[Malum Prohibitum]

As if anyone needed anymore proof that the left despises the commoners. The following is part of the most recent VCDL Alert.

Thanks to Ohioans for Concealed Carry for posting this important article:

http://tinyurl.com/ym6myg

Nancy Pelosi Trying to Limit Grassroots Activism?
Written by Dan White
Thursday, 21 December 2006

The biggest strength of Ohioans For Concealed Carry has always been
the efforts of our grassroots members. The ability to mobilize that
base to contact their legislators has been crucial for gun rights
reform in Ohio. Similar actions have been widely credited with the
waves of reform which have swept the country in recent years.

Now, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly making
overtures to curb that sort of grassroots activism by establishing
"lobbying reform" to impose strict new regulations on such displays
of free speech.

According to some reports:

The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of
"grassroots lobbying" and require any organization that encourages
500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected
representatives to file a report with detailed information about
their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.

The new legislation is expected to be modeled on the failed 2006 bill
H.R. 4682. If so, then in addition to that requirement, grassroots
organizations would also be required to file quarterly reports on all
informational and educational materials produced for each issue.
Other regulations expected to be included the requirement to be
registered with congress and impose strict and heavy penalties for
failure to comply.

Washington Examiner editorial page editor Mark Tapscott put it best
when he said, "In other words, for the first time in American
history, potentially millions of concerned citizens involved in
grassroots lobbying and representing viewpoints from across the
entire political spectrum would have to register with Congress in
order to exercise their First Amendment rights."

This is nothing less than a further attack by elitist Liberals who
are determined to squash any public outcry against policies they set
forth. Grassroots activism is one of the purest forms of political
activism, with broad support coming directly from the people. Any
attempt to throttle the voice of the American people into silence,
whether through a direct act or the intrusion of oppressive
regulation, is a direct affront to the very freedoms upon which this
country was built and must not be tolerated.

Will such an attack on Free Speech die in infancy, or will it be
merely the first encroachment in an effort to break free of the Will
of the People and ensure unpopular policies are imposed upon the
sheeple without opposition?

While the Second Amendment has always been the focus of the efforts
of OFCC, almost nothing we do would be possible without the First. We
will be watching these developments closely.

 

[Gunstar1]

Depending on the exact wording, that could be a big problem for gun rights people, but not for gun-control groups.

The reason being if they define members as dues paying members, then the far more people oriented gun rights groups will be hit. (if you did not know, many gun control groups do not even have dues paying members - they operate on large grants from liberal organizations).

If they defined it as 500 people who see such a call to contact their reps, that would cover a lot of people and groups of all political sides (If I put such an announcment on GPO's homepage, I would be included too).