This article was printed from KeepAndBearArms.com.
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About
THOMAS - Fighting Gun Control with Knowledge 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. 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: 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. 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. |
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