[ftp://ftp.nra.org/pub/ila/95-02-06_nra_takes_ban_to_court http://www.portal.com/~chan/nra/bay-city.6feb95 ftp://ftp.shell.portal.com/pub/chan/nra/bay-city.6feb95] __ MEDIA ADVISORY For further information, February 6, 1995 call: NRA Public Affairs 703-267-3820 MAJOR NRA PRESS CONFERENCE NRA TAKES CLINTON GUN BAN TO COURT Washington, D.C. -- On Tuesday, February 7th, the National Rifle Association of America will file suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Bay City, Michigan. Target of the suit: the 1994 Clinton gun ban. Joined by her attorneys, Mrs. Tanya K. Metaksa, NRA's chief lobbyist, will discuss the suit at a press conference in Lansing at 3 p.m. Also accompanying Mrs. Metaska will be Tom Washington, NRA President and executive director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs (M.U.C.C.), a co-plaintiff in the suit. "We challenged the Clinton gun ban in the voting booth November 8th, and we won," said Mrs. Metaksa. "We are challenging the ban in the 104th Congress, and we are gaining ground. It is time to take our case to the courts." Press Conference Details: Where: Lansing Center, Room 104 333 East Michigan Avenue Lansing, Michigan 48933 Date/Time: Tuesday, February 7 at 3:00 p.m. - nra - ================================================================= NRA TAKES CLINTON GUN BAN TO COURT A Fact Sheet In Public Law 103-322, Congress outlawed "Semiautomatic Assault Weapons." What are they? That is the question raised by this suit. The Clinton gun ban defines them in two ways: The first definition is any of the firearms :"known as" the "avtomat Kalashnikov," the "Colt AR-15," etc. -- together with "copies or duplicates" of any of these. The second definition includes any rifle with two or more features from a list of five -- pistol grip, folding stock, etc. In court, NRA will prove that the statute is constitutionally void in many respects. The most obvious are: * Void for Vagueness: "KNOWN AS" The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that a law is "void for vagueness" when a person of ordinary intelligence cannot determine what is allowed or forbidden. The first definition of the forbidden firearms are guns "known as" certain names. Yet, six of the seven names given are, in fact, the names of fully automatic firearms (i.e., machine guns). For example, Colt has not made a semiautomatic rifle named "AR-15" since the mid-1980s. Thus, the statute has to, literally, aimed at guns "known as" the AR-15, etc. -- not guns which are so named. * Void for Vagueness: "COPIES OR DUPLICATES" The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (which encompasses Michigan) recently struck down a city ban on certain semiautomatic firearms as void for vagueness. _Springfield Armory v. City of Columbus_, 29 F. 2D 250 (6th Cir. 1994). That city banned named guns and "models by the same manufacturer with the same action design that have slight modifications or enhancements." The Sixth Circuit pointed out that guns varied widely in design, function and power; it was impossible to determine how much of a difference it took to make something not of "the same action design.' The Clinton gun ban is even more ambiguous. * Equal Protection of the Law The Clinton gun ban also violates the equality components of the "due process" clause of the Fifth Amendment. Congress banned the "Colt AR-15" without banning nine other companies' manufacture of nearly identical rifles. It added a list of over a hundred guns -- by manufacturers' names -- which were exempt from the ban -- even though many have identical function (caliber, rate of fire, etc.) to banned items. The Ruger Mini-14 fires the same cartridges as the AR- 15, but is exempted. Due process implies some equality of treatment and that inequalities have some "rational basis." There is none in the Clinton gun ban. -- This information is presented as a service to the Internet community by the NRA/ILA. Many files are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.nra.org, via WWW at http://www.nra.org, via gopher at gopher.nra.org, and via WAIS at wais.nra.org Be sure to subscribe to the NRA mailing lists. Send the word help as the body of a message to listproc@NRA.org Information can also be obtained by connecting to the NRA-ILA GUN-TALK BBS at (703) 934-2121.