Valued SaveTheGuns.com Members and Minuteman Monthly Subscribers, I want to thank you for visiting and for your interest and participation at www.SaveTheGuns.com. This is the 36th issue of the Minuteman Monthly. Yes indeed, our third anniversary of sending out this newsletter!!! Thank you for reading what I have to say each month on the subject of useless gun control laws and gun safety issues. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> QUOTES OF THE MONTH "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them, Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in, I would have done it." Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) California "It might be 50 years before the United States gets to where Britain is today. Passing a law like the assault weapon ban is a symbolic--purely symbolic--move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation." Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, April 5, 1996 "As a law enforcement official, I know crimes are caused by criminals, not by the gun industry. Indeed, by providing good-quality firearms at reasonable prices to law-abiding citizens and lawmen, the gun industry helps reduce crime." -- Bush nominee to the federal bench, Attorney General Bill Pryor (AL) "The said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." Samuel Adams of Massachusetts -- U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> GUN SAFETY TIP OF THE MONTH Keeping good records... If, God forbid, your firearms are ever stolen, it would be a great help to your police department to have all your firearms documented. I suggest that you think about making a document, possibly in table form that list all your firearms. The following items should be included in your list: Manufacturer Model Number Action Type Caliber Serial Number It is also a great idea to have good photographs of the firearms and document any customizing that has been done. Also note any scratches, marring or anything else that might help identify the firearms in case they are ever stolen and recovered. Stolen firearms from homes of the law-abiding are one of the main sources of guns used during the commission of a crime. We should do our part to help make certain that any robbery in our homes does not result in our firearms being used to murder somebody. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> THE JULY MINUTEMAN MONTHLY Since we have had so many new visitors, members and subscribers, I thought I would use this month's newsletter to tell you a little about myself, what SaveTheGuns.com is all about and what the future may hold. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> WHO IS MARC RICHARDSON? For many of the newest few hundred readers, I must almost seem like a stranger to you as I have not said very much about myself in quite a while. Please allow me to tell you a bit more about myself and what I am trying to do with www.SaveTheGuns.com. I became a Certified Firearm Instructor for the National Rifle Association when I was just 21 years old. I was 34 years old when I decided to step out of teaching Basic Firearm Education Courses for my community and take to the Internet instead. After 13 years of teaching, I started my own Web site on the Internet. I very quickly realized how many people I could reach with basic firearm safety and education information. In the year 1999, I made a Web site called Marc's Gun Safety and Education Site. It made a pretty good splash on the Internet and I got visitors from all over the world. However, it was a small and quite simple Web site and it was through my Internet Service Provider's free Web space and it was not easily remembered or even easily typed into a browser. I could not sell anything and it was difficult to promote that personal Web site without selling things. So, with absolutely no business experience, no Webmaster, no Internet savvy and almost no money, I started www.SaveTheGuns.com in January of 2000 and rapidly changed my focus from a simple firearm education site, to telling the world the truth about guns, lawful gun owners and the fallacy and uselessness of gun control laws. Now, here I am, over three years later, still penniless, but making a huge difference in the lives of gun owners and the firearm industry. And being a pain in the #*% to Congressmen and state legislators who think they can misinterpret the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and with the elitist media on their side, hoodwink the general public into accepting gun control laws as a way of life. I have a passion to get the truth out about firearms and law abiding gun owners. I have a passion to help protect young children from accidentally getting shot or accidentally shooting a friend. I have a passion to attack the media when they portray lies and half-truths as authenticated gospel. Well, there you have it. I am a 38 year old retired NRA Firearm Instructor with a passion for truth, gun safety, firearm education and legislative activism. I am doing absolutely everything here by myself, designing, printing, manufacturing, shipping, accounting, webmastering, editing and everything else it takes to run a "dot com". Oh, by the way, have you considered chatting with gun owners from all over the world on my Message Board? You can find it at the top of every navigation bar on every page. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> WHAT IS SAVETHEGUNS.COM ALL ABOUT? www.SaveTheGuns.com used to be a Web site with strictly a gun safety and basic firearm education focus. In the last three years, we have had over one million hits and have changed our vision quite a bit. We still have the same concentration on safety and education, but now we have added a penchant for individual activism. I have seen so much misinformation, misconception, lies and half-truths about guns and gun owners in the news, on television and on the radio, that I made a page called "The Truth Is Everything". The title of the page came from a quote from the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who said "I am nothing, truth is everything." In short, SaveTheGuns.com is about: 1.) Safety 2.) Education 3.) Truth 4.) Individual Activism I don't believe that the focus of a pro-gun effort should be entirely on Congress, state governors, state legislators and anti-gun groups. I have always believed that if the people knew the truth about firearms, lawful gun owners and how felons obtain guns, then everything else would fall right into place. I have found that people who have an anti-gun attitude are really just nice, decent, honest and passionate people who don't have a clue what they are talking about. This is because they have eaten and digested whatever the media hands them and called it the truth. Just as often, I have found that the media elite don't know what they are talking about either. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> WHAT HAVE WE ACCOMPLISHED? Pro-Second Amendment activists have seen an astounding number of victories since I started this Web site in the year 2000. We elected George W. Bush, who I believe history will show to be one of the best U.S. Presidents since Ronald Reagan. He is a man of honor, of prayer and of integrity. It feels really good to be proud of the Office of the President of the United States again. We had eight shameful, dishonest and frankly embarrassing years under Bill "Bubba" Clinton. We have had win after win in the courts, in Congress and in a large number of state legislatures and general assemblies. We have seen meritless and frankly idiotic lawsuits against the gun industry thrown out of court. We have elected many pro-Second Amendment men and women to political office. We have maintained a pro-gun majority in many states and still have a slim margin of pro-gunners in Congress. We have given our commercial airline pilots their Second Amendment rights back after they were taken away back in the Summer of 2001, just a couple of months before the heinous terrorist attacks. We will continue to support this effort, as the victory is still not complete. Many people within the government and the airline industry are still stubbornly standing in the doorway of freedom on arming and training our pilots. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? The future of the Second Amendment looks bright indeed. If Ohio residents obtain the right to carry concealed firearms in public, there will be only five (5) states that entirely prohibit it. If Ohioans take that right back from their own government, then only Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois are left violating the Second Amendment by not allowing concealed carry under any circumstances. This open and brazen violation of the Bill of Rights must end. We cannot stand by while fellow Americans are denied a right guaranteed against infringement by the Bill of Rights. We must keep the pressure on elected officials and if they don't heed us, then we will simply elect new ones who have the ability and willingness to listen to common sense. On the gun safety front, which is my unending passion, things look just as bright. Of course it is a terrible tragedy whenever someone dies from the mishandling of a loaded gun, however, the rate at which this is occurring has set new lows in sixteen of the last twenty years!!! At no other time has accidental firearm death among children 0 to 14 years old, been any lower than this. But if I have anything to say about it, it will continue to drop down to a mere handful. We personally have reached over 15,000 children through my "For Kids Only" page at www.SaveTheGuns.com/for_kids_only.htm Anywhere from fifty (50) to ninety (90) families will have to bury a child in the next twelve months due to the mishandling of a loaded firearm that results in the death of a child 0 to 14 years old. If you could be there to prevent it, wouldn't you do everything in your power??? Send a child to my gun safety page for kids and send a contribution to help keep this Web site online today. Also be certain the check out my "Safety Rules" page at www.SaveTheGuns.com/safety_rules.htm. There are forty nine (49) gun safety rules and tips on this page. I'll bet you didn't know there were that many things to consider... If you have a gun safety rule or tip that I have neglected to cover on this page, please, please, please send it to me. I want this to continue to be the most comprehensive gun safety page found anywhere in the world. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> FINAL WORDS We will continue to be vigilant about the truth, passionate about gun safety and alert concerning activism. After all, the original Colonial Minutemen were vigilant, passionate and alert and we should do nothing less to honor their memory. I have had family in the United States of America since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. I am part of the 13th generation of Americans who love God, liberty, justice and truth. I simply refuse to give an inch to people intent on robbing me and my family of their liberty and freedom. America seems to be becoming more like a Communist state with every passing decade and I refuse to stand by and watch liberty and true freedom sift through our hands like grains of sand. Today's liberal left are the people and ideas that we used to call Communist not that long ago. Truth, justice, liberty, freedom and activism will defeat the far left on any battlefield. I had an ancestor who lived during the Revolutionary War. He was a sergeant in the Massachusetts Militia and was a real-life Minuteman. His name was Amos Richardson and he fought in and survived the Revolutionary War with Great Britain. You will not find him mentioned in any history books, but I am sure he fought valiantly and with a steadfast passion and belief in what he thought was right. How could I settle for anything less than that? <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO YOUR FRIENDS. Marc Richardson www.SaveTheGuns.com Thank you for registering as a Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Recipient. If you don't want this newsletter or the legislative alerts anymore, just send me an e-mail with "Unsubscribe MMM" in the subject line to: info@savetheguns.com