MONEY: Amendment 2548 is not the product of tax-and-spend liberals

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21827

Stealth Tax Increase
by Robert Novak
Posted: 08/06/2007

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WASHINGTON — The 42 senators and 196 House members who have signed a no-tax-increase pledge received a stern warning last Wednesday from Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform (ATR): If you vote for Amendment 2548 to the Democratic-sponsored expansion of SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), you will violate your solemn promise. However, Amendment 2548 is not the product of tax-and-spend liberals but of conservative lawmakers and policy experts.

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There doesn’t seem to be anyway to stop the free spending in Congress.

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GUNS: New Jersey State Police Seeking to Enact Further Firearms Restrictions

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=3188

New Jersey State Police Seeking to Enact Further Firearms Restrictions by Regulation
Monday, August 06, 2007

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Please Mail Your Comments in Today!

The New Jersey State Police recently issued new rule proposals for the regulation of firearms, magazines, and retailers in the Garden State. If approved, these regulations will have the rule of law without ever being debated by our legislators in Trenton, turning thousands of unsuspecting citizens into felons!

The proposal would do the following: It would require law-abiding gun owners to surrender or pay to render their “large capacity” magazines permanently blocked. Possession of a temporarily blocked “large capacity” magazine would be a crime. Certain semi-automatic shotguns and handguns would be classified as “assault firearms” because of cosmetic features, which have not been named in any statute enacted by the New Jersey Legislature. Another proposal seeks to harass lawful owners and retailers of “assault firearms” by requiring that licensed dealers who accept an “assault firearm” and/or machine gun from a citizen for transfer, resale, or repair must notify the Superintendent of the State Police within 48 hours. Also, all firearms sold by retailers would be mandated to be secured by steel cable. Finally, the proposal forces those placing handguns on consignment to produce a new permit to retake possession of the handgun.

Law-abiding firearm owners have until Friday, August 17 to voice their opposition to the new rules and the Superintendent needs to hear from you today! Public comments will only be accepted by mail.

STAND UP AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
PLEASE MAIL YOUR COMMENTS IN TODAY!

Please cut and paste the below letter onto a new page, date, sign, and mail to the listed address:

Date:

Colonel Joseph R. Fuentes, Superintendent
New Jersey State Police
PO Box 7068
West Trenton, New Jersey 08638

Attn: Firearms Investigation Unit
Re: Comments to PRN 2007-199

Dear Colonel Fuentes:

As a law-abiding New Jersey firearm owner, I respectfully object to, and urge you to not to implement certain proposed changes to the New Jersey Administrative Code set forth in your Rule Proposal dated June 18, 2007. These proposed changes would unilaterally turn thousands of honest citizens into criminals. Furthermore, it would impose this legal jeopardy in the complete absence of legislative intent, debate, and open discussion.

For many years, numerous state authorities have issued formal written advice to law abiding citizens, licensed firearm dealers, and police officers around the state permitting temporary blocking of magazines. Thousands of people have relied upon that advice by purchasing, possessing, transferring, transporting, and selling temporarily blocked magazines. These people would be forced to either surrender their private property with no compensation or pay to render their magazines permanently blocked. Rule proposal 13:54-1.2 will make thousands of unsuspecting, law-abiding firearm owners who are unaware of this dramatic reversal into felons by classifying a temporarily blocked magazine as a “large capacity magazine.

Also, under 13:54-1.2, certain semi-automatic shotguns, the most “commonly used firearm” by New Jersey sportsmen and semi-automatic pistols with common features, would be classified as “assault firearms” even though some of the supposedly undesirable shotgun features are particularly helpful to disabled shooters. Many of the supposedly undesirable features listed have not been identified in any statute passed by the New Jersey Legislature and are tantamount to new legislation even though legislating is beyond the scope of the executive branch.

Rule proposal 13:54-5.1 Section (c) assumes illegal activity without probable cause upon the firearm owner and forces the retailer to delay sometimes needed repair by mandating that licensed dealers who accept an “assault firearm” and/or machine gun from a citizen for transfer, resale, or repair notify the Superintendent within 48 hours. Delaying repairs pending approval by the Superintendent of Police will only add to greater expense and unjustified inconvenience for the firearm owner and lost business for the retailer.

New Jersey already mandates some of the toughest security measures for firearm retailers in the country. Additions to rule 13:54-6.5 would impose significant financial impacts upon retail firearm dealers by requiring dealers whose firearms are on display to secure firearms by a steel cable. Cabled firearms are more likely to “dry-fire” as the cable rests on the triggers of the firearms. Dry-firing can be particularly harmful to shotguns and antique firearms causing damage to the firing pins and actions of the firearms. Securing firearms by steel cables could also result in deep scrapes and permanent damage of those firearms and force retailers to sell the items for significantly less than the suggested retail value.

Rule proposal 13:54-3.20 forces those who place firearms on consignment to produce a new permit to purchase a handgun even though they may have dropped off the firearm as early as one day previously. This will place a new unnecessary burden on licensing authorities to reissue permits. This proposed regulation could redirect what is currently a safe and legal commerce to the black market.

I object to these proposals and urge you not to implement them.

Sincerely,

 

P.S.: How do you rationalize these rules with the Second Amendment to the US Constitution?

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Argh!

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GUNS: rifle hanging on the wall

http://www.survivalblog.com/2007/08/jims_quote_of_the_day_533.html

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

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“The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot give the factory-worker a rifle and tell him to take it home and keep it in his bedroom. That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer’s cottage, is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.” – George Orwell

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There ought a be a law. Oh yeah, there was … … the Second Amendment!

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GOLDBUG: The Nightmare German Inflation

http://www.usagold.com/germannightmare.html

The Nightmare German Inflation

from a NEWS & VIEWS SPECIAL REPORT

“The ones who fared best were the small minority who had the foresight to exchange marks into foreign money or gold very early, before new laws made this difficult and before the mark lost too much value.”

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If history teaches anything, it is that government cannot be trusted to manage money. When currency is not redeemable in gold, its value depends entirely on the judgment and the conscience of the politicians. (That is the situation in this country today.)

Especially in an economic crisis or a war, the pressure to inflate becomes overwhelming. Any alternative may seem politically disastrous. Whether it be the Roman emperors repeatedly debasing their coinage, the French revolutionary government printing a flood of assignats, John Law flooding France with debased money, or the Continental Congress issuing money until it was literally “not worth a Continental,” the story is similar. A government in financial straits finds its easiest recourse is to issue more and more money until the money loses its value. The entire process is accompanied by a barrage of explanations, propaganda and new regulations which hide the true situation from the eyes of most people until they have lost all their savings. In World War I, Germany — like other governments — borrowed heavily to pay its war costs. worthless money. This led to inflation, but not much more than in the U.S. during the same period. After the war there was a period of stability, but then the inflation resumed. By 1923, the wildest inflation in history was raging. Often prices doubled in a few hours. A wild stampede developed to buy goods and get rid of money. By late 1923 it took 200 billion marks to buy a loaf of bread.

Millions of the hard-working, thrifty German people found that their life’s savings would not buy a postage stamp. They were penniless. How could this happen in a highly civilized nation run at the time by intelligent, democratically chosen leaders? What happened to business, to wages and employment? How did some people manage to save their capital while a few speculators made fortunes?

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A wake up call?

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