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Friday News!
May 28th edition
Gun Owners' Action League.
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In This Issue.- News Bytes. Select Local and National News Stories
- Victory! GOAL's Members rise to occassion again to block proposed anti civil rights legislation.
- Deval Patrick blames GOAL for lack of progress on his gun bill.
- Oppose H.4687 (formerly S.2245 & S.2260)
- GOAL Affiliated Club Events
- GOAL Summer Banquet with New England Patriot Matt Light
- A special request
- Candidate information needed!
- Select GOAL Gear on sale
- Spring Fling Raffle
- GOAL Cup News
- Women on Target, for Ladies only, sign up today!
- Sign up for a great class at GOAL
- Gunsmith's wanted
- Note About Forwarding The Friday News
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News/Editorials and other tidbits from the Web.
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- Brady Campaign's slipping relevancy underscored by NRA convention
The Brady Campaign has not managed to push through a single piece of
federal legislation in more than 15 years. Their attempt to sue the gun
industry into bankruptcy using anti-gun mayors as their puppet proxies
failed on legal merit and in the court of public opinion.
- SAF Accuses Brady Campaign of racism. "The Brady Campaign and their
soul mates at the Violence Policy Center have consistently avoided
discussing the racist underpinnings of gun control because they know
it is a political minefield"
- H2259 Gets another extension 5/14/2010 update, H. 2259 has now been extended to 6/30/10 for
discussion. Please continue to contact the committee members and your
legislators and urge them to vote favorably on this bill.
- Billerica
Town Meeting Alert! May 14th
Update. We win again! GOAL has learned that article #38
has been withdrawn due to the amount of opposition it faced from law
abiding hunters and gun owners.
FA 10
Firearms transfer issues May 14th Update. As many of you know, the CHSB
uploaded the FA10 form onto their website on April 30th. We just now
noticed that they FINALLY updated it to a correct form that includes
instructions/codes etc...
- S.1580 Receives an extension order. GOAL's "An Act Relative to the Common
Defense"
Bill, S.1580 has received an extension order from the Judiciary
Committee to June 30th. Please continue to call and ask for this bill
to be released with a favorable report.
- Richard Ross wins Senate seat. Capitalizing
on a Republican resurgence, state Rep. Richard Ross won the state
Senate seat formerly held by his friend and political mentor Scott
Brown Tuesday by an overwhelming margin.
Mass Chiefs Openly Discuss Licensing Abuse "Liability is only increased by
failing to comply with the statutory licensing requirements or
exceeding one's authority regarding how those licenses are issued or
regulated."
Federal Judge rules against Heller decision. The gun grabbers in Washington are celebrating a
federal ruling handed down Friday that upheld the tangle of rules that
effectively prohibit District residents from owning firearms for the
purpose of home defense.
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Victory! GOAL Members rise to occasion again!
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 CORI Bill Update
May 27, 2010
Over the past few days GOAL members
have received several requests for action by the GOAL staff due to the
busy pace of legislation at the State House. We are very pleased to
tell our members that your response in the way of phone calls and
emails to your legislators has been very successful.
Over the course of two days GOAL
alerted our members to four action items.
1. The Senate budget contained an amendment
(#121) that would have adopted language allowing the courts to hold
citizens without bail for simple unlicensed possession of certain types
of firearms.
2. During the House debate on H.4703, the "CORI
Bill" (Criminal Offender Record Information) two amendments were
filed:
a. Amendment # 29 would have changed the laws
regarding the private sales and transfers of guns to be done though a
licensed dealer.
b. Amendment #30 would have provided a 10 year
prison sentence for the attempt of or commission of a misdemeanor while
carrying a firearm while committing or threatening physical harm of
another. (This language is very loose and could have led to serious
criminal issues for minor offenses.)
3. During the House debate on H.4703, the "CORI
Bill" section 113 of the bill would have allowed the courts to hold
citizens without bail for simple unlicensed possession of certain types
of firearms. This language would have been in violation of the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling Commonwealth vs.
Young. This decision ruled that simple unlicensed possession is a "passive
and victimless crime".
GOAL
offered an amendment to this section through Rep. George Peterson to correct the language putting it in line with the
SJC ruling. Our amendment would have tightened up what the courts
could consider and provided a tougher tool for prosecutors.
Working together we were successful
in defeating the Senate budget amendment (#121) and the two anti-civil rights amendments (#29 & #30) to H.4703.
The biggest challenge came with
attempting to fix section 113 of H.4703. Sam Sutter, the District Attorney from Bristol County was trying to put a lot
of pressure on House members to give the courts the ability to hold
citizens for simple unlicensed possession in spite of the SJC ruling.
Because of your quick response to
the action alerts, your phone calls and emails told legislators you
were paying attention and wanted this done right. In the end we did
not get our original amendment, but we were able to substantially
change the section to protect citizens from wrongful detention without
bail for simple possession. The language that we were successful in
attaining can be found below.
Congratulations to all of our
members who reacted so quickly to GOAL's action alerts this week.Many times during this legislative push our staff was told by
legislators that they had received communications on these matters. We
would also urge our members to send a note of thanks to Rep. George
Peterson for his tremendous efforts on this bill.
Note: The last sentence dealing with
feeding devices may be a little confusing to some. It was put there
due to an argument from GOAL during the senate debates on this in
February. At that time we successfully argued that someone driving
through the Commonwealth with a high cap magazine in their vehicle, and
nothing else, should never be held as a dangerous person. In this new
House language it wasn't necessary to add because of the changes we
were able to attain, but it also does no harm. All it means is that if
you are a felon, person on bail, or on probation and you are arrested
for unlawful possession of a high cap magazine, you must also have
possession of the gun to be held under this law.
More about this legislation
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Deval Patrick blames GOAL for lack of progress on gun bill. GOAL responds.
| PATRICK TAGS GUN LOBBY WITH LACK OF PROGRESS ON
GUN BILL
By Jim O'Sullivan
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
 STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MAY 10, 2010...... Gov. Deval Patrick blamed
firearms lobbyists Monday for his gun control legislation's lack of
progress amid another murder of a child over the weekend, drawing a
quick rebuke from the Gun Owners Action League, who called Patrick's
bill flawed and ineffective.
Hours after speaking with the mother of Jaewon Martin, the
14-year-old murdered on a Boston basketball court Saturday, Patrick
told reporters, "Look, there's a lot of volume that the gun lobby has
in this building, but it seems to me that people in neighborhoods,
those mothers that are losing their children on the streets of our
cities, the law enforcement who are having to deal with the
proliferation of illegal firearms out there, used in the course of crime
- those voices need to be raised, and those voices are greater in
number, and I think at the end of the day greater in significance than
the gun lobby."
The state's top firearms policy group said Patrick had
mischaracterized lobbyists' work.
James Wallace, executive director of GOAL, replied, "My first
question is: Who's the gun lobby? ... I don't lobby for guns, I lobby for
people. That's one of the tools they use to dehumanize us. We lobby
for . . . civil rights and public safety."
More on GOAL.org
Watch GOAL Executive Director Jim Wallace's video reply here.
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Oppose H.4687 (formerly S.2245, & S.2260)
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Wind Energy Siting Bill
Update
GOAL members are well aware that we have been opposing the
wind siting legislation that has been making its way through the legislature.
The bill represents an enormous change in conservation and environmental
permitting policy in Massachusetts for a narrowly defined politically favored
industry.
These newly proposed changes pose a very real threat to conservation
lands all across the commonwealth. The very same open space lands that
sportsmen and women have worked decades to protect.
The Senate version of the bill, S.2260 "An Act Relative to
Comprehensive Siting Reform for Land Based Wind Projects" was passed in early
February. The Senate actually passed the bill on a "voice" vote rather than a
roll call. This was done so that no senator could be held responsible for
supporting the legislation.
On Wednesday, May 19, 2010 the Massachusetts House of
Representatives was scheduled to vote on their new version of the bill, H.4687.
This scheduled vote was a surprise to most since there was very little warning
that the bill would be put on the agenda after lying dormant in the legislative
process for months.
Read the rest on GOAL.org
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Upcoming Events
| GOAL Affiliated Club Events:
If your club is
officially affiliated with Gun Owners' Action League and is running an event of some sort, here is where you can advertise it.
Please email me the
information (who, what, when, where, how much) or a link to your web page. For a full
listing of shooting competitions go to www.goalshooters.org.
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GOAL Summer Banquet, June 19th!
| Matt Light of the
New England Patriots will be a guest speaker | Freedom Will Prevail!
Join us, Saturday June 19th at the Boxborough Holiday Inn, Boxborough MA.
We are very pleased to announce the following guest speakers;
- Matt Light of the New England Patriots
- Alan Gottleib from Second Amendment Foundation
- Sandy Froman past president of the NRA
- Larry Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general
counsel
- Representative Jeff Perry (candidate for 10th district U.S. Congress)
Great Prizes! This is the list of firearms that you can only win by
attending!- CMP M1 Garand (Certificate presented which
winner can use to claim from CMP)
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A special request to Veterans and Family Members of.
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The GOAL Staff is putting together a special photo tribute to our Veterans.
This tribute will be shown at our Summer Banquet on June 19th (see above for details)
If you have a military photograph of yourself, a friend, or a family member that you would like to share, please email it to me, mike@goal.org.
Thank you all!
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We need help with Candidates!
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Help us, help you, make great decisions on election day!
One of the fantastic after effects of Scott Brown being elected is a new resurgence of people that are willing to not only get involved by working for campaigns, but also to run for office.
There are more new candidates running for office this November within Massachusetts than we can recall seeing for a long time. In order to sort through them we are asking for some help. If you are a candidate for a county, state, or national office, or if you know or work for a candidate, please ask them to fill out one of our new candidate questionnaires.
This will give us a great read on how much a candidate knows, and cares about Second Amendment Issues. After completing we will grade the questionnaire and post that grade on our Candidate Ratings Pages. (See below)
*Note: The U.S. Congress ratings are courtesy of the NRA. Also note that ALL of our current incumbents up for re-election have an "F" grade.
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Spring Fling Raffle!
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Spring is here and that means it's
time for the Spring Fling Raffle!
Support GOAL and enter for a
chance to win a great shopping trip at Kittery Trading Post!
The prizes are as follows:
- 1st Prize: $1,000.00
Kittery Trading Post Gift Card
- 2nd Prize: $500.00 Kittery
Trading Post Gift Card
- 3rd Prize: $250.00 Kittery
Trading Post Gift Card
Click here to purchase online
Click here to download a mailable order form
You can also purchase tickets
by phone @ 508-393-5333 or in person at the GOAL office
Thanks and best of luck all!
If you would like to see the
winners from our Annual Raffle,
click here
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Women on Target!
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The GOAL Foundation presents Women On Target eventsall over
Massachusetts. If you are interested in a great day of fun and education
for ladies only check out our listing of scheduled events!
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Great Classes available at GOAL!
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New classes added at The GOAL Foundation! Powerpoint for Trainers, June 24th, brand new course, learn to make a great presentation!
NRA Coach Training Course - Smallbore & Air Rifle Learn to be a Junior level 1 coach! NRA Range Safety Officer Course @ Essex County
Sportsmen's Association
Full Schedule of courses here!
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Gunsmith's wanted!
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We are going to be adding a listing page of local gunsmith's to GOAL.org.
If you are a GOAL member and a gunsmith and would like to be added please email me your contact information and we will get you listed.
Please include.
- all pertinent contact info
- what types of guns you work on
- what you specialize in
- any other pertinent information.
Please email it to me. mike@goal.org.
Thanks
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AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT FORWARDING THE FRIDAY NEWS!
Dear subscribers, it has come to our attention that some of you have become "unsubscribed" from our e-mailings as of late.
This is due to the method used when forwarding this e-mail. PLEASE NOTE, if you would like to forward this e-mail, use the "forward" option at the bottom of this page.
Forwarding this email as you would any other could cause you to become unsubscribed should any of the recipients choose to "opt out".
If you ever do need to subscribe, or if you know anybody that would like to receive this, it is now easier than ever to get on our list, simply go to www.GOAL.org and scroll down to the bottom of any page, we have an automated subscription set up.
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Thanks to all for supporting GOAL!
Join/Support GOAL, Massachusett's Official Firearms Association of the National Rifle Association.
Protecting YOUR freedom begins here!
Sincerely,
Mike Sweeney
GOAL Communications Manager
Gun Owners' Action League
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