There may be no vote a United States Senator casts that is more important than a vote to confirm a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now that the Court has clearly stated that the Second Amendment is a fundamental, individual right that applies to all law-abiding Americans, NRA members and gun owners expect a nominee to the Court to fully support, defend and preserve that freedom.

We have carefully examined the career, written documents and public statements of nominee Elena Kagan and have found nothing to indicate any support for the Second Amendment. On the contrary, the facts reveal a nominee who opposes Second Amendment rights and is clearly out of step with mainstream Americans.

Therefore, the NRA is strongly opposed to Kagan’s confirmation to the Court.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she refused to declare support for the Second Amendment, saying only that the matter was “settled law.”

This was eerily similar to the scripted testimony of Justice Sonia Sotomayor last year, prior to her confirmation to the Court. When pressed on the Second Amendment then, Sotomayor also referred to the issue as “settled law.”

But in the recently decided case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, Sotomayor ignored the “settled law” of the Heller decision and signed a dissenting opinion that declared, “I can find nothing in the Second Amendment’s text, history, or underlying rationale that could warrant characterizing it as ‘fundamental’ insofar as it seeks to protect the keeping and bearing of arms for private self-defense purposes.”

It has become obvious that “settled law” is the scripted code of an anti-gun nominee’s confirmation effort. The NRA is not fooled. No member of the U.S. Senate should be either.

With no judicial record, only Kagan’s political career can be reviewed. And this provides no reason to trust her with Americans’ firearms freedom. Throughout her career, she has repeatedly demonstrated a clear hostility to the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms under the U.S. Constitution.

As a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, Kagan said she was “not sympathetic” to a challenge to Washington, DC’s ban on firearms. As a domestic policy advisor in the Clinton White House, a colleague described her as “immersed” in Clinton’s aggressive assaults on the Second Amendment. She was involved in Clinton’s scheme to ban more than 50 types of commonly-owned semiautomatic firearms – an effort described as “…taking the law and bending it as far as we can to capture a whole new class of guns.”

As U.S. Solicitor General, Kagan chose not to file a brief last year in the landmark McDonald case, thus taking the position that incorporating the Second Amendment and applying it to the states was of no interest to the Obama Administration or the federal government.

These are not the positions of a person who supports the Second Amendment and, in fact, represent a clear and present danger to the right to keep and bear arms.

Kagan’s record clearly reveals that she does not believe that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right. In her recent testimony, she refused to acknowledge respect for the God-given right of self-defense.

She should not serve on any court, let alone be confirmed to a lifetime seat on the highest court in the land.

The NRA is strongly opposed to the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. This vote matters and will be a part of future candidate evaluations.

The above statement was originally published by NRA-ILA.

You can contact Senator Arlen Specter at 202-224-4254 and Senator Bob Casey at 202-224-6324.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can also read Kopel’s written testimony where he decimates Kagan’s belief that the KKK & NRA should be linked as “bad guy orgs.”

The NRA has always stood up for civil rights, including the right to keep and bear arms without regard to race, color, or creed. The historic role of the KKK was to deprive African Americans of this right.

The cofounder of the NRA was General Ambose Everett Burnside, who had recently finished two terms as Governor of Rhode Island. As a Union General, he had been a leader at integrating the freedmen into combat roles. As the Providence Journal later put it, Burnside was ―One of the first of the regular army officers to approve heartily of Mr. Lincoln‘s emancipation policy, he was also one of the first to favor the arming of black troops, and one of the most successful in training them for action.

After founding the NRA, Burnside was elected Senator from Rhode Island. He fought against racial segregation in the military, and proposed that West Point adopt an affirmative action admissions plan for blacks.

The sixth NRA President, General Winfield Scott Hancock, was nationally extolled as “the hero of Gettysburg.” As Democratic nominee for U.S. President in 1880, he had lost the popular vote by less than 10,000 votes, and if he had won the swing state of New York, he would have won the electoral vote. Hancock was remarkable for his time, always treating black people as equals, even before the Civil War. In 1880, Hancock led a national campaign to vindicate a black cadet at West Point who had been attacked by some white cadets, but whom the West Point administration claimed had injured himself.

The NRA‘s Articles of Incorporation omitted something that was common for other sporting organizations at the time: a racial exclusion clause. In contrast to many other organizations and clubs created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—such as the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, the Professional Golf Association, the New York Athletic Club (for track and field), and the Amateur Athletic Union (same), the NRA welcomed members and athletes of every race.

The NRA was the governing body for the sport of rifle shooting, and eventually became the governing body for almost all the shooting sports. In this way, the NRA set a good example of racial integration and equality for the millions of Americans who participated in the shooting sports. Even during the worst of Jim Crow, a NRA match was one place where blacks and whites were exactly equal, and where skin color did not matter.

In the very segregated Washington, D.C., of the 1930s and 1940s, the shooting range at NRA National Headquarters was the only integrated place where a young black man could go and feel fully welcome. At least that was the experience of Richard Atkinson, a black man who grew up in the District during those years, and who was later was elected a director of the National Rifle Association.

The concerns Kopel raises are some of the reasons the NRA has made its opposition of Kagan crystal clear to members of the Senate. They will score the vote on her confirmation when they calculate grades for the 2010 elections.

Senators Arlen Specter & Bob Casey will likely return to Pennsylvania this next week for the July Fourth holiday recess. Please make sure you contact them to let them know that you stand with NRA & do not want a Supreme Court justice who believes that Americans who believe in gun rights are similar to despicable racists.

In the meantime, please take a few minutes to thank the members of the legislative branches of government who worked on our behalf to encourage the Supreme Court toward this position.

US Senate
Bob Casey

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Arlen Specter

• Twitter – @SenArlenSpecter
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US Congress
Jason Altmire

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Christopher Carney

• Twitter – @ChrisCarneyPa10
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Charlie Dent

• Twitter – @DentforCongress
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Jim Gerlach

• Twitter – @JimGerlach
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Tim Holden

• Twitter – @TimHoldenPA17
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Paul Kanjorski

• Twitter – @kanjo4congress
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Patrick Murphy

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Tim Murphy

• Twitter – @RepTimMurphy
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Joe Pitts

• Twitter – @JoePitts4PA
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Todd Platts

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Bill Shuster

• Twitter – @RepBillShuster
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Glenn Thompson

• Twitter – @CongressmanGT
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State Officials
Tom Corbett

• Twitter – @CorbettforGov
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Joe Scarnati

Karen Boback

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Michele Brooks

Bryan Cutler

• Twitter – @RepBryanCutler
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Bill DeWeese

Glen Grell

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Rob Kauffman

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Mark Keller

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John Maher

Daryl Metcalfe

• Twitter – @DarylMetcalfe

Merle Phillips

Kathy Rapp

RoseMarie Swanger

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Will Tallman

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Katie True

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Topics include banning private sales, banning rifles, and registries. In fact, Joe Sestak won’t even concede that firearms may be used for self-defense lawfully.

It is also true that Arlen Specter does not have the support of the NRA. NRA has endorsed Republican Pat Toomey in the race. Since his party switch, Specter has voted against us on every issue.

Judicial Battles
In 2010, we will find out whether the Supreme Court is willing to expand the landmark Heller decision to apply to states. In the current state, there is an acknowledged individual right to arms by the federal government. However, states and municipalities do not currently have to honor that right. The case to change that is McDonald v. Chicago, a challenge brought by the same attorney who won Heller to the city of Chicago’s handgun ban.

For Pennsylvania residents, McDonald is likely to bring very little tangible change to the state of our gun rights. Our state constitution has a strong individual right to arms, so we have not had to wait on the federal courts to tell our state and local governments to honor our rights. This case will most directly impact states without state protections for the right to bear arms or states whose judicial systems have effectively eroded those that may have existed.

The majority of briefs for the pro-gun side have already been filed and can be found on Alan Gura’s website. Chicago asked for an extension of their deadline, originally scheduled for mid-December. It was partially granted and they submitted their brief just before New Year’s Eve. This means that Gura will file a response near the end of January before the hearing occurs on March 2. If the timing of the Heller case is any indication – and the possible scope of the decision to stem beyond gun rights – then we may not see an opinion handed down until the end of June. Landmark cases tend to be held the longest, and Heller was the last case released during the Supreme Court’s term in 2008.

Local Battles
We have covered Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-gun group extensively on PAGunRights.com. So far, these mayors have called Pennsylvania’s ~600,000 concealed carry holders criminals, violated state laws on passing local gun control, and called on Congress to turn down all pro-gun bills. But shortly after Christmas, a document the mayors sent to President Obama & various agencies was released online. Bloomberg & his mayoral buddies in Pennsylvania have been trying to keep this blueprint for gun control under wraps by refusing to release it anywhere that gun owners could easily find it. Through a FOIA request & a cooperative agency, their real plan has been revealed and it is not at all good for gun owners.

Mayors working with Bloomberg have demanded the Obama Administration enact the following changes, as summarized at the link above:

• Require REAL ID compliant identification for all gun purchasers. Those in non-complying states, which are many, will no longer be permitted to buy firearms.
• Recommends a ban on the importation of all “non-sporting” firearms and ammunition, and specifically calls for banning the FN Five-Seven. Cheap imported rounds of military caliber may become a thing of the past.  Since MAIG isn’t all that specific on what would be sporting or non-sporting, Glocks could even be at risk.
• Calls for keeping records for people who get a NICS default proceed, which means your background check has not “cleared” but you went through the required three day waiting period. These records can be kept for up to 20 years, in the case of someone who’s name matches someone on the “terror watch” list and six months ordinarily. Default proceeds can happen if NICS has incomplete records, or the system is down for a protracted period of time.
• Calls for more enforcement of gun shows using the Richmond model. The techniques used at the Richmond gun shows were bad enough that Congress held hearings about the methods, and demanding ATF put a stop to them. They actually recommend rescinding a number of the changes made to prevent these abuses.
• Recommends ways for the administration to exploit loopholes in Tiahrt to publish information on “problematic” gun dealers (so they can be sued by New York City, no doubt). Having a lot of traces doesn’t necessarily mean a dealer is breaking the law.
• Lots of recommendations for new record keeping requirements on the part of FFLs
• Requiring placement of alternate serial numbers of every newly manufactured gun, and requiring serial numbers to be deeper and larger. Also require that a consistent serial numbering scheme be adopted across all manufacturers and importers which would be a default ban on many commemorative guns.
• Asks ATF to promote MAIG’s Responsible Dealer Partnership Program that they foisted on Wal-Mart, much like they do with NSSF’s “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy.” They imply NSSF’s program does not go far enough.
• Asks the Consumer Product Safety Commission to mandate gun safety lock standards. Gun dealers are required to provide these, but many gun owners are older, or younger, and do not have children. This would be a way to add substantially to the cost of a firearm, if a 30 dollar lock needed to be included with each sale.
• Extend the multiple purchase reporting requirement to long guns, especially ARs, 50 caliber firearms, and Kalashnikov variants. MAIG is not very clear on this, and I think it would be difficult for dealers to keep track of the current state of regulation.

This document reveals that this group and all of its member mayors are calling for outright gun bans. What’s more telling is that the document specifically outlines how to enact these proposals without going through the accountability of Congress.

We will be tackling these mayors one-by-one in 2010. Gun owners haven’t seen the actual tangible threat by this group yet, but hopefully with this plan to ban guns, add unreasonable restrictions on gun owners, and hike the prices of guns artificially will help shine the light on why this group cannot be ignored.

Elections – Federal
Most eyes will be on federal elections in 2010, especially following the results of November 2009 in New Jersey and Virginia. Candidates are lining up on both sides of the aisle, and we will be providing more specific coverage as more news breaks in 2010.

Gun owners who are registered to vote with a major party need to turn out and vote in the primary election on May 18, 2010. We cannot afford to have anti-gun representatives of any party running on the ballot in November. For those gun owners who are not registered with a party having a primary election, the last day to switch your registration is April 19 if you want to pull a party ballot.

In November, we will likely see some changes in Congress. It is likely some incumbents will lose, leaving the Republican with a few more seats in both chambers. Pennsylvania will obviously be part of these likely changes based on current polls that indicate a likely race between Pat Toomey (R) and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) is exceptionally close. In the rest of the Senate, we may lose a pro-gun Democratic leader with Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). If he is beaten by a likely anti-gun Republican challenger, in addition to losing a pro-gun Majority Leader, we will have another anti-gun vote and a new anti-gun leader in Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). This means that without radical changes of other seats into pro-gun hands, we could be looking at a Senate that is just as hostile to gun rights as Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Elections – State
In Pennsylvania, we will also have major state elections in November (with the primary races in May). The Governor’s seat will capture most of the attention, but we cannot afford to ignore the state legislature. Not only does it put us at a risk for anti-gun legislation, but these representatives will be shaping our Congressional districts. A current review of Census data shows that Pennsylvania is slated to lose a seat in Congress. State lawmakers will determine which district will be erased and how the other districts will be distributed to likely voters. Gerrymandering is rarely a pleasant affair to watch, but it is real and does impact our gun rights.

Recruiting for the Cause
2010 will be a year of changes for gun rights. It’s up to us as to whether those changes are good or bad. While we can’t easily directly influence the decision of McDonald, we can influence elections which influence who is on the Court to hear cases like Heller and McDonald. While we cannot control changing demographics that mean Pennsylvania will lose a Congressional seat, we do control who holds the power to change the districts so that anti-gun forces aren’t given more influence.

Make sure you’re on our email list by sending your name, email, and Congressional district to admin (at) pagunrights (dot) com. Stop by a table at the Valley Forge Gun Show and make sure you’re getting the updates on when we need a hand in advancing freedom.

In 2008, Sen. Hutchison lead an effort to organize a record number of members of Congress to sign a pro-individual rights brief in the Heller case. At the time, both Sen. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter signed onto the brief. In the House, 13 members of the Pennsylvania delegation signed the brief, including the 19th District’s Cong. Todd Platts. These members argued:

As Federal officials, we have a fundamental interest in protecting the constitutional rights of our constituents and the American people in general. …

The Second Amendment provides: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Congress adopted that wording and proposed it to the States in 1789. It became part of the Bill of Rights which the States ratified in 1791. As the text and the drafting history demonstrate, the Amendment was intended to guarantee the right of individuals to possess and keep ordinary firearms.

What stands out are Pennsylvania’s members of Congress who refused to support such an interpretation and sought to deny an individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment. Cong. Patrick Murphy (PA-8), Allyson Schwartz (PA-13), and Joe Sestak (PA-7) refused to sign on to the brief, ultimately ending up on the wrong side of history. Two other members of the delegation, Cong. Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah, actually lead the opposition by filing a brief making a claim that the Second Amendment is limited to militia service. Interestingly, not a single member of the Court agreed with this claim. Even the dissent brief acknowledged the individual right to own arms.

At this time, no members of the Pennsylvania delegation have indicated whether they will sign on to this brief or not. It would be reasonable to expect the same result with this brief, though we will keep you informed as names are announced.

Of highest importance, S. 941and H.R. 2296 rewrite the system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms. Today, for most violations, BATFE can only give a federal firearms license (FFL) holder a warning or revoke the license. S. 941and H.R. 2296 would allow fines or license suspensions for less serious violations, while still allowing license revocation for the kind of serious violations that would block an investigation or put guns in the hands of criminals. This will help prevent the all-too-common situations where BATFE has revoked licenses for insignificant technical violations—such as improper use of abbreviations, or filing records in the wrong order.

The Senate bill currently has 13 sponsors from both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, neither of Pennsylvania’s Senators have signed on to the reform package. Contact Sen. Bob Casey at 1-866-802-2833 and Sen. Arlen Specter at 202-224-4254 to request their support for this important reform.

The House bill currently has 175 sponsors from both parties, and it includes 11 Pennsylvania Representatives. Residents of Pennsylvania’s 19th district should thank Rep. Todd Platts for his support at 1-877-902-1919. Unfortunately, Representatives Patrick Murphy and Allyson Schwartz have not signed on to support the bill yet. You can contact Rep. Murphy at 202-225-4276 and Rep. Schwartz at 202-225-6111 to suggest they sponsor the bill.

So far, Republicans plan to target the following districts and members: PA-3 Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, PA-4 Rep. Jason Altmire, PA-7 Rep. Joe Sestak*, PA-10 Rep. Chris Carney, PA-11 Rep. Paul Kanjorski, and PA-12 Rep. Jack Murtha.

To the best of our knowledge, such an extensive and detailed list has not been released by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. However, the party does expect to spend money to take Rep. Jim Gerlach’s district (PA-6) when he vacates it to run for Governor and will try to unseat Rep. Charlie Dent (PA-15).

The combined lists represent five seats currently rated A up for grabs (PA-4, 6, 11, 12, & 15), as well as one B rated seat (PA-10) and two F rated seats (PA-3 & 7). At this time, we do not have information about any likely competitors and their grades.

It would appear based on this information that the focus in districts 8, 13, and 19 will be on statewide and local offices with NRA endorsed candidates in 2010. As we get closer to the elections, we’ll have a better idea of competitive races and will keep you informed of relevant issues.

* Rep. Sestak is expected to vacate his Congressional seat to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter for his Senate seat. Therefore, this will likely be an open race with room for improvement from either side of the aisle since Rep. Sestak has consistently served as a voice of anti-gun organizations and last held an F rating with NRA.

This year, the August recess is scheduled to run from August 3 to September 7.

If you would like to schedule a meeting to air concerns about any issues, check out the area district office contact information:

U.S. Senators
Arlen Specter
Upper Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Allentown
504 W. Hamilton, Suite 3814, Federal Building
Allentown, PA 18101
Phone: 215-597-7200

Philadelphia and Lower Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Philadelphia
600 Arch Street, Suite 9400
Philadelphia , PA 19106
Phone: 215-597-7200

Adams/York/Cumberland Counties: Harrisburg
228 Walnut Street, Room 1104, Federal Building
Harrisburg , PA 17101
Phone: 717-782-3951

Bob Casey
Upper Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Allentown
840 Hamilton Street, Suite 301
Allentown, PA 18101
Phone: 610-782-9470

Philadelphia and Lower Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Philadelphia
2000 Market Street, Suite 1870
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-405-9660

Adams/York/Cumberland Counties: Harrisburg
22 S. Third Street, Suite 6A
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Phone: 717-231-7540

U.S. Congress
Patrick Murphy, PA-8
Philadelphia, Lower Bucks Counties: Bristol
414 Mill Street
Bristol, PA 19007
Phone: 215-826-1963

Montgomery, Upper Bucks Counties: Doylestown
72 North Main Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
Phone: 215-348-1194

Allyson Schwartz, PA-13
Montgomery County: Jenkintown
706 West Avenue
Jenkintown, PA 19046
Phone: 215-517-6572

Philadelphia County: Philadelphia
7219 Frankford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19135
Phone: 215-335-3355

Todd Platts, PA-19
Adams County: Gettysburg
22 Chambersburg Street
Gettysburg, PA 17325
Phone: 717-338-1919

Cumberland County: Carlisle
59 West Louther Street
Carlisle, PA 17013
Phone: 717-249-0190

York County: York
2209 East Market Street
York, PA 17402
Phone: 717-600-1919

Top concerns about the gun issue for Senators Casey and Specter are the confirmation of anti-Second Amendment Sonia Sotomayor and the appointment of anti-hunting Cass Sunstein to the office of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (aka Regulatory Czar). In the House, Congressmen Murphy, Schwartz, and Platts should be questioned on opposition or support for the DC gun rights amendment to the DC voting rights bill. At this time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to bring up the bill for a vote out of fear that the House might support basic gun rights for residents of the District of Columbia.

If you would like to meet with other gun owners to conduct a meeting with Congressional staff, please let your local EVC know. You can contact us via this web form.

In a 13-6 vote, Sotomayor cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a full vote on her confirmation is expected in the Senate next week.

The National Rifle Association is opposing the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor based on troubling answers given during questioning by the members of the Judiciary Committee. Her answers indicated that she disagreed with the Supreme Court’s Heller case that individuals have the right to self-defense. In addition, she refused to consider Heller a matter of settled law while considering more controversial cases to have settled law on other issues. In a troubling development, she also refused to say whether she would recuse herself in line with court traditions should a case on Second Amendment incorporation be heard. (She has already ruled that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states in Maloney v. Cuomo, and similar cases may be heard by the Supreme Court alongside an appeal to the Maloney case.)

Newly Democratic Senator Arlen Specter has decided he does not want to maintain his previous NRA-rating and pro-gun record. He believes that concealed carry license holders in Pennsylvania should have their rights revoked at the borders of Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. (West Virginia is the only border state to honor your Pennsylvania License to Carry.)

Many gun owners in Pennsylvania cross the political spectrum. This is often reflected by the generally pro-gun nature of non-urban and/or statewide Democrats like Senator Casey. At this time, it would appear that Democratic gun owners will not have a true pro-gun voice in next year’s party primary election.

Pennsylvania’s Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter need to hear from you!  Neither has been willing to make a statement on their feelings on the amendment offered by Senators John Thune (R-SD) and David Vitter (R-LA).

Call Senator Bob Casey at (202) 224-6324 and Senator Arlen Specter at (202) 224-4254 tonight or tomorrow morning! Tell them to vote yes on the Thune/Vitter amendment for national reciprocity.

UPDATE: One hour before the vote, Sen. Specter has declared he will vote against the state’s 600,000 license holders. You still have time to call and tell him he is wrong!

Delaware County’s Sestak joined NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s group of anti-gun mayors in opposing national concealed carry recognition legislation. Cong. Sestak issued a press release attacking Sen. Arlen Specter for his potential vote in support of the right of the law-abiding to defend themselves.

In closing to his press release, Sestak decided to secure his position against gun owners and NRA members in Pennsylvania:

Congressman Sestak has consistently stood for sensible gun control. He supported the Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2007 and, in May, voted against an amendment that overturned President Reagan’s regulation prohibiting loaded guns in National Parks. Senator Specter has long been on the side of the gun lobby, having voted against the Brady Bill as well as legislation to require criminal background checks at gun shows. That’s why Congressman Sestak earned the endorsements of the Brady Campaign and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Co-Chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, while Senator Specter did not, instead earning an “A” from the National Rifle Association.