TSA CONSIDERING NATIONAL GUN BAN
UPDATE 08.11.08. GEORGIA BANS GUNS IN AIRPORTS, CITES POSSIBLE “MAYHEM”
“First, you’re going to have a stampede,” said Robert Kennedy, the airport’s assistant general manager.
08/10/08
In just the latest attack on American’s freedom,the TSA Is considering a ban on firearms in the non-secure areas of our nations airports.The irony of one of the most abusive and unprofessional government agencies declaring that trained, law-abiding Americans will have even more of their rights stripped from them should outrage all gun owners, and anyone who has had the misfortune to travel by air in the last few years.
(A Google search with the words “TSA Abuses” returns 755,000 hits.)
As you know, Oregon Firearms Federation has had a long battle with the Port of Portland over their totally unlawful policy of banning CHL holders from bringing firearms into the non-secure parts of the airport.
Because of this policy, OFF members have twice defeated the Port’s efforts to expand their police powers. Most recently, in the 2007 session, your activism scuttled that attempt despite the efforts of the soon-to-be-gone Greg MacPherson to keep the bill alive with backroom parliamentary gambits.
Last October, House Rep Jeff Barker, who sponsored the bill, and then did all he could to make sure the bill would die when he learned of the Port’s unlawful policy, informed us that the Port had told him they were changing the rule to comply with state law. There are still signs posted in the entrances to the airport saying “no weapons” but they do not include the phrase “with or without permits” any longer.
But now, the Bush administration may reverse all your hard work with a sweeping national mandate that will not only violate states’ rights, but put you and your family in greater danger when you travel to the airport.
To try to sell this as a security concern is laughable considering what a monstrous waste of time the TSA’s abusive shakedowns are. Women and the elderly are regularly subjected to embarrassing and arbitrary searches for purely theatrical purposes. People in wheelchairs are stripped of their shoes and children’s toys are confiscated. Meanwhile the number of thefts attributed to the minimum wage quality rent-a-cops employed by TSA is huge and growing.
Now these bunglers and crooks want to prevent you from picking up or dropping off your family while in possession of your self defense firearm.
While he has been no friend to gun owners, it is imperative that Gordon Smith hear from you about this latest attack on your rights. Smith, who is running for reelection, has moved his campaign well to the left to appeal to the anti-gun crowd, but he cannot win election without the votes of gun owners.
Please contact Smith and let him know that you expect him to use his office to oppose any more attempts by the Bush administration and the TSA to further erode your rights.
Contact information and sample text follow:
_____________________________________________________________________
Dear Senator Smith,
I am deeply disturbed by the Transportation Safety Administration’s plans to consider banning firearms on all airport property.
As you know, this agency has one of the worst reputations of any organization in the US Government.
Law abiding gun owners are not a threat to the safety of air travel in this country and I urge you to do everything in your power as a US Senator to make sure the Administration knows this is a bad, and probably illegal policy.
Very truly yours,
___________________________
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