GOA Supports Pro-gun Champion Lou Barletta for Congress in 2010

Mayor Lou Barletta of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, is best known for his fight against illegal immigration, but he is also a strong advocate of the right to keep and bear arms.

Mayor Barletta is running in Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District against a 25-year entrenched incumbent.  In the 2008 election, Barletta came within 3 percentage points of winning this seat.  Given the voter outrage over the far left agenda being pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2010 could be the year to finally send Lou Barletta to Congress.

Lou’s opponent, Paul Kanjorski, likes to play both sides of the fence on the gun issue.  He will cast an occasional pro-gun vote so he can go back to the district and try to convince voters that he is pro-gun, but he votes for the Pelosi agenda most of the time.

Consider Kanjorski’s anti-gun votes in 2009 alone: 

• On February 13, Kanjorski voted for the anti-gun bailout bill.  Among other things, this so-called stimulus bill spends between $12 and $20 billion to require your doctor to retroactively put your most confidential medical records into a government database. Based on our experience with veterans, we would expect the government to try to use computerized psychiatric records to impose gun bans (with no trial or due process) on people who have sought (or will seek) treatment. The bill also funds liberal community action groups like ACORN.

• On March 11, Kanjorski voted with his party leadership to force through a massive anti-gun federal land grab bill.  The bill, S. 22, greatly increased the amount of land under control of the National Park Service, thus placing thousands of addition acres of land under the then-existing NPS gun ban.  The House leadership did not want to allow any true pro-gun amendments, so they tried to “suspend the rules” to block any amendments to repeal the gun ban.

• On March 25, Kanjorski voted against an amendment to H.R. 146 that would have fully repealed the NPS gun ban.

• Also on March 25, having voted against the amendment to protect the Second Amendment from anti-gun bureaucrats in Washington, Kanjorski voted for another expansion of NPS land (H.R. 146) -- thus, increasing the amount of federal land subject to a gun ban. 

• On November 7, Kanjorski voted for the anti-gun Obamacare bill (H.R. 3962).  This bill will most likely—as a result of the mandates in the legislation—result in all of your gun-related health data being dumped into a government database that was created earlier in the so-called stimulus bill. This includes any firearms ownership information your doctor has gleaned, or any determination of PTSD, or something similar, which can preclude you from owning firearms.

On each of these votes Kanjorski stood, not with the voters of Pennsylvania, but with the person who is arguably the most anti-gun Speaker of the House in history.

Gun owners and sportsmen—and all people who cherish liberty and respect the Constitution—are tired of an ever-increasing federal government.  It is time to elect people who will fight to rein in a government that threatens to take over every single aspect of our lives, leaving us virtually wards of the state.

And it’s time to elect people who won’t be stopping by the Speaker’s office to find out how to vote on gun issues.

Lou Barletta is a powerful advocate of freedom and of our Second Amendment rights.  Lou understands that the Bill of Rights—especially the Second Amendment—protects liberty by restricting federal power. 

The Framers of the Constitution created a well-defined box within which the federal government should operate.  Men like Lou Barletta will help to put Washington back into that box.

Lou Barletta will stand up for the Second Amendment in Congress, but we must stand with Lou now.  You can be involved in Lou’s campaign by going to http://www.loubarletta.com and making the largest contribution you can.

While you’re on the website, you can also contact Lou and let him know you appreciate his strong pro-gun stance.  Lou is attacked every day in the media by his opponents.  Let him know that gun owners all over the country are standing with him.

With your help Lou Barletta will win this election, and that will be a victory for us all. 

Please visit http://www.loubarletta.com today. 

Sincerely,

Tim Macy
Vice Chairman