Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
The Firearms Owners Against Crime (FOAC) is non-partisan, non-connected
Political Action Committee organized to empower 'all' gun owners, outdoors enthusiasts and supporters of the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the U.S.
Constitution and Article 1 Section 21 of the PA Constitution with the tools and information necessary to protect this freedom from transgression. FOAC was formed shortly after the City of Pittsburgh's illegal gun and ammunition ban of 1993. This was an active year for gun legislation in Pennsylvania (Act 84 of 1994-HB 185 the preemption law, Casey's gun ban) and the United States (Brady Bill, Assault Weapons Ban...). A number of those who fought the Pittsburgh gun ban realized that a more politically active role was necessary if we were keep our right to own and use guns.
Our first informal meetings were at the Whitehall Borough Building where we have continued to meet on a regular basis. The FOAC became a formal Political Action Committee in early 1994.
We aggressively oppose legislators who want to restrict the legitimate use of firearms, including personal and property protection as guaranteed by the Constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We accomplish these goals by monitoring and reviewing legislative initiatives and voting records of elected officials. This information is shared with interested parties, such as County Sportsmen's Leagues, the PA Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, the Unified Sportsmen of PA, the Lehigh Valley Firearms Coalition, PA Gun Owners Association, PA State Camp Lessees Association and other interested organizations at both the state and county level.
The FOAC process is specific and thorough as well as determined by our bylaws and member directive. FOAC is a member driven organization. Our members are active and well informed on political issues at both a state and federal level.
Legislators and candidates are welcome to attend our meetings and state their case as well as to answer questions directed to them from our members. A vote on endorsing major candidates is always taken of the members after debate and review of the analysis of the candidate's completed questionnaire and debate is and has been very dynamic. When one acquires the support of FOAC that entails the active involvement of our member's time and resources, personal as well as organizational, as well as extending our reputation to that candidate as one who can be supported because his/her philosophy and/or record show a dedication to our rights and heritage. Candidates for statewide office are evaluated every election cycle. These evaluations are then placed on an FOAC voter guide and distributed throughout the region.
Unlike many organizations, we recommend that you never, ever vote for the "lesser of two evils." If we cannot make a good recommendation, then we simply do not make a recommendation for that race. When you see a particular office without a name on our list, then either we felt none of the candidates were worth our recommendation or we were unable to obtain the information needed to make a recommendation.
Our philosophy is summarized as follows: In a free society, no citizen should ever have to justify the assertion of a fundamental right. Indeed, unless there is a compelling reason, government should never inhibit the exercise of privilege either. A very general premise is that the best government is the least government.
Certainly the government should not even consider abridging the right of the people to keep and bear arms until and unless it has exhausted all available alternatives. When the government is not properly enforcing the laws that already exist to curtail violent crime, it is wrong to place additional restrictions on the law abiding to accomplish the same purpose.
CAPABILITIES
Our organization has many active members throughout the state. Many of these members are in turn active in various political, community and sportsmen's related organizations. For instance, several of our members have been elected members of the NRA Board of Directors and others are active members of Republican and Democratic committees at the state and county level.
We are in local government, trade organizations and unions. We have established Eastern and Western Pennsylvania committees as well as many contacts in every county of the state. We maintain a statewide listing of every licensed firearms dealer, every listed sportsmen/gun club as well as an extensive contacts database with over 50,000 listed individuals.
We track the voting record of legislators on legislation that is of concern to our members. We use this information to formulate our opinions, evaluations and recommendations. That information is disseminated to the electorate through our extensive communications network by way of the regionalized FOAC voter's guide and distributed throughout the state. In the 1994 elections the FOAC produced and distributed over 80,000 of these guides. Since that year FOAC has continued to grow in political effectiveness, which is demonstrated by the increasing number of our voter's guides that are distributed throughout the primary and general elections in every corner of PA. We also actively worked to secure their publication in other sources and we conservatively estimate that more than 200,000 copies of our guide are distributed in an average election cycle.
SERVICES
FOAC provides a wide range of services to candidates that we decide to support. These services depend on our level of recommendation, our membership base, and the candidate's campaign strategy.
For acceptable candidates we provide a listing on our widely distributed voter's guide. We may also provide a letter of endorsement to be used as the candidate desires. Other services are made available on a case-by-case basis and will be discussed at a one-on-one briefing between the candidate and our senior staff.
CONTACT
FOAC meets on the second Sunday of every month at 10:00 A.M. in the Whitehall Boro Building Community Room (on the top floor next to the Library), which is located on Boro Park Road off of Rt. 51 behind Benson Lincoln Mercury.
Membership dues are $10.00 per year to help defray the costs of mailings. For more information on how you or your group can help, please write to FOAC c/o P.O. Box 14, Presto, PA 15142 or call the Phone hotline at (412) 221-3346 or direct fax to (412) 257-1099. You can also visit us on the web at www.foac-pac.org and obtain membership forms and election information as well as ask any questions you may have of any FOAC officer.