About THOMAS - Fighting Gun Control with Knowledge
by Kurt Amesbury, J.D.
Orlando, Florida

The impact of Congress on our Second Amendment rights is clear. What is not always so clear is the nature of pending legislation. Before the advent of the Internet, one had to rely upon politicians and the media to learn what Congress was doing. This meant that one often did not know about a proposed law until it became final - making for some spectacularly bad legislation.

No more.

Every gun owner should know about THOMAS.
THOMAS is an on-line service of the library of Congress. With a few key strokes, you can find information on bill status, sponsorship and content. Here's a brief example:

Suppose you want to find all the bills that are pending in the House and Senate that mention the "Second Amendment" Go to THOMAS, look under "Legislation", and under "Bill Summary and Status" click on "106th" (for the 106th Congress). You will now have several choices for searching. Under "Word/Phrase" type in "Second Amendment" and click the search button. You should get about 25 responses. Among them will be at least half a dozen that refer to pending legislation related to the Second Amendment.

Let's look briefly at one of the bills, H.R. 407 (HR is House Resolution, a bill that originates in the House of Representatives. Senate bills begin with "S", as in S. 954.)

Here you will find all kinds of information about the pending bill. The most useful links are probably to the "All Bill Summary & Status Info" and "Text of legislation."

The Summary & Status Information link will tell you:

• Who introduced the bill
• When it was introduced
• When the last action on the bill took place
• The title of the bill
• The short title of the bill (a "plain English" name for the bill)
• What committees are involved with the bill
• Amendments and details of the bill
• Cosponsors - a complete list of everyone who is cosponsoring the bill
• A summary of the purpose of the bill.

The Text of Legislation link will allow you to read the entire bill on line.

Now we're down to the core: The text of the bill and the cosponsors tell us what the bill is about and who is supporting it.

Back to our example: H.R. 407 is the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill. Its purpose is to allow people who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon in their home state to carry a concealed weapon in any state. (Sort of like a driver's license. You don't surrender your right to drive every time you cross a state line - why should you surrender your right to self-defense?) Currently, it has 24 cosponsors.

Suppose you want to see if YOUR congressman is a cosponsor. Just click on the link Summary and Status link, or the cosponsor link and you can find out immediately.

What do you do if your congressman is NOT a cosponsor of a bill you support? Call his office! Write e-mail and back it up with a letter! To get contact information, just go back to the first page of THOMAS and you will see a link on the left side of the page for House Directories and Senate Directories. All Congressmen and most Senators now have their own web pages. Not only can you find out contact information, you can read their position notes right on line. THOMAS even provides mailing labels in three formats for all congressional representatives, so if you want to sound off to the entire Congress, it has never been easier!

One more service offered by THOMAS: In an eye blink, you can find out every piece of legislation your congressman is cosponsoring. Just go to the search page, locate your representative/senator at the bottom of the page and press the search button. Within minutes, you'll have some idea of whether your call to your Congressman should be to praise his good work, or scold him for selling you out.

Remember the adage, "We get the government we deserve." If we do nothing about bad government, we have only ourselves to blame. Now get busy!

Kurt Amesbury, J.D.
Orlando, Florida

Kurt Amesbury, J.D. is among the latest writers to team up with KeepAndBearArms.com to help educate and motivate political change on the side of FREEDOM. We're happy to have him on board with us.