Crunch Time to Halt the NC Commercial Breeder Bill

The NC House Finance Committee is set to hold a hearing on this wretched bill on Thursday morning.  At the Raleigh Gun Show last weekend, many stalwart NRA members and others interested in keeping our hunting heritage asked me what the big deal is.  I'll give you a link to the NRA Legislative Alert and also to the American Kennel Club's Legislative Alert.  Both will give you everything you need to tell your NC State Representative about why this bill is bad news.  For your convenience, I've included a link to the list of the members of the committee so you can voice your opinion with a phone call or an e-mail.

Let me take a stab at explaining why this is a big deal.  The animal rights activists - those who would ban all hunting {and even meat if their dreams came true} work just like the gun control extremists do.  They appeal to emotions, and start with trying to get a law on the books that SEEMS reasonable, but it is really a smoke screen to get their toe in the door. Once they get their way on something that seems innocent and meaningless, they do the same thing again and again until you wake up one morning and wonder where your freedoms went.  The easiest way to stop them is to nip it in the bud and never let them take your liberties in the first place.


Take charge, contact these representative, and make your voice count.

Let's Get Together and Do Good Things

Hello, everybody!

This weekend I'm going to be at the NC State Fairgrounds at the Raleigh Gun Show.  I'll be registering voters, discussing the NRA Institute for Legislative Action's FrontLines program, as well as gathering support to defeat the Commercial Dog Breeder Bill coming up for a hearing before the House Agriculture Committee in Raleigh.

I look forward to hearing from you.

ACTION ALERT - Help Preserve Freedom!

The NRA Institute for Legislative Action has issued an ACTION ALERT for North Carolina, and you help is needed to stop yet another assault on our freedoms. The primary architect of the bill is the Humane Society of the United States - definitely not to be confused with your local animal shelter or Humane Society. One of their primary goals is to abolish hunting. But their agenda does not stop there. In the words of their head, Wayne Pacelle when asked if he envisioned a future with no pets, he replied, “I wouldn’t say that I envision that, no.  If I had my personal view perhaps that might take hold.  In fact, I don’t want to see another cat or dog born.”

The target of the legislation is not limited to commercial breeders. It will also limit the activities of sporting dog breeders using language that puts interpretation of what is and is not permissible in the hands of local animal control officers. No surprise, but many of them are affiliated either by training or sympathy with the HSUS. Likewise, the bill puts the cost of enforcement on the counties - many of whom simply cannot afford another unfunded mandate in these tough times. A close read of the financial impact report shows that they simply have no clue what it'll cost, but it doesn't matter since it'll be passed on to the counties.

If the Finance Committee takes up S. 460, it is likely to be on Thursday, June 24, at 8:30AM in Room 544 of the Legislative Office Building.  I will be there and hope to meet you at the hearing.

If you cannot attend, please take a moment to contact members of the House Finance Committee to urge them to oppose S 460 and the anti-hunting agenda of HSUS. 

Contact for the House Finance Committee can be found here. 

If you intend to send legislators e-mail, please be sure to use "Oppose SB 460" as your subject line.

NRA Grassroots Workshop Summary

If you don't already subscribe to the NRA Institute for Legislative Action "Grassroots Alert" emails, go to the Grassroots Alert signup page and you will be on the inside track.  Below is the most recent edition, which describes a great event that the ILA folks put on at the 2010 NRA Annual Meetings in Charlotte. I was there and was privileged to meet other proactive like-minded people willing to go the extra mile to support our rights.

NRA-ILA GRASSROOTS ALERT
Vol. 17, No. 19      05/14/10

NRA Members Enhance Preparation For 2010 Elections

Click here to vote in this week's poll.

Nearly 200 pro-gun patriots rolled up their sleeves and went to work at today's NRA-ILA Grassroots Workshop, held in conjunction with NRA's Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Charlotte, N.C.  Though most attendees were home state North Carolinians, NRA members represented states from across the country. Diversity in geography notwithstanding, all were united in a singular mission -- learning what MORE they could do to affect legislative change this year and prepare for the 2010 midterm elections!
As they do every year, many of NRA's Officers stopped by the Workshop to pay tribute to the attendees who serve as the tips of our grassroots arrow.  NRA President Ron Schmeits, NRA First Vice President David Keene, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, and NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox came to the podium and gave credit for NRA's successes to whom it rightly belongs -- our members and grassroots activists.  Each stressed the need for attendees to re-double their efforts this campaign season and to recruit others to join them.  Also in attendance were a number of NRA-ILA's Election Volunteer Coordinators (EVCs) -- who once again are prepared to lead the charge in recruiting and organizing pro-gun volunteers this election year.
Memberless VPC Decries Meeting of 70,000 of NRA's Members in Charlotte: For quite a long time now, the three or four anti-gun radicals that make up the Violence Policy Center haven't had much to show the Joyce Foundation for the hundreds of thousands of dollars the leftwing foundation wastefully pumps into the anti-gun group each year. As regular readers of the Alert well know, Second Amendment opponents' defeats have outnumbered their temporary successes by a wide margin lately.
John Lott to Unveil New Book at NRA Annual Meeting:  A decade ago, John Lott's best-selling More Guns, Less Crime shattered conventional wisdom about gun control, and changed the academic debate among criminologists and economists from how much gun ownership caused crime to increase, to how much it caused crime to decrease.
Get Your Copy of Stephen Halbrook's Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876:  Does the Second Amendment apply to the states?  The Supreme Court will soon decide that critical question.  As that historic day approaches, there's no better time for all Americans to learn more about this issue.
Grassroots News Minute Video:  To view this week's "Grassroots News Minute" video, please click here: 

VOTE! Today is Primary Day

Today is the day when we have the honor and privilege to exercise one of our most solemn responsibilities as citizens - the right to vote.  Patriots old and new have fought and died to perpetuate the right that is at the core of the founding of the United States of America.  To fail do do so dishonors their sacrifice and also removes any ability we might have to be dissatisfied with the quality of the representation we have locally, in Raleigh and in Washington.

Get out, cast your ballot and hold your head high!  I'll see you at the polls.