The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would like your comments and suggestions concerning the numbers of firearms sold at gun shows and elsewhere without Brady background checks being conducted or the ability to trace the firearms being sold. For your input to be considered please include your name and address. They request that your reply be returned to their office by December 7, 1998. If you would like information from NRA-ILA regarding the truth about gun shows to help with your comments, please call the Grassroots Division at (800)392-8683. Be sure to take the time to do this as it affects ALL gun owners!

Please mail your comments to:

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Attn: Gun Shows
650 Massachusetts Avenue, NW., Suite 7400
Washington DC 20226

Defend your Rights
It's Christmas time. A time when the majority of us give gifts to others (and sometimes ourselves!). This year I would like to ask you all to give to the future. How? By doing two simple things.

First, join the NRA and/or GOA. Your membership to these organizations is paramount to their survival, and the survival of your Second Amendment rights. And the small amount you give may mean the difference between Freedom or Big Brother.

Second, take the time to write letter not only to your loved ones and friends, but also to your Representatives, Senators, and state Legislators telling them what you expect from them in 1999. Be sure to express your concern over the ever increasing infringements on our rights. It only takes a small amount of your time, and a few dollars. But if everyone who reads this sends a letter, and they tell all their friends to send a letter, imagine the correspondence our lawmakers will get concerning upcoming legislation and the security of our Constitutional rights!

You can find information on how to contact your congressmen and congresswomen at the GOA or NRA websites.

Where are the catalogs?
Our catalogs are coming late this year for various reasons. For those of you who have been contacting us for them, make your request about the end of December and we should be able to get one to you then. Thanks for your patience!

NRA Rises in the Ranks of the Influential
For the second year in a row, NRA landed in the top 10 of FORTUNE magazine's Power 25, their listing of the most influential lobbying groups in America. Last year, NRA was ranked sixth on the list, while this year their position improved two spots to number four. Conspicuously absent from this year's Power 25 list, as they were last year, is Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI), as is as any other anti-Second Amendment organization.

NRA Files Suit
Accusing the government of illegal snooping, the National Rifle Association sued in federal court to bar the FBI from keeping lists of law-abiding people who buy guns under a newly revised law. The Justice Department says FBI records on new gun buyers will be kept only for six months or less. It says the time is needed to permit audits to assure that all gun purchases are truly legitimate and that weapons do not end up in the hands of criminals or mentally unstable people.

The NRA lawsuit, which named Attorney General Janet Reno as a defendant, said lists should be kept only of people barred by law from owning guns because of felonies or other problems uncovered in a new computerized system of instant background checks. The suit contends that the Brady Act forbids establishing a registry of gun buyers and directs the Justice Department to "destroy all records."

Justice Department officials said there is no intent to create a permanent gun registry. The FBI had originally intended to keep all computer-search records for 18 months to permit surveys to assure that guns purchased legally did not stray into illegal channels. But they said that after objections by some members of Congress, a compromise six-month period was agreed to.

Other Newsworthy Items
Gun-control advocates target weapon parts
Cities using tobacco strategy in litigation against gun makers
New Gun Checks Under Fire