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SAFCongratulates Texas Governor for Bean Pardon
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Second Amendment Foundation Congratulates Texas Governor for Bean Pardon
8/28/03 6:15:00 PM
To: State Desk
Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, 425-454-7012
BELLEVUE, Wash., Aug. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The first step toward righting a deplorable wrong has been taken by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in his pardon of Thomas Lamar Bean, the former Vidor, TX gun retailer who was victimized by gun laws in Mexico and the United States, said Alan M. Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
Bean was pardoned last week, hopefully bringing closer the end to a nightmare that began March 14, 1998. Bean was attending a gun show in Laredo when he and two employees decided to cross over to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico for dinner. One of the employees inadvertently left a box of ammunition in Bean's vehicle, and he was stopped by Mexican border police, prosecuted for illegally importing ammunition-a felony at the time-and imprisoned in Mexico until that September, when he was returned to the U.S. under a prisoner exchange program.
The Bean case caused an uproar, and as a result, Mexico has amended its federal gun law to reduce what Bean did-bring ammunition into the country-to a misdemeanor first offense. However, Bean's attempts to regain his firearm rights have been a struggle that is not over yet.
"Gov. Perry's pardon was the right thing to do," Gottlieb stated, "but it is really only one step toward Mr. Bean's ultimate restoration of his rights. Thomas Bean, by all accounts, is a good and honest man, and had no intention of violating the gun laws of any country. His conviction will stand in Mexico, but it is erased from the books in Texas. The next step is to ask Treasury Secretary John Snow to reconsider our government's position on fully restoring Bean's rights. I urge Snow to act quickly and close this ridiculous chapter of injustice.
"Thomas Bean," Gottlieb added, "is a casualty of a legal system gone haywire. A federal district court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals both issued opinions that Bean should have his full rights restored. The Supreme Court ruled, however, that Bean must seek relief through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but that agency has been prevented by Congress from working on such cases since 1992, and the courts know it. Bad enough that Mr. Bean was imprisoned for doing something in Mexico that isn't even a crime in the United States, but the outrageous effort to continue punishing him needs to stop. Gov. Perry's pardon, we hope, is a major step toward that end."
The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/c 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=159-08282003
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
8/28/03 6:15:00 PM
To: State Desk
Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, 425-454-7012
BELLEVUE, Wash., Aug. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The first step toward righting a deplorable wrong has been taken by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in his pardon of Thomas Lamar Bean, the former Vidor, TX gun retailer who was victimized by gun laws in Mexico and the United States, said Alan M. Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
Bean was pardoned last week, hopefully bringing closer the end to a nightmare that began March 14, 1998. Bean was attending a gun show in Laredo when he and two employees decided to cross over to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico for dinner. One of the employees inadvertently left a box of ammunition in Bean's vehicle, and he was stopped by Mexican border police, prosecuted for illegally importing ammunition-a felony at the time-and imprisoned in Mexico until that September, when he was returned to the U.S. under a prisoner exchange program.
The Bean case caused an uproar, and as a result, Mexico has amended its federal gun law to reduce what Bean did-bring ammunition into the country-to a misdemeanor first offense. However, Bean's attempts to regain his firearm rights have been a struggle that is not over yet.
"Gov. Perry's pardon was the right thing to do," Gottlieb stated, "but it is really only one step toward Mr. Bean's ultimate restoration of his rights. Thomas Bean, by all accounts, is a good and honest man, and had no intention of violating the gun laws of any country. His conviction will stand in Mexico, but it is erased from the books in Texas. The next step is to ask Treasury Secretary John Snow to reconsider our government's position on fully restoring Bean's rights. I urge Snow to act quickly and close this ridiculous chapter of injustice.
"Thomas Bean," Gottlieb added, "is a casualty of a legal system gone haywire. A federal district court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals both issued opinions that Bean should have his full rights restored. The Supreme Court ruled, however, that Bean must seek relief through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but that agency has been prevented by Congress from working on such cases since 1992, and the courts know it. Bad enough that Mr. Bean was imprisoned for doing something in Mexico that isn't even a crime in the United States, but the outrageous effort to continue punishing him needs to stop. Gov. Perry's pardon, we hope, is a major step toward that end."
The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/c 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=159-08282003
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>