McCain Still Trying To Gag Gun Owners From Criticizing His Anti-gun Record
Legislation -- introduced by anti-gun Senator John McCain (R-AZ) -- is aimed at squelching the First Amendment rights of grassroots groups like Gun Owners of America.
That bill, S. 2128, is ostensibly aimed at dealing with some of the congressional controversies that have hit the media in recent weeks. A true reform bill would focus the spotlight on members like John McCain, who was one of the original Keating Five senators who were deeply implicated in the savings and loan scandal.
Instead, McCain began his war on real transparency in 2002 when he teamed up with anti-gun Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to push the Incumbent Protection Act into law -- an act that stifles the ability of organizations like GOA to criticize elected officials before an election.
Now with the Gag Act (S. 2128), McCain wants to target his wrath on groups like GOA -- requiring them to register their "grassroots" communications and to file twice as many frivolous reports.
If McCain succeeds in pushing an expansive interpretation of his bill (as he did when he convinced the courts to regulate the Internet under McCain-Feingold), then we could see a host of draconian restrictions affecting both GOA and you.
For example, if we wanted to alert you to gun ban that is moving in our nation's capital, we could first have to tell McCain (and all his other buddies in Congress) about what we're planning to do, who we're planning to alert (that is, grassroots folks like yourself), how much money we plan to spend, etc.
Because of Section 105 in this bill, everyone with whom GOA contracts to get the word out (advertisers, printers, etc.) could be required to tell Congress twenty days in advance about GOA's public information campaign.
In effect, we would end up alerting Sarah Brady every time we plan to wage a grassroots campaign in opposition to gun control.
This is ridiculous!
No doubt, the Gag Act is further proof that grassroots lobbying works. It works so well, that John McCain wants to muzzle it.
