This is the tactic the gun grabbers use at hearins (document from Demand Action)

[newportri]

Before the House Judiciary hearing in RI last week, I got a copy of the plan Demand Action in RI had for their testimonies. I am sure a lot of this can be applied to most States, so you might find this helpful.

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Below are the following items to assist with testimony:

1. General information
2. Tips for testimony
3. Overview of bills and our specific focus
4. Common arguments and rebuttals

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

-The committee meets in Room 313. It is scheduled to start at the “rise of the House” which is typically around 4:30 or 5:00. It’s not an exact time as it means when the House finishes its regular session.
-If possible, it’s best to show up early. We can sign ourselves up plus one person. We will do our best to sign as many people us as we can.
-There will be sign-up sheets to give testimony posted across from Room 313. They don’t say exactly when they’ll have it posted, but we’ve been told because this is expected to be crowded, they’ll probably have it posted around 2.
-The testimony will be heard in the order that you were signed up. So the first to sign up will be the first to testify.
-We are all “pro” the package of 9 pro safety bills. The sign-up sheet will ask if you are in favor “pro” or against “con”. We are “con” for bills H5686, H5687, H5688 which do not support gun safety.
-Please bring 15 copies of your written testimony with you to give the clerk for the committee members. Remember that its best to have your written testimony be different than your spoken testimony so you get more opportunity to share more information than you can in the 2 minutes of spoken testimony. You can also just share written testimony if you are not comfortable doing verbal testimony.

1. TIPS FOR TESTIMONY

1. You will only have 2-3 minutes to testify (we think!). The HOUSE committee is supposed to be stricter than the Senate was in keeping everyone’s testimony limited. We’ll see if that’s the case when we get there. You may want to have longer testimony available to you if we get there and see that they are not being strict with the time limits.
2. Talk on an emotional level first to connect with the committee. If you are going to use statistics – DO NOT READ THEM. Boil them down to as few words as possible and write them down on index cards. Try not to look down and completely read your testimony. This will put committee members to sleep.
3. Talk through a frame before you run through the facts. A value, an emotion, something that opens them up to be more receptive. NRA's frame is freedom. What's best for us? Use what works for you. 3 that are strong: 1) Serious personal toll that gun violence takes on our lives. I care because gun violence destroys families lives every day in our country.2)the right to be free from violence in our own community. People should be free and safe in our community places like movies, parks, malls, schools etc. 3) changing nature of weapons. These are not your grandfathers hunting rifle. Then get into facts – did you know that Americans are 20x more likely to die from a gun than someone from another country? But connect on emotional level first.
4. We are asking everyone to please include in your testimony a clear callout that “I vote, I will vote on this issue specifically, and I will keep track of where legislators stand on these critical safety policy decisions”. Use whatever words you feel comfortable with, but it’s very important we all make it clear that there is now another side that votes on this issue. That has been the problem, the other pro-gun side clearly and consistently votes solely on this and that’s what the legislators have been afraid of. They need to know now that pro-gun control & gun safety people now also vote on this and we’re a bigger group of people!
5. Talk about PREVENTING gun violence and Penalizing gun violence to deter more. There are laws that work up front to prevent & lessen the deadliness of gun violence it (the assault weapons & high capacity ban) and there are laws that work to deter future crime and punish those that commit crime (the bills that increase penalties and tighten the current law enforcement loopholes).
6. Write a separate and longer version of your testimony that covers more of what you want to say, and bring 15 copies. When you arrive to sign in, hand them to the committee clerk who will be there with the sign in sheets and she will pass them out to the committee.
7. If you cite data or statistics, have the sources listed in your written testimony.
8. If you are challenged on something, and you do not have the specific answer don’t worry, you can also say “I have the information at home, and will email it to the clerk tomorrow to provide the committee.
9. You can counter another person’s testimony. Just refer back to them and correct what they said. But only do this if you think their testimony had an major effect on the committee that would hurt our cause. If what they said was obviously irrational, and everyone knew it, then let it be.
10. Use the word “gun” and “assault weapons” and “military-style assault weapon”. Don’t say “firearm,” that minimizes it. And don’t say “so -called” assault weapon. That falls right into the pro gun trap of getting wrapped up in semantics on what is and what isn’t an assault weapon. That’s not an argument we need to get into and don’t try and argue the semantics on what makes an assault weapon an assault weapon. It’s a common smoke screen tactic to get into a semantics debate. We don’t need or want to do that.
11. Make sure that the testimony you are given is directly related to the bill that is being heard – if you stray from the bill’s subject, the chair may stop you and you will lose time to testify. REMEMBER -these bills are NOT ABOUT BACKGROUND CHECKS. So please don’t talk about federal legislation during these hearings.
12. It’s important to connect emotionally and factually with the committee. But it’s not helpful to be “hysterical”. The pro-gun side will try and paint us as “emotional”, “hysterical”, “whiners”, “knee jerk reaction”, “dumb”, “don’t know anything about guns”, etc. Let’s show the committee we have reason, common sense, logic, good-will, caring, safety, common good on our side.
13. Remind the committee that guns kill and injure! You will hear a lot about hunting and sports shooting and hobby and sport. All this obscure the very real fact that guns kill and are meant to do so. These are not simple “sporting equipment”, they are not fishing poles. They are instruments designed to kill.

1. OVERVIEW OF BILLS & OUR SPECIFIC FOCUS

• The senate its introducing 8 bills and our main focus will be on the assault weapons ban and the ban on high capacity magazines bill which is called the Gun Control and Safe Firearms Act.
• The other bills are: 5 tighten & increase penalties for violations, 1 creates a board to ensure that determining that someone is mentally ill and not allowed to own a firearm is reviewed, 1 proposes a committee to study how RI can contribute records to the National Instant Check System (the national background check system) because today, RI does not contribute criminal or mental health records to the system which is something we support doing and should be doing and 1 that gives the attorney general the authority to issue conceal carry permit and mandates that the person wanting the permit undergo a national background check.
• The link to the bills to read yourself is:

http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/documents/agenda-9388.pdf
Bill # 5990 Gun Control and Safe Firearms act is our focus.

• Please note that the bills being debated in the House Committee this week do NOT have anything to do with Background Checks. That was the Federal vote that took place two weeks ago, but RI already has background check laws and none of this new legislation for the Senate committee is about expanding background checks in RI.
  • The House bills that will be heard next week include a bill that proposed a committee to study how RI can contribute records to the National Instant Check System (the national background check system) because today, RI does not contribute criminal or mental health records to the system which is something we support doing and should be doing.

1. TALKING POINTS, COMMON ARGUMENTS AND REBUTTALL POINTS

• We don't need new laws, we just need to enforce the laws we have. And criminals don't abide by laws anyway.
  • stricter penalties are proven deterrents to crime. A common argument of the NRA has been to make stricter prison sentences for illegal gun crimes. These laws explicitly address that.
  • every case won't be prevented by these laws, but certainly many will. And even if it was just one life saved in RI, isn't that enough? What's the inconvenience for that life?
  • Push on what exactly the "inconveniences" are that are so troubling for gun owners? Why does one person's perceived inconvenience carry more weight than the safety of the community?
  • The argument that criminals don't abide by laws is just pointless & ridiculous. If that's the argument, then under that position, we should have no laws at all and no police force because they'd have no job to do.
  • Unless you can get rid of 100% of crime, then it’s not worth trying? That's like saying we should get rid of all laws. Or unless we can get rid of all murder, we should remove all laws against murder. Unless we can stop all burglaries, we should remove all laws against buglary. This is just nonsense.

1. Banning semi-automatic assault weapons infringes on my 2nd amendment rights.
   • This has already been decided by the Supreme Court in the Heller case. Reasonable restrictions can be placed on the type of gun used. It’s good to quote the Supreme Court wording here if you can.
   • There are still thousands of legal guns that RI residents would be allowed to purchase after July 2013 under this new law. If the parameters are similar to the federal legislation on what is considered a semi-automatic assault weapon, then there are 2296 different types of guns that you can still buy. That is more than reasonable amount to me.
   • Important to make the point that all currently owned guns would be grandfathered in. So there is NO gun confiscation under these new laws if they pass. There is likely to be a lot of claims made by the other side that this will lead to gun confiscation. There is no truth in that. The bill does NOT call for confiscation of existing guns.
   • We support the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Amendment. But like everything in our constitution, there are reasonable limits placed on those. Just like we have freedom of speech, but we can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theatre and we can’t sell child pornography. These bills will still allow Rhode Islanders to own guns.

1. None of these laws would have prevented Newtown
   • Magazine capacity limits absolutely can and do reduce the lethality of a mass shooting. Fatalities and carnage are directly related to the size of the magazine.
   • The examples to use: in the time it took Adam Lanza to reload, 11 children escaped. In Tuscon, when Loughner reloaded, that's when he was taken down by a bystander. He used a 33 round magazine. 14 people were shot. Had he been limited to a 10 round magazine, Christina Taylor Green, 9 years old, would likely still be alive, she was the last gunshot victim, along with at least 3 others. In the LIRR (Long Island Rail) shooting, the shooter was taken down when he changed his clip. There are numerous examples and strong testimony that was given in the federal testimony on magazine clips during the Federal Senate Judiciary committee hearings.
   • These types of assault style weapons have no place in our streets and in our communities. They are intended for wars and battle fields.
   • This is also about more than just Newtown massacre style killings. Newtown woke us up to the violence that is happening every day, but we recognize that gun violence takes on many different forms. This is about finding ways to protect our children and us from all types of gun violence that is happening. Mass murders, street violence, suicides, accidental shootings, all of it.

• We're hopeful that you as our elected officials, listen to the all the voices, and not just hear the loudest and most intimidating. The quality of what is said should matter as much as the quantity or decibel of what is said.
• Refer to RI state polling. Implore the committee to realize that polling is effective to understand what your constituents want. There are a lot of responsible gun owners that agree with common sense solutions. A Public Policy Polling research poll conducted in February 2013 shows that Rhode Islanders favor an assault weapons ban by a 64%/27% margin. http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/documents/agenda-9390.pdf

• The most important truth to be told in this whole debate is that for responsible, law abiding gun owners, their ability to keep their guns is not impacted by any of the measures being proposed. The day in the life of a RI gun owner today (responsible, law abiding one) will be essentially the same after these laws pass. Those that try to do something unlawful or break the law are the ones that will feel the impact. For people who go to buy a gun for the first time, will still have thousands of guns to choose from, over 2000. And they can still own 30 or 50 or more rounds of ammunition, they just will be in clips of 10.

• The hysteria and misinformation about what will change needs to be flushed out with truths about the actual legislations impact on gun owners lives.
• Saying gun control doesn't work has no basis in facts. The facts from around the world prove otherwise. If more guns made us safer, America would be the safest place in the world. We are not.
• We are paying attention and we won't be fooled by passing only some of the proposed gun violence prevention bills. All of them need to pass.
• Voting No on these bills is protecting criminals. I will vote for people that protect me not criminals.
• These are not emotional knee jerk responses that make us feel good but will have no impact. That's insulting to the people that actually created the bills, those of us that read them and the police that will enforce them.

• CURRENT STATES WITH ASSAULT WEAPONS BANS:

Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, California, Hawaii, Maryland

• A need for greater civility. The argument that no amount of law can stop a crazy person hell bent. A law doesn't have to be 100% effective to be a good law and act as a significant detterent.

No, Guns Really Are the Issue - TheStreet

• Good sites to check out for data you may want to include in you written testimony:

Rebuttal charts:
Charts: Challenging the Myth That Guns Stop Crime | Mother Jones
10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down | Mother Jones

• Great overview of facts in slide view:

America's Gun Problem Explained - Business Insider

 

[Jason Flare]

Wow. This is pure progressive gold! Thanks.

 

[Palladin]

good find

 

[Reyn]

im converted.

 

[shamrockjr]

Great work! Thanks for taking the time to post this!