In May of this year, James Jay Baker of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action received an historic and precedent-setting document, a letter from United States Attorney General John Ashcroft proclaiming his opinion of what we have known all along: the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Using Mr. Ashcroft's letter as a starting point, my colleagues and I drafted a Petition to the Attorney General asking him to use his power of office to halt infringements of our rights in the state of California and nationally, infringements for which all means of obtaining redress have been closed off by the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government, as well as by the federal appeals court of jurisdiction, the 9th Circuit. The URL for the Petition is: http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Petition/.

The is not an Internet petition, or just "another" petition. It's a carefully crafted document that was reviewed by half a dozen attorneys working in the gun rights movement -- one over which we worked together, for weeks, to perfect. It is being issued during the narrow window of opportunity we have due to this particular administration and this particular Attorney General being in office.

The potential effect of the Ashcroft Petition is not limited to California -- a Justice Department civil rights action and enjoinment in this state can establish precedent for the entire nation, making every gun control edict challengeable in every state. We are correctly equating this situation with the federal government's civil rights actions of the 50's and 60's. As was the case then, it is still the duty of the federal government to enforce the supreme law of the land in all states.

We have had tremendous initial success since our launch a few weeks ago. The Petition project was featured on WorldNetDaily.com (200,000 readers a day) http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24793. Additionally, I recently appeared as a guest on Geoff Metcalf's WorldNetDaily radio program to discuss this project. We've already received hundreds of envelopes and thousands of signatures from across the country, many containing multiple pages of signatures -- one activist in Louisiana has gathered over 1,500 signatures. Clearly, we have struck a chord among gun owners and momentum is building.

I ask you to imagine the potential for full legal recognition of our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms should this effort succeed. Of course, no one can guarantee the success of this effort. But if we do nothing, that is exactly what we will get in return.

As things stand in California and many other places, all legal and political doors for obtaining redress have been slammed in our faces and barred -- the courts don't even recognize our individual standing to defend ourselves on Second Amendment grounds, let alone to sue. With the recent 5th Circuit ruling now directly contradicting the 9th Circuit's position, a collision is inevitable -- and as we have no guarantees that the Emerson case will be either pursued to SCOTUS or heard, this Petition has a chance to become the lead horse in the race -- and I submit that a contest between the Attorney General and the Governor of California would be on the fast track to the high court, and that refusing to hear it would be more than problematic.

American citizens, many who have suffered, died, or been imprisoned for simply exercising their right to own and use guns, deserve an immediate answer to this question:

Does the federal government intend to uphold this crucial element of our fundamental social contract or not?

We, and that includes you, are in jeopardy now for simply exercising our Constitutionally guaranteed rights. We deserve an answer now.

I urge you to support this important effort. Thousands of your countrymen already have, and more are signing up every day. Please join us.

Thank you.

A Petition for Enforcement of the Second Amendment is a cooperative project of www.KeepAndBearArms.com and www.CitizensofAmerica.org.