(Washington, DC, September 27, 2007) Oklahoma Republican Senator Dr. Tom Coburn put a halt to an attempt to push through H.R.2640, the so called "NICS Improvement Bill", by objecting to an attempt by Chuck Schumer (D, NY) to move the bill directly to a vote without debate or an opportunity to amend the problematic piece of legislation. The bill was rushed through the House in June and passed on a voice vote with only one know dissenter, presidential candidate, Representative Ron Paul (R, TX) who expressed concerns that the bill was simply an expansion of an already unconstitutional program requiring citizens to seek and receive government permission before exercising their Constitutional Right to bear arms.

Senator Coburn's action does not put a stop to the controversial NICS bill, but it does keep it from barreling through without any opportunity to fix some of its serious flaws. The bill has caused a deepening of the rift between the "hard-line" and "moderate" branches of the gun rights movement. NRA cooperated in the crafting of the bill which blew through the House with their support in mid-June, but strong opposition from GOA and many grassroots organizations seems to be slowing the bill's momentum and damaging NRA's credibility.

The Senate Judiciary Committee dramatically increased funding for the proposal just before the August recess and rolled several other
"school safety" bills in with the NICS bill. The Firearms Coalition strongly supports the objectives of the NRA improvements in the NICS bill, but the gains are not worth the costs to taxpayers or the damage that the argument over the bill is causing within the gun rights movement. We are encouraging Senator Coburn and others to take the next step and place a "Hold" on the bill which we believe would result in a quiet death to this controversial issue - at least for now.

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Chris has been doing a lot of work on The Firearms Coalition website at www.FirearmsCoalition.org and we'd like to have your opinion on it. We've added the ability to comment on articles and blog entries, we've added a forum area, and we've given members the ability to create their own blogs on the site.

We've also started collecting member ZIP codes to help us alert them to local issues as they come up. If you're already registered for the site, please stop by and add your ZIP code to your profile so we can more effectively keep you informed. If you haven't yet registered on the site, what are you waiting for? Stop by and see what we've got going on.

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I'll be doing a presentation on expanding concealed carry at the Gun Rights Policy Conference outside Cincinnati next weekend. This is a free event and a great opportunity to brainstorm and network with fellow gun rights activists. For information about the conference, click on the GRPC link on www.FirearmsCoalition.org.

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The new Hard Corps Report should be in the mail next week.
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Yours for the Second Amendment,

Jeff Knox
The Firearms Coalition

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