When President Obama went to Mexico in April, he proposed that the United States sign the Inter-

American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition,

Explosives, and Other Related Materials. In Article IV, parties commit to adopting “necessary

legislative or other measures” to criminalize “illicit manufacturing and trafficking in firearms.” But,

“illicit manufacturing” includes reloading ammunition and modifying or assembling any firearm in any

way. Treaties do have the force of statute -- which would mean that the Obama administration could

promulgate regulations on the basis of this treaty which would ban any modification or machining of

any firearm in any manner whatsoever except by license of the government. Article IV goes on to

state that the criminalized acts should include “association or conspiracy” in connection with “said

offenses” -- which is arguably a term broad enough to allow, by regulation, the criminalization of

entire pro-gun organizations or gun clubs, based on the facilities which they provide their

membership. Last but not least, Mexico could extradite American citizens for violations, no questions

asked. There is much, much more, which can be found at http://gunowners.org/index.php/table/fs0901.htm

Saying “The PICS system has proven to be an expensive, flawed, unnecessary and unwieldy political

extravagance that is prone to political manipulation,” a coalition of Pennsylvania gun rights and

sportsmen’s groups has begun a campaign to end the state “instant check” system. Under federal law,

states have the option of using the either the federal NICS system or their own state system when their

FFL dealers do background checks. Back in 1995 Pennsylvania chose to develop and use its own

system. Since then it has been a disaster in several ways, one of the most notable being that the State

Police (PSP) use it to operate their registration system, recording every handgun legally transferred in

Pennsylvania. That is in clear violation of state law as you or I or most mortals would read it, but the

state Supreme Court has said it is fine by them. So, one way to de-fang the illegal firearm registry is to

take away the PSP’s tool. PICS also provides a necessary tool if anti-gunners ever pass gun rationing,

as they just did in New Jersey, and it has been used in technically illegal ways by sheriffs

administering the concealed carry permit system. Maybe worst of all for the average shooter,

politicians can effectively turn off all handgun sales simply by shutting off the system for

“maintenance.” Eliminating PICS is one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a long time, and I hope the

initiative isn’t just another election year “brand identification” charade that will disappear after

Election Day 2010.

As many of you know, the Pennsylvania State Police have been requiring gun dealers to treat sales of

AR-15s and Thompson Center rifles as if they were handguns, meaning the buyer undergoes a PICS

background check and the rifle is registered in the PSP system. The PSP’s argument is that the

receivers of these rifles can be readily converted into a handgun. State Representative Martin T.

Causer has challenged the PSP on the issue, pointing out the many inconsistencies and illegalities of

the PSP policy, under both state and federal law. So far this appears to be primarily a correspondence

duel between Causer and the PSP, but I would like to see some sort of court challenge come out of it,

before the PSP has the time to get their fixes in place, as they did with the challenge to their handgun

registry. And again, I hope it is not an election year charade by the participating state representatives.

Recently my attention was called to Pennsylvania House Bill HB 492, which is nominally legislation

to deal with the “crisis” of the swine flu pandemic that has been widely promoted for some months

now. It officially is described as, “An Act amending the act of April 9, 1929 (P.L.177, No.175),

known as The Administrative Code of 1929, providing for measures to detect and track potential and

and planning for public health emergencies; and establishing the Public Health Emergency Planning

Commission.” At 41 pages, it’s hard to absorb, but for gun owners the following provision is probably

the most interesting. It authorizes the state government “To control, restrict and regulate by rationing

and using quotas, prohibitions on shipments, price fixing, allocation or other means, the use, sale,

dispensing, distribution or transportation of food, fuel, clothing and other commodities, alcoholic

emergency response.” “Firearms” is self-explanatory, and “explosives and combustibles” certainly

will include ammunition and gunpowder.

Something about this bill had the smell of not having been authored in Pennsylvania, so I asked my

contacts around the country if similar things were afoot in other states. There are. This is “model”

legislation that has appeared elsewhere, all supposedly addressing the “swine flu pandemic” that

already has been declared. More ominously, though, I am informed that portions of this model

legislation were lifted straight out of “anti-terrorism” model legislation that has been floating around

Read the legislation for yourself: