-=Continued from previous post=- 
     That's nonsense.  Primers are an antique ignition system, as
defined by the law: "any firearm (including any firearm with a
matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition
system) manufactured in or before 1898." 
     Some guns, such as the "in-line" Knight rifle and the
Thompson/Center 209x50, use a 209 shotshell primer instead of a
percussion cap.  Also, until this month, Connecticut Valley Arms
offered a replacement breech block for its in-line rifle which
allowed it to use a 209.
     Unless it is successfully challenged, any dealer selling one
of the affected guns has to comply with all the regulations,
record-keeping and interstate sales requirements that pertain to
"Firearms," as required by the Federal gun law.  Also,
individuals who own such guns are prohibited from transferring
the affected guns to someone out of state and prohibited from
possessing them if they are disqualified from owning a "firearm."
     BATF's ruling is technically wrong because centerfire
primers of substantially the same dimensions as modern rifle and
pistol primers were used in many cartridges beginning in the
early 1870's.  And though still-manufactured self-primed
cartridges from that era, such as the .45 Colt and .45-70
Government, aren't specifically included in the law's list of
ignition systems, neither are they excluded.
     Further, in July 1877, one B.B. Hotchkiss was issued patent
No. 193,658 for a battery cup primer with self-contained anvil
which is technically identical to the modern 209 primer.
     By BATF's interpretation that any gun "redesigned" -- or
readily adaptable to -- use "ammunition" or its components that
supposedly did not exist prior to 1898, any muzzle loading
caplock rifle or shotgun could be classified as a "Firearm." 
Almost all of them can be converted to fire modern primers with
one of the replacement nipples that have been on the market for
many years.
     Further, if the criteria is whether a gun can fire modern
"ammunition" -- which the law defines as including components of
ammunition -- then that could become the bootstrap for imposing
BATF control over even original muzzle loaders.  Any gun made for
black powder can be fired with Pyrodex, and other blackpowder
substitutes (even a flintlock, if blackpowder is used in the
pan).
     Pyrodex, "The Replica Black Powder," was voluntarily
classified as a smokeless propellant by the maker Hodgdon Powder
Company, although technically it is neither blackpowder or a
smokeless.  I know; I'm one of the developers and patent holders
of Pyrodex, and was involved in the decision to request it to be
classified as a "smokeless."
     BATF -- then the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit of the
Internal Revenue Service -- didn't like it when the Gun Control
Act of 1968 specifically exempted replicas of antique firearms. 
Bureaucracies, by their nature, want to control as much as
possible.
     The definition of "antique firearm," in some versions of
what became the Gun Control Act was, as I recall, 1860, roughly
the date self-contained cartridge arms came into existence.  But
after a lot of back-room wheeling and dealing, the date was moved
to 1898, which roughly matches the transition to smokeless
propellant and the advent of modern handguns.
     After all, GCA '68 was supposedly a bill to control crime;
how many crimes have been committed in the last half-century with
pistols made in the 1800's?
     And for that matter, how many crimes do you suppose have
been committed in this century with muzzle loading rifles, much-
less in-line rifles using shotshell primers instead of percussion
caps?
     BATF is reaching for more turf -- and I hope the courts
and/or the Congress will slap their fingers.
                               ---
(Retain Neal Knox as your personal lobbyist on Capitol Hill and
begin receiving the bi-monthly "Hard Corps Report" by any
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MD 20906.  For legislative updates call 1-900-225-3006; the cost
is 89 cents per minute, with no long distance charge.)
NEAL KNOX REPORT
                      Lobbying Effectively
                          By NEAL KNOX
     WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 10) -- Fortune Magazine lists NRA as
the sixth-most-effective lobby on Capitol Hill -- because of the
strength and support of grass roots members.
     Handgun Control Inc., which has relatively few active
supporters outside the press, is rated No. 68.
     The article in the Dec. 8 Fortune is based on a survey of
2,200 members of Congress, Hill and White House staffers,
lobbyists, and other Washington insiders.  Because it tells why
the leading groups are effective, it should be "must" reading for
anyone who hopes to influence either Congress or his county
council.  
     When Katie Couric interviewed Fortune writer Jeff Birnbaum
on NBC Today, she tried to equate lobbying clout with whatever
group produced the most campaign contributions.  But Birnbaum
disagreed.
     The most powerful groups, he said, "have activists all
around the country who are willing to vote their convictions. 
That kind of block voting translates into real legislative heft
in Washington.  So, it's grass roots, not campaign-giving that's
most important."
     Birnbaum and his survey had it exactly right.  
     Even when I was the Executive Director of the NRA Institute
I preached that without NRA's strong base of committed members
and their grass roots organizations, it would make no difference
if we had 50 lobbyists.
     That didn't make me too popular with the NRA staff and
brass, and it still doesn't.  Much of the ongoing ruckus in NRA
(which will come to a head in this spring's Director election and
the Philadelphia annual meeting) is over that very issue --
whether the membership, through member-representing elected
directors, or the Washington-knows-best senior staff should
direct the affairs of NRA.  
     My concern is that the all-important membership will
continue to desert the NRA as a result of unceasing fundraising
letters, inflated political grades for squishy politicians,
costly membership solicitations, abysmal public relations and
legislative compromises.
     As the Fortune article makes clear, "all of the (lobbying)
leaders ... are strongest because of their grass roots strength."
-=Continued in next post=-
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-=Continued from previous post=- 
     What makes the grass roots and their organization strong is
not just their size but how they lobby.  Fortune provides four
Lobbying Tips that work:
    
    "1. Delivering the straight facts to lawmakers."
     You've got to know your facts, and to be able to give
scripture and verse.  It doesn't help to quote Neal Knox in
Shotgun News; you've got to be able to cite a source the
legislator accepts as credible -- such as Supreme Court Justices
Story, Rehnquist or Thomas, or criminologists like Prof. Gary
Kleck, or sociologists like Prof. Jim Wright, or researchers like
Prof. John Lott.
    
     "2. Having active allies in a Congressman's district."
     That's you folks, the grass roots gun owner.  Be sure you
know and regularly talk with your legislators and their staffs.
     "3. Mobilizing grassroots action, such as phone calls and
letters."
     Again, that's you.  I know that you get tired of being asked
to write and fax and phone, but they're critical, even when going
to someone who is solidly against us, or solidly for us.
     If that legislator is with you, your letters and calls let
him know that you are with him, and stir him to lobby his
colleagues.  If that lawmaker is against you, your letters make
him nervous -- and keep him from being able to say "The people in
my district don't care about that gun bill."
    Fortune's final Lobbying Tip:  "4.  Getting along well with
politicians and their staffs."
     That's the rule that I'm afraid we gun owners most often
violate.  It doesn't help to tell off either a legislator or a
staffer.  Insults don't influence anyone; neither do threats.
     But the opposite is even more dangerous.  Make sure that
neither you, nor the representatives of your organization, get
along too well with politicians and their staffs.  
     
     The most important job that any gunowner or lobbyist can
have is to be a lawmaker's main advisor on the gun issue -- which
requires a lot of work, time spent on his campaign, and
attendance at his fundraisers.
     Just be sure that you and your organization don't get so
wrapped up in keeping him in office that you tolerate his turning
his back on Second Amendment rights -- and the gunowners who made
his election possible.
                               ---
(You can cut your long distance phone charges to a flat dime per
minute anytime, and help support these Neal Knox Reports by
signing up with Excel Communications through the Firearms
Coalition, Box 6537, Silver Spring, MD 20916.  Send us a note for
more information about Excel's excellent, low-cost services.)
- -- 
               It's here! http://www.nealknox.com
     Nov. 22 Knox Report -- The word circulating at the National
Sporting Goods Wholesalers' show in Phoenix is that the Clinton
Administration is preparing to make a rule which declares straight-
line muzzle loading guns that accept modern primers to be
"Firearms" and subject to all regulations under the Gun Control
Act.
     BATF has long chafed over not having the same control over
antique-style guns as it has over those made in the smokeless power
era.
- ----------
     Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), who angered constituents by
voting for final passage of the 1994 Crime Bill with its "Assault
Weapon" ban despite an otherwise perfect pro-gun record, was named
an "unindicted co-conspirator" in an obstruction of justice case in
which his business partner was sentenced to seven years.
     That may be old news by the time the election rolls around,
and Costello has declared that he has done nothing wrong, but his
only announced opponent, Republican Gail Kohlmeier is making big
noise about it.
- -------------
     After a swarm of calls and letters protesting this year's
version of an "assault weapon" ban in Massachusetts, and a 52-page
committee report calling for regulation rather than prohibition of
military-look guns, the House postponed a floor vote until January
- -- probably indicating the leadership doesn't think they have the
votes.
     A similar bill passed both houses last year but stalled out in
a conference committee.
     Pro-gun legislators in the state have introduced legislation
that would take away the state attorney general's power to regulate
handguns under consumer protection laws -- just a month after he
started doing it.
- ------------
     The Violence Policy Center, headed by Josh Sugarmann, this
week released a "study" that declared NRA's child safety mascot,
"Eddie Eagle," is the equivalent of the tobacco industry's "Joe
Camel" -- and that Eddie is pushing guns for the firearms industry.
     It would be ludicrous if so much of the major media weren't
treating it as if it were real research, instead of a diatribe by
an anti-gun outfit.
     The headline in New York Times, which "broke the story,"
breathlessly declared "NRA Is Trying To Lure Children."
     Sugarmann, who once ran the press operation of the then-
National Coalition to Ban Handguns, has frequently criticized
Handgun Control Inc. for promoting gun regulation rather than
prohibition.
     Nov. 26 Knox Report -- BATF says their new Industry Circular
declaring in-line muzzle loaders that use modern shotshell primers
isn't a new rule.
     Well maybe.  Back in the middle 1980's when in-line muzzle
loading rifles first came out BATF issued letter rulings that guns
with modern primers had to be treated as "firearms" as defined in
the Gun Control Act, meaning all record-keeping and transportation
rules applied.
     My concern is that the Industry Circular also says that any
muzzle loader which will accept a modern primer is a "Firearm."  I
have a 25-year-old replacement nipple that accepts a modern rifle
primer, and it can be used on an original antique rifle.
     So with such a nipple are all my muzzle loading guns "readily
convertible," therefore subject to treatment as "Firearms?"
- ----------------
     The Campaign Insider newsletter has handicapped all 435 House
races and gives the Republicans a 60-40 chance to retain control of
the House.  
     A year out, they show Republicans ahead in 215 seats,
Democrats ahead in 200, Socialist Bernie Sanders expected to win,
and 19 seats a toss-up.
-=Continued in next post=-
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