American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has to get its lobbying funding from somewhere. Even if it is from unsuspecting hunters and gun hobbyists, paying their "club dues."
National Rifle Association -- sourcewatch.org
[...]
Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
The NRA is a long-time member and longtime funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and an NRA representative has served on the Public Safety and Elections Task Force, and its predecessor Crime Committees, for many years. . ."[10]
Tara Mica, NRA-Institute for Legislative Action State Liaison, was the co-chair of ALEC's Public Safety and Elections Task Force from 2008 until the Spring of 2011. [11] [12] [13] (formerly known as the Criminal Justice and Homeland Security). [14] [...]
[...] the NRA's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, told AP. "Why should they have an exclusive right to relay information to the public, and why should not NRA be considered as legitimate a news source as they are? That's never been explored legally," he said. [32]
[...]
Chilling ... and we thought "Clear Channel talk"
was bad. Just can't wait, for
NRA-Radio.
Some highlights (or more accurately low-lights) of this long standing ALEC-NRA collaboration.
American Legislative Exchange Council has to "copy its homework" from someone.
Backgrounder: the History of the NRA/ALEC Gun Agenda
by Lisa Graves, prwatch.org -- Dec 15, 2012
[...]
Here is a review of the NRA-by-way-of-ALEC gun agenda:
* The retail sale of machine guns has been barred by federal law since the gangster era but, as uncovered by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), one year ago at ALEC's "policy summit" in Arizona, the NRA obtained unanimous support from the corporate and lawmaker members of ALEC's Task Force for "amending" ALEC's "Consistency in Firearms Regulation Act" to expressly bar cities from banning "machine guns." Other provisions of that bill prevent cities from banning armor-piercing bullets and from banning efforts to alter guns to make them more deadly if the state does not do so. It also bars cities from suing gun manufacturers for gun deaths based on the theory of liability used by governments to sue tobacco manufacturers for smoking deaths.
[...]
* In 1995, ALEC promoted as model legislation a bill that would create state-based criminal background checks for firearms purchases different from the federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which established the National Instant Check criminal background check system at the FBI. As analyzed by CMD, ALEC's bill expressly exempts firearms sales at gun shows from its background checks (creating a "gun show loophole"). It also exempts holders of "concealed carry" permits from a background check, even though the Brady Law attempts to protect the public through background checks regardless of whether a person had previously obtained a permit to carry a gun, such as from people who subsequently become fugitives or persons adjudicated to be mentally unstable.
[...]
* As CMD has shown, ALEC also strongly opposed the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban," which sought to expand the long-standing federal bar on fully automatic machine guns by preventing the purchase of rapid-firing "semi-automatic" assault-style weapons. Certain military-style firearms -- such as the .223 Bushmaster rifle reportedly found at the scene of the Connecticut school massacre and similar to the one used in the sniper shootings that terrorized D.C. in 2003.
[...]
* In 2005, at an ALEC task force meeting co-chaired by Wal-Mart, corporate lobbyists and politicians voted to approve the NRA's request that a law it spearheaded in Florida with ALEC members become a "model" for other states. That ALEC bill was misleadingly named the "Castle Doctrine," but is also known as the "Stand Your Ground" or "Shoot First" or "Kill at Will" law. That Florida law, was initially invoked by law enforcement to prevent the arrest and prosecution earlier this year of high-school student Trayvon Martin's killer. The law creates legal immunity for shooters claiming self-defense, going well beyond the reach of the traditional rights of self defense to create what some call a "license to kill."
[...]
Remember those "
Stand your Ground" laws ...
Remember Trayvon Martin?
Well we can thank much of this modern gun-craze, otherwise known as the "Castle Doctrine," on the NRA pulling the legislative strings, behind the scenes on various ALEC Task Force.
ALEC Castle Doctrine -- alecexposed.org
[...]
* That Florida law became the template for “model” legislation endorsed and promoted nationally by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a non-profit entity funded by major corporations and interest groups including Koch Industries and the National Rifle Association (NRA). The bill expanded the long-standing right of self-defense by extending criminal and civil immunity to shooters who feel threatened by another, creating a statutory “right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force. . .”
[...]
* In August 2005, in Grapevine, Tex., NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer asked legislators and lobbyists at a closed-door meeting of ALEC’s "Criminal Justice Task Force" to adopt the Florida "Castle Doctrine" bill as an ALEC model bill. The NRA said her pitch "was well received," and the bill was approved "unanimously."[1][2]
[...]
* In 2007, an ALEC "Legislative Report Card" boasted that the ALEC/NRA Castle Doctrine bill had been introduced or passed in numerous states.[6] ALEC also highlighted ALEC legislators who had introduced versions of the model bill, including Texas state Sen. Jeff Wentworth and Rep. Joe Driver.[6]
* To date, more than two dozen states have adopted Castle Doctrine bills with ALEC/NRA DNA.[7] Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, an ALEC alum, signed into law an NRA-backed bill with some provisions similar to the ALEC bill in 2011. Similar bills are pending in other states.
[...]
* NRA President Wayne LaPierre said NRA lobbyist and former president Hammer "conceived" of the Florida bill and lobbied it into law.[9] She ridiculed opponents of the bill, calling them hysterical, and helped the bill’s co-sponsors, Florida state Sen. Durell Peaden (R-Crestview) and Rep. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala), get it passed.
The library of NRA/ALEC gun bills can be accessed here.
[thanks to sourcewatch.org again.]
ALEC knows Guns;
because ALEC knows the NRA.
Like I said: It's chilling.
What these "special interests" can do, in their spare time. Unnoticed by prying eyes.
Unaccountable to the people of the nation; either through public elections or open transparency.
And they say Labor Unions are bad ...
