The Lautenberg Amendment - It's Not About Loopholes!

Massive New Powers for Federal Gun Police

Don't believe Clinton's deceptive media spin -- Lautenberg is not about "instant check" at gun shows. "Offering" to "exchange" a single firearm at an "event" would be banned. Not one of these words is defined in Federal law, but they all describe crimes that could send you to federal prison. The National Matches -- Camp Perry -- is an "event!" So is your gun club's Sunday trap shoot. Even talking about a gun at an "event" could be seen as an "offer" -- all banned under Lautenberg.

• Lautenberg is an unprecedented danger to your civil liberties. It establishes a huge tangled maze of new regulations, and gives enormous power to Federal firearms police to interpret a host of undefined terms that have never appeared in firearms law -- terms that can be used to prosecute and imprison honest gun owners.

• Lautenberg registers gun owners. If you are not a licensed firearms dealer and attend a gun show, even without bringing a gun, and you so much as discuss the possibility of selling a gun, you would be required to sign "a ledger with identifying information." Gun show promoters would be required to retain these ledgers indefinitely for federal police inspection.

• Lautenberg registers gun collectors. If you are at home with a firearm collection of fifty or more firearms, it would be a five-year felony to "offer" or "exchange" a single gun -- even between family or friends -- unless you first registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and pay an unlimited fee.

• Lautenberg requires the impossible. A gun show promoter is somehow expected to be able to read the mind of every show attendee who intends to discuss selling a firearm. Since that's impossible, gun show promoters would have to check the identification of every show attendee, and would be required to keep massive records on gun owners.

• Lautenberg invades the privacy of honest citizens. It orders the federal government to retain for 90 days personal information about a law-abiding citizen who clears an instant check. Current law demands that information be destroyed immediately.

• Lautenberg authorizes a new, unlimited federal tax - letting the government charge whatever fee it likes to perform an instant background check.

• Lautenberg is not just about gun shows. If, as a private citizen, you display a firearm at a gun show, but make a sale months later to someone you met at the show, you would be subject to all the same requirements imposed on a sale that occurs at a show.

None of these provisions have anything to do with school violence or violent crime of any kind. They would create an enormous maze of complex new federal regulations, designed to trap you and fellow gun owners in a snare of obscure restrictions for activities that have always been lawful and constitutionally protected. Failure to comply with any of these restrictions will mean five years of federal jail time and crippling fines -- and permanent loss of gun ownership rights.

No matter when you read this, call your Congressman immediately! Call 202/225-3121 and tell him to oppose Lautenberg!