Letter from Rep. Mark Pocan

He's my (Demonrat) US Representative, and I sent him an email recently urging him to vote NO on any new infringement of our rights. Here's his reply:

So, I sat down and wrote this, which I just emailed to him:

Mark,

Thanks for the reply to my letter concerning new gun registration / regulation.

I want to bring one of your statements to your attention. You say "I fully support
the Second Amendment and I believe well regulated gun ownership is essential to
reduce violence in our communities".

This statement disturbs me, as the Second Amendment states "A well regulated Militia,
being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The preamble "A well regulated Militia, being
necessary to the security of a free State" is an explanation of why a free people's
right to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed". It does not imply that gun
ownership should be "well regulated" in the modern sense.

It is a fact that every genocide committed in the 20th Century was preceded by gun
registration and confiscation. It is also a fact that none of the over 20,000 federal
and state gun laws have ever prevented one criminal fro obtaining and using a gun in
commission of a crime.

Every gun law in the United States has been a knee-jerk reaction by politicians eager
to be seen as "doing something" in the wake of a tragedy. The first federal law, the
1934 National Firearms Act, was in response to a very few instances of criminals such
as the Chicago Mob and Bonnie and Clyde using automatic weapons to commit crimes. Before
this law was passed, anyone could purchase a Thompson machine gun in the local hardware
store for a reasonable price. There were no school shootings. There were no mass murders
of civilians. Law-abiding Americans now had a $200 dollar tax on the tools of freedom. In
common terms, this is known as an "infringement", and is illegal under the Constitution.

A Supreme Court case - Miller - could have overturned this infringement had the defendant
appeared before the Court with his attorney, and if the US counsel not hedged the truth in
his testimony. The question was wether a shotgun was a military weapon, and therefore,
something a militia member would use. There was no mention of hunting.

The 1968 Gun Control Act, modeled after the German gun control laws of the 1930's, was
enacted in response to the shootings of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King. Before this
law was passed, anyone with the cash could order anti-tank rifles and ammunition to be
delivered to their front door anywhere in the USA. There were no cases of people
committing atrocities with these freely-available guns. All this act did was to create
a massive bureaucracy and make it more difficult - "infringe" - on American's Second
Amendment rights. This act brought the "sporting purposes" idea into gun control. Before
1968, no one thought hunters and target shooters were the only legitimate reasons for
private gun ownership.

In 1986, President Reagan signed the "Firearm Owner's Protection Act" ostensibly to protect
gun owners from prosecution under local (un-Constitutional) gun laws while traveling.
Unfortunately, an amendment attached at the last moment banned the future manufacture and
sale of fully automatic weapons to private citizens. Machine guns are still available
to the general public, but every one was registered with the BATFE before 1986, and there will
never be a new automatic weapon design by a private citizen until this law is repealed. Not
one mass murder has been prevented by this law, or ever will be.

In 1994, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was signed by President Clinton. This
infringement prevents Americans from obtaining freedom's tools quickly without begging
the government for permission. What better definition of "infringe" could there be than
forcing people to beg for their right ot self-defense? Columbine, Virginia Tech, and
Newtown all were not prevented by this infringement.

In short, no law will ever prevent a crime, as criminals ignore the law. Further
attempts at "gun control" will only result in the further loss of freedom of Americans at
the least, and may open the way for genocide here as it has so often in the past.

 Chuck Kuecker
Beloit, WI.