Restricting the Rights of US citizens abroad

[fastpat]

Most of us don't think about the US government's harassment of US citizens living abroad, but routinely visiting America. Here's a case in point, one that illustrates the anti-gun philosophy of Bush II. Fortunately, this American has the wherewithal to fight the corrupt US government.

http://releases. usnewswire. com/GetRelease. asp?id=76379

Plaintiff in Dallas Federal Lawsuit Says U.S. Gun Control Laws Unconstitutional

U.S. Citizens Overseas Unfairly Restricted from Gun Ownership, Suit Says

11/15/2006 12:20:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation,
425-454-7012, Bill Mateja of Fish & Richardson P.C., 214-747-5070, or
Alan Gura of Gura & Possessky PLLC, 703-835-9085

DALLAS, Nov. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A United States citizen who now
lives in Great Britain has joined with the country's leading gun
owner rights organization in a federal lawsuit that says nonresident
citizens are unfairly being targeted by existing laws that restrict
gun ownership to those who live in the U.S.

Attorneys William B. Mateja, a principal in the Dallas and
Washington, D.C., offices of Fish & Richardson P.C., and Alan Gura of
Alexandria, Va.'s Gura & Possessky PLLC, filed the federal claim
today on behalf of London, England, resident Maxwell Hodgkins and the
Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation.

Hodgkins, a 31-year-old real estate broker, is asking for a legal
injunction that would prohibit federal officials from enforcing
several "vague and ambiguous" gun control statutes. A Dallas native,
Hodgkins is an avid gun collector and sportsman who legally owns and
stores firearms in the U.S. and holds related permits for weapons
possession and concealment.

Mateja previously served in the current Bush Administration as senior
counsel to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General. Among other duties, he
oversaw the Justice Department's violent crime efforts, including the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and President Bush's Project
Safe Neighborhood. Prior to that, he served as lead counsel in the
notable Second Amendment case U.S. v. Timothy Joe Emerson.

The statutes in question ban the receipt, sale and purchase of
firearms by U.S. citizens who claim legal residency outside the U.S.
Expatriates cannot buy guns, and while they can receive guns for
"lawful sporting purposes," they cannot do so for lawful self-defense
while visiting the U.S. The suit claims that these laws violate the
Second and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Although
Hodgkins has not been arrested or prosecuted, his attorneys say he
could face federal charges should he attempt to access his guns in the U.S.

"These laws serve no useful purpose," says Gura. "If Mr. Hodgkins may
safely have a gun for target practice or hunting, he can certainly
have a gun for other lawful purposes."

Alan Gottlieb, founder and vice president of the Second Amendment
Foundation, says: "The firearms rights of American citizens do not
become null and void simply because an individual lives in another
country. There is no public safety rationale for laws or regulations
that prohibit law-abiding citizens from exercising their rights while
they are on American soil. We cannot allow a legal environment to
exist where the exercise of a civil right by an American citizen
anywhere in the United States is conditional to that person's country
of residence."