deaths (or violent crime, for that matter). All it will do is impose unnecessary deprivation of liberty, hassle, delay, and cost on Minnesota’s 1.5 million legitimate gun owners.

Below are some talking points from Professor Joseph Olson of GOCRA:

1. A January 2009 Star-Tribune article says that the Twin Cities’ homicide problem is largely one of uncontrolled gang/drug activity. Anyone who can sell or purchase illegal drugs can acquire a gun in that illegal transaction. An FBI report in February 2009 identifies “weapons trafficking” as a major GANG activity. Don’t be fooled, these are black market transactions; not those of legitimate gun owners.

2. The legitimate market (consisting of licensed dealers and private citizens) is not the same thing as the "black market" (consisting of thieves, "fences," and "accomplices"). There are two distinct markets with different actors! In a Business Week column, Professor Gary Becker the Nobel Prize winner in Economics stated:
[t]here are two almost discrete markets for weapons. The legitimate market caters to people who want guns for hunting and for protection against holdups and burglaries. The [black] market caters to criminals who want weapons to help them steal, intimidate, rape, participate in gang warfare, and steal drugs.
Becker goes on to note that controls on the legitimate sellers cannot have effect on an underground market that ignores those controls. CANNOT have any effect!!!

3. According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms less than 1 in 50 guns acquired by criminals come from gun shows or private resales. And virtually all of that tiny number comes from “strawman purchases” made by accomplices who CAN pass any background check (as the Va. Tach and NIU killers both DID).

4. Minnesota statutes already contain FOUR (4) provisions to cut off “black market” transfers. They are: (1) 609.52 – Theft by the criminal himself, (2) 609; (2) 609.53 – Theft-once-removed by acquisition from a “fence;” (3) 609.66 sibd. 1c – Receipt from an accomplice/strawman; and (4) 624.7141 – Transfer to an ineligible person.

5. The bill targets the wrong people and won’t reduce murder or crime.
It is simply a harassment bill to vex millions of law-abiding Minnesota gun owners. Perhaps that is why the Minnesota gun control act has never included these citizens and why the federal "Brady" Bill doesn't either!"

I personally encourage you to read the bills and talking points and take the time to:
1) CALL each member of the committee.
2) Write a PERSONAL SNAIL MAIL letter NOW and get it in the mail.
3) Send an PERSONAL e-mail to EACH committee member

The idea is to get a ton of personal responses to EVERY member of the committee which stick to the talking points but are not carbon copies. We want them all to KNOW there's STRONG opposition to this bill.