I was hoping to not have to write another column about the NRA this soon, but it appears the millions of NRA members who believe in the Second Amendment are getting screwed by the prime protector of their Second Amendment rights yet again.

If they’re not getting actively screwed, they are certainly getting passively screwed, and that may be even worse - because you don’t know it’s happening unless you look.

What am I talking about?

I’m talking about the insidious collaboration of notorious enemies of freedom such as Chuck Schumer and supposed “Second Amendment supporters” like current NRA board of directors member Larry Craig (R-ID) and another NRA golden boy John Dingell (D-MI) on the “Our Lady of Peace Act.” This is a partnership manufactured in the very depths of anti-freedom hell, and one on which the NRA is keeping conspicuously silent.

The “Our Lady of Peace Act” is legislation introduced in the Senate by infamous anti-gunner Chuck Schumer and the usual band of anti Second Amendment slime, Ted Kennedy, Blanche Lincoln and Richard Durbin. But some may be surprised at the Republicans – supposed protectors of our right to keep and bear arms – who also signed onto this travesty: Orrin Hatch, Larry Craig, Lincoln Chafee and John McCain. It shouldn’t be surprising to those who actually pay close attention to how these particular “pro-gun” politicians vote, but I’m fairly sure some of you will be unpleasantly surprised to find out how these Republicans fared in the ratings released by Gun Owners of America.

Schumer: F-
Chafee: F-
Kennedy: F-
Durbin: F
Lincoln: F
Hatch: C-
McCain: C-
Craig: B

Are you shocked to see seven out of the eight dwarves with wholly unacceptable ratings from Gun Owners of America? How about current Board of Directors member Larry Craig? Are you surprised to see his name as one of the co-sponsors of this fascist bill?

What about those, who along with ardent anti-gunner Carolyn McCarthy co-sponsored the House version of the bill?

John Dingell, Tom Davis, John Conyers, Doug Bereuter, Bart Stupak, Christopher Shays, Michael Ferguson, Harold Ford, Pete King, Jim Langevin, Clay Shaw, Bill Pascrell, Randy Duke Cunningham, Ellen Tauscher, Mark Foley, Mark Souder, Barney Frank, Jim Moran, Martin Frost, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Howard Berman, Jerrold Nadler, Bobby Scott, Mel Watt, Zoe Lofgren, Lois Capps, James McGovern, Jim McDermott, Steve Israel, Marty Meehan, Sheila Jackson Lee, William Delahunt, Robert Wexler, Anthony Weiner, Tammy Baldwin, , Robert Andrews, Rahm Emanuel, Timothy Bishop, Adam Schuff and Ed Case?

McCarthy is a notorious gun banner who merited an "F-" rating from Gun Owners of America for her efforts to destroy the right to keep and bear arms. Conyers, Bereuter, Stupak, Shays, Ferguson, Ford, King Norton, Franks, Jackson-Lee and many others on this shameful list shouldn’t come as a surprise either.

But John Dingell? The NRA’s Golden Boy? The former NRA Director? The same guy who voted in favor of the 1994 “Assault” weapons ban and then resigned from the Board of Directors the day after the vote? The same Dingell who received the NRA’s Harlon B. Carter Award, despite voting for an outright gun BAN? The same Dingell that coined the term"jack-booted thugs" when referring to the BATF? THAT Dingell?

Again, those of us who follow the politics shouldn’t be surprised. Dingell merited a mere “D” from Gun Owners of America, while the NRA licked his boots and gave him prizes for being such a staunch defender of freedom. Dingell and his buddy Larry Craig, a current NRA Director are co-sponsoring the House and Senate versions of the “Our Lady of Peace Act” and Sarah Brady is shouting from the rooftops, gloating and praising this “bi-partisan” effort to relieve us of our rights.

What is the “Our Lady of Peace” Act?

It is legislation meant to strengthen the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check) System. It offers financial incentives (read: bribes) to states in order for them to automate mental health records and improve the effectiveness of the background check system. But this legislation is much more than that. The system already forces the citizens of the United States wishing to make a Constitutionally protected purchase to prove their innocence to the feds to be “allowed” to make said purchase.

This new bill, S1706 (the Senate version) and HR3237 (the House version) will require the states to turn over a number of personal and sensitive records for the feds to peruse before imperiously deciding who merits the right to keep and bear arms. Mental records will be turned over to the federal government, tax records could be released as well as any arrests, regardless of whether or not they led to any prosecution.

But you already knew about the dark implications of this bill. It is the same “Our Lady of Peace” Act introduced by Carolyn McCarthy last year. Little about it has changed. However, what has changed is its chances of passage.

I get the NRA-ILA alerts in my email box nightly, and while the anti-gunners have been screeching from the rooftops about the bi-partisan cooperation to get this travesty passed, the NRA has not mentioned it at all, even though Larry Craig, a current member of the Board of Directors is one of the co-sponsors of this legislation.

I have searched the NRA’s website for any mention of the two “Our Lady of Peace” Act versions. Not a word. Complete silence. Not a word about Larry Craig’s and John Dingell’s efforts to further erode our constitutional rights. Not a peep about the NRA’s support or lack thereof for the “Our Lady of Peace” Act. I found this curious, since the “Our Lady of Peace” Act has the potential to create just what the NRA vociferously opposes – gun owner registration.

And just as I was about to call the NRA and ask what was up, I connected the dots.

The night before I was surprised to read that notorious enemy of freedom Tom Daschle all of a sudden made his support for S.659 - "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act" – public. Daschle signed onto this bill on September 25, allowing Chris Cox bragged about it on the NRA-ILA’s website that day. Newspapers and magazines touted this new development, and the anti-gun JoinTogether summarily condemned this bill and asked its misguided, fanatical followers to call and condemn his betrayal of their treasonous cause. Daschle’s support for S.659 pretty much cements its passage. Earlier in the year another infamous Second Amendment enemy Frank Lautenberg was promising a filibuster to ensure that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act fails, trying to ensure its failure by forcing a 60 vote end to debate.

I was shocked to read of Daschle’s support for S.659. After all, Daschle is a sworn anti-gunner. It was quite a wonder to see him sign onto the NRA’s pet legislation – legislation that the NRA has been promoting and fighting to pass all year. And yet, on September 25, 2003 Tom Daschle publicly hyped his support for this bill – one day before Larry Craig – an NRA director announced he was co-sponsoring the “Our Lady of Peace Act.”

I’m not a conspiracy nut, nor do I don a tin foil hat on the weekends, hoping to prevent government agents from reading my brain waves, but I gotta tell ya -- the timing of these two surprising events is more than just coincidental.

While the anti’s are praising the “Our Lady of Peace Act” as a bi-partisan effort to reduce crime, something which this misguided step toward tyranny has absolutely no chance of accomplishing, the NRA is conspicuously silent on the issue. At the same time, the NRA is touting the sudden and significant Daschle support of their pet legislation that was in danger of being filibustered in the Senate by ardent Second Amendment enemy Frank Lautenberg.

Here’s what it looks like to me: It looks like a bribe – a “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours” scenario to allow both the anti-gunners and the NRA to claim small victories in their causes. The NRA finally gets its gun industry protection passed, claiming its heroic defeat of the evil antis, who are trying to kill the gun industry by suing it out of existence. And the anti-Second Amendment zealots like Americans for Gun Safety Foundation, can now claim victory for “the linchpin behind the nation's gun laws.”

Never mind that this act is just another step in the gradual repeal of our freedoms.

Never mind that this act poses serious threats to medical privacy and paints anyone and everyone who has ever sought help from a mental help professional with the broad brush of potential felons.

The NRA is keeping silent on the clearly anti-freedom actions of one of its directors, and now I realize why. They’re getting their back scratched with the, what appears now to be, seamless passage of their pet legislation, and this smells like payback.

So it appears once again that the NRA is playing politics with our rights.

It appears once again that the NRA is betraying gun owners in order to be able to claim victory for a bill they had been pushing vigorously for months.

It would be a loud and rather profound defeat for the NRA to lose S.659, so it appears they arranged an under the table deal to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Question is: will you allow them to get away with it?

Nicki Fellenzer

Nicki is a US Army veteran, who spent nearly four years in Frankfurt, Germany on active duty at the American Forces Network. She is a former radio DJ and news anchor and a Featured Writer and Newslinks Director for Keepandbeararms.com. She is also a former contributing editor to the National Rifle Association's newest monthly magazine, Women's Outlook and writes occasionally for the Libertarian Party. She resides in Virginia with her family. We are also proud to have Nicki as regular contributor to Armed Females of America.

Copyright © 2003 by Armed Females of America. All rights reserved. Permission to redistribute this article for noncommercial purposes is hereby granted, provided that it is reproduced unedited, in its entirety and appropriate credit given.