germag
Gone But Not Forgotten
Here's my letter to them:
As you know, last week Georgia passed SB308, which goes a long way toward restoring 2nd Amendment rights we have lost along the way.
I (and several THOUSAND other Georga NRA members) would like to know why the NRA worked AGAINST this legislation every step of the way.
Please explain. Trust me, there are several thousand Georgia NRA members that are extremely disappointed with the way the NRA handled this and are considering dropping support of the NRA. This takes on the appearance that the NRA is working against Georgia gun owners, not for us. If you don't believe that, then take the time to look at any of the many Georgia outdoors forums, including Georgia Outdoor News forums.
I think we are owed an explanation as to why the NRA did not support this bill and why you lobbied against it.
Here's the NRA reply:
Thank you for writing to NRA about our position on SB308 in Georgia in the legislative session that just ended, and about our activities with respect to that bill.
Unfortunately, many members' concerns are based on the mistaken premise that NRA opposed final passage of that bill, or at least failed to support it. In fact, throughout the legislative session, NRA strongly supported SB 308, a bill that makes extensive changes to Georgia's laws on carrying firearms and knives. NRA issued a letter of support for the excellent version of the bill that passed the Senate in March.
On the last day of the legislative session, however we were presented with a conference committee report that made significant changes to the bill, including (most significantly) the deletion of language that protected the right to carry a firearm in the non-secure areas of airports.
We made our objections to this change known, and soon learned that a second conference committee report had been prepared. We were also told that the second report included potentially problematic language suggested by lobbyists for Georgia realtors, which could affect Georgia's existing law on employees' and visitors' right to store firearms in locked vehicles in publicly accessible parking lots.
Time was extremely short at this point, and shortly before the final vote we were finally given a final, signed, copy of the second conference committee report. (The timing was critical because in Georgia, a conference committee report can't be amended; to make any changes, the conference committee has to reconvene and vote on a new report.) With just a few minutes left before the expected vote, our lobbyist called one of our attorneys to review the realtors' amendment. Our attorney's view was that the amendment would undermine the parking lot statute, and would make it significantly harder in the future to improve protections for workers and visitors under that important law.
Our lobbyist then strongly voiced his objections to the amendment, but despite our objections the committee report was passed and sent to Gov. Perdue for his signature.
I hope this makes clear that NRA never opposed SB 308; we only used our few available options to improve the bill for the benefit of gun owners in Georgia. Unfortunately, the process that played out on the last night of the session led to passage of a final bill that will make many improvements to Georgia law, but that also contains weaker protection for gun owners on a number of issues, or no protection at all, compared to the original Senate-passed bill. The final bill also includes provisions that will be confusing for Georgia gun owners, such as new definitions of "handgun" and "long gun" that create a legal gray area for owners of firearms with barrels longer than 12 inches but shorter than 18 inches.
In the end, we urged our members in Georgia to call Governor Perdue in support of SB 308, and he signed the bill into law. While we do disagree with some of the changes that were made very late in the process, please rest assured that we will work with all Second Amendment supporters in Georgia to address those concerns and to further improve Georgia's laws in the next legislative session.
To read NRA's letter of support for SB 308, please click here: http://www.nraila.org/pdfs/seabaugh.pdf
To read an e-mail response from Senator Seabaugh acknowledging NRA's support of SB 308, please click here: http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/seabaugh_sb308.pdf
To read NRA's letter to Governor Perdue urging him to sign the legislation, please click here: http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/060210GovPerdueSB291SB308.pdf
Sincerely,
Miranda Bond
NRA-ILA Grassroots Division
As you know, last week Georgia passed SB308, which goes a long way toward restoring 2nd Amendment rights we have lost along the way.
I (and several THOUSAND other Georga NRA members) would like to know why the NRA worked AGAINST this legislation every step of the way.
Please explain. Trust me, there are several thousand Georgia NRA members that are extremely disappointed with the way the NRA handled this and are considering dropping support of the NRA. This takes on the appearance that the NRA is working against Georgia gun owners, not for us. If you don't believe that, then take the time to look at any of the many Georgia outdoors forums, including Georgia Outdoor News forums.
I think we are owed an explanation as to why the NRA did not support this bill and why you lobbied against it.
Here's the NRA reply:
Thank you for writing to NRA about our position on SB308 in Georgia in the legislative session that just ended, and about our activities with respect to that bill.
Unfortunately, many members' concerns are based on the mistaken premise that NRA opposed final passage of that bill, or at least failed to support it. In fact, throughout the legislative session, NRA strongly supported SB 308, a bill that makes extensive changes to Georgia's laws on carrying firearms and knives. NRA issued a letter of support for the excellent version of the bill that passed the Senate in March.
On the last day of the legislative session, however we were presented with a conference committee report that made significant changes to the bill, including (most significantly) the deletion of language that protected the right to carry a firearm in the non-secure areas of airports.
We made our objections to this change known, and soon learned that a second conference committee report had been prepared. We were also told that the second report included potentially problematic language suggested by lobbyists for Georgia realtors, which could affect Georgia's existing law on employees' and visitors' right to store firearms in locked vehicles in publicly accessible parking lots.
Time was extremely short at this point, and shortly before the final vote we were finally given a final, signed, copy of the second conference committee report. (The timing was critical because in Georgia, a conference committee report can't be amended; to make any changes, the conference committee has to reconvene and vote on a new report.) With just a few minutes left before the expected vote, our lobbyist called one of our attorneys to review the realtors' amendment. Our attorney's view was that the amendment would undermine the parking lot statute, and would make it significantly harder in the future to improve protections for workers and visitors under that important law.
Our lobbyist then strongly voiced his objections to the amendment, but despite our objections the committee report was passed and sent to Gov. Perdue for his signature.
I hope this makes clear that NRA never opposed SB 308; we only used our few available options to improve the bill for the benefit of gun owners in Georgia. Unfortunately, the process that played out on the last night of the session led to passage of a final bill that will make many improvements to Georgia law, but that also contains weaker protection for gun owners on a number of issues, or no protection at all, compared to the original Senate-passed bill. The final bill also includes provisions that will be confusing for Georgia gun owners, such as new definitions of "handgun" and "long gun" that create a legal gray area for owners of firearms with barrels longer than 12 inches but shorter than 18 inches.
In the end, we urged our members in Georgia to call Governor Perdue in support of SB 308, and he signed the bill into law. While we do disagree with some of the changes that were made very late in the process, please rest assured that we will work with all Second Amendment supporters in Georgia to address those concerns and to further improve Georgia's laws in the next legislative session.
To read NRA's letter of support for SB 308, please click here: http://www.nraila.org/pdfs/seabaugh.pdf
To read an e-mail response from Senator Seabaugh acknowledging NRA's support of SB 308, please click here: http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/seabaugh_sb308.pdf
To read NRA's letter to Governor Perdue urging him to sign the legislation, please click here: http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/060210GovPerdueSB291SB308.pdf
Sincerely,
Miranda Bond
NRA-ILA Grassroots Division
