(This message can be forwarded, and you are encouraged to do so!)

 

While we must continue our advocacy on our state-level revenue bills, there is also a federal issue that needs our urgent and immediate action.  Please read below, click on this "Take Action" link, and make just two quick phone calls.  The vote on the Thune Amendment is expected to occur TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY, JULY 22).  Senators Specter and Casey will be critical to this vote, so your calls are urgently needed TODAY!!!

 

Background

Senator John Thune (R-SD) is offering a dangerous amendment to the Defense spending bill (S.1390) that would nullify state efforts to advance gun violence prevention, including efforts to remove firearms from dangerous domestic violence perpetrators.  The Senate will vote on the Thune Amendment this week and WE must stop it!

 

Backed by the gun lobby, the Thune Amendment would allow the carrying of loaded, concealed firearms outside a person's home state, even by persons legally barred from possessing guns in the state where the carrying occurs.  This legislation would effectively allow the weaker concealed carry laws of one state to nullify the restrictions on gun carrying of other states.  (For more info, see http://www.bradycampaign.org/action/concealedguns/)

 

The Thune amendment would endanger victims of domestic violence and public safety generally, and make it more difficult for law enforcement to do their jobs.  By reducing the gun laws in all states to the "lowest common denominator" of the states with the weakest laws on carrying concealed weapons, it would eviscerate state efforts to restrict those who pose a known harm from carrying hidden, loaded guns--including domestic violence perpetrators.  It allows out of state visitors to carry concealed firearms even if those visitors have not met the standards for carrying a concealed weapon in the state they are visiting.

 

Gun Facts

We know well that firearms too often turn domestic violence into domestic homicide.  A gun is the most common weapon used in domestic violence cases.  According to a 2003 study, access to firearms increases the risk of intimate partner homicide by more than five times.  Another study in 2003 found that women who were threatened or assaulted with a gun or other weapon were 20 times more likely than other women to be murdered.

 

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Call your Senators and urge them to VOTE "NO" to the gun lobby and the Thune Amendment. 

 

Calling Instructions

Click on the "Take Action" link at the top of this email, then enter your zip code into the "Call Now" box.  Your Senator's phone number and a telephone script will appear.   Once you have called the first Senator, you will see the second Senator's contact information.  It's easy and quick--and absolutely essential!

 

Additional Info:  The following editorial ran in the Philadelphia Daily News yesterday

 

Opinion: Permit to carry? Scary!

 

Philadelphia Daily News

July 20, 2009

 

AS EARLY as this week, Sen. Arlen Specter could set the wheels in motion for

a new civil war in this country.

 

That's because a subcommittee on crime and drugs that he chairs could move

an amendment that will allow pretty much anyone to carry concealed weapons

pretty much anywhere they want - even to states that might have prohibited

them in the past.

 

If you thought, like we did, that allowing people to carry their loaded

weapons into national parks was bad - Congress gave us this gift a few

months ago - this amendment (S. 845) will really curl your hair.

 

It would allow citizens who have "concealed carry" permits from the state in

which they reside to carry concealed firearms into another state that grants

concealed carry permits - even those states whose rules would have

prohibited those citizens in the past.

 

Two states don't grant such permits; the rest of the states have widely

varied rules and regulations that identify who is allowed to carry hidden

guns. Some states require very little but an application, but many states

give wide discretion to law enforcement to decide who can carry around their

hidden guns. This amendment, called the Thune Amendment, would mean the

weakest concealed carry restrictions would now be the default.

 

In Pennsylvania, for example, you can't get such a permit if you have been

convicted of impersonating a police officer. No such restrictions exist in

other states like, say, Florida. So Officer Faux can now get a permit in

Florida, and come to Pennsylvania to terrorize his fellow citizens with the

gun hidden in his glove compartment or ankle holster.

 

By forcing most states in the country to open their borders to anyone

carrying a legally concealed weapon, this law levels the playing field -

literally and lethally.

 

This latest outrage from the NRA-controlled Congress is an egregrious

trampeling of state's rights that should not be allowed to stand.

 

More importantly, it's a trampling of the rights of those of us who don't

care to increase the numbers of people toting around hidden guns where we

live, and who believe that armed is dangerous - to everyone.

 

The pro-gun lobby likes to argue that all such concealed carry

permit-holders are law-abiding citizens interested only in upholding the

Constititution. They ought to look at the list of crimes committed by those

permited to carry a concealed weapon. (www. bradycampaign.org.)

 

Those stories include a Florida resident with suspected links to al Qaeda

who lost his CCW license only after being arrested on suspicion of a

terrorist plot.

 

The pro-gun lobby is also fond of claiming that concealed-weapon permits are

linked to lower crime. This research has long been dismissed and

discredited.

 

A note to those poor gun owners who feel so put out by the inconvenience of

not being able to carry their guns past their own state borders: If

 

you're that afraid to travel to other places, stay home.

 

There's only a short leap from the idea of flooding states with people

carrying concealed guns to civil war. Especially when you compare U.S.

casualties in Iraq since the war began - about 3,000 - with U.S. casualties

from guns in a single year: 30,000.

 

Those who don't want to be among the casualties for 2009 should call Specter

(202-224-4254 and Sen. Bob Casey (202-224-6324), and urge them to kill this

idea.

 

Another editorial is available here:  http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20090721_Editorial__Don_t_bring_your_gun_here.html

 

Nicole A. Lindemyer, Esq.

Policy & Special Projects Manager

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV)

6400 Flank Drive, Suite 1300

Harrisburg, PA 17112

(717) 545-6400, ext. 205

nal@...

Nicole A. Lindemyer, Esq.

Policy & Special Projects Manager

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV)

6400 Flank Drive, Suite 1300

Harrisburg, PA 17112

(717) 545-6400, ext. 205

nal@...