Ca Ammo Tax (ab 992) Moved Back To Inactive File

[MikeHaas]

Subject: AMMO TAX (AB 992) MOVED BACK TO INACTIVE FILE

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NRA MEMBERS' COUNCILS OF CALIFORNIA

01/26/2004
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AB 992 (Ridley-Thomas) - Ammo Tax - After being defeated in 2003, the NRA Members' Councils of California learned late Friday, 1/23/2004, that this outrageous attack on the law-abiding shooting community had re-appeared in a surprise move on the Assembly floor. AB 992 would levy a tax on the sale of ammunition of 10 cents on every cartridge sold at retail to fund a "Victims Reimbursement Fund."

During today's Assembly floor session, file item 67, known to us as AB992 (ammo tax) was moved back onto the "Inactive file."

Legislators, and their staffs, report that a heavy volume of calls, faxes, and emails were waiting for them when they arrived at their offices this morning. It seems that your activities this past weekend have had the desired affect. Thank you.

This bill is not yet dead so we need to continue to call, fax, and email, through the end of this week. Things appear to be positive, but we cannot rest until this is gone. Please keep up the pressure.

For the latest CA firearms-related information and contact tools, including the ONE-CLICK messaging system, visit...
http://NRAMembersCouncils.com/legs.shtml

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[BenW]

Thank you for the update Mike. This is why calls, letters, and emails are SO IMPORTANT! Every single effort at contact makes a difference. If these people wouldn't have been bombarded by letters, they would have continued moving forward figuring nobody was noticing.

 

[Topgun]

Good news.....I think

Was thinkin about this the other day and wondering if it DID get made into law if we would suddenly become such a great source of revenue that all the REST of the anti gun crap would be thrown out just to preserve the state's ability to rob us constantly.

Twisted logic.

 

[Mute]

I'm really getting tired of these jackasses waiting for us to fall asleep so they can get away with this crap.

 

[Bruce H]

Now it's time for the residents of California to move Koretz,Ridley-Thomas, Scott, and Perata to the inactive file.

 

[Jim March]

Uh, not so fast.

I talked to Priscilla Ocen, the staffer for Ridley-Thomas who's handling AB992. She says that they're not "pushing" AB992 so that matches what Mike says re: inactive file, but she would NOT commit to the bill being utterly dead this year...even when I offered to repeat such a committment by her to the Internet to take some heat off.

So we can't quite consider this one dead. I'd continue doing POLITE pressure, folks.

In talking to Ms. Ocen on the matter, she says Ridley-Thomas was motivated primarily by a desire to fund trauma centers (esp. county hospitals). And it's true that they lose a ton of money, often to victims of violence of one sort or another.

I explained that the average crook shoots about a dozen rounds a year, while the serious target shooter can crank out 10,000 or more rounds a month (which means $1,000 a month or more to what will be seen as a "fine'). The people shooting those volumes are the LEAST likely people to do violence of any sort, never mind shoot somebody.

I countered by saying that if the goal is to fund trauma centers, the people to go after are drug dealers. At present, when cops do asset forfeiture it's seen as a "conflict of interest" - divert that money from the cops to the hospitals, and you'll be a LOT closer to "billing the people that really cause the violence" versus going after competitive shooters.

That got her attention.

(Yes, we know that asset forfeiture needs massive reforms, as does the "war on (some) drugs". Fine. Let 'em go wrassle with that. The first issue is that most asset forfeiture goes through the Feds, specifically BECAUSE the Feds have rules that pass a "bounty" back to the local agencies...in effect, the Feds have bribed local law enforcement, therefore the money goes to Feds and local cops. Even short of major reforms to drug/asset laws, we need to get this Federal bribery under control...we can halt that whole bribery scam, for starters.)

Anyways. Hats off to Ms. Ocen for at least listening - we had a very pleasant conversation.

So even with her boss's office: BE POLITE.



We have to at least be able to talk to these people.