CCRN Update (October 12, 2004) This update contains information on 1. MPPA lawsuit 2. Lynda Boudreau's Campaign Needs volunteers 3. Ways and Places to help Pro-Firearms Candidates 4. CCRN Voters Guide 5. MOney MPPA lawsuit Well, the final brief (a rebuttal from our side) is due today - Monday 10/11. We will have it posted at www.mnccrn.org in a day or so. Our best guess at oral arguments is now sometime in mid-November with a decision sometime in mid-February. The legislature needs a decision in order to understand the ground rules and the Appeals Court should consider leaving time for the Minnesota Supreme Court to act if necessary. A decision either way will trigger an appeal; however, a reversal (a decision in favor of the MPPA) can be denied review by the Supreme Court. A decision sustaining Judge Finley will likely be heard by the Supreme Court. Either way, the legislature (and us) deserves a decision as quickly as possible. Lynda Boudreau's Campaign Our legislative champion needs your help with Literature drops on both or either Friday, October 15th & Saturday, October 23rd For each of those days, volunteers will meet at 9 AM on the south side of Central Park (on 5th St. NW near Nelson's supermarket) in Faribault. This is located near the intersection of 2nd Ave NW and 5th St NW in Faribault. CCRN supporters, let's make a day of it and help Lynda!!!!!!. Places and Ways to help pro-gun Candidates. For President For Gun Owners, the choice for President is pretty clear. For information go to http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110005632 and to assist go to http://www.georgewbush.com/GetActive/. As we hear nightly, the race is close and Minnesota is up for grabs. For MN House Candidate Check CCRN's grades at http://www.mnccrn.org/ccrn_old/alerts/newspaper_2004.pdf. Find your district and review the grades of available candidates. Then go to http://candidates.sos.state.mn.us/CandidateFilingSearch.asp and drop your candidate's name into the search field. The candidates contact info will then display. What if both my candidates are bad? If all the candidates in your district are anti-self-defense or anti-gun consider lending your talents and time to the following Lynda Bourdreau - Faribault Ryan Griffin - St. Paul Lynne Osterman - New Hope Stephanie Olson - Brooklyn Park Greg LaMay - Minneapolis Keeping our strong majority in the house is critical. Help yourself and help us protect, promote your Second Amendment rights. Money The 2004 voters guide project has a $14,000 bill. We have raised $9,000. We need your help in closing the gap. Please send your contributions to CCRN PO Box 131254 St. Paul MN 55113 Thanks P.S. Why so much - we were the fortunate recipients of and additional list of 18,000 people to mail. We recently received this newsletter from Sportsman for Bush (an unaffiliated organization). Sportsmen for Bush Newsletter October 10, 2004 We are getting down to the wire with Election Day only about three weeks away. That means that we have to double and triple our efforts to get the word out and most important, to make sure that sportsmen and women and their families vote their sport on November 2nd. The National Shooting Sports Foundation came up with the slogan "Vote Your Sport" and as mentioned in previous newsletters, they have an excellent website, www.voteyoursport.com. If you haven't visited the site, please do. I recently came across an article in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about John Kerry and his positions on firearms. I quote "John Kerry, hunter, gun enthusiast, friend of sportsmen everywhere, is a man on the run from his record". The article goes on to describe Kerry's many inconsistencies as well as his voting record, which we have reviewed here. The article ends by saying "When it comes to advocating gun rights, John Kerry is a lame sheep in wolf's clothing". How can anyone believe a man who lies about his support for sportsmen's issues as much as Kerry does? For that matter, how can we believe Kerry about anything? Fortunately, we do have media outlets that focus on the truth. Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, will be in the Duluth area on Wednesday, October 13th to discuss access to federal public lands. All of you in the Duluth area can call the Bush-Cheney campaign office in that city to find out the details of her visit. Access is probably one of our most important issues. George Bush supports reasonable access to our public lands by all people. John Kerry does not. Those of you who are enjoying the waterfowl season in Minnesota can be happy that John Kerry did not get his way by voting nine times in the past to ban semi-automatic firearms. That would have been goodbye for your favorite semi-auto shotgun. Oh yeah, John Kerry is a hunter who will stick up for our Second Amendment rights. His last vote on this ban was on March 2, 2004 when he joined Ted Kennedy in trying to ban this very large class of sporting weapons. Again, the legislation failed because of the opposition of our Democrat and Republican friends in the Congress. The Bush Administration has continued its commitment to conserve wildlife habitat by announcing that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is exploring the establishment of voluntary, incentive-based easement programs to conserve wildlife habitat on private land. The first such program is aimed at some 170,000 acres in Montana. We still have "Sportsmen for Bush" bumper stickers available. If you need them for yourself, your families or friends, please let me know and I will mail them to you. If you are aware of any sportsmen's events coming up and if you need a large quantity of the bumper stickers, let me know. We have them in good supply. Please pass this newsletter on to as many shooters, fishermen, trappers, hunters, loggers, snowmobilers, ATV owners and other outdoor enthusiasts that you know. We must spread the word! Please consider volunteering for the calling banks that will be in operation through Election Day. Call your local county or regional Bush-Cheney campaign office and tell them that you are a sportsman or woman and that you want to volunteer. This is the most critical activity of the campaign for the next three weeks. Vote Your Sport on November 2nd Don McMillan Sportsmen for Bush 898 Mendakota Court Mendota Heights, MN 55120 651-452-3748 Cell 612-940-0823 dmcmillan@sihope.com