-=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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