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<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">[http://alecexposed.org/w/images/4/43/7J13-Youth_Firearm_Safety_Resolution_Exposed.pdf Youth Firearm Safety Resolution Exposed]</li>
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====Details of the NRA-by-way-of-ALEC agenda:====
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<li>The retail sale of machine guns has been barred by federal law since the gangster era but, as [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11508/cmd-special-report-new-documents-confirm-koch-was-alec-crime-task-force-led-nra uncovered] by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), one year ago at ALEC's "policy summit" in Arizona, the NRA obtained unanimous support from the corporate and lawmaker members of ALEC's Task Force for "amending" ALEC's "Consistency in Firearms Regulation Act" to expressly bar cities from banning "machine guns." Other provisions of that bill prevent cities from banning armor-piercing bullets and from banning efforts to alter guns to make them more deadly if the state does not do so. It also bars cities from suing gun manufacturers for gun deaths based on the theory of liability used by governments to sue tobacco manufacturers for smoking deaths.</li>
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<li>In 2008, as [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11512/cmd-special-report-alecs-gun-agenda-flourished-koch-industries-board-other-koch-f noted] by CMD, in the aftermath of the tragic massacre of students and professors by a heavily armed Virginia Tech student, ALEC adopted a model bill to remove state prohibitions of guns on college campuses and to allow students to bring guns to class.</li>
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<li>Also in 2008, as CMD has [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11393/resources-investigating-alecnra-gun-bills documented] ALEC also weighed in on litigation challenging a handgun ban in the city of Chicago. ALEC filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in that case, <em>McDonald v. Chicago</em>, on the same side as the NRA.</li>
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<li>In 2005,[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11393/resources-investigating-alecnra-gun-bills at an ALEC task force meeting co-chaired by Walmart], corporate lobbyists and politicians voted to approve the NRA's request that a law it spearheaded in Florida with ALEC members become a "model" for other states. That ALEC bill was misleadingly named the "Castle Doctrine," but is also known as the "Stand Your Ground" or "Shoot First" or "Kill at Will" law. That Florida law, was initially invoked by law enforcement to prevent the arrest and prosecution earlier this year of high-school student Trayvon Martin's killer. The law creates legal immunity for shooters claiming self-defense, going well beyond the reach of the traditional rights of self defense to create what some call a "license to kill."</li>
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<li>[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11393/resources-investigating-alecnra-gun-bills CMD] [http://www.prwatch.org/node/11366 connected those dots] and [http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Castle_Doctrine documented] that the NRA's lobbyist Marion Hammer pushed this bill through the Florida legislature in early 2005. She then brought the law to the closed door ALEC task force meeting in Texas that summer to become a priority for ALEC legislators. According to the NRA at that time, her pitch was warmly received and "unanimously" adopted by the private and public sector members at that meeting. The list of special interest reps attending that meeting is not publicly available, but it is known that the nation's largest retailer of ammunition and long guns, Walmart, was the corporate leader of that task force; earlier this year, Walmart announced it was resigning from ALEC.</li>
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<li>Also around that time, ALEC pushed a variety of legislation to require reciprocity between states for "concealed carry" laws, laws that result in more people carrying concealed firearms in public places, as CMD has [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/04/11433/bloomberg-denounces-nraalec-shoot-first-laws noted].</li>
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<li>In 2000, as CMD has [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11512/cmd-special-report-alecs-gun-agenda-flourished-koch-industries-board-other-koch-f reported], when Koch Industries was the chair of ALEC's corporate board, ALEC's crime task force adopted the "Defense of Free Market and Public Safety Resolution" as a national template for states across the country. That resolution was an effort to thwart law enforcement from using contracts -- to buy firearms for police officers -- to favor gun manufacturers that adhered to a code of conduct. As part of a lawsuit settlement, gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson (S&W) had agreed to penalize S&W retailers who sold guns that tended to end up used in crimes, barred S&W retailers from using the gun show loophole to avoid conducting criminal background checks on prospective buyers, and forbade dealers from releasing more than one handgun to a purchaser per day. It also required retailers to sell all of its handguns with mechanical trigger locks to help protect kids from accidentally killing themselves or others. ALEC's resolution sought to bar states from rewarding S&W with contracts for police weapons or creating an incentive for other gun manufacturers to adopt similar voluntary codes of conduct.</li>
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<li>In 1995, ALEC promoted as model legislation a bill that would create state-based criminal background checks for firearms purchases different from the federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which established the National Instant Check criminal background check system at the FBI. As [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11512/cmd-special-report-alecs-gun-agenda-flourished-koch-industries-board-other-koch-f analyzed] by CMD, ALEC's bill expressly exempts firearms sales at gun shows from its background checks (creating a "gun show loophole"). It also exempts holders of "concealed carry" permits from a background check, even though the Brady Law attempts to protect the public through background checks regardless of whether a person had previously obtained a permit to carry a gun, such as from people who subsequently become fugitives or persons adjudicated to be mentally unstable.</li>
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<li>As CMD has [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11512/cmd-special-report-alecs-gun-agenda-flourished-koch-industries-board-other-koch-f shown], ALEC also strongly opposed the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban," which sought to expand the long-standing federal bar on fully automatic machine guns by preventing the purchase of rapid-firing "semi-automatic" assault-style weapons. Certain military-style firearms -- such as the .223 Bushmaster rifle reportedly found at the scene of the Connecticut school massacre and similar to the one used in the sniper shootings that terrorized D.C. in 2003 -- include versions for sale in the U.S. that were modified by manufacturers for the civilian market along with versions that allow three-shot bursts of fire with each pull of the trigger for law enforcement rather than their faster-firing military-style kin like an M4 or AK-47, in light of the federal assault weapons ban. The ban was allowed to expire during the George W. Bush administration, which had very close ties to the NRA.</li>
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