Out of state guns purchases must be done through a pair of FFL persons.  The first is the gun shop where the weapon is purchased from.  You have to go through all the federal requirements, paperwork and FBI checks to be approved for the purchase.

Then you have to go through the exact same paperwork and FBI check again when the gun arrives at your local in-state gun shop.  If you pass the approval cycle at the first gun store, you should be able to pick it up, rather than going through the time and expense of a second set of paperwork.

It is ironic that the federal law states the firearms must be shipped through a common carrier, like Federal Express, who can hire ex-felons, which are prohibited from possessing, handling or even being in the same room with a gun.  FedEx was specifically mentioned, as they recently had an employee, who was a felon, convicted of stealing firearms from the truck.

Mr. Velleco (director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America) discussed the case of David Olesen.  The ATF arrested him for possession of a machine gun.  The gun was actually a semi-automatic that misfired one time at a range and the ATF was called in.  The also seized the weapon and tried to make it misfire.

They were able to make it a “machine gun” only after modifying the gun with rubber bands, duct tape and several other objects to make their case.  It should be noted that the objects the ATF added to the gun were not on the gun or even in the proximity of the weapon when it misfired.  This is truly a case of manufactured evidence.  Also, no video tape of the misfiring weapon was presented by the bureau.

We need to make sure ATF tests used to prosecute people are video taped.

John Velleco, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, had some useful things to say about the ATF.  He brought up the Leatherman Multi-tool that the BAFTE was handing out to their field agents.  These tools had “Think Forfeiture” engraved on the side.  This shows the BAFTE is really interested in seizing as much as they can, rather than targeting just the bad guys.

The BAFTE has systematically gone after as many assets as they could, often in areas they should not have by law.  They are truly a rogue agency or else they have a bunch of rogue agents working for them.  The result is the same.

We need to repeal the “sporting purposes” law.  The definition of “sporting purposes” has been so distorted by the general print and TV media and also many anti-gun lawmakers and organizations.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BAFTE formerly known as the ATF) was the target of several speakers at this conference.

Dave Hardy gave us some useful insight into the workings of the BAFTE.

When the ATF seizes goods, they use a strange [to me anyway] method: they take the goods themselves to court!  That’s right, they sue the goods (U.S. vs. Lizard, U.S. vs. $5,000 cash, U.S. vs.20 pounds of cocaine, etc.).  Now, if someone wants their goods back, they have to put up a bond to secure their right to claim the goods.  If you do not pay the bond, you lose your forfeit your rights to the property seized.  [I personally would not recommend even trying to put up a bond on 20 lbs. of cocaine, but I would definitely do it to get my gun back!]  It will also be expensive.

Here are some of the rules they use:

• The person must be shown to be at fault.
• Acquittal is reason to get your goods back.
• Were the guns intended to be used in violation of the law?  Now the BAFTE has to prove it.  Before you had to prove they were not intended to be used to violate the law; a much harder case to prove.

The Restaurant – sub-part 2

We sat down at a round table reminiscent of those poker tables in those western movie bar scenes, right in the middle of the room.  I half-expected to find a well-worn deck of cards.  There was no panicked rush for the doors, or even a slow exodus, and people all around us were friendly.

On closer examination there were quite a few of people carrying sidearms in plain sight or discretely carrying them.  I would say about 10% to 15% of the people were doing so.  I personally felt quite safe as an armed society is a polite society, but I realize not everyone else thinks or reacts that way, especially in California.

The people here in Arizona are used to practicing and asserting their Second Amendment Rights.  The 85% to 90% of the people that were NOT armed in this restaurant were not in the slightest bit worried or disturbed.  I also did not see or hear all those gunfights that the liberal gun-banners say happen when the general public is allowed to carry protection that the U.S. Constitution guarantees.

I love America!

Move this scene to California and you would have had people yelling “GUN!” running out the door, hurting and trampling people in their stampede.  The SWAT teams would follow and the law-abiding citizens would be arrested and taken to the Gray Bar Hotel for an extended stay.

(The Restaurant – sub-part 1 of 2)

As I probably mentioned, I was staying in the Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix.  It is a bit out of the way of a lot of eateries, so a few of us had the hotel concierge arrange for the hotel shuttle take us to a restaurant and pick us up at no charge.  We did tip the driver, though.

I will not cover the food here, as I have just eaten right before writing this and will be forced to go into the kitchen and overeat if I go into detail about the food.

What I will cover are the ordinary people in Arizona.  Just imagine something like this happening in California!

Imagine three out-of-town strangers walking into a restaurant with one of us proudly wearing a loaded sidearm and the other two declining to state what they may or may not have been discretely carrying.  Nary a head turned as we walked in.  We stood in line to order and made small talk with others in the line.  A real friendly and polite bunch of people were in that line in spite of the slow service.

Chuck Cunningham, Director of the NRA Political Victory Fund presented some of the close Senatorial races we should watch and support.  [With the proliferation of cell phone plans that cover all domestic long distance in the cost of the plan, there have been a lot of activists from both the liberal and conservative positions calling and getting out the vote for candidates in other states.]

Alaska, with Ted Stevens legal problems, makes it a shaky state for the pro-gun community.

John Sununu in New Hampshire is a race to look at.

In Minnesota, Norm Coleman is running against a slimeball [Fred's adjective, not Chuck's] and it will be a close race.  [An update: there are a LOT of Demoncrat votes being "discovered" and this race will be recounted.  A recount just about guarantees that Democrats will be able to discover hundreds, if not thousands, of missing votes. - Again, Fred's comments.]

Mississippi and Colorado are also races to watch.

Alan Gottlieb is the Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, a National Director of the American Conservative Union, President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, President of the American Political Action Committee, President of NoInternetTax.org, and President of KeepAndBearArms.com.  He also is seen on many news programs defending our Second Amendment rights.  He is an accomplished author and also has testified in many arenas too numerous to mention.

In his copious amount of free time he also collects old firearms and stamps.

He is also responsible for creating the Gun Rights Policy Conferences and is instrumental in setting them up, getting together the agenda and all the speakers and hosting this event.  He also donates huge numbers of his and other authors books to the event for free to all attendees!

Alan covered the Presidential race.  Obama was out-spending McCain 1.5 to 1. [Remember this was late September when this presentation was made.]  Obama stopped spending in Alaska, Georgia, Montana and North Dakota to concentrate on swing states that whose races were closer.  [In hindsight, his tactics worked and his margin of spending compared to McCain was extreme.

David Young was one of the speakers, and I was already quite familiar with his The Origin of the Second Amendment.  I also had to obtain a copy of his new book The Founders’ View of the Right to Bear Arms.  In a nutshell, David spoke to us about Where Did the Second Amendment Come From?

First, the Second Amendment was founded on associations.  We are guaranteed the right of free association (the right to hang with people we wish to).  This also sets a precedent that helps Second Amendment law cases defending the Second Amendment.

Second (no pun intended), the very idea of a Second Amendment was very revolutionary and continues to protect United States Citizens against tyrants and oppressive governments.

Both of David Young’s books contain enormous amounts of research and documentation that boggles the mind.  No person who is interested in protecting our Second Amendment should be without this book.

Robert Corbin, former President of the NRA and former Arizona Attorney General, has accomplished more for gun rights in Arizona than anyone I can think of.  Arizona had the “Castle Doctrine” in place ten years before Florida had.  The castle doctrine basically asserts that a man’s home is his castle and therefore he should be able to defend it.  (This also applies to women, many of whom I met at the GRPC.  In fact some of them were carrying more iron than many of the men!)

In Arizona, the State has to prove that you did not act in self-defense, rather than the other way around as some other states do.

Arizona, despite their great open-carry and discrete-carry laws, does have its share of gun-banning liberals.  In fact, these liberals have forced a vote five times to have the Second Amendment part of the Arizona Constitution removed.  Fortunately, with the strong defense of Robert and many others like him, the gun-banners efforts failed.

He agreed with all of us that the Second Amendment is for self-defense and for protection against an oppressive government.